Isabel blinked. That was it? No more argument? No questions? Not even simple curiosity as to how she would keep Nick Novak in line?
No, of course not.
I’m sure you’ll do whatever it takes….
Senator William Grayson figured his loyal daughter would clean up his mess before it touched him politically, and that’s all he cared about. Even if he knew what she’d agreed to, he would have considered the political expediency of her actions and have slept well that night.
“All right, then,” she said, fighting the huge lump in her throat. “I’ll be leaving shortly.”
Suddenly her father looked to the doorway and waved in his chief of staff, Jeff Enger, a thin man who looked better for his middle age, with silver threading his dark hair. Another politician with big ambitions, he’d lately given her cause to wonder how long he would be loyal to her father before setting off on his own campaign trail.
“I have the results of that poll,” Enger said.
“About time.” Her father waved Isabel off without so much as a glance.
As she left the office, Boyd caught up to her. “Listen, Isabel, if there’s anything I can do to help you find Louise, all you have to do is ask.”
If only she could. But Boyd couldn’t help her. Only Nick Novak had the wherewithal to get this job done.
“I’ve got it covered, Boyd.”
“It’s just…you seem so upset. If you want to talk about it, I’ve got a spare ear,” he joked gently.
Isabel gave him a grateful smile. “Thanks, Boyd. I appreciate the concern.” At least someone had noticed her unhappiness. She glanced back to her father’s office and saw that he was already preoccupied with another phone call. She felt heartsick when she said, “When Louise is home safe, then maybe I’ll take you up on that offer.” She flashed Boyd a smile. “I have some important decisions to make and I could use a friend.”
“Sounds serious.”
Turning away from him, she murmured, “You have no idea.”
And neither did her father.
3
HAVING RETHOUGHT THE DEAL he’d made with Isabel, Nick entered the cybercafé earlier than usual, using the need to check his e-mail as his excuse to visit Helen.
Not only did he use the Internet to keep up with his buddies from the television station and to check in on a couple of lists of video professionals that he’d joined, but to do actual business, as well. Helen had created a Web page for him that had brought him several new clients over the past six months, including the industrial client he’d met with earlier. The meeting had gone well, and if he could do business on a regular basis with the man’s company, it would quickly get him out of his money crunch.
A while later, just as he knew she would after closing up shop, Annie Wilder walked in to share a cup of coffee and the gossip of the day. Annie and Helen chose a table near the windows. Nick barely waited a beat before closing down his e-mail account to join them.
“Looking good,” he said approvingly as he slid in across from Annie. She’d edited her waif look to include a swirly skirt and some kind of shiny froufrou thing tied in her long brown hair, little details that made her appear more feminine and prettier than usual. Maybe true love did that, he thought, along with bringing a sparkle to the gray eyes behind her frameless glasses, as well as shading her cheeks with a hint of natural color.
Or was their Annie actually wearing makeup?
Nick gaped at her long enough that Helen said, “Close your mouth before you catch flies.”
He patted his stomach. “A little protein wouldn’t hurt.”
“I’m not feeding you,” she warned.
“Did I ask you to?”
“Come home with me and I’ll feed you good,” Gloria Delgado offered as she stopped at the table. “I know exactly how to satisfy a man’s appetites.”
The dark-haired Latina in the colorful, too short outfit and too high heels was Annie’s employee. Sipping at a coffee, she watched him over the rim of the paper cup, her dark eyes challenging.
“Gloria, I’ve always thought you were more woman than I could handle,” he said with a laugh.
“You won’t know for sure until you try me.”
Not the first time she’d made that suggestion, Nick thought.
Helen cleared her throat. “Annie, have you ever told Gloria about Nick’s marathon weekend?”
Annie grinned. “I don’t usually admit to being friends with a man who has women coming and going all hours of the night, one after the other.”
“Hmm, sounds ver-r-ry interesting,” Gloria said, then gave Nick a wide-eyed look. “You might even be able to keep up with me.”
Annie snorted and Helen threw up her hands in feigned disgust. Nick laughed and the good-humored Gloria did, as well. She loved to flirt and Nick loved that about her. But she was his good friend’s employee and, as such, had always been off-limits.
“So what’s up, Nick?” Annie asked. “I have the feeling you’ve got something on your mind.”
He gave them an edited version of the plan to find Louise—sans his requirement that Isabel keep him warm at night—in the hope they’d talk him out of it. Of course, he’d ensured that they’d keep the information confidential.
He’d already told Nathaniel Bishop—their landlord and Annie’s true love—the whole story, dirty details included. Nate had seemed amused and had offered him some practical help rather than giving him an excuse to back out of the deal. In return, Nate had intimated he was working up to pop the question to Annie.
“You’re a hero to put yourself out like this for someone you don’t even like,” Annie said instead.
“I didn’t say I didn’t like her.”
Her eyebrows popped up high above her glasses. “Helen told me you threw away her card and wanted nothing to do with her.”
Nick glared at the blonde, who asked, “Why does this Grayson woman think you’re this big expert who can find her sister, anyhow?”
“Because of my current video project.”
“Doing dance videos for Club Undercover?”
