by Paula Graves
Darcy introduced them. “Tom, this is an old friend of mine, Jesse Cooper, and his friend Evelyn Martin. Jesse, Evelyn, this is Tom Claiborne.”
“Cooper,” Claiborne said with a slight narrowing of his eyes. Evie felt Jesse go tense beside her. “The security expert.”
“And you’re the State Department spokesman,” Jesse replied lightly, although Evie read wariness in his dark eyes.
Claiborne lowered his voice. “Your run-ins with Barton Reid were an anomaly. Reid is not representative of the entire Department of State.”
“Right.” Jesse didn’t sound convinced.
Claiborne ignored his skepticism. “What are you doing in the capital?”
“Sightseeing. Been a while since I was in D.C. and I thought it was time to visit again.”
“And scored a ticket to this party?” Claiborne arched his eyebrows.
“That was my doing,” Darcy said smoothly. “I know Cooper through a mutual friend who asked me to make sure he got to meet Henry Steed, because they have a few things in common.”
“Really?” It was Claiborne’s turn to look skeptical.
“We’re both avid anglers,” Jesse said with a relaxed smile. “Although neither of us gets to indulge ourselves much these days. Too busy.”
Claiborne turned his gaze to Evie. His scrutiny was sudden and intense, making her feel as if someone had turned a spotlight on her. “Forgive me, Ms. Martin. Rude of us to leave you out of the conversation.”
She smiled, digging deep for control to keep from showing her unease. “I didn’t feel left out,” she assured him. “I’ve enjoyed watching your press briefings. You’re very good at your job.”
“Thank you.”
If she’d hoped her polite but impersonal flattery would appease his interest and shift his focus away from her, she was disappointed. He snagged a glass of champagne as a butler passed and offered a glass to Evie.
“Thank you, no,” she said with another polite smile. “I’ve had enough.”
“You look so familiar,” Claiborne said.
A lightning bolt of panic raced through her, but she struggled not to show any reaction. “I get that a lot. I must look like some actress or something.”
“No, that’s not it—”
“I’m sure you’ll remember tomorrow, but for tonight, we must bid you good-night.” Darcy stepped between Evie and Claiborne, clapping the State Department spokesman on the shoulder.
“So early?”
“I have a meeting first thing in the morning, and Jesse and Evelyn wanted to get an early start on their sightseeing in the morning.” He turned to Evie and Jesse, a look of apology on his face. “Come, shall we bid Henry and Eleanor good-night?”
Jesse and Evie said a quick goodbye to Claiborne and followed Darcy from the ballroom. Moments later, they found Henry Steed and his wife in the drawing room.
“So soon?” Henry asked when Darcy told him they were leaving.
“I have a planning meeting in the morning for a state visit from a foreign dignitary,” Darcy explained.
“And we’re going to try to get in as much sightseeing tomorrow as possible,” Jesse added, stealing Darcy’s earlier excuse for them. “Evelyn hasn’t visited D.C. before, and I don’t want her to miss anything.”
“My dear, do wear comfortable shoes!” Henry said with a soft laugh, shaking Evie’s hand. “And take plenty of photographs. You will regret it if you don’t.”
Finally back in the limousine, Evie slumped against the seat back, feeling boneless. “I think Claiborne recognized me. It’s just a matter of time before he figures it out.”
“How would he know you?” Jesse asked.
“Her photograph has been all over the local papers,” Darcy said. “She looks different now, of course,” he said, waving his hand at her short, dyed hair, “but—”
“But maybe not different enough,” Jesse finished for him. He looked at Evie. “We’d better not go back to the motel. Too many eyes around there. Too many people who might figure out who you really are.” He shook his head. “I shouldn’t have brought you here with me.”
She raised her eyebrows. “Let’s not go through this again.”
“I can check you out of the motel if you wish,” Darcy suggested. “And arrange new lodgings.”
“Any other motel we check into will pose the same problem,” Evie said. “Unless you’re suggesting we leave D.C. altogether.”
