Page 40 of Shadowed Agenda

“Let’s chat,” he said, dragging him to the alley’s side, where Pavlo propped him against the hotel’s cement wall. He crouched down in front of the guy. “You just made a mistake. A very big mistake.”

The guy’s eyes shot up to meet Pavlo’s, his cockiness gone.

“We’re going to talk before I call the police.”

Regan’s attacker shrunk against the wall.Yeah, he was ready to cooperate.

“Let’s start with who hired you.” Once the police were involved, his direct line for answers would be in jail, lawyered up. That was not going to happen.

“Pavlo?”

Shit.

Pavlo turned his head. Regan stood a few feet away.

“I thought I told you to stay in your suite.”

“I… I was worried something had happened to you.” Her voice was small, unsure, and not the confident tone he was accustomed to. She stared at the man sitting against the concrete wall. The morning light entering the alley was bright enough for her to see his battered face.

“We had a disagreement” Pavlo stood and gestured to Baldy, then the gun and knife lying in the middle of the alley, “But came to an understanding.”

Regan’s eyes flicked to the gun and knife.

“I decided to relieve him of his toys,” Pavlo said, pulling his cell out of his pocket. “I was just about to text Drake and ask him to take care of things.”

The guy flinched. Good. It meant Drake wouldn’t have difficulty finding out who was paying him to terrorize Regan. Pavlo’s gut said this guy wasn’t into politics. He was hired muscle, which meant the guy on the motorcycle had just informed their employer his pal had been busted.

Pavlo would have preferred to question the guy himself, but Regan made that impossible.

“Do you want me to call the police?” Regan’s body trembled slightly.

The need to wrap his arms around her and assure her he had everything under control was disturbing. Hell, Regan was disturbing on so many levels he’d lost count. He had yet to figure out how he could be attracted to the one woman he had decided to steer clear of.

“Drake will call the cops,” Pavlo replied as he texted. “Stay where you are. I don’t trust Baldy.”

If Regan called the cops, she’d quickly become headline news. Drake would contact Hector.

Palmer could be right. The Senator’s supporters could be acting on their own. Pavlo doubted it, but he knew better than to jump to conclusions. They needed answers.

I’m in the alley behind the hotel. There was a problem, and I need someone to babysit.

Pavlo tapped send.

Cops been called yet?

Pavlo scanned the alley before texting back.

Negative, but there are two surveillance cameras in the alley.

I’ll speak with Walker first. See if he caught it on the monitors and called it in.

I intended to have a friendly chat with the guy, and Regan showed up.

Understood. Will take care of it.

Five minutes later, the hotel’s back door burst open. It was Drake. Upon arrival, he would have checked out the hotel and known about the hallway leading to the back door.

“Walker was at the end of his shift and caught your scuffle. He told dispatch everything was under control and Shadow Defense was on the premises,” Drake told Pavlo when he reached him. “We’re lucky New York’s finest are having a busy morning. We’re low priority.”