“Time is running out, McAlister,” Matt growled. “I won’t be able to help her once she moves up the chain of command.”
Her mother squeezed her hand. “Bruce and I are here now. We’ll protect you. You just have to tell the truth.”
“But who is going to protect Ian if both his parents are in jail!” Lori bounced up from the sofa and began to pace the room. “I was livid when I found out Leonard had been using my restaurant to launder money—money he had stolen! But I was hurt and angry when I found out you”—she shot a menacing look at Matthew—“had used me, too. I didn’t know what to do, so I went to his office and begged him to turn himself in. For his son’s sake. I told him I’d take care of Ian.” She turned to her mother and Bruce. “I was going to bring him home to Oregon. He’d love living at the inn on the farm.” Lori had told her younger brother about the barn with its horses and kittens, the free-range chickens and the ducks in the pond. Ian had grown up trapped in a New York high-rise because his mother was embarrassed by her less-than-perfect son. The idea of being in the country both intrigued and frightened him, but Lori knew he would be happy there.
“What did Dykstrom say when you confronted him?” Matthew’s face mirrored Miles’ in its lethal intensity.
Lori’s heart sank remembering that January night. “He told me to go back to my apartment and wait for him. He was going to call his lawyers and draw up the papers to make me Ian’s guardian. Or so he said.” She wrapped her arms around her midsection to stop her body from trembling as she recalled what came next. “His lawyers showed up early the next day, but Mr. Thomlin was only interested in what I had learned from the FBI and what I might have said in return. Ian called me to say they were going on a trip and would I bring him some purple Skittles because he didn’t like plane rides. By the time I got to the penthouse, they were already gone. The story broke that day and I was named as one of the suspects. I never even knew I was under suspicion.” She glared at Matthew again.
“You said Ian called you.” Matthew was quick to hone in on that one minor detail. “That call didn’t show up on your cell phone records.”
Lori’s stomach lurched. “You were tracing my calls? Were you listening to them, too?”
Matthew’s face remained impassive. He ignored her question. “There wasn’t a record of a call coming from any of Dykstrom’s lines that morning, either.”
Seething, she squeezed at her temples. “How dare you!”
“Mal, focus,” Matthew commanded. “You can rip me a new one for doing my job later. Right now, I need you to tell me how you and Ian communicated.”
Her mother nodded with encouragement. Lori let out a resigned sigh. “We have a set of Captain America burn phones that I gave him for Christmas. He liked the idea of us being superheroes who communicated on our special phones.”
She could feel the tension ratchet up a notch in the small room. Even the sheriff was now sitting on the edge of his seat. Lori swallowed harshly.
“Please tell me the kid still has his phone,” Matthew pleaded. “And it still has minutes left on it.”
“He still has it,” she said quietly. “I try and talk to him for a few minutes every Sunday.”
Matthew took a step forward, but Miles blocked his path.
“Hold on there, Kovaluk,” he said. “What does Lori get in exchange for the information?”
A heavy silence settled over the room. Matthew puffed out a breath as he seemed to consider Miles’ question. “The original deal was she’d walk if she testified against Dykstrom. Ian wasn’t ever factored in.” He paused again before meeting her eyes with his solemn green ones. “I’ll make the case with the DA that you were only looking out for your half brother. None of the evidence points to you being involved in the overall Ponzi scheme. No one was happy about Dykstrom being tipped off, but they can’t put you in jail for that.”
Guilt squeezed at Lori’s stomach as she realized how much trouble Matthew must have been in when she had warned her father. Again, she hadn’t taken into consideration all the consequences for her impulsive actions. No wonder he’d been searching high and low for her.
“I’m sorry for ruining your undercover operation,” she said, really meaning it now.
His lips curved up into a wolfish grin. “You know how you can make it up to me.”
Miles tensed beside her and Lori put a hand on his chest to keep him from presumably decking the FBI agent.
“I have two conditions,” she said.
Hanging his head, Matthew unleashed a string of expletives.
“I won’t leave Ian unprotected,” she told him.
Matthew nodded. “I figured as much.”
“He can’t go into foster care.”
“Fine, that will be part of the deal. What else?”
This part was going to be a lot harder to pull off. She risked a peek at Miles’ stony face. He needed to be protected as much as Ian did right now. Lori loved both of them too much not to make sure they got through this unscathed. Dudley Do-Right wouldn’t like what she was about to do, but it was for his own good.
“I want to talk to Tanya Sheppard. To make a statement that exonerates Miles from all of this.”
The room erupted as Matthew and Miles both tried to outdo each other with the obscenities.
“I don’t think that’s a very good idea, honey,” her mother said.
“You can’t talk to the media! The agent in charge will have my ass if I let that happen,” Matthew yelled.
“I’d pick someone other than Tanya Sheppard,” the sheriff muttered.
“Quiet!” Miles shouted and the room went still. He turned to Lori. “As your attorney, I can’t let you do that. The feds can take your statement and use it against you.”
“Oh,” she said. “I guess I really had three demands. You can’t be my lawyer, Miles.”