“Maybe we should.” Jesse’s gaze darkened.
“No. We finally have a lead, as nebulous as it is—”
“A lead?” Darcy asked.
Evie and Jesse both looked at the DSS agent, then back at each other.
“Or is this a need-to-know situation?” Darcy asked.
“He might know something that could help us,” Evie said softly.
Jesse frowned.
“I realize you have reason not to trust people in general at the moment.” Darcy’s tone was quiet and calm. “But I am on your side. I have seen the damage done by MacLear and the Special Services Unit. I’ve lost friends and colleagues to their underhanded machinations. If what you’re doing now will bring them down for good, I will do whatever I can to give you aid. But I am hamstrung if you keep vital information from me.”
“Tell him,” Evie urged.
Jesse took a deep breath, glancing toward the limousine chauffeur barely visible through the smoky glass partition separating the passenger seats from the driver’s seat. “Can he hear us?”
Darcy shook his head. “The glass is soundproof as well as bullet resistant. To speak to him, I have to press an intercom button.”
“Could the limo be bugged?”
“Oh, for goodness’ sake!” Evie turned to Darcy. “It’s not a state secret or anything. We just think Secretary Gamble may be cheating on his wife.” She summarized her conversation with Talbot Dreier, also pointing out the secretary of energy’s impolitic quick exit from the party.
Darcy’s only reaction was a slight twitch of one eyebrow. “Infidelity is hardly an anomaly in D.C. politics.”
“Still, it gives us a lever,” Jesse said. “If the Espera Group is corrupt enough to hire the SSU to do their dirty work, they have no business influencing global energy policy. We need to know just how involved Secretary Gamble might be in their push for the treaty and stop him.”
“And you think knowing that he’s cheating on his wife will give you the leverage you need to do that?” Darcy sounded skeptical.
“It’s more than we had before today,” Evie said.
“But what do you have, really?” Darcy gave a dismissive wave of his hand. “Innuendo at best, from a woman who believes politics and cronyism are keeping her husband from rising more quickly in the government ranks. She’s hardly a disinterested observer.”
Evie’s exasperation level was reaching the boiling point. “So you agree with Jesse? We should just run back home to Alabama with our tails tucked between our legs?”
“I’m pretty sure I never suggested that,” Jesse murmured drily.
“I think it’s an opening. But just an opening. You need more.”
“We’re not stupid. We know that.” Jesse’s scornful look would have felled a lesser man, but Darcy merely looked placid and mildly amused.
“If we need more, we’ll get more,” Evie said firmly.
“Any ideas how you intend to do that?”
The limousine’s arrival at the curb outside Annie Harlowe’s apartment saved Evie from having to answer. Instead, she gave Darcy a polite nod as the driver came around to open the door from them.
“Thank you for the ride and the party invitation,” she said primly, letting the driver help her out.
Darcy stepped out with them. “My offer to check you out of your previous motel stands. Do you know where you’ll be staying?”
Jesse looked at Evie. “Why not here at Annie’s apartment? Cooper Security is paying for the place anyway, and there are two bedrooms.”
Evie
felt a little chill dart down her neck. Two bedrooms. In other words, don’t expect a continuation of the kiss in the garden.
“Good idea.” She dropped her gaze.
“Very well. I’ll collect your things and bring them here in the morning. Do you have what you need for this evening?”
“I do,” Evie answered. She could sleep in her underwear and the T-shirt she’d changed out of when she put on the borrowed dress. “What should we do about the dresses and tux?”
“I’ll collect those from you when I bring you your things,” Darcy offered. “I have a way to get in touch with Quinn, and he’ll handle it from there. I’ll be in touch.”
Jesse laid his hand on the small of Evie’s back, guiding her toward the apartment building’s entrance as Darcy closed the limo door behind him and the long black car pulled away from the curb. “Long night, huh?”
“Yes,” she answered, wishing he wouldn’t touch her. Even though she knew the light brush of his hand on her back meant nothing to him, it was a visceral reminder of her own unattainable desires. Kissing him tonight had been a mistake of massive proportions, if for no other reason than how it had shown her exactly what she was missing.
