Dax sighed. “I think about that woman every second of every day, brother.”
Connor turned and stepped out onto the balcony. Zack was staring at the Mall in the distance. Secret Service would flip out if they knew he was on the balcony. But he’d swept the place for bugs and did a quick scan of all the windows around them. None seemed to be open so that an assassin could take a quick shot. Besides, almost no one knew the president was here.
Connor realized he wouldn’t trade for Zack’s life, not for anything in the world. “We’re going to figure this out. I know I’m watching over the women, but I’m actually pretty good at stuff like this. Though I haven’t proven it to you. I can’t tell you how sorry I am about that.”
Guilt weighed heavily on him. He should have looked deeper. He should have taken over the case himself and not given in to the pressure from the Agency to keep his name out of it. One of the good things that would come from leaving his job was not having to be so damn secretive anymore.
It struck him suddenly that Lara was his light. He’d been in the darkness for so long. She was the only one he would leave the shadows for. Not because he loved them. Not because he feared the sun. He simply knew the darkness. It was comfortable. He belonged there, but maybe with her at his side, he could make another place for himself. He could finally have a home.
“No recriminations, Connor. I’ve got enough of those for both of us. Just figure out what the hell is going on because I have no clue.”
“Your father was the ambassador for years. Have you had any contact with Russians recently?” he asked softly to ensure no one would be able to hear them over the traffic below.
“Beyond the fucker who runs the country?” Zack laughed but it was a bitter thing. “No. If you’re asking me if a member of the Bratva is blackmailing me for something, the answer is no. If you’re asking me if my father made deals with them back in the day . . . I don’t know. I have suspicions but I’ve always shied away from them. I thought it was better to leave the past in the past. My father only ever had one ambition for me, and wasn’t suffering from dementia when Joy died.”
Shit. “You think your father had Joy killed to get you elected?”
Zack turned, his eyes older than they’d been before. “When the doctor told my father I was a son based on my ultrasound, he shipped my mother back home. She was six months pregnant at the time and the doctor advised against any kind of travel. She’d had several miscarriages and her health wasn’t what it should have been. He wanted his son born on American soil because he didn’t want any questions about the place of my birth.”
“The embassy would have been considered American soil. The natural-born-citizen clause wouldn’t have held you back. You were born to two Americans.”
Zack shook his head. “McCain was born on a Navy base and they questioned him. The opposition will use anything. They couldn’t have kept me from running, but they could have given me hell about it. So my father sent my mother back to Maryland. She almost lost me and spent the rest of her pregnancy in a hospital bed, but by god my birth certificate says United States of America. My father told the doctor that if I couldn’t run for president, I was useless anyway so it didn’t matter what happened. Yes, I believe my father had the very real potential to hire someone to assassinate my wife if he thought it would win me the election.”
“Do you understand that if it’s true, your presidency is over?”
“I know. It won’t matter that I had no knowledge. My legacy and anything I’ve achieved in office will be ruined.”
Connor couldn’t imagine it. “Maybe your father didn’t do this at all. Maybe it’s some outside force and we don’t know what they want yet.”
“Either way, it all boils down to one thing.”
“What’s that?”
“I’d thought about not running for a second term,” Zack began. “Not because I don’t think I’m doing a good job. My approval rating is surprisingly high. I’ve managed to work with the opposition well. The reason I want to quit is her.”
“Elizabeth.” No one who stood in the same room as that pair could miss the fact that Zack and Elizabeth cared about each other. “Are you sleeping with her?”
“No. I wouldn’t risk it because of what the press would do to her, but if I knew I was getting out, I might. I was going to tell Roman next week and then ask her to dinner with me. We have dinner a couple of times a week, but never alone. I was going to surprise her. I’m in love with her. I’ve never been in love with anyone, but I knew the minute I saw her. That’s the horrible part. I met her a year before Joy died. I took one look at her and knew she was the woman for me. Do you know how awful I am, Connor? I had a plan. I was going to wait until after the election. If I lost I was going to offer Joy a divorce. If I won, I was going to offer her a bargain.”
What a fucking mess. “You were going to let her have an affair with Roman so you could see Elizabeth.”
“I didn’t see it as an affair,” Zack said wistfully. “It was all about timing. We couldn’t divorce while we were in the White House. Roman would have happily married her. I saw it as an anticipation of the future.” He sighed. “I deserve all of this shit, Connor. And Elizabeth deserves none of it. I’m going to fire her tomorrow. I’m going to end this so she can find a good man.”
“That’s a mistake. What are the rumors about you two, Zack?”
“That we’re having an affair. Firing her should lay them to rest.”
“And if this isn’t a dead issue? If someone other than your father plotted to put you into office so they could use you down the line?”
“Then she’s out of it.”
“Or they’ll see right through that scheme and know she’s your weakness. Then you’ll have left her utterly alone and unprotected. Until we know what’s really happening, the safest place for her is the White House under the watchful eye of the Secret Service.”
