Page 28 of Freeing Lark

Hoot stared at the screen in front of him. Lark Meadows’ social media pictures front and center. Her relationship with Bradley Whitmore had lasted nearly two years. Their families had considered the match advantageous. Political connections. Money and influence. A future alliance between two powerful families.

Then Lark had ended it. There’d been no scandal. No public blowup. No obvious betrayal. She’d simply walked away.

The families had turned to Lark’s younger sister, Wren. Only eighteen years old. Apparently a twenty-year age gap meant nothing in their social circles.

Hoot’s jaw tightened. “What kind of family does that?”

Haley glanced over. “One with a lot of money and very few boundaries.”

She clicked to another file. “Lark’s mother appears to have pushed the relationship with Bradley from the beginning.”

“Appears?”

“There’s no smoking gun. But there’s plenty of evidence.”

Hoot leaned back. “So Lark walks away and they give him her sister.”

“That’s the simplified version.”

“What’s the complicated version?”

Haley sighed. “Family politics. Social standing. Expectations. Wren’s been groomed for this world her entire life.”

Hoot didn’t like the word. Groomed. It sounded too much like something not so nice done to a child. “How does Lark feel about it?”

Haley looked at him. “That’s what we’re trying to figure out.”

Hoot looked back at the screen. He felt dirty. Not because he’d done anything wrong. They needed to know.

Condor’s Overwatch didn’t walk into a high-profile event with three hundred influential people and assume everyone was harmless. They knew the guests. The staff. The contractors. The families. The connections.

Everybody had a story. Everybody had something to hide. Their job was to find out what.

Still... This was Lark. The woman he’d rescued from an island. The woman who’d dumped espresso down his shirt. The woman who’d somehow made him laugh several times now.

Digging through her personal life felt like crossing a line. “We need to know everything,” Flint had told them. Hoot knew he was right. That didn’t make him feel better.

The others were scattered around the office working through the guest list. Eggs and Spark were cross-referencing security details. Jeeves was checking travel manifests. Voodoo was going through the names of individual personnel attached to various attendees. Flint was in his office.

Then Voodoo suddenly sat upright. “Well, that’s interesting.”

Hoot looked over. “What?”

Voodoo turned his laptop around. “Remember him?”

Haley rolled her chair closer. “Who?” Voodoo pointed.

“Shit,” Hoot muttered. “Grant Calloway.” Hoot felt things shift. The name landed like a stone dropped into still water.

Flint stepped out of his office. “What did you say?”

Voodoo looked up. “Grant Calloway.”

Flint’s face hardened. “Where?”

“Guest list.”

While the others watched in confusion, Hoot stood. He knew the name. He wished he could forget it.