Page 83 of The Senator: Raphael

“So, where do we start?” Aaron asks.

“The security team already checked all the places I thought she’d be. So, scratch those.”

“Should we go through her things to see if there’s anything useful?” Harrison suggests.

The idea of poking around in her things is creepy, but maybe he has a point. Maybe there’s something that can lead us to her. She must be someplace she feels safe and confident that nobody will find her. I need to remind myself she’s not hiding from me. She’s running away from the ones who are after her. For all we know, they still think she’s holed up in this house.

“My team already checked her phone and computer, but we can take a look at her office,” I suggest, guiding them into her space.

“Wow, she’s really into law,” Aaron murmurs, taking in the shelves full of textbooks.

“Yeah. She’s pretty smart. She has a passion for criminal law,” I confirm, starting to go through all the wedding flyers. My heart aches. I want to marry this woman.

“It’s ironic that a trial prevented her from pursuing her dream,” Harrison considers and I can only nod.

“Can’t she graduate anyway and practice? I mean, you could pull some strings to help her,” Leonard suggests as he flips through some papers in a drawer.

I snort. “She’d probably rip my balls off.”

Matthew chuckles, nodding and agreeing with me. “And she can probably do more if she sticks with Raphael. She has a good eye for spotting problems and a good heart when it comes to people.”

Surprised, I turn toward him. It’s the first time he’s said something nice about her. He doesn’t look at me, but he’s wearing a small smile—he knows I’m staring at him. After the conversation we had in the car the other day, this is probably his way of telling me that he’s okay with her. Not that I need his approval to have a relationship with Silver, but having him by my side is a huge deal for me.

“Jesus Crist, this woman is more organized than Leonard,” Aaron sighs and we all chuckle.

“Shut up,” Leonard murmurs.

It takes about fifteen minutes to go through Silver’s office and we find no clues to help us find her.

“We suck,” Harrison states, plopping down on the couch in the living room. We all follow his example and sit with him.

“We’re not going to search the bedroom, right? I don’t want to find somethingpersonalI don’t want to know about Raphael,” Leonard says with a smug smile directed at me.

“Idiot,” I say, but immediately my mind goes to the dildo in the bathroom, and I feel my cheeks heat up like a teenage girl. “But you’re right. There’s nothing interesting in there.”

“Thank God we’re not private investigators for a living, or we’d be starving to death,” Aaron mumbles disappointedly.

I don’t know what they expected from this search, but probably not getting stuck after fifteen minutes.

“Where the fuck is she?” I rub a hand over my face. “She’s driving me crazy. I’m terrified someone’s going to knock on that door and tell me she’s dead.”

My friends say nothing, they just look at me with gloomy expressions and worry in their eyes. The fact that she hasn’t come home is probably sinking in.

As if on cue, Dave steps into the living room and everybody turns toward him, wide-eyed. In a split-second, my heart hammers in my chest.Please, not like this. Please, not like this.

“Sorry to interrupt, but a priest this morning dropped this at the front door. One of my men just told me.” He hands me a pamphlet.

“What is it?” Harrison asks.

“Did he say anything?” I frown at the picture of the small church.

“He said you should check it out for your wedding,” Dave explains.

I open the pamphlet and find a picture of the inside of the church. It’s small, simple, and decorated with flowers. It would be perfect for a wedding.Ourwedding.

“Since when do priests go door-to-door advertising their churches?” Aaron asks, as puzzled as everyone else in this room.

“Maybe since they’re losing followers yearly, they thought a highly visible wedding at one of their churches would help as a publicity stunt,” Leonard suggests.

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