Those blue eyes she’d fallen in love with were stunned before he narrowed them at her. “Don’t be ridiculous. Who else is going to defend you in this town?”
“Certainly not the man whose dream it is to represent the people of Chances Inlet.”
“They’ll get over it.”
She shook her head sadly. “No, Miles, they won’t. I know you’re just trying to help and I love you for it, I truly do.”
His head jerked back a fraction at her declaration of love.
“And it’s because I love you that I’m going to have to insist on this,” she continued before turning to Matthew. “I won’t give you Dykstrom unless those three things happen.”
“Fine.” Matt yanked his phone from his pants pocket. “I’ll make some calls.” He was already barking into his phone as he left the small office.
The sheriff cleared his throat. “Mr. and Mrs. Hunt, can I buy you both a cup of coffee? We may not be in the Pacific Northwest, but the Java Jolt brews a decent blend.”
Bruce nodded. “We’ve been up all night, so a cup of coffee sounds delicious.”
Her mother gave Miles a discerning look before kissing Lori on the cheek. “We’ll be right back, sweetheart.”
Lori pasted an encouraging smile on her face. “I’m not going anywhere.”
An awkward silence settled over the room when the three departed. Miles dragged his fingers through his hair. “You need to be careful. They could still arrest you. I know some attorneys in New York. At least let me have one of them help you.”
“If it comes to that, I’ll find someone myself. You need to distance yourself from me. Starting right now.”
He grabbed her arms and pulled her against him. “As long as you promise to come back when this is all over.”
Her chest grew tight at his command. “As what?” she whispered. “Your mother’s cook and maid?”
Miles’ mouth descended on hers. His kiss was angry and demanding and Lori let him have his way while she soaked
up as much of him as she could, storing up her memories for the lonely days ahead.
“We could still have this, you and I.” His voice was raspy as his lips cruised her jaw. “This works for us.”
“Are you offering me what you considered giving Greer?” The question was unfair and Miles stiffened at her words. But Lori asked it anyway despite the fact she knew the answer. “Are you proposing a loveless relationship?”
He jerked away. “Damn it, Lori, you knew the score up front.”
She pulled in a deep breath to keep the tears at bay. “I did. And you’ve been nothing but honest with me. I fell in love with you anyway. But, hey, I’ve got a track record for being impulsive and making bad decisions. I’m trying to rectify that situation now.”
Miles was incredulous. “I’m not a bad decision.”
Lori couldn’t help the smile that formed because Miles was one of the best decisions she’d ever made. She couldn’t even regret falling in love with him. Her only regret was that he could never return the feeling.
“No, you’re not,” she reassured him. “You’re what this town and this country needs, Miles. Being elected to represent the people of Chances Inlet is all you ever wanted. I can’t let you throw that away for me. You may think your integrity makes you invulnerable, but the other party will destroy you. And deep down, I think you know that.”
He stood there with his hands on his hips and his chin on his chest.
Lori reached up to cup his cheek. “I know you can’t love me, but if you care anything about me, you’ll let me do this for you.”
Miles opened his mouth to speak, but Lori silenced him with her lips. The kiss she gave him was soft and comforting. She lingered, savoring his taste and feel, committing all of him to memory for when she left him.
“What we had was amazing and I thank you for it. But our lives are diverging now, Miles,” she whispered against his cheek. “We both need to go on and do the things we were meant to do. And that starts with you walking out that door and getting back to your campaign. Please, do it for me.”
She felt his chest rumble beneath the palm she had flattened over his pectoral muscles. “Another place, another time,” he murmured before his lips found hers for one last thorough kiss that had her toes curling and her body quivering. She pulled away before she did something reckless like reconsidering her plan. Wrapping her arms around her middle, she tried to appear resolute. Miles swore under his breath. Without looking back, he left the sheriff’s office.
Lori sank down on the sofa and let the tears silently fall, knowing another place or another time could never be.
TWENTY-THREE
The nightly newscasts were all abuzz with the details that Leonard Dykstrom had been arrested while in bed with his child’s nanny.
“The man who orchestrated one of the nation’s largest Ponzi schemes was captured today, in a Caribbean villa where he and his family were hiding,” one network news anchor reported. “When agents stormed the home, they found Dykstrom’s wife, Carole, recovering from plastic surgery she claimed was to disguise her appearance. Her husband was enjoying some extracurricular activities with the nanny charged with caring for the couple’s special-needs son. Dykstrom’s arrest comes after his daughter, Mallory, was detained in Chances Inlet, North Carolina, last evening.”
Lori’s image filled the screen for a second day, but this time the video wasn’t of the glamorous socialite, but rather the woman who’d been hiding out in his mother’s B and B for the past six months. At Miles’ request, Greer had helped prep Lori for the interview with Tanya, not that she needed any assistance. It turned out Lori was adept at handling the media all on her own.
“No one in the McAlister family knew who I was until last night when Special Agent Kovaluk arrived,” Lori told the world. “I never intended for them to find out. Their family is very caring and community driven and I in no way wanted to diminish their reputation by associating with me. They’re good people. The best people, in fact.”
Tanya pasted on one of her snarky smiles. “But you did have a relationship with Miles McAlister, the candidate for United States Congress.”