A ten-year crush on her sister’s ex-fiancé had never been anything more than a pleasant dream, an idle what-if. She’d never really let those girlish feelings interfere with the other relationships she’d had since she was seventeen. She’d had a serious relationship in college, even considering marriage before the romance had fallen apart. Since college, she’d dated several men without letting Jesse Cooper’s memory get in the way.
But now that she knew what it was like to kiss him, knew how his touch made her blood sing, how could she ever pretend she wanted anyone else?
Chapter Ten
“Is that him?” Evie looked over the rim of her coffee cup toward the Department of Energy building. Her short hair was tucked up under a baseball cap she’d borrowed from Jesse, and a pair of sunglasses hid her bright blue eyes. She’d been spooked by what Tom Claiborne had said to her the night before about looking familiar, so she’d taken pains to disguise herself behind loose clothes and the cap and glasses. She seemed satisfied she looked nondescript.
What she really looked was damned adorable. Jesse was having trouble paying attention to the side exit, where Secretary Gamble should be appearing anytime now.
“No, not him,” he said, dragging his gaze from her pert profile long enough to check out the suit-clad man she pointed out.
“What if he takes a car?”
“Darcy said he leaves the building on foot every Wednesday around lunchtime.”
“And you trust Darcy now?” She turned her face toward him, but with her eyes hidden behind the glasses, he found he couldn’t read her expression.
He quelled the urge to remove the sunglasses. “I don’t trust anyone in this bloody town but you. But we can’t afford to ignore leads when they fall in our laps.”
“Unless this is a trap.”
“Darcy knows where we were last night. If he wanted to entrap us, he could have just made a phone call and had the FBI waiting on our doorstep.”
“So, not a trap. A wild-goose chase.”
“This whole trip has been a wild-goose chase.” He shrugged. “So what’s new?”
Evie’s lips tightened. She looked back toward the side exit and sat up straighter. “That’s definitely him.”
Following her gaze, Jesse felt a jolt of adrenaline rush through him as he recognized Morris Gamble’s silver hair and patrician profile. “He’s coming this way. Wait him out.”
There were no staffers with Gamble, Jesse noted as the secretary walked at an energetic clip toward the concrete bench where he and Evie sat. The secretary didn’t spare either of them a look as he passed and turned left, heading down Independence Avenue toward the Metro station.
“Wait,” Jesse reiterated as he felt Evie’s body twitch beside him.
“We’re going to lose him.”
“No, we’re not.” He stood and tossed the remains of his coffee in a nearby trash bin. Evie did the same, falling into step as they followed the secretary from a distance of thirty yards behind.
“He’s turning into the Metro station,” Evie murmured as Gamble headed for the train station a couple of blocks later. They caught up, walking into the station about ten yards behind him. They had already loaded fare cards with enough money to get them anywhere they wanted to go for the next couple of days, so they didn’t have to stop before they reached the turnstiles.
Gamble boarded a Blue Line train heading toward the L’Enfant Plaza transfer station, avoiding the mass of commuters huddling near the center of the train by boarding near the back. Jesse and Evie followed, taking seats a couple of rows behind the secretary.
If anyone else on the train recognized the secretary of energy, they showed no signs of it. He wasn’t the most recognizable of the president’s cabinet, Jesse supposed. Maybe that’s why Gamble chose this form of travel rather than a private car—nobody would even notice him amid the throng of federal workers who filled the trains every weekday.
“Any idea where he’s going?” Evie murmured.
Jesse shook his head, beginning to worry that she might be right. Maybe they were on a wild-goose chase. Darcy claimed to be on their side, but he worked for an offshoot of the State Department, the same government department that had produced a corrupt bastard like Barton Reid, who’d left a trail of dead bodies and ruined lives in his wake.
“He could be going to meet his girlfriend,” Evie suggested.
