“Wait. Let me explain.”
And she did. She waited ... watched him rise from the bed... struggle for words, but the ones he finally came up with weren't nearly good enough. “I didn't mean to hurt you.”
She needed to get to the bathroom before she was sick in front of him. She thought of what she'd told him about Dennis and hated herself. Even though she hadn't confirmed it, she'd let him make love with her, and he knew.
“Nealy,” he said softly, “I give you my word that I won't betray you.”
Her throat felt dry and rusty. “It's too late. You already have.” She rushed blindly for the bathroom and closed herself in.
Afterward, Mat came up with a dozen better ways he could have told her. He should have eased up on it instead of just blurting it out. He should have been more gentle, done whatever he needed to so that porcelain skin wouldn't go pale, so those patriot-blue eyes wouldn't look so stricken.
The frail world they'd built together had toppled, and it was his fault. He turned away from the bathroom door and slowly made his way downstairs. There was nothing he could say to make it better, no excuse he could offer.
The dark blue Taurus was parked across the street. They might still not be absolutely certain who she was, but they weren't taking any chances.
Knowing she'd be safe, he grabbed the keys to the Explorer and stalked outside. He had to be by himself for just a little while. Maybe that would clear his head enough so he could figure out what to do next.
* * *
Button curled her fingers in a tired bye-bye wave as Charlie drove away from the house. Then she snuggled against Lucy and whimpered. Lucy remembered how much Button was starting to like snuggling up with Nell when she was tired.
Not Nell. Mrs. Case. Cornelia Case.
Lucy hadn't told Charlie and Bertis who Nell really was. She hadn't told them that Nell would be going away soon, going back to Washington and being the First Lady.
It was all Lucy's fault. If she hadn't dragged Nell into that lookalike contest, nobody would have found out and everything could have gone on like it was, with just the four of them and Button snuggling in Nell's lap when she got cranky.
But Lucy knew she was lying to herself. Nell still wouldn't have married Mat. She was Mrs. Case. If she ever got married again, she'd marry somebody famous. And even if she did decide to adopt some kids, they'd be polite, smart kids, not poor, beat-up kids like her and Button.
As for Mat... he hadn't wanted them from the beginning.
She pulled the baby closer over the hurt in her stomach and tried to tell herself she wasn't scared, but she was. The whole time she'd been with Bertis and Charlie, she'd been thinking about what she had to do. She knew if she didn't act right away, her baby sister would end up with strangers. And no matter how scared she was, she couldn't let that happen, so she reached in the pocket of her shorts and pulled out the key to Mabel that she'd stuck there before she'd left. No strangers were going to take her baby sister away from her.
* * *
Nealy stared through the window at the Iowa River curling in the distance. But it wasn't her river. Her river was a thousand miles away, flowing past Arlington National Cemetery into Chesapeake Bay.
She was dressed again in the clothes she'd worn earlier, and she'd wiped off most of the makeup Lucy had applied. Mat had driven away in the Explorer ten minutes ago, so she wouldn't have to deal with him. She stepped over the Wal-Mart pillow and began packing her clothes, even though she knew she wouldn't ever wear any of them again. A noise outside distracted her. The sound of Mabel's engine.
She reached the bedroom window in time to see the Winnebago creeping crookedly down the drive, then lurch over the curb and into the street, barely missing the car parked on the other side. Her hand flew to her mouth as she caught a glimpse of Lucy behind the wheel. Then the motor home pulled away.
Panicked, she raced for the stairs and reached the front porch just in time to see Lucy narrowly miss a stop sign as she turned onto the cross street and then disappeared.
Let me drive. I know how to drive this thing.
She was dizzy with fear. Driving the Winnebago was a challenge for someone with experience, let alone a fourteen-year-old without a license. And Lucy wouldn't be alone. She'd never have left Button behind.
Nealy clutched the porch railing and forced herself to think. The Explorer was gone, and she didn't have a car. Maybe a neighbor . . .
