Page 67 of When He Plays

“How do you know that?” Hadn’t the nurse said Jezebel had just arrived? “Did you read my medical file or something?” Knowing Jezebel, she’d probably had someone at the CIA hack into the hospital’s patient records.

“I texted her updates on you.” An easy confession from Logan. “While I was texting her, she was sharing updates on what was going down at Ares’s place. Worked better that way. One of us needed to stay with you. The other had to keep an eye on the investigation.”

Charlotte did a double take. “Holy crap.” She wet her lips. “You’re partners.”

“We are not,” Jezebel denied.

Logan nodded. “Yeah, I think we kinda are.”

Jezebel’s eyes could not narrow more. “Let’s focus on the topic, shall we? I don’t have long to spend here.” Her jaw firmed. “At this point, Charlotte, you appear to have attracted the attention of the perpetrator that we are after.”

“Oh, you think?” Logan snapped. He rolled his eyes. “You think she attracted his attention? Considering that she was drugged I’d say that she definitely attracted the bastard’s attention.”

Jezebel’s nostrils flared the faintest bit. “We do believe the other victims may have also been drugged. They were highly capable individuals. Like Charlotte, the last victim even had CIA training.”

Charlotte’s fingers tightened around the sheets. The last victim had been an operative that she knew. That Jezebel knew. Far too well.

“It would take a great deal to catch these individuals unaware,” Jezebel continued in her brisk, emotionless tone. “Because they are highly vigilant. Sorry, because they were highly vigilant women, that’s the entire reason our profilers suspected drugs were involved in their abductions. The perp would need the drugs in order to control the vics.”

“Hold the hell up.” Anger simmered in Logan’s voice. His fierce stare blazed as he leaned toward Charlotte.

She almost hunched in the bed because, wow, he sure looked furious.

Through gritted teeth, he demanded, “You expected some asshole to drug you?”

Well…

“How about you mention a detail like that to me? So we can make sure it does not happen.” He yanked a hand through his hair, making the thick mane even more disheveled.

In her defense, “I watched the champagne be opened in front of me.” She’d thought it was safe. “I barely had any of it. Seriously, maybe three sips.”

“We don’t know that drugs were in the champagne.” Jezebel’s crisp voice.

Charlotte ripped her attention from Logan and peered over at her boss.

“You had dinner at Logan’s hotel. Room service that was delivered up to his suite.”

Yes, Logan had ordered the dinner.

“It’s possible you were drugged there,” Jezebel mused. “We do not know how fast-acting the drug could have been. Or maybe no drugs were in any food or drink that you had. Perhaps you were injected with a syringe.”

Logan had turned to gape at Jezebel.

Jezebel ignored him. “Did anyone brush against you when you were at Ares’s place? Did you feel any pricks on your skin? It could have been very, very fast.”

“You’re saying she was poisoned at my hotel?” Anger didn’t simmer in Logan’s voice any longer. It boiled.

Jezebel nodded. “That’s certainly an option we must explore. Especially if she truly had such a small amount of the champagne Ares offered at his place. The drugs could have been in her food at your hotel. Perhaps the drugs were slow-acting, and it just took a while for them to take her out. We can’t say for sure yet. I’m merely running through possibilities.”

“I don’t recall a needle. Or anyone sticking me.” But things were a little blurry. “I just…I knew I had to get out of that study.” Remembered panic flooded through her blood. “The plan was to catch the guy, not to wind up like the others. I wasn’t ready to be taken. I wasn’t ready—” Charlotte broke off before she tripped up and said…

I wasn’t ready to die.

“How, exactly, did the others wind up?” Logan wanted to know. He delivered his question in a dangerously low voice. “Oh, sure, dead. They wound up dead, I get that part. But before they died? What happened to them? Inquiring minds want to know, and they want to know now.”

He wasn’t going to like this part. Charlotte swallowed. Her throat ached at the small movement. “May I have some more water? Please?”

Instantly, Logan poured more water for her. He brought the cup to her lips, but Charlotte took it from him. Her fingers brushed against his. “I’ve got it.”