“I’ve been gathering video interviews of runaways for a documentary.” He tapped out a nervous beat on the tabletop. “It’s a personal project.” One he hadn’t told them about and didn’t want to get into, at least not yet. Realizing that his friends were looking at him as though he’d grown two extra heads, he asked, “What?”
“Well, at least now we’ll have some idea of where you go when you disappear for days or weeks at a time,” Helen commented.
Annie added, “And if you ever want to talk about it—the personal project or why you’re doing it—feel free.”
“And feel free to ask for help if you need it,” Gloria said. “Don’t be like this one.” She waved a beringed finger with a long chartreuse nail at her boss. “Too stubborn for her own good. My cousin Julio knows everybody around here who counts. Him and his boys practically live on the streets.”
Behind Gloria, Annie was making a face and shaking her head.
Knowing Julio headed a local Hispanic gang, an amused Nick said, “I’ll keep that in mind, Gloria, thanks.”
“Humph.” Gloria gave Annie a triumphant smile and said, “Some people know how to appreciate the offer of help. Well, I gotta get going.” She turned her wicked gaze back at Nick. “Good luck, amigo. And you need me for anything, remember I’m in the book. Delgado. D-E-L-G-A-D-O.”
Nick gave her a thumbs-up and she sashayed out the door, giving him a big wink before exiting into the night, crossing paths with a young woman who was entering the café wearing jeans, T-shirt, baseball cap and carrying a backpack.
Nick returned his attention to his friends and said, “Look, the truth is, I want out.” Not that he would admit he was running scared. “I want nothing to do with Isabel Grayson, and I expect the two of you, as my best buddies, to talk me out of doing something stupid and against my better judgment.”
Before either Helen or Annie could speak, the ne
wcomer whomped her backpack on the table and said, “You want out before we even begin? You can’t mean that, Nick. You gave me your word, and you’re my last hope!”
Nick bit back a groan.
From beneath the baseball cap, Isabel Grayson herself was glaring at him, her eyes blazing blue fire.
“ISABEL, YOU’RE HERE.”
Nick sounded startled and maybe sorry, no doubt because she’d overheard him trying to find a way to weasel out of helping her.
“I’m here,” she said, looking around the table at his accomplices. “What about you?”
The blonde whom Isabel had spoken to when she’d left her card for Nick—Helen, wasn’t it?—shot up out of her chair.
“Don’t give me another thought,” Helen said. “I’m gone.” She grabbed the smaller woman’s arm and pulled her to her feet. “We’re both gone. C’mon, Annie, let’s let them work this thing out.”
Isabel waited until his friends had left before asking, “Is there anything to work out, Nick?” She tried not to let her heart bleed into her voice. “Or have you made up your mind?”
“Sit down, Isabel.”
Nick appeared uncomfortable, even guilty. Good!
“I don’t want to sit,” she said. “I want to get out there and look for my sister. Nick, please.”
She would get down on her knees and beg if she had to. No, not beg. Give him the blow job of his life. That might do it, since sex seemed to count with him. Right there, right now, she would shut her mind to the humiliation and do it if she thought it would work.
“You and me together,” Nick said, “not the smartest move.”
“There is no you and me. I am not romanticizing this. We’re not anything but business partners. You made the rules. I agreed. I even proved that I would come through with my end of the deal, for God’s sake!”
Though he looked as if he had something to say about that, Nick kept inordinately silent. She read his expression as pained.
Heartsick, wondering what the hell she was supposed to do now, Isabel backed off. “All right. I can’t force you to come with me. Just promise me one thing.” She’d told her father she could keep him quiet, but could she? “Forget I ever came to you and told you about Louise.”
He narrowed his gaze on her. “And what are you going to do?”
“Find my sister.”
“You already tried.”
“I never tried living on the streets before. You convinced me that’s what I had to do.”
“Not alone!”
“That wasn’t the plan. But now what choice do you leave me?”
“Go to the authorities or get a private investigator, the way you should have the moment you realized Louise wasn’t bunking with a friend.”
Isabel shook her head, grabbed her backpack and turned away from Nick. Because there was nothing more to say, she started to leave. She’d barely taken three steps before he’d caught up to her, his hand wrapped around her upper arm like a vise.
“You can’t do this alone,” he said.
“Probably not.”
“You’re crazy if you try.”
“Probably so.”
“You could get hurt.”
She stared at him for a moment before asking, “What the hell do you care what happens to me?”
He didn’t answer directly. “Your mind is set?”
“Like cement.”
He cursed under his breath and, hand still surrounding her upper arm, headed for the door. “Then let’s get out of here.”
The change in Nick’s attitude was so sudden that it made Isabel’s head whirl and her eyes sting with unshed tears. She wanted to say something. To thank him. To make him promise he would see this through to success.
In the end she said nothing, merely caught back a sob of relief and let him push her out the door and onto the dark streets that were to be her new home.
SENATOR WILLIAM GRAYSON looked around the room at the three men who worked most closely with him and tried to discern their degrees of loyalty in this matter.
He knew Jeff Enger still dreamed of running his own campaign. He would lose. No charisma. Enger knew that as well as he, the reason the man was still at the same job for more than a decade, the reason he would orchestrate the coming Senate race for him.