“I hope that’s not all it is.” Jesse fidgeted with his fare card. If they were simply following Gamble to a romantic rendezvous—
“I think we’re at the transfer station,” Evie said quietly. The train slowed as they pulled into the L’Enfant Plaza station. Gamble stood as the train stopped, and fell into the line of passengers preparing to disembark.
Jesse caught Evie’s hand, tugging her with him through the crowd. They had to move at a clip to keep from losing Gamble in the roiling sea of humanity filling the platform outside the train.
After a heart-stopping couple of seconds, he caught sight of the secretary again, walking briskly toward the Green Line train heading south. “There,” he told Evie, pulling her with him as he hurried to catch up.
Gamble boarded a train headed south toward the Navy Yard and the Anacostia River. Jesse didn’t know enough about the D.C. area to know if his choice of destinations was odd, but Evie gave a low murmur of surprise when she saw the train they were boarding.
“Something wrong?” he asked as they settled a few rows behind Gamble.
“We’re heading across the Anacostia River.”
“What does that mean?”
“That’s not the wealthiest part of D.C. Mostly residential and urban.”
“Not the usual hangout for a presidential cabinet member, you mean.”
“Not exactly where I’d choose to have a romantic assignation,” she said flatly. “Not when there are any number of luxury hotels not two miles from where he works.”
“But if he doesn’t want to be seen—”
“If he cared about being seen, why would he take the Metro instead of a private car?” she asked, echoing his earlier thought.
“Then maybe she doesn’t want to be seen.”
Evie slanted a look at him. He felt a rippling sensation shoot through his gut to land low in his belly, a potent reminder of just how vulnerable he was becoming where Evie was concerned.
Don’t think about the kiss, a desperate voice whispered in his head.
Unfortunately, it seemed to be all he could think about. The memory of those stolen moments in the rose garden haunted him, making him wonder what might have happened if he hadn’t stopped her.
“What if his lover is someone well-known?” he asked quietly, struggling to put all thoughts of her soft, tempting lips out of his mind.
“Interesting question,” she murmured. “T
albot did say men in politics always cheat up.”
The train stopped twice before they pulled into the Anacostia station. Jesse watched Gamble carefully, in case he moved at the last moment and put them at a disadvantage. But he remained seated all the way, even after the train had swapped out passengers at the Anacostia station.
Next stop, Congress Heights.
“What’s in Congress Heights?” he asked Evie, keeping his voice low.
“Mostly apartments and homes. The Barry Farm neighborhood. A few shopping centers.” She peered out the window as lights on the track began to flash, warning that they were nearing the station. “There’s a psychiatric hospital there, too. St. Elizabeth’s.”
The name tugged lightly at the back of his mind, but he didn’t have time to ponder its meaning, for as the train pulled into the Congress Heights Metro station, Morris Gamble rose from his seat and moved briskly to the exit door.
Jesse rose as well, catching Evie’s hand and tugging her to her feet. Swept up in the throng crowding the central platform, they struggled to keep Gamble in view. Jesse lost sight of the secretary as they reached the escalators. “Damn it, I can’t see him.”
The escalators deposited them at street level and the tightly packed crowd spread out, exiting the pavilion-like shelter into the bright midday sun.
Evie shaded her eyes. “Do you see him?”
Jesse scanned the flat, concrete square. “There!” He nodded toward the bus shelter near the curb. Gamble was striding purposefully past the gathering crowd waiting for the next bus, heading for the crosswalk.
Jesse and Evie hurried to catch up before the light turned, putting them closer to the secretary than Jesse liked. “Hold back a little once we reach the other side,” he murmured to Evie as they stepped quickly to beat the light. “Don’t want to spook him.”
They slowed their pace once they reached the sidewalk, letting Gamble put some distance between them. “Where is he going?” Evie asked.
Not to St. Elizabeth’s hospital, Jesse thought, as the secretary walked past the wide entrance to the tree-lined campus and continued down Alabama Avenue into a residential neighborhood, slowing only when he neared a pair of men standing at the next corner.