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Still watching me, Jake responded. “Nikole believes her mother’s personal assistant may know who the kidnapper is.”
Jager rubbed his lips together and crossed his arms. “She would have access to her schedule and know where the governor is at all times. She would be a good source if you wanted to get close to the governor.” He turned to me and nodded his head. “Good thinking.”
Christian tried to stand up again. “I have files of all the governor’s employees on our system. I’ll—” he staggered and Jake caught him.
“I’ll go retrieve the files,” said Jager, and left the room.
I followed Jager into the dining room. He booted up the computer and asked, “What’s the assistant’s name?” he asked while typing.
I tried remembering if my mother had mentioned her. She probably had. I was ashamed I hadn’t paid more attention. “I don’t know.”
He didn’t reproach me about it. He simply shouted, “Hey, Chris! What’s the PA’s name?”
“Donovan. Maxine Donovan,” Christian rasped from behind us. Jake carried Christian into the living room with an arm under his shoulder and helped him to the couch. He loosened his tie and pushed his hair out of his eyes. It was a simple gesture, but it demonstrated how Jake assumed his role as protector beyond his clients and my feelings for him grew.
“Got it,” Jager said, bringing my attention back to the screen.
“You found her background check?”
“Yes,” he said, while scrolling down through a document. “Looks clean.”
“We should go speak to her now. She’s probably working at my mother’s office,” I said, turning to Jake. He nodded and stood up from the couch. But Christian grabbed his hand.
“She called in sick today. I remember the governor groaning about that.”
“Where does she live?” asked Jake.
Jager wrote down an address on the pad next to my mother’s laptop. Tearing it off, he handed it to me. “You driving?” he asked.
Jake snatched the paper from his hand. “I’m driving.” He looked at me with a frown and shook his head. “Don’t give me that look. You’re coming with me. I know better now than to try and leave you out of this.”
Despite my nerves, I couldn’t help but smile. This man got me.
“Jager, you stay here with Christian. Find out what you can about this personal assistant. I want to be prepared when we show up at her place unannounced.”
“Yes, sir,” smiled Jager. “You were always the logistics guy.”
Watching the guys mess with each other loosened some of the tension in my shoulders. They had been through a lot together and despite the unpredictable situation, they were in control and taking action. I admired that. It was how I wanted to live my life, fully in control.
I hopped into Jake’s truck and he took off as soon as I clicked on my seatbelt. He didn’t speed, but he passed slow cars and pressed the gas pedal when the lights turned yellow.
An hour had passed since we discovered my mother was missing. According to Christian, it had been two hours since he recalled drinking the coffee. They couldn’t have gone very far by car. We could still catch up to them.
I repeated my little pep talk the entire car ride across town.
Jake finally turned into a quiet neighborhood just outside of the city. The homes were not large, but they were detached with single-car garages. He pulled into house number eighty-six. “This is it.”
He turned to me, and his shoulders slumped. “Is there any chance I can convince you to stay in the car?”
“None,” I said without hesitation.
He sighed. “That’s what I thought.”
He checked his weapon inside its holster and grabbed my hand. “Let’s go.”
We walked up the driveway, onto the porch, and Jake rang the doorbell. It was a musical ringtone. I hadn’t heard one of those since I was a kid.
An older woman with thin white hair pulled into a bun answered the door. “Can I help you?”