Enger’s assistant, handsome young Danny McNulty, with his reddish-brown hair and twinkling green eyes, was an up-and-coming political personality. He was champing at the bit to be off and running. Another year and McNulty would be gone, probably running for a city office of his own. The charismatic Irishman might even make mayor someday.
And then there was Boyd, who had befriended his daughters and seemed content with his position dealing with the press. But Grayson knew better—though he didn’t show his private face to the world, Boyd was the most ambitious of the bunch. And the most clever. He didn’t mind remaining behind the scenes and knew exactly how to play people to get exactly what he wanted.
Yes, Grayson thought, he knew them all, knew their loyalty extended as far as keeping hushed what he didn’t want the public to know. And this was, by far, the most potentially explosive situation he’d ever been in.
Rather, caught in.
Resting his elbows on his desk, Grayson sat forward and cleared his throat. “Gentlemen, we have a problem.”
“I assume you mean Louise,” Boyd said.
Grayson nodded. “And Isabel. She’s brought a liability into the mix.” He explained the problem, starting with the reason Louise ran and ending with Nick Novak’s past with his daughter and the way that sorry affair had ended. “I wouldn’t doubt that Novak is out for revenge of some sort. No doubt he’ll get his licks in where he can, so the less he knows, the better. That means we need a quick fix, gentlemen, before he knows too much. We need to get right on this situation before it spirals out of our control.”
“I’ll see that it’s taken care of,” Enger promised.
As usual.
Grayson knew he could count on his chief of staff to come through for him. He could count on them all since they needed his approval and support.
“How do you want it handled?”
Grayson explained exactly what he had in mind.
“NAH, HAVEN’T SEEN HER,” Kyle said, returning the photograph of Louise to Isabel, who tucked it in a zippered pocket of her backpack.
Kyle was one of the first runaways Nick had videotaped. Giving Isabel the once-over, the kid didn’t bother hiding his suspicious expression. Neither did his companions, who stood back near the elevated rapid-transit structure and watched them warily, as if ready to run for their lives.
It was something they very well might have to do before the night was out, Nick knew. Kids on the street were vulnerable. Targets to all kinds of predators.
“She’s my sister,” Isabel said. “Please—she really needs me.”
“I said, I haven’t seen her!”
Nick put an arm around Isabel’s shoulders and gave her a fast squeeze to keep her from pursuing what Kyle might know. As frightened and desperate as she was, she might scare off a potential lead.
He had to be careful, especially because her being so close was putting him off his game. From the moment he’d taken a good look at her in those soft, tight jeans, he’d had one thought on his mind. For a moment, their purpose faded and all he could think about was getting inside those jeans and burying himself in her…
Then, as if she knew what he was thinking, she pinched him surreptitiously and glared at him.
He blinked and came out of the sexual fog and back to reality. Back to the kid he’d come to care about.
“So, Kyle,” he said, letting his genuine concern color his words, “have you spoken to your parents lately?”
“What for?” Though Kyle put on a tough facade, he couldn’t hide the vulnerability that hid in his sixteen-year-old heart. “Same old, same old.”
Nick nodded. “Keep your eyes and ears open for Louise, would you? You have my number.” Ni
ck slipped a twenty into the kid’s hand. “And get some real food for all of you,” he said, indicating the others. “No drugs.”
“You know I don’t do drugs anymore,” Kyle said, giving Isabel a nervous glance.
Though Nick knew that Kyle was lying, probably for Isabel’s sake—maybe he thought she would make him—he didn’t contradict the kid.
“I’ll get the word out,” Kyle promised. “I hear anything, I’ll let you know.”
“Thanks, Kyle. And anytime you change your mind about that shelter, you let me know that, too.”
“Nah, I’ll take my chances on my own.”
Knowing that all he could do was put out the offer, Nick clasped the kid’s arm in farewell. Then he moved on down the pathway along the elevated structure toward the main drag, where runaways who’d done well on the streets would be spending their pan-handled loot. Isabel slipped her backpack over her shoulders and kept right up with him.
“That didn’t exactly go well.”
“The night is young. Did you really think the first person we spoke to would lead us to her? Besides, even if Kyle did know something, he might not have spilled.”
“Why not?” she asked, sounding appalled.
“You. They didn’t trust you. I could see it in their expressions.”
Isabel looked down at herself. “But I look just like them. No makeup, no fancy hair or outfit. I’m wearing Louise’s clothes, for heaven’s sake.”
He followed her gaze and once again was struck by how well those jeans fit her. Like a second skin. Skin he wanted to touch and taste.
Realizing she wasn’t saying anything, he met her gaze, and for a moment, he thought she wanted that, too.
Mouth dry, he said, “But your clothes—they’re clean and perfectly pressed. And that bulging backpack…” Nick shook his head. She really didn’t understand that a desperate kid didn’t take the time to pack before hitting the street. “Street-smart kids can spot a ringer a block away.”
“A ringer?”
“Someone who thinks she can get something from them just by changing her appearance a little. Maybe it isn’t enough.”
Improper Conduct Page 4