Flashback by Justine Davis (reading e books .TXT) 📗

the art museum fund-raiser. Just everyone was there. The Penningtons, Senator Rankin, even Secretary Dexter was there.”

Alex would bet that was an interesting gathering, with Secretary of State Dexter, a lightning rod if ever there was one in Washington.

“He asked after you,” Veronica said.

Alex yanked her attention back. “What? Secretary Dexter?” She’d only met the man once, for all of ten seconds.

“No, silly girl. I mean the senator. He asked how you were.”

“Why on earth?”

“I suppose because he’s a man who cares about family,” Veronica said. “And he said it was because he couldn’t quite remember what I’d said about you last week at the DAR luncheon in Arlington. He’s so charming, pretending he’s getting old and forgetful.”

Alex went still. “He asked you specifically about me last week?”

“Well, he did after I mentioned that you were off to Phoenix.”

“And again tonight?”

“Well, yes. He’d heard about your little incident at the country club, so of course he wanted to know if you were all right.”

I’ll just bet he did, Alex thought with an inward grimace.

She didn’t remember much more of the conversation. She must have made some sense, because her mother seemed perfectly amiable by the time they hung up.

“Alex? What’s wrong? What did she say?”

“She told a crowd at a luncheon last week that I was in Phoenix.”

Justin frowned. “How big a crowd?”

“Big enough,” Alex said grimly. “And pillars of society all. Including Senator Rankin.”

Justin let out a compressed breath.

“Well, that certainly muddies the water quite a bit more,” he said.

“Indeed it does.”

Their suspect list had just grown to immense proportions.

Chapter 18

“No warning this time,” Alex said grimly as they started out in the morning in her grandfather’s Mercedes; she hadn’t even begun to do anything about replacing her own totaled car.

“No,” Justin agreed, settling back in the passenger seat like a person who didn’t usually travel in such style and wanted to enjoy every minute.

“No appointment,” Alex went on. “Not in his office, not on his turf. I want to catch him by surprise and off guard.”

“Fine,” Justin said. “But he is a U.S. senator, with a lot of practice in obfuscation, so keep that in mind.”

“So was Marion, and she didn’t need or use obfuscation,” she retorted. “That’s what I’ll keep in mind.”

It had only taken her a few calls to find out the senator was playing golf with some friends today. And less time to decide that was perfect, she could get to him and he’d have nowhere to hide.

By eight they were at the country club. Justin grimaced as they drove past the entry to the clubhouse and saw the damaged pillar. Alex didn’t even glance at it; she was utterly focused on the pursuit.

“Does everybody at this place drive a black Mercedes?” he asked.

Alex glanced at the cars they were passing in the lot, and indeed there were several in a row that looked like carbon copies of her grandfather’s. A few more and it would look like a car dealer’s lot. As it was, it was clearly a haven, not for the upwardly mobile but for the already arrived.

She laughed. He’d managed to distract her, for the moment at least. “Now you know why he prefers to drive his Range Rover. He got tired of having to read the plate every time to be sure he had the right one, or risk setting off a car alarm.”

Once they reached the golf course, she pulled out her best club manners and her grandfather’s name to get the woman at the pro club desk to tell them the senator’s foursome had teed off early this morning, and had not yet checked back in.

“They should be coming to the eighteenth very soon,” she said with a brilliant smile.

“I’ll catch him there,” Alex said, with an equal smile meant to charm. “I can tease him mercilessly about never breaking par.”

She’d heard enough about the senator’s golf game to guess that the comment would make the woman laugh.

It did. More important, she waved them through without any further questions. She wondered if the woman just trusted her because of her name, or wasn’t up to speed on current security needs. She made a mental note to be sure G.C. took extra precautions whenever he came here.

Alex led Justin through the club and out the back French doors that looked out onto the course, turning to the left as soon as they were outside.

“Know where you’re going, I gather?” Justin asked.

“Yes. My mother plays here. She dragged me out on occasion, when I was younger.”

“Mmm.”

Something about the way he made the sound made her look at him. And for a moment she saw the Dark Angel again, that wildly beautiful boy who’d grown up hard and tough and angry.

“Country clubs not a big part of your everyday life?”

“Mmm.”

“Not mine, either.”

He smiled.

“But,” she added, “they are a part of my world. I don’t participate, but they are there.”

His steps slowed. She turned to face him.

“Worried I won’t fit?” he asked.

She reached out and touched his cheek. “Worried that you’re worried,” she said softly.

A slow smile curved his mouth. “Don’t. I’m long past worrying about finding a place in the world. I make my own.”

She wanted to kiss him then and there, but knew they needed to focus. And if she kissed him…

“Save that thought,” he said, looking at her face.

“Count on it,” she whispered.

They went on, reluctantly. There was no sign of their quarry at the eighteenth hole, so they followed the carefully manicured path to the seventeenth.

“Is that the group?” Justin asked, pointing ahead.

She turned her head to look. After a moment she spotted the senator near the tee. “Yes.”

“I thought they looked right. How do you want to play it?”

She’d been thinking about that. “Let me start out low-key,” she said. “He might be surprised to see me, but I can put up a front that I’m here personally, as a member. Enough to maybe keep him off guard long enough to