Lori matched her smile. “I’m not going to sit here and kiss and tell, Tanya. But what I will say is that Miles McAlister is an incredible person with an abundance of integrity. His compassion for others is boundless. Whatever did or did not go on between Miles and myself is private and has no bearing on his campaign.”
Tanya pulled no punches. “Do you love him?”
Miles choked on the sip he’d just taken from his bottle of beer. Cassidy reached over and slapped him on the back while Bernice muttered a “bless her heart” at the television propped in the corner of the campaign office. Damn it, what was it with women and love? Lori had pushed him away all because she claimed to love him. He’d been up front with her, telling her at the beginning that his heart was not in play and it never would be again. She’d been more than okay with that; at least that’s what she’d said.
The camera zoomed in and Lori licked her lips. Miles’ throat wasn’t the only body part constricting at the image.
“I have the utmost respect for Miles as a person and as a politician,” Lori declared. “Voters should, too. That’s all that’s really important here, Tanya.”
Greer was sending Miles glowing texts about how Lori’s confession was a boon to his campaign, but Miles ignored them. His body still ached in the region where his heart used to be every time he saw Lori through the lens of a camera and not his own eyes. She’d said she couldn’t leave without her grandmother’s ring yet she walked away and wasn’t coming back all because she loved him. How mixed up was that? He took another pull from the beer in hopes of washing the sting away.
The screen changed to a video of Lori being reunited with her brother, Ian, as the news anchor spoke. “Ms. Dykstrom has not been indicted on any charges and she cooperated fully with federal officials once she was assured her younger half brother would be safe.”
Matt Kovaluk mugged for the cameras next. “Mallory Dykstrom spent the past few months living in fear for her younger brother,” he told reporters. “She was invaluable in bringing Leonard and Carole Dykstrom to justice. There is no evidence linking her to the crimes committed by her father and stepmother. She was as much a victim as the thousands of people Leonard Dykstrom conned money from.”
“Well, that’s quite a different tune than they were singing last night.” Bernice clapped her hands. “Greer is a miracle worker at image makeovers.”
Miles nearly choked on his beer again. Bernice was only half right; Greer and Lori both had one common goal and that was to make over his image. The fact that Lori came out smelling better than she had yesterday was just a happy coincidence. Still, Miles was relieved Lori wouldn’t be tainted by her father’s crimes. He’d hated the way she wanted to take on the media in defense of him. Knowing she’d done so out of some misguided love for him only made it worse.
“I’m glad she has a family to help her,” Cassidy said from her place on the sofa beside Miles. Her tone was a bit melancholy, however.
“I’m sure you’ll see her again,” he tried to reassure her.
Cassidy’s face brightened. “I know I will. She said she’d fly me out for fall break so I can see Oregon. I’ve never even been on a plane. Isn’t that cool?”
“Oh, sure, desert us during crunch time in the campaign for a sightseeing trip across country,” Bernice said, crossing her arms beneath her bosom.
“Ever since you kicked Coy out, she’s acting like she’s in charge,” Cassidy groaned.
“She is in charge,” Miles said as he gave Bernice a wink. “Of the office and the staff.” He’d already hired a campaign coordinator who didn’t have a connection to Governor Rossi. Despite the negative publicity of the past few days, Miles had people jumping at the chance to right his campaign. There were still three month
s left in the race and he was grateful that the man he’d hired had already sweet-talked Bernice and charmed Greer. Miles wasn’t out of the woods yet, but at least his integrity was still in one piece.
“While I don’t agree with the adage that any publicity is good publicity, I’m glad Greer was able to turn things around for you today, son,” Governor Rossi said from the doorway of Miles’ office. “Although it looks like you’re a little light on campaign staff.” He gestured at the empty outer office.
Miles worked to unclench his jaw. Bob Rossi was the last person he expected to see today. Or any day from here on out, for that matter.
“The office is closed for the day,” Bernice informed the governor in an indignant tone. “But we are certainly not ‘light’ on campaign staff.”
She wasn’t lying. Bernice and Cassidy had spent a good portion of the day wrangling up locals to work the phones and pass out campaign literature. Some were leery at first, still angry at Miles’ association with Lori, thinking she was a part of her father’s scheme. But Bernice could be persuasive and Miles had no doubt he’d have the manpower to help get out the vote when the time came.
Respect had been ingrained into Miles’ personality at a young age, and he stood reflexively when the governor entered the room. Bernice shot the man an evil look from behind his back before clicking off the television. “Come on, Cassidy. They’re serving shrimp and grits at the diner tonight and I’m buying. I doubt you’ll get anything decent to eat with Ginger in the kitchen at the B and B.”
“Ugh, she made tofu hotdogs for lunch,” Cassidy groaned as she followed Bernice to the door.
“Look at it this way, the cafeteria food in college won’t look so bad after a few weeks of Ginger’s cooking,” Bernice said. She lifted an eyebrow at Miles as if to ask if he’d be all right with the governor. Miles gave her a confident grin and waved them both out the door. Truth be told, he might need her to come back and mop up the mess after their conversation was over.
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