by Lisa Durkin
Dateline was willing to do anything to make it better. Their public statement had included the fact that they would never have aired a live interview had they known the deceptive intent of the journalist with whom they had contracted. They were appalled, as was the rest of the country, at the cheap shot that had been aimed at a member of the United States Congress.
Every news channel and outlet had at least made mention of the interview. Most papers carried headlines on the story. Allison Roberts’s career hadn’t been made; it had been lost. The whole country was incensed for Rory and well wishes were pouring in.
Of course Rory knew this only because Jackson had gently told her so. She hadn’t read a word or looked at a television. But he wanted her to be prepared for how widespread the reaction was. The only other person she spoke with was Devon, and not much even to her.
The only thing Rory wanted to know was where the reporter had received her information. The lawyers and Jackson wanted to know too. As did the FBI director and Secretary Reynolds. That had been classified information. They needed to know how it was leaked.
Rory was dealing with herself internally. Her old friend PTSD reared its ugly head and she was continually sick to her stomach from the mixture of adrenaline and anxiety. She felt ashamed and embarrassed. She knew it was irrational. She hadn’t caused those things to happen. She appreciated that thought. She knew it had been placed in her head by Jackson. If only her heart would believe what her head understood.
Along with shame and embarrassment came a healthy dose of grief. The feelings came rushing back, as if she had just lost her father and baby. Depression threatened to take control. She realized now how much she unconsciously held her left wrist because every time she grabbed it she was distracted by her beautiful engagement ring. She might have lifted her lips in a fraction of a smile at that realization.
By Sunday Rory knew Jackson was the smartest, most intuitive man who had ever existed. He insisted they go to Nicole’s for dinner. He wouldn’t hear of her staying in bed or in the room for another minute. He went drill sergeant on her ass and forced her to shower and dress.
She closed her eyes and let the sun warm her face as they drove to Virginia. It was a cold February day but the sun was shining and bright. It might have lifted her spirits a fraction. She looked at Jackson behind the wheel and took his free hand. He looked at her and smiled and she might have smiled back.
They exited the car and she noticed two sets of agents parked in the road to guard them. She didn’t care to ask why the extra agents. She shoved her hands in the pockets of her peacoat and leaned into Jackson as he put his arm around her.
They were greeted warmly. All the kids were there as well as Landon and Rita. They were ushered inside and she was passed from hug to hug. The kids were glad to see her and it helped to see them. They told her their latest and greatest news of school and sports.
The boys eventually ran off and people began to relax. Rory followed Jackson into the living room. She stopped on a dime.
The baby was sitting on a blanket surrounded by toys. As Rory entered he pushed himself to standing with his chubby little hands and wobbled slowly over to her.
She fell to her knees. “Danny,” she gasped. “You’re walking.” She didn’t know why this affected her as it did. As he toddled into her outstretched arms, she couldn’t stop her tears from falling. She closed her arms around him tightly and began to sob.
Everyone stilled as she hugged and rocked the baby. She held him tightly, smelling his baby smell and feeling his precious weight. After a moment, she caught herself and pulled back. She placed Danny back on his feet in front of her and wiped her face.
She sniffled and smiled, tapping his nose. “You’re such a big boy. Walking all on your own.”
Little Danny giggled and clapped, turning precariously and making his way to the blanket. He chose a plastic ball and threw it to her. He fell hard on his diaper-padded butt, and they both laughed as they rolled the ball back and forth.
Jackson knelt down beside her and she quickly hugged and kissed him. She gave him a smile as she caught the ball and rolled it back to Danny. She didn’t know why she felt better, but she did. And she noticed she was starting to feel hungry.
Rory returned to work. Although she was nervous about enduring people’s reactions, she was actually comforted by the support she received. Strangers up and down the halls smiled and nodded. Her colleagues overtly encouraged her.
Many calls were received requesting Rory to collaborate on policy or programming. She could never consider so many. They were from both sides of the aisle. She was left feeling very melancholy. She was happy and amazed that she wasn’t being pitied but also wondering if those offers would have been made without her new celebrity. She tried not to dwell.
The paparazzi shadowed Rory and Jackson almost as closely as their agents. Both had become old quickly and she was tired of living in the hotel. She wanted to go home to Jackson’s place. She never wanted to go back to hers. She decided to put her condo on the market as soon as she could.
After all the fuss, both she and Jackson were disappointed that there was no visible light at the end of the tunnel. There had been no further activity around their building. Nobody was even spotted following them. Without the slightest bit of interest shown, Rory wondered aloud if they had to continue with the agents assigned to them. She thought perhaps with all the publicity that Roan had decided to drop that hot potato. Jackson wouldn’t allow a change yet.
Jackson was happy that slowly but surely he got his Rory back. The salty, funny, sexy girl that he knew and loved, over time, came back and stayed. It had been touch and go there for a while. He had been worried. She had been so hollowed out by that interview. But she fought her way back.
He especially knew this to be the case when, on a night he returned late to the hotel after a party meeting, she was awaiting him with hot massage oils and wearing a hotter negligee. She stripped him of his suit and treated him to a full-body massage, including a happy ending. Very happy, and more than once.
