As the day went on, his elevated mood persisted. He’d been cautious and alert, but hadn’t spotted anyone following as they wandered around the airport and lingered over lunch. No doubt someone would catch up with them later. And if Agent Chapman decided to waste Secret Service money by sending some flunky to tail them around southwest Florida, he’d consider it added protection. He wouldn’t let it interfere with the pleasure of being with Lauren.
He had her to himself for the next day and night. Drew found himself humming under his breath while he waited for Lauren outside the ladies’ room at the car rental agency. He recognized it as one of the tunes they’d danced to at the embassy party. The music seemed to have gotten stuck in his head, but he didn’t mind. For a hunted man, he felt incredibly carefree.
Still humming, he checked his cell phone for messages: one. Punching in the retrieval code, he expected to hear Gerald’s voice, but the angry growl in his ear was far too low to belong to his father’s assistant.
“Goddamn it, Creighton, call me.”
Agent Chapman. Drew dialed and waited for the familiar snarl on the other end.
“Creighton, I told you to stay put.”
“Yes, you did,” Drew answered pleasantly.
His cheerfulness didn’t help Chapman’s attitude. “Did you hear from your father?”
“No.”
“Because if you did, and you two idiots are trying to handle this on your own—”
“Relax, Chapman. I said no. We’re tracking down a lead.”
“What lead?”
“I’d rather not say. It’s based on a rumor, and it’s highly personal. Politically sensitive information.”
“Oh, I see. You wouldn’t want the Secret Service to hear something like that.” Sarcasm practically dripped from the phone.
“Glad you agree.” As much as he enjoyed jerking Chapman’s chain, he couldn’t blame the man for being angry. No one was as privy to the private lives of politicians, and as discrete about it, as the Secret Service. Grudgingly, Drew threw him a bone.
“If it turns out to be true, you’ll be the first to know. I just want to check it out.”
A few seconds of silence followed, during which Chapman was probably seething and kicking puppies. Drew’s gaze was distracted by Lauren as she exited the ladies’ room and walked toward him. Long, shapely legs moved in a provocative rhythm, and her hips swayed sensuously beneath her new sundress. Allowing Lauren time to change into her new clothes had been well worth the delay.
He kissed her cheek and lifted a finger.
“Chapman? You still there?”
“Yeah,” the gruff voice rumbled. “Listen, Creighton. We found that bank employee who deposited the bribe money.”
It could be the break they were looking for. “Excellent! Did he tell you who put him up to it?”
“He couldn’t. We fished him out of the Potomac last night. Took a bullet to the head, execution style.”
He tried not to let Lauren see the panic that twisted his gut into knots. “Shit.”
“Yeah. These guys aren’t playing nice and you’re out there taking too many chances. Just tell me where you are.”
“You know where we are. You followed us.”
“The hell I did. How important do you think you are, Creighton?”
Despite the warm sun, an icy tendril wormed its way down Drew’s spine. Keeping his voice calm, he asked, “You didn’t have anyone follow us to the hotel and the airport?”
“What? The airport? Hell, no. I can’t spare agents to follow some dumbass civilian when I’ve got a U.S. senator missing and possibly in danger. Are you telling me you left Washington?”
Drew sucked in a deep breath, and let it out slowly. “We’re in Florida. Two men were watching our car in the hotel parking lot. I thought they were your boys.”
The anger was suddenly gone, and Chapman’s tone was clipped and professional. “How do you know someone was watching your car?”
“I didn’t go down and ask them, but two guys sat in a black Ford for a couple hours this morning with a clear view of our car.”
“Your car. That would be the Volvo?”
Drew thought he detected a bit of taunting behind the question. “Yeah, congratulations, you caught me. Forget the car. Who were the two guys, Chapman?”
“Did you get a plate?”
“No.” Damn. “I didn’t think I had to. The guy at the front desk said they flashed Secret Service ID.”
Drew listened to a couple seconds of silence before Chapman responded. “I don’t know, but I’ll look into it.”
It was all he was going to get for now. “Make it quick,” Drew said, then broke the connection and shoved the phone in his pocket. Having an unidentified tail in addition to the blond guy was worrisome. And if the two guys were Secret Service, wouldn’t Chapman know about it?
“What’s wrong?” Lauren asked.
“Nothing. Agent Chapman doesn’t know who was watching us at the hotel. It’s probably just a couple of low-level agents his boss sicced on us without telling him. He’s going to find out, just to put my mind at ease.” He downplayed it, satisfied that he wasn’t lying.
She watched him closely. “You wouldn’t be one of those guys who’d keep stuff from the little lady as part of some misguided protective instinct, would you?”
Drew smiled. He didn’t want her to worry, but he liked that she read him so well. “Yes, I would.”
“That’s sweet. Don’t do it, okay?”
