Page 10 of Steal My Breath Away

As a rule, I didn’t do dances. I had two left feet and no sense of rhythm, but I’d heard Haley’s name in the locker room after senior football practice, and something about the tone of Blake’s voice had made my skin crawl. Matt had dismissed my concerns out of hand. Haley could take care of herself, he said. He was right about that. Haley had a bit of wild in her and wasn’t afraid to speak her mind. But she was also trusting and innocent and as susceptible to Blake’s considerable charms as anyone else.

I got there just in time.

I heard her say “No,” and his crude response. I heard the fear in her voice when she asked him to let her go back to the dance. I don’t remember much else. At some point she stopped me from beating him unconscious and Blake got away. That was the first night I held her in my arms.

I was pulled out of the memory by the knock on the door, followed by the whirlwind of energy that was Senator Elizabeth Chapman. She was a short, heavyset woman with cropped curly hair, and she radiated power in her bright pink suit jacket. She looked like she was about to walk into a meeting rather than sit down to tea in my grandmother’s worn country kitchen.

“It’s good to see you, Ace.” She shook my hand across the table, a cold contrast to Janice’s warmth, but then the senator had never been an overly affectionate person. I could count on one hand the number of times I’d seen her hug Matt and Haley, and that was only before her husband died.

“Senator.” I gave her a nod.

“No need for formalities,” she said, taking a seat across from me. “You’re family. Call me Elizabeth.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

Her lips thinned for the briefest moment, but then the smile returned. “How are you? I was in town two weeks ago and I bumped into Janice. She mentioned you’d come home. I’m sorry I didn’t get a chance to stop in but it was a whirlwind trip to check on the house and touch base with some party donors. She said you’ve been working with a security company in LA, looking after celebrities. It sounds very exciting.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

“Janice also told me you’re here on vacation.”

“Yes, ma’am. I was thinking of selling my grandmother’s house, so I thought I’d use my time off to fix it up.”

“Um-hmm.” She glanced over at Janice, and I knew right away that Janice had let her know exactly how much fixing had been going on.

“Are you planning to stay long?”

“I’m heading back to LA in four weeks.” There was no question that I would go back. What else would I do with my life? I had always wanted to become an engineer, but that was the dream I’d had with Matt, so going to college now was out of the question. I couldn’t reenlist. After witnessing the crash that killed my best friend, I’d developed PTSD and the air force had made it clear I couldn’t come