Our Little Secret (33 page)

“Harlan and Meg.” His uneasy glance darted to the men, then back to her. “Maybe it’s a good thing they’re here,” he said. “We need help.”

Only a determined effort kept her from grabbing him by the arms and shaking him. “You heard from Meg? What was the message?”

“They called me. Told me to find you and Drew,
have you bring whatever authorities you know you can trust. I don’t know what in the hell they meant by that, if they meant the police, or Secret Service, or—”

“Don’t worry,” Lauren interrupted, suddenly as edgy and anxious as Pierson. “What did they want us to do?”

“Meet them.” He grabbed her arms, squeezing with startling force. Fear seemed to run like an electric current from his hands into her body. “But you can’t go, Lauren. It could be a trap. Harlan sounded afraid, and in all the years I’ve known him, I’ve never heard that kind of fear in his voice.”

“Why did they call
you
?” Mihaly’s harsh question interrupted him. “And why now?”

Pierson kept his alarmed gaze on Lauren as he answered Mihaly. “They said they know who the blackmailer is.”

Mihaly swore fiercely. “If they made that known, they must be in danger. Where are they?”

Pierson looked from Mihaly to Renke, suspicion mingling with confusion on his face. “Are you both Secret Service?” He peered at Mihaly. “What was that accent? Are you even an American?” Without waiting for an answer, he turned to Lauren. “I don’t understand. Why are these men here? Why do you need protection?”

Before she could answer, Renke spoke up. “Why did they call you when they could have called us?”

“They said this phone was tapped.” Pierson frowned. “I’d like to see some ID.”

“Yes, sir.” With an efficient flick of his wrist, Renke flipped open a leather folder. Pierson glanced at it, grunted, and nodded his head at Mihaly. “You, too.”

Lauren didn’t see what Mihaly showed him, but Pierson looked up and said, incredulously, “
Romania
?”

“Deputy Ambassador,” Mihaly said dryly, supplying
the title no one seemed to believe. “Also a good friend of Meg’s. Please tell us what they told you.”

“In detail, from the beginning,” Renke added.

Pierson took a deep breath and nodded. “Harlan called me at home about half an hour ago. He started to give me some story about hiding out from the press, but I told him I knew about the blackmail scheme. He wasn’t happy about that.” Pierson gave Lauren an apologetic smile. “He seemed concerned that I would be in danger, too. And he gave me an address where Drew and Lauren can meet them. He said someone spotted them yesterday and they think the area is being searched. They’re afraid to come in on their own.” With another hesitant glance at Lauren, he added, “They said to hurry.”

Mihaly swore again.

“Where are they?” Renke demanded.

The Senator handed over a slip of paper. “It’s in Maryland, about forty-five minutes from here.” To Lauren, he said, “My hunch was right. It’s the same place I told you and Drew about earlier.”

A sense of urgency shot through Lauren. Forgetting she wore little more than a robe, she rushed to Mihaly, grabbing his arm. “We can’t wait. Come on, we’ll go now and Drew can meet us there.”

She started for the door, but Mihaly didn’t budge. Renke’s hand shot out like a stop sign in front of her. “No.”

She stared. “What do you mean, no? You heard him, Meg is in danger. We have to go
now
!”

“Not you. My partner said you stay here, and I agree.”

“They asked for me and Drew,” she insisted. “At
least one of us has to show up, or they’ll think it’s a trap.”

“No. He’s right, Lauren.” Mihaly’s voice was softer, but no less firm. “I promised Drew you would be safe.”

“Where is he?” Pierson interrupted. “He’s supposed to be there, too.”

“He and Chapman are checking out a lead, but we can call him. He’ll be there,” she assured him. “And so will I,” she told Mihaly.

“No, you stay here. I will go. Meg will trust me.”

“And me.” She’d practically forgotten about Gerald, who was apparently as bored with sitting around waiting as she was. “If I can’t go home, then at least I can help.” He stuck his hands on his hips and faced Renke. “But I won’t carry a gun, so don’t ask.”

Renke gave him a withering look. “Never occurred to me. In fact, taking you along never occurred to me, either.”