Just then she noticed the dark blue Taurus parked across the street. DeLucca, the female agent, was out of the car on the passenger side, staring in the direction the motor home had taken and reaching for her cell phone.
Nealy didn't even hesitate. “Put away the phone!” she cried as she ran toward her.
De Lucca snapped to attention. Williams jumped from behind the wheel, ready to throw himself between her and a bullet.
“She's only fourteen,” Nealy said, “and she's taken the baby with her.”
Neither of them asked any questions. DeLucca was already climbing back in the car while Williams pulled open the rear door, then slammed it closed after Nealy.
She grabbed the back of the seat. “They can't have gone far. You have to catch up with them.”
Williams hit the accelerator. DeLucca turned to gaze at Nealy's now flat stomach, but she didn't ask any questions. What was the point? She already knew the truth.
They were on a wider residential street now, but there was no sign of the Winnebago. Nealy guessed Lucy was heading for the highway.
“Turn right at the intersection.”
“Are you sure you don't want the police, Mrs. Case?” Williams asked.
“No. Lucy might panic.”
Nealy ignored the glance the agents exchanged. He'd called her by her real name, and she hadn't denied it. Her glorious adventure had ended the moment Mat had told her how he earned his living.
They spotted the Winnebago at the edge of town. Lucy was driving under the speed limit, but she was having a hard time steering the cumbersome vehicle, and she kept creeping toward the center line. The blood in Nealy's veins turned to ice.
“My daughter took my car once when she was fourteen,” DeLucca said. “It was about the same time my hair started to turn gray.”
Nealy dug her fingernails into her palms. “Right now I feel like I'm eighty.”
“Kids'll do that to you. I'm Toni, by the way. Jason's driving.”
She acknowledged the introductions with a distracted nod. “Try to pull up so she can see me, but whatever you do, don't scare her by putting on a siren.”
The road was fairly straight and traffic blessedly light. Before long, Jason was able to ease into the other lane. As he drew alongside the Winnebago, Nealy saw Lucy. She was staring straight ahead, and she had what looked like a death grip on the steering wheel.
“Oh, God, don't honk!”
“I'll pull in front to slow her down,” he said. “Just relax, Mrs. Case. Everything's going to be fine.”
She wanted to scream that he had no way of knowing that.
He slipped in front of the Winnebago and slowed. Nealy twisted around to look out the rear window but Lucy's eyes were fixed straight ahead, and she didn't see her.
Mabel drew closer, then closer still. Brake! Put on the brakes!
She gasped as Lucy swerved toward the shoulder. She seemed to be fighting the wheel, but she got Mabel back in the lane. She looked terrified.
Jason tapped the horn, and Lucy finally saw Nealy gesturing through the back window.
She hit the brakes hard.
Nealy gasped as the motor home fishtailed. Lucy jerked the wheel, and it fishtailed again. The tires hit the shoulder and gravel sprayed. Finally, the vehicle shuddered and jerked to a stop.
Nealy remembered how to breathe.
Within seconds, she was out of the car and racing toward the motor home with Toni and Jason following. She lunged for the door handle, but it was locked.
Nealy pounded with her fist. “Open the d
oor right now!”
“Go away!”
“Do what I say. Open up!”
Through the window she could see that Lucy looked furious and determined, even as tears ran down her cheeks.
“Lucy, I mean it! If you don't do what I say, you're going to be in so much trouble.”
“I'm already in trouble.”
She strained to see if Button was all right. “You could have been killed! Just what do you think you're doing!”
“I'm getting a job! And we're going to live in Mabel! And you can't stop me!”
Button began to cry.
Toni pushed past Nealy and gave the door a hard rap. “Open up, Lucy. FBI.”
Lucy bit her fingernails and looked straight ahead.
Toni raised her voice. “If you don't open the door, I'm going to instruct Agent Williams to shoot out all the tires, and then shoot you.”
Jason stared at her. She lowered her voice to Nealy. “Teenagers see so many government conspiracy movies, they always believe the worst.”