“I love you,” she whispered, as she oiled up his back again. “I can’t thank you enough for standing by me. You didn’t sign on for all this trouble.”
He reared up and captured her mouth with his to silence her.
“You’re so much trouble, baby,” he quipped, rising over her and pressing her back into the mattress. “I should punish you. But first…” She moaned as he began rubbing the oil over her breasts, pinching her nipples and sucking them into his mouth hard, his hands smoothing lower and lower.
Chapter Thirty-Six
“I can’t believe my stepson can’t come to Ohio,” Rory bitched over the phone to Jackson. He delighted in it. She had started calling Ryan her stepson after his last visit. The connection she and Ryan were building was a source of pride for Jackson. They shared secrets about his girlfriends, sided with each other against him and in general made Jackson ecstatically happy about their family. He couldn’t wait to make it complete with their actual wedding. He was hoping to pin her down on a date this weekend.
He was on an airplane headed to Cleveland to meet her. It was April twelfth and Rory had flown, with her Secret Service agent, to Cleveland the night before for the ribbon-cutting ceremony for the official opening of the Trojan Japan Cleveland Shipyard.
“He can’t miss the last ski trip,” Jackson responded. “How about week after next?”
“Fine.” She hopped on one foot, attempting to shove her pump onto the other. “Will you be on time?”
Jackson looked at his watch. “Should be. I’ll meet you at the luncheon.”
Jackson had hung back in DC an extra night to take care of some fundraising. He couldn’t wait to accompany her to a luncheon after the ribbon-cutting being held in her honor.
After the interview, Rory had received some attention in the form of honors and awards. This weekend the Women’s League of Greater Cleveland was bestowing on her their 2013 Women of Coura
ge Award. She had been reticent at first but had eventually warmed to the idea.
She had decided that she should use the situation to do what she could for women and victims of crime through her work in the House. To that end she was ready to be honest with the world about her experience. Some days she was still pale and panicky. But she handled it, as he knew she would always have to. She and Jackson would always move forward together.
There had been no further movement on the Roan Sullivan investigation. No further information on the leak in the classified information. Jackson had left word for Secretary Reynolds to call him. He wanted to discuss discontinuing their shadows.
After a month Jackson and Rory had moved back to Jackson’s condo. They cleared her condo out and locked it up. In time they would sell both places and buy a house. Rory had her heart set on that, which made Jackson happy.
Jackson had followed up on his own suspicions on the leak. He had questioned Jennifer Durand, suspecting she was exacting some sort of revenge. Only a handful of people had access to that information. After talking with her, he was pretty satisfied she had moved on and was sincere. She didn’t have any ideas about the leak either. Nothing out of the ordinary had been going on that she knew of.
Rory and Jackson had spent a weekend in Cleveland the previous month so Jackson could meet Rory’s friends and family. They had a great time. Rory had been so proud to show him her home.
They had arrived in time to rush through her front door to the rear wall of glass; just in time to watch the sunset over Lake Erie. It had been beautiful and Jackson had held her tucked under his chin. She had elbowed him in the gut when he whispered “nice pond”. That was what the Mainers termed it no matter how big, he explained, laughing and rubbing his rib.
Nicole’s family had been in Ohio that weekend and Devon had given them an impromptu engagement party. Jackson was impressed with the number of friends who had stopped in to offer congratulations. He could tell they were all happy for Rory. Devon and the kids were great. He immediately saw why the two women were so close. They were both so strong. It was heartwarming to see Rory with her close girlfriends with all their kids running all over her house.
Jackson had leaned over to Rory after counting the children. “You’re godmother to all these kids? There’re eight including Sabrina’s.”
“Nine if you count the one Nicole has in the oven, old man.” She winked at him.
They had gone for lunch to an Irish place Rory hadn’t been in a while. She said it had been a favorite of her father’s. She knew everybody there too. They were all so happy to see her. They immediately stepped from behind the bar and called out others from the kitchen. They told great stories of when she was younger.
Jackson’s phone rang again. He answered quickly, seeing it was Secretary Reynolds’s personal number.
“Hey, Marty.”
“Jackson. How are things?”
“Fine, just fine, thanks. Rory’s in Cleveland. I’m headed there now. We’ll spend the weekend and be back next week. I wanted to talk to you about the case.”
“Yeah. I’m ashamed to say it, but I think we’re officially cold. Really chafes my ass too. I was sure I could get this handled for her. Sure wanted to get her some peace, not to mention shut this fucker down.”
“I understand, Marty. You did what you could.” Jackson wished he felt settled about it. Something still irritated him about the whole situation. Really stuck in his mind like a splinter he couldn’t find.
“Marty, did you clear everybody from the team on the leak? I still can’t make that work in my head.” He didn’t know what he was looking for. But it felt like it was right in front of him.
“I personally cleared everybody.”
“Even the FBI guys who weren’t yours? What about Sutton?”