“Too bad.” Gerald pushed past him. “You need to create a presence, and they both know and trust me. I’m not doing anyone any good here. Don’t just stand there, let’s get moving.”

Renke turned a skeptical look on Mihaly, who shrugged. “He’s right. The more of us, the better.”

When Renke’s gaze swung to Lauren, Pierson moved to her side. “I’ll stay here with Lauren,” he offered. “Please, just find Harlan and Meg, and get this whole thing over with.”

“Damn it,” Renke muttered, looking at his improvised posse. “Okay, let’s go.”

“Hey!” Lauren objected.

The door shut in her face. She kicked it, almost glad of the pain that distracted her from her frustration.

Pierson watched silently out the window as Renke’s car drove off, then pulled a cell phone from his pocket. An awkward sense of propriety that Lauren thought she’d overcome compelled her to quote the rules as he dialed a number. “The Secret Service didn’t want us making calls, even on cell phones. The wrong people could listen in.”

He flashed a cool smile, holding the phone to his ear. “I don’t think it matters anymore.” He may have been right, but before she even had a chance to argue he spoke to someone on the other end. “They’re on their way.”

At Lauren’s puzzled look, Senator Pierson flipped the phone shut, raked her with a head-to-toe appraisal and held an arm out toward the couch. “Shall we make ourselves comfortable while we wait? It won’t be long.”

Something in his smile made her shiver.

Drew ground his teeth as the desk clerk flicked another piece of lint from his blazer. In about ten seconds Drew was going to leap over the counter, grab a fistful of that nifty red blazer the clerk seemed so fond of, and stuff it down the little twerp’s throat.

“Yeah, I remember the badge,” the twerp said. “It was really cool. Star shaped, just like in the movies, ya know? But I didn’t really look at the guy’s face.”

Chapman’s patience looked to be fraying, too, but it was still more stable than Drew’s. “You must have noticed something because you said he wasn’t blond.”

The clerk nodded thoughtfully. “That’s right, I did. And I’m positive about that. So I guess I am kinda observant, huh?” He stood straighter and adjusted the jacket.

Drew’s jaw was beginning to hurt from clenching
it so hard. The kid at the desk had actually spoken to the man who was their best lead, and he couldn’t remember a thing about the guy, except that he wasn’t the man in the picture they’d shown him. Drew would have loved to knock the kid’s memory back into place, but since Chapman’s method was more likely to get results, he ground another millimeter of enamel off his molars and kept quiet.

“Maybe he was older,” Chapman suggested. “Maybe he had gray hair.”

“Fu… I mean, heck, no. The guy wasn’t that old. I woulda noticed that, for sure. Secret Service guys are never old, right? Say, what do they do with you guys when you get too old to take down some bad guy?”

Chapman’s eye developed a tic, and he looked like he wanted to demonstrate his proficiency at that skill right now. “So he didn’t have gray hair?”

“No way. Hey, I remembered that! I’m pretty good at this. Ask me another one.”

Drew massaged the pain between his eyes and resigned himself to a long interview as Chapman ground out, “Any tattoos?”

“No! That’s another one! You and me make a good team, man.”

Tension settled in Drew’s neck. Tuning out the kid, he tilted his head upward and to the right until he heard a tiny crack. Much better. Tilting to the left, he repeated the process, concentrating on the stiff spot in his neck as his gaze drifted along the upper corner of the wall. And stopped.

Without moving his head, he tapped a knuckle against Chapman’s shoulder until the agent turned with an irritated, “What?”

Drew pointed. Chapman’s gaze followed, then froze at the upper corner of the wall behind the clerk.

“You have a security camera,” he said.

The clerk glanced at the object of their fascination and shrugged. “Yeah.”

Drew exchanged cautious looks with Chapman before addressing the kid. “Does it work?”

“Sure. Wouldn’t do much good if it didn’t.” His expression said they were going to have to be brighter than that if they expected to find their man.

Chapman leaned over the counter and grabbed the kid by his bright red lapel. “Find the tape from the night before last. Now.”

The clerk’s blank, open-mouthed stare gradually took on the glimmer of intelligence. “Hey, good thinking! The dude is probably on there, isn’t he?”