But not this teenager. “What kind of moron do you think I am?”
Nealy'd had enough. “Open up, Luce, or I'll shoot you myself! I mean it!”
There was a long silence. Finally Lucy seemed to realize she wasn't going anywhere. She bit her fingernails, looked at Nealy through the window. “Promise you won't tell Mat.”
“I'm not promising a thing.”
Button's screams grew louder.
Slowly . . . very slowly . . . Lucy dragged herself from behind the wheel and released the door latch.
Nealy rushed in, lifted her hand, and smacked her on the side of the head.
“Hey!”
She pulled her hard against her breast. “You scared the life out of me.”
“MA!” Button squawked.
As Nealy clutched Lucy and gazed at the irate baby, she knew she'd reached one more crossroad in her life.
* * *
There was no sign of the dark blue Taurus. The space in front of the garage that held the motor home was empty. And Nealy was gone.
Mat had already searched the house for clues, but what he'd found—Nealy's satchel partially packed with her clothes—didn't tell him anything he didn't already know.
His fear was growing by the minute. Something was very wrong. The girls should have been back by now, the motor home should be here, and Nealy—
He heard a car door slam and raced to the front porch in time to see her emerge from the passenger side of the Taurus. He didn't mean to yell, but he heard himself do it anyway.
“Are you all right? Where have you been?” He rounded on the Secret Service agent who was standing next to her. “What happened? Have you been hassling her?” He didn't wait for the guy to answer, but confronted Nealy again. “Where's the motor home? Where are the girls?”
She turned away from him as if he didn't exist. Just then, the motor home lumbered into the drive with the female agent behind the wheel.
“The girls are inside Mabel,” she said so coolly she might have been talking to a stranger. Then she gazed at Wiliiams. “How much time can you give me?”
“Not much, Mrs. Case. We have to report in.”
Mat's stomach sank.
“Not until I say so,” Nealy replied. “I need at least an hour.”
Williams regarded her unhappily. “I don't think that will be possible.”
“Unless you want to be known as the agent who lost Cornelia Case for the second time, you'll make it possible.”
He seemed to realize the deck was stacked against him and gave a slow nod. “An hour.”
DeLucca stepped out of Mabel. Lucy followed, with Button hanging heavily from her arms. Lucy wasn't in any hurry to get closer to him, which pretty much told Mat everything he needed to know about who was responsible for whatever had happened.
He gazed at her as he took Button away. “Get in the house.” The baby curled against his chest as if he were the world's most comfortable pillow. Her eyelids diooped.
Lucy shot Nealy an imploring look. “He's going to kill me.”
“We'll all go inside.” Nealy walked ahead, not looking at him, her spine straight as a flagpole.
He watched the agents disperse, one toward the front of the house, one toward the rear. Nealy lived like this all the time, he realized, with people watching her, guarding her, hounding her. He'd understood it intellectually, but that was different from watching it happen.
They headed for the sunporch. Lucy was looking for a fingernail she hadn't already bitten to the quick and trying to figure out how to tell him what he'd already figured out. His sister Ann Elizabeth had been fifteen when she'd taken off in the family car, but she hadn't brought a baby with her.
Lucy slouched into the brown wicker armchair, doing her best to bristle with attitude but not pulling it off. Nealy, looking stiff and formal, positioned herself in the opposite chair as if she were getting ready to preside over an unpleasant staff meeting.
He sat on the couch and lay sleepy Button next to him, then shifted his legs so she couldn't roll off.
Nealy regarded him as if he'd just crawled out of a piece of spoiled meat.
“Can I assume this is off the record?”
He deserved it, so her snipe shouldn't have made him so mad. “Don't push me.”
“A simple yes or no will do it.”
She knew he'd never exploit the girls, but he took his medicine and said tightly, “Off the record.”
Lucy regarded their exchange with curiosity, but he wasn't offering any more explanations right now.
“Lucy ran away with Button,” Nealy said slowly. “She took Mabel.”