He considered carefully before nodding. “Okay.”
“Is there anything else you’re not telling me for my own good?”
He hesitated, then said it. “They found the bank employee. Dead.”
She swallowed, then nodded. “Anything else?”
“No.”
“Is the car ready?”
Drew tossed her the keys. “Red, like you wanted. It’s over there.”
She turned, the first hint of a smile returning to her face. It might be forced, but he was glad to see it.
He hadn’t wanted to tell her about the murdered bank employee. He hadn’t wanted to cause those worry lines on her forehead as she steered the car onto Daniels Parkway. But he respected her need to know the truth. The Mustang convertible couldn’t take away the worry, but for a short time he could at least pretend they were carefree. He relaxed in the passenger seat, enjoying his view of Lauren as much as he enjoyed the hot Florida sun on his bare arms.
An hour later they were on Sanibel, cruising slowly past Senator McNabb’s front gates for the third time. With a security fence and heavy vegetation screening the house, they couldn’t see much more than the garage. But at least no one in the house could see the red Mustang prowling back and forth either.
A man they assumed to be the senator’s husband had loaded up golf clubs and driven off earlier. Ideally, they should talk to Senator McNabb while her husband was gone, but she still wasn’t alone. For the past hour, two teenage boys had been hanging out near the open garage, washing a Jeep Cherokee and cleaning its interior.
Lauren smacked her hand on the steering wheel. “Why didn’t we think of this? I pictured her being alone down here. Naturally, her family would be here, this is their home. How can we talk to her while they’re around?”
“Awkward.” Drew agreed. “‘Hello, Mr. McNabb. Is your wife at home? We’d like to speak with her about her marital infidelities. Won’t take but a minute.’ That would put him off his golf game for sure.”
“Damn, those boys are meticulous. Must be picking up a couple girls,” Drew added, admiring the clean Jeep as the boys finally started the SUV.
“Well, I hope they get out of here it’s soon. We can’t keep cruising around like this. Someone’s going to get suspicious.”
“We can say we’re checking out property, considering buying a vacation condo.”
“In my dreams.”
Lauren parked a quarter mile down the road, where Drew pretended to consult a map. Ten minutes later, the
two boys blew past them in the shiny black Jeep.
“About time,” he said, folding the map. “Let’s go.”
Lauren pulled a U-turn and drove back, slowing as she neared the senator’s property. The tall iron gates had just come into view when they swung open, and a small station wagon pulled out with two women in the front seat. Drew craned his neck to see the logo on the driver’s door.
“Gulf Breeze Clean,” he read aloud. “Looks like the cleaning service is done for the day. That makes the husband gone with his golf clubs, at least one kid gone with his friend, and the maid service gone. I say we try our luck.”
Lauren nodded and pulled up to the imposing black gates, now closed again.
“Press the button on the call box,” Drew instructed, moving as close to her and the speaker as the gear shift allowed.
“We should have switched places,” she said, leaning back in the bucket seat to give him room.
Drew braced an arm on the dash and edged closer to her side. “I like it better this way.” It was actually damned uncomfortable, but worth the risk of impaling himself on the gear shift in order to brush against Lauren’s breast and inhale the scent of suntan lotion rising from her warm skin.
“Yes?”
The tinny static from the box was marginally better than a fast food drive-up. Drew spoke loudly.
“Drew Creighton to see Senator McNabb.”
“Do you have an appointment?”
“No. I’m here on urgent, personal business. Tell her I’m Senator Creighton’s son.”
“One moment, please.”
He shifted position while he waited, rubbing against Lauren breast.
She smiled. “Enjoying yourself?”
“Yes, thanks. Are you?”
“You’re insatiable,” she said, pursing her lips in a way probably meant to look prudish. It made him want to tug her pouty lower lip into his mouth and run his tongue over it.
He dropped his eyelids seductively and murmured, “You’re right, I am,” just to watch the flush spread up her neck to her cheeks. Damn, he loved it when she blushed like that. It made him want to lock them both in a bedroom for a week and—
The box rattled to life. “I’m sorry, Mr. Creighton. Senator McNabb is unable to see you.”
“What?” He’d assumed his father’s name would arouse the lady’s curiosity, if not outright concern. “Tell her it has to do with my father’s recent marriage,” he said, then added pointedly, “And with his rather sudden departure from Washington.” If she was the one who had been blackmailed, she would have to know he was referring to the Secret Service sting operation.
This time only a few seconds passed before the man’s fuzzy voice replied, “Senator McNabb sends her congratulations on Senator Creighton’s marriage, but she is not available at this time.”
The pause had been too brief for the man to have left to consult Senator McNabb. She was either beside him, listening, or her security man was making presumptive decisions for her. Drew gambled on the former.
