Page 72 of Close Pursuit

“She did. And he didn’t drive her away. But he takes responsibility for everyone around him. He’s a very protective person.”

Interesting. “Tell me something, sister. Has he always struggled to let people love him?”

The nun laughed merrily. “Struggled is not the word I would use. Flatly refusing to let people love him would be more accurate.”

“Why’s that?”

The nun leaned forward and said intently, “Who in his past showed him he’s lovable? His mother abandoned him. His father ignored him. And when his father did notice him, it was to treat him like a spy recruit in need of constant correction and training.”

“Can you tell me more about his father?”

“Not really. We only saw him when he dropped off Alex at the beginning of each school year. After his arrest, Alex was practically one of our orphans. As I recall, a lawyer did an extensive search for his mother or another relative to raise him.”

“His mother what? Died? Disappeared?”

The nun shrugged. Katie carried her plate and the nun’s to the sink. She rinsed them thoughtfully and put them into the dishwasher.

“I’ll finish cleaning up here,” the nun murmured.

Katie was drying her hands when her cell phone vibrated in her jeans pocket. She pulled it out quickly, hoping it was Alex.

It was not. Instead, the text read, “I need to speak with you this morning. It’s urgent. Has to do with your friend. My office, one hour. Say nothing to him about it.”

She knew the phone number. It was Uncle Charlie’s. She asked the nun, “Do you need to be somewhere this morning, or could I duck out for a little while to take care of some business and leave you with Dawn?”

“I’m retired, Miss Katie. I don’t have to be anywhere until I join my Maker. You go on. Dawn and I will have a stroll around Mister Alex’s lovely garden and take a little nap.”

“Thank you,” Katie said gratefully. On impulse she hugged the elderly nun. “For everything.”

Sister Mary Harris patted Katie’s cheek. “God bless you, child. And may you bless Alex. He needs you.”

Stunned, Katie stared down at the small woman. “From your mouth to God’s ear,” she murmured.

The nun laughed gaily. “I’ll see what I can do about that. Now go on. Dawn and I will be fine.”

Katie hurried to the nearest Metro stop. She pulled out her Metro card, which had managed to survive a war zone and her wild escape from it. Her mind whirling with the nun’s revelations about Alex, she rode to Langley.

After passing through the security checkpoint outside, she stopped at the Visitor’s Desk just inside the sprawling CIA building. “I’m here to see Charles McCloud. He’s expecting me.”

13

Alex strode up to the receptionist’s high counter at the expensive law firm in downtown Washington.

“Good morning, sir. May I help you?”

New girl. Didn’t know him. And furthermore, she was flirting with him. Today, it merely irritated him, which irritated him even more. He ought to at least mentally size her up. But instead, he had no desire to check her out.

Damn. He had it worse for Katie than he’d realized in his whiskey-induced fog last night.

“Please tell Chester Morton that Alex Peters is here to see him. He’s not expecting me.”

“I’ll let him know. And if there’sanything I can do to make y’all comfortable, just lemme know,” the girl drawled in a thick southern accent.

He took the farthest chair away from the aggressively interested girl and opened a newspaper on his tablet computer that he didn’t read, his thoughts churning.

Since when didn’t he check out attractive women who threw themselves at him? He wasn’t a sexual predator by any means, but neither was hedead! So, what the hell was wrong with him?

He knew the answer. He just didn’t want to accept it. Alex Peters was a player. A rolling stone. He wasn’t the kind of man to settle down with one woman in domestic bliss.

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