He'd figured out that much. At the same time, he realized Nealy hadn't hesitated to rush to the two federal agents for help, even though she'd known it would blow her cover forever.
He turned to Lucy, who was trying to make herself smaller by creeping farther down into the chair. “Why?”
She lifted her chin, ready to take him on. “I'm not giving Button to strangers!”
“So you risked her life instead.”
“I know how to drive,” she said sullenly.
“No, you don't,” Nealy countered. “That motor home was all over the road.”
His chest grew even tighter. “This is the stupidest thing you've ever done.”
She didn't have the courage to take him on, so she turned on Nealy. “This is all your fault! If you hadn't been Mrs. Case, you and Mat could have gotten married!”
“Stop it,” he snapped. “You're not going to deflect the blame on this. Not only did you risk your own life, but you risked your sister's as well.”
“What do you care? You're giving her away!”
Something tight clutched at his chest. The baby rolled to her side and went for her thumb. He'd already noticed she wasn't much of a thumb-sucker, so she must need some extra comfort. God, she was a great baby. World class. She was smart, bighearted, and gutsy—exactly the qualities that were going to help her get ahead in the world ... if she could just catch a break.
“There's something else you should know.” Nealy's lips tightened. “When I got inside the motor home I slapped Lucy. Not hard. But I definitely slapped her.”
“It's no big deal,” Lucy grumbled. “I don't know why you had to tell him.”
Mat didn't like the idea of anybody hitting the little delinquent, not even Nealy, but he understood.
“It is a big deal,” Nealy insisted. “Nobody deserves to be hit.” She turned to Mat. “I need to talk to Lucy alone.”
Her starchy manner got his back up. “Whatever you have to say to her, you say in front of me.”
“That's pretty much like saying it in front of the whole world, isn't it?”
“I don't deserve that.”
“All that and more.”
“You're the one who started the secret-keeping business.”
“Don't fight,” Lucy said in a small voice.
Lucy had heard them argue before,
but she seemed to know that something fundamental had changed between them. He realized he had to tell her the truth, too.
“Nealy wasn't the only one holding back on you, Luce.”
Lucy stared at him, and then her forehead crumbled. “Shit. You're married.”
“No, I'm not married! What is it with you two? And I thought you were going to watch your language.”
Button made a low mewing sound, unhappy to have her slumber interrupted by his gruff voice. He rubbed her back. She lifted one heavy eyelid, saw it was him, and, reassured, closed it again. His chest grew even tighter.
“I told Nealy I worked in a steel mill, but it's not true. I'm a journalist.”
“Journalist? You write for newspapers?”
“I've been doing some other things, but yes, mainly I write for newspapers.”
Lucy, being Lucy, went straight to the point. “Are you going to write about Nell?”
“I have to. That's why she's so mad at me.”
Lucy studied Nealy. “Is it bad that Mat's a journalist?”
Nealy wouldn't look at him. “Yes. It's bad.”
“Why?”
Nealy gazed down at her hands. “This was a private time for me. And I told him some things that I didn't want anybody else to know.”
Lucy's expression brightened. “That's okay, then. He'll change his mind. Won't you, Mat?”
Nealy jumped to her feet and turned away from them, clutching her arms across her chest.
Lucy frowned. “Tell her, Mat. Tell her you won't write about her.”
Nealy turned back, her blue eyes icy. “Yes, Mat, tell me.”
Lucy's eyes darted between the two of them. “You aren't going to write about her, are you?”
“Of course he is, Lucy. It's too big a story for him to ignore.”
Right then, it struck him that it was all coming to an end, and he was going to lose her. Not in the indefinite future, but now, this afternoon.
“Mat?” Lucy's eyes were imploring.
“I won't betray her, Luce. I already told her that, but she's not buying it.”
Nealy took a deep breath, then turned to Lucy as if he weren't in the room, and gave her a frozen facsimile of a smile. “Don't worry about it. It has nothing to do with you.”
First Lady Page 28