They’d risked their own safety to track her down and he wasn’t leaving without seeing her. If Paul Pierson was wrong about Senator McNabb having a secret worth protecting, she wouldn’t respond to threats. But if she was the one who’d been blackmailed, he had to talk his way inside those gates.
In a hard voice, he said, “Tell her it’s about some highly sensitive personal information she gave my father. Tell her I’d prefer to discuss it with her, but if she’s unavailable I will be glad to question other government officials about the matter in order to confirm—”
The box crackled with a staticky, “The senator will see you, Mr. Creighton.” The gates began their slow swing inward.
Lauren sucked in a breath and looked at him with pain in her eyes. “It is her,” she whispered. “How awful for her.”
“Thank you,” Drew muttered to the box and eased back to his side of the car. He slumped in the bucket seat. “I have a feeling we’re not going to receive a warm welcome.”
Drew’s prediction was an understatement.
They sat on a patio behind the house, sipping lemonade and watching the Gulf of Mexico roll onto the senator’s white sandy beach for nearly fifteen minutes before the woman appeared.
Drew stood to shake her hand, suffering a cool stare and an even cooler hello.
“Thank you for seeing us, Senator McNabb,” he said.
Sharp brown eyes assessed him. “I agreed to see you as a courtesy to your father, who is a friend and colleague.”
He understood; she would not concede without proof. “Senator, this is Lauren Sutherland. Her sister is—”
“Meg Sutherland, Harlan’s secretary. A charming young woman.” Charlene McNabb tilted her head as she shook Lauren’s hand, her short hair gleaming in several expertly tinted shades of blonde. “But I suppose I should refer to Meg as Harlan’s wife now.”
“No, you shouldn’t.”
Lauren’s soft reply seemed to startle Senator McNabb. She studied Lauren as they settled back into chairs under the filtered shade of the patio umbrella. “Why shouldn’t I?” she asked carefully.
Drew closed his hand over Lauren’s and answered for her. “Because they aren’t really married. But you already know that.”
The senator’s piercing gaze shifted to him. “What makes you say that?”
This was where things got messy. He pinned her with a hard stare, willing to be as blunt as necessary. “You’re the one who went to my father with a story about blackmail, so naturally you would know that his marriage was a ruse. You know he and Meg announced their marriage in order to draw whoever had blackmailed you into another attempt. My father must consider you a good friend, Senator, if he was willing to put his reputation in jeopardy to save yours.”
Something flickered in the steady brown eyes, but her lips remained pressed tightly together. He’d told her what she already knew, and she didn’t intend to admit to it. It was what she didn’t know that might get her to talk.
“The Secret Service was supposed to catch whoever tried to blackmail them, but it didn’t work. Something went wrong.”
Her eyebrows jumped with a tiny twitch. “What went wrong?”
“We don’t know. But the story about my dad and Meg leaving on a honeymoon was obviously a diversion. They ran from both the blackmailers and the Secret Service, and we don’t know why. They’re even hiding from us to keep us safe. Except it’s not working. We started asking questions, and two nights ago someone tried to run us down and kill us.”
That seemed to crack her composure a little. “Perhaps if you would just let the Secret Service do its job—”
“I’d love to, Senator, but the Secret Service doesn’t know where they are or why they disappeared. And more important, they don’t know where to look for answers, because my dad refused to give them your name.”
She did a credible job of looking skeptical. “Are you saying he gave it to you?”
“No, he didn’t. Someone else did.”
That one shook her. Senator McNabb whispered, “Someone else told you I was being blackmailed?” She swallowed and made her voice stronger. “Who?”
“I’d rather not—”
Lauren squeezed his fingers. “She needs to know,” she said before turning to Senator McNabb. “Senator Pierson told us there were rumors about you and another man.”
The senator’s face crumpled and Drew watched her break. As a seasoned politician, Senator McNabb would know how to draw on composure she didn’t feel, but it required a coolness that seemed to have escaped her. She closed her eyes tightly as if in pain. “I hoped it would never… I didn’t think anyone would…” Senator McNabb’s hoarse voice failed altogether.
“I’m sorry,” Drew told her gently, knowing that the woman was seeing her political and personal future going down in flames. As sleazy as it made him feel, he leaned forward and spoke intently, determined to push his advantage. “Please understand why we are here. You were the first targ
et. We’re hoping you know something that will help us find out who’s doing this before there are any more victims.”
And before they kill us. He didn’t say it because she was already nodding dully.
Adding the only reassurance he could, Drew said, “We have no interest in making this public, Senator, and rumors are only that. They don’t have to destroy you. Believe me, if you know anything about my father, you know he has survived several unsavory escapades.”
Her smile was bittersweet. “I am not Harlan Creighton. I’m a woman. A married woman who stands for family values and morality in government. The public will not forgive me.” Her voice broke. “I don’t deserve forgiveness.”
Our Little Secret Page 23