“Oh, god. They could come after Elizabeth. I hadn’t thought of that. I was just thinking of how she’ll look at me when she finds out what my father might have done.” Zack had gone pale again. “Do you think they would hurt Elizabeth to force me to do whatever they want? Likely so. They killed Joy.”
“I think that if someone wants to hurt you, Elizabeth is the easiest way. If I was the one watching you and you fired her tomorrow, I would suspect your ploy. You’re not known for being cruel. Dismissing her would be out of character, so I would take a much closer look. I was working in Afghanistan a few years back, trying to track down a certain bomb maker. The intelligence I had led me to a man who supplied both sides with weapons. He was a smart man. He wouldn’t break since he knew the men he worked for would kill him if he ever talked. This man had left his wife and small daughter back when he’d gotten involved in the arms business. Some people would have said he was callous for leaving them. I took a chance. I brought them in. You see, the timing was too coincidental. Just as he sets up shop, he suddenly decides he’s no longer in love?”
“What happened?”
“He gave me the name of the bomb maker and we don’t mourn the city of Los Angeles. He took his wife and daughter and they ran.”
“Are they alive?”
“I don’t know. Probably not, but that’s what happens when you get involved with terrorists, Zack. You can call me a monster, but I had to weigh the lives of those three people against millions of ours. What I’m telling you is that it’s too late to shove her away. Talk to her. Tell her what’s happening. I would be shocked if she didn’t stand by you. If she knows what’s coming, she’ll know to be careful. But scorned women can be reckless women. They lash out at the oddest times.”
Connor frowned.
“I can’t get closer to her.” Zack slumped down in Lara’s patio chair.
“It would be a mistake to push her away.” Connor wondered what he would do in Zack’s position. They weren’t the same, though. If Connor walked away from this case, Lara wouldn’t give up. She would keep going. She
would gather her little band of misfits around her and then they would all die. He looked down at the street below. “Even if you can’t bring yourself to tell her the truth, you should keep her close so you can make sure she’s safe.”
A motorcycle pulled up across the street from the building. Connor’s senses went on high alert. He recognized that bike, though it likely wasn’t the same since there were two people on it and one of them was wearing a skirt.
Kiki slid off the back of the bike, pulling the helmet off so her long brown hair flowed down the back of her peasant blouse. She smiled and leaned in, giving the man she’d been with a kiss.
Was that her married lover? Congressmen didn’t usually ride around on crotch rockets. Why did he have the exact style of motorcycle that their attacker had been riding?
Connor didn’t believe in coincidence.
Could the person riding the bike have been a woman? Kiki was slender but in a bulky leather jacket, in the heat of the moment, she could probably have passed for a man. Her hair would have been hidden under the helmet, her hands under gloves.
The bike sped away and Kiki pulled out her phone. She typed something in and looked up. He couldn’t miss the smirk on her face before she started across the street toward the building.
Lara’s phone buzzed in his hand.
“Is something wrong?” Zack rose to his feet.
Luckily Lara didn’t put any kind of security on her phone. He swiped his thumb across the screen and found the text from an unknown source.
Last warning. I’m coming for you tonight. You should run, bitch. Run as far as you can and never come back.
Connor closed his eyes as his own arrogance came crashing down. He’d thought this was all about the case. He’d been so certain that only something as big as the investigation of Natalia Kuilikov and Joy Hayes’s murder could bring this kind of evil into the life of a good person like Lara. He’d forgotten that evil lurked behind even the sweetest of faces.
And a woman scorned really could do massive damage.
“Yes, something’s terribly wrong. Zack, I might need to borrow a few of your men.” He took off, praying he could get to Lara in time.
* * *
Lara backed away, adrenaline pumping through her. “I was just looking for Kiki. I’ll come back later.”
Tom stared at her and then looked down at the knife. “Oh, shit. You thought I was . . . Lara, I’m not going to hurt you. I thought you were her.”
He put the knife down on the table just outside the office and showed her his hands.
“Her?”
Tom nodded. “Kiki. I came here because she was writing up a brief for me.”
She sighed, breathing a little easier though she was still confused. “You have to stop using her like that.”
“Yeah, I fucking know that now. It seemed really harmless. She didn’t seem to mind and she’s really good at it. She’s smart, you know. I didn’t realize she was mind-blowingly cray cray.” Tom’s breath was uneven, his hands shaky. “I should have known it was too good to be true. No woman can blow a man like she can and possibly be sane. I’m serious. She’s got the suction of a Dyson, Lara.”
“You slept with her?” Even though she and Tom were no longer together and hadn’t been for years, she’d thought someone would give her a heads-up when Kiki and Tom changed their status from friends to lovers.
Tom went bright red and he nodded. “I kind of wish I hadn’t now. I know guys like to joke about hot psycho chicks, but damn she’s scary. We should get out of here. I’m worried about what she could do.”