“Sutton left the case a long time ago. Said he had to get back to Cleveland. Cited personal reasons. I’m not even sure he’s still on with the Bureau.”
“When was that?”
“A long time ago, before Tagg was killed. I think it was right before that box was delivered to Rory’s place.”
Jackson sat forward in his seat, his heart leaping. He did a quick mental calculation. “Marty, did you guys ever give Sutton a key to Rory’s place? I saw him the day we left for Maine. He opened her door and let the furniture delivery guys into her condo. He was chatting them up like he owned the place.”
“Sutton never had a key.”
“You sure?” Jackson’s blood pressure was rising exponentially.
“I know for a fact. The only FBI I let have a key was Tagg because I bought and paid for his ass to be on my team. I couldn’t trust those other fuckers. I never let them in the circle. Nobody ever gave him a key either. Nobody liked that weird son of a bitch. Jesus, he was gone before you went to Maine.”
“Oh God, Marty. You better make some calls. I think we have another problem besides Sullivan.”
Jackson gripped the airplane seat hard enough to pull it out of the floor as he began sweating bullets. Thoughts of the times that Rory found her door open, the bloody baby in the box, the man they spotted at the Follies. What if it was all Shane Sutton?
He had to get to Rory.
Rory raised an eyebrow and shook her head at Nicole in the audience. She stood on the podium with the other committee members. They were on the west bank of the Flats on the Cuyahoga River, freezing their asses off.
Normally the saying “if you don’t like the weather in Cleveland, wait five minutes” were words to live by. Except on two occasions. Everybody knew it. The rule was if it was Election Day, it was going to rain buckets. And if there was an outdoor event in the spring, there would be a freak white-out. She didn’t know why they couldn’t have waited another three weeks before cutting the ceremonial ribbon on the shipyard.
She looked down at her expensive black pumps as the snow blew around her ankles. She remembered last April when it had been so warm she waded in the lake behind her house.
Finally the decision was made to move the press conference back to City Hall. Rory wondered what rocket scientist came up with that one as they drove the couple miles to the building.
“Motherfucker,” she muttered as the car pulled up in front of City Hall. There were picketers everywhere. They blocked every building entrance. Rory leapt from the car and surveyed the situation.
They were from the ironworkers and electricians unions Mayor Bruce Garrison had been fucking with. She was pissed. How in good conscience could she cross their line and go into the press conference? What a miserable situation. These people didn’t deserve this from their mayor.
She knew those contracts. They had been set up fairly and planned out to be incrementally executed for years to come. Hard-core negotiations weren’t necessary. It was all for Garrison’s ego, she thought, wondering again why Landon had set up that miserable asshole in the mayor’s office.
She looked at Nicole. “What the hell,” Nicole muttered.
The security guard raced out to Rory and Nicole. “Ladies, please follow me,” he said offering his outstretched arm to clear the way. Rory didn’t know what to do. “Congresswoman, we need you inside,” he yelled above the voices of the picketers.
Against her better judgment, Rory followed him into the building. She looked back outside. Her Secret Service guy hadn’t followed them in his car. Oh well, she thought.
“How long has this been going on?” Rory asked.
“About a week now,” the security guard answered.
“I’m going to see Bruce about this,” she told Nicole.
They took the elevator up to the fourth floor. The doors opened and they stepped into the crowded area. There were hundreds of suits squeezed in as the media made their way to set up for the conference. She was rushed by dozens of people. Some wanted to shake her hand and welcome her back, others wanted a statement.
Her head spun and she tried to keep an eye out for the mayor. She answered questions on the new shipyard
and even sidestepped leftover questions about her engagement and ill-fated interview.
She eyed Nicole through the open double doors of the press room and squeezed by a few more people. Finally she made her way in and was ushered onto the stage area to take a seat with the rest of the committee that had been instrumental in the shipyard deal.
The press conference began, with none other than the mayor himself gushing over the new shipyard and what this deal meant for the development and continued economic stimulation for the people of northeast Ohio. She grew angrier by the minute as she struggled to remember any meetings that Bruce had actually attended regarding the brokerage of this deal.
Rory looked to Nicole again with a raised eyebrow. She wondered dryly why the mayor didn’t mention the labor groups he had double-crossed who were now picketing out front, endangering the deal and potentially humiliating the people of northeast Ohio.
Garrison went on and on in his usual blowhard fashion. After a while Rory stopped listening. Instead she concentrated on controlling the impulse to cough the word “bullshit” as loudly as she could. It was almost a relief when the loud chirping of the fire alarms shrieked, calling for an end to the torture. She hung back while everyone else began filing from the room.
After most people cleared out, she and Nicole finally made their way to the stairs. Knowing what they knew about the picketing tradespeople downstairs, they knew there was no real danger. Someone had pulled that alarm and neither of them could blame them. They were actually pretty entertained.
Two floors down, Nicole remembered she left her iPad. Rory looked at Prego’s growing belly and offered to run back up the steps to retrieve it. There was no way the conference would continue, so they didn’t expect to be back. She handed Nicole her coat and hoofed it back.