“Let’s hope so,” Chapman muttered as he released the kid. “We deserve a break.”

They got more than they expected. Watching the flickering TV screen in the manager’s office, Chapman kept his finger on the remote’s fast forward button until Drew ordered, “Stop. There he is.”

On the silent, black and white film, a man showed his badge and spoke to the desk clerk.

“Hot damn,” Chapman exclaimed, leaning closer to the screen. “I know this guy. Tough attitude, chip on his shoulder. He got himself messed up pretty bad in a car wreck and was off work for close to a year. He can’t have been back more than a few months. If he’s been assigned to any of the same officials as Marlow, it should be easy to find out. Someone had to have recruited these guys.”

“The sooner we find out, the better,” Drew said.

Chapman already had his phone in his hands when it rang. Frowning at the readout, he answered with a growled, “I said no calls. This better be good.”

Drew listened with disinterest until he heard the agent’s startled, “You’re
where
?”

Curiosity turned to caution as he saw Chapman’s posture stiffen. Something had happened. Drew drummed his fingers on the manager’s desk until Chapman hung up.

“Your father and his secretary phoned Senator Pierson,” Chapman summarized as he began dialing another number. “Said they know who the blackmailer is. They’re in danger, so Renke and your friends went to get them.” He held his hand up as he snapped out a fax request to someone on the phone, then hung up. “We’ll join them as soon as I get the fax on this guy.”

Drew struggled to absorb the sudden developments. Somehow, his father had figured it out. The case was about to split wide open with his dad caught in the middle, holding the dangerous information that would expose some high-level government official. If the blackmailer knew, he would panic. His dad’s life was in danger, along with the lives of anyone with him.

His mind reeling with information, Drew focused on the part that mattered most—Lauren.

“Lauren’s with them?” The thought of her heading directly into a confrontation with the agents who’d shot at them hit Drew like a punch to the gut. He couldn’t put her in danger again.

“No, they left her at the house. Pierson volunteered to stay with her.”

Relief eased through him. Pierson wouldn’t be his first choice, but Lauren would be safe enough until he
could get back to her. The worst he could say about Senator Pierson was that he was a lecherous ladies’ man. But unlike Senator Creighton, Pierson’s leering propositions were just an act. Probably.

“I have to get back to Lauren,” he said.

Chapman squinted at him in disbelief. “You did hear what I said, didn’t you? Your father is in danger. So is your girlfriend’s sister. Your girlfriend is safe.”

His girlfriend? Drew tested the word in his mind. No, Lauren wasn’t his girlfriend. She was far more than that. Somewhere along the way his instinct to protect her had slipped into a need to never let her go. And right now, rescuing his dad from certain danger took second place to assuring himself that Lauren was safe.

Like it or not, Chapman was going to have to drop him off at the house before rescuing Senator Creighton.

Drew held out his hand. “Give me the keys. I’ll have the car waiting at the door as soon as you get that fax.”

Chapman leveled a hard stare at him. “You’re not driving. And if you take off with a government car I’ll put you in jail.”

“I’m not stupid. I need something to do.” All he needed to do was put himself behind the wheel. Chapman could go to Maryland, but he’d be stopping in Georgetown first.

“I know the feeling.” Chapman tossed him the keys. “But don’t think I’m kidding about jail.”

Drew let the big, black Ford idle by the entrance, pondering the problem of how he could convince Lauren to commit herself to one man after showing her all the fun she’d missed by doing that very thing. To plan a future together after scoffing at her fondness for plans and procedures.

The irony was difficult to appreciate at the moment.

Drew’s thoughts scattered abruptly as the passenger door jerked open, then slammed behind Chapman.

“Drive!”

The edge of fear in Chapman’s voice was new. Without thinking, Drew responded to the urgency, ripping the car into gear and slamming his foot on the accelerator. Tires squealed as he barreled out of the driveway, barely pausing to check oncoming traffic. Still rocking from the turn, Drew drove his foot to the floor. Chapman reached down below the glove compartment and came up with a flashing red light. Lowering his window, he slapped the light onto the roof.