Her brain was reeling with the idea that Tom and Kiki had been together. “What are you talking about?”
He looked back toward her office. “She gave me a key about a year ago. Even after I told her I didn’t want to do the friends-with-benefits thing anymore, she told me to keep it, but she always locks her office. She told me it was because she had sensitive documents back there.”
Lara had heard the same. Kiki worked for a law firm that had ties to the Department of Justice. “Why would you break up with her if she’s as good as you say she is?”
“Because I’m still in love with you.” His face softened. “Lara, I know I screwed up. I didn’t treat you the way I should have or try hard enough. Lately, I’ve had time to think about where we went wrong. We should talk to a therapist. We’re so good as friends, but we could be great lovers, too.”
She’d learned a lot about that in the last week. “Oh, sweetie, we have no chemistry.”
“How can you say that? We’re great together,” he argued even as he looked around Kiki’s apartment. “Seriously, we should get out of here. I don’t know when she’s coming back.”
Lara’s instincts flared as she stepped toward Kiki’s home office. There must be some reason Tom had been standing in the doorway, clutching a knife. “What does she have back there?”
He followed her. “I think she’s been sending you the nasty texts. Lara, you have to know that I didn’t realize it until now.”
She barely listened to Tom. Instead, she stepped into the office. Lara only had to take in a glance before her eyes went wide. Everywhere she looked she found pictures of Tom. It looked as if they’d been taken over the years. She recognized a picture of Tom in college and one right after they’d all graduated. There were shots of him smiling at the camera, but most of the images looked like he had no idea he was being photographed. They were pictures of Tom walking into his office or sitting with friends in a restaurant. They looked as if they’d been taken with a telephoto lens. She remembered when Kiki had bought the camera three years before. The woman had even offered to photograph her ill-fated wedding to Tom.
The wedding Kiki had talked her out of.
Lara wasn’t upset about that. She and Tom really hadn’t worked, but looking around this room, she had to wonder if Kiki hadn’t had another, more selfish reason for persuading her not to get married.
“She follows you.”
Tom stepped beside her, his voice grim. “She’s been stalking me. When did you start getting those texts?”
“Three weeks ago.”
“Around the time you started talking to that douche online?”
“Yes. What does Niall have to do with anything?”
“When you started talking to him, I realized I had to get off my ass and get you back. I told her I was going to do whatever it took. That was when I started asking you if you wanted to go to the movies and stuff.”
“I thought that was just as friends.” She’d turned him down because she’d had so much work to do and she’d wanted to spend her evenings talking to Niall . . . who had turned out to be Connor.
“Yeah, but I intended to ease you back into being my girlfriend,” Tom admitted. “The idea of you falling for some asshole in California really gave me the kick in the pants I needed. I even asked Kiki’s advice on how to get you back. I think that’s when she started sending you those texts.”
“She doesn’t have a motorcycle.” But Lara’s stomach churned as she saw a picture of the three of them. They were arm in arm, with Kiki and Tom smiling at the camera. Lara couldn’t smile because her face had been viciously cut out.
“Um, that’s where I found the knife. It was kind of sticking out of your face. And she might not have a motorcycle, but her new boyfriend does,” Tom admitted. “She told me he lets her borrow it. Besides the congressman, she’s been screwing some intern at work. In retrospect, I think she told me to see if I’d get jealous. Apparently she’s not serious about either of them because she thinks I’m her Prince Charming or something. You know this isn’t as sexy as they make it look on TV.”
Lara just blinked. Kiki had been her friend. How could the woman hurt her like that?
Tom put a hand on her shoulder. “I should have told you everything sooner. I didn’t want to hurt you.” He sighed. “She’s always been jealous of you, you know. She talks a lot about how you get everything handed to you and she has
to work for it. I thought it was just female jealousy. I don’t get girl stuff most of the time. I didn’t think she really hated you.”
But looking around this room, Lara could see plainly that Kiki did.
“I need to call Connor.” She reached for her phone then cursed when she realized she’d left it behind.
“You don’t need him, Lara. Didn’t you get the information I sent you? Your bodyguard is working for the White House. He has been all along. Come with me. We’ll call the cops and tell them everything we know about Kiki and get her . . . I don’t know, committed or something.” He reached down to take her hand. “I love you. I’ve always loved you. I can protect you. That Connor guy is just another asshole who wants to use you.”
Maybe, but despite everything they’d been through, Connor was the only person she wanted to see now. It was obvious she’d been an idiot to believe that Kiki was her friend. She’d suggested Lara stay with her parents after the e-mail threat, then she’d pushed Lara toward Connor—all after Tom had revealed that he meant to win her back. Lara could have told her that she’d never take Tom back, but Kiki had never mentioned it. She’d never given her the courtesy of knowing they were on opposite sides. Never once hinted that she had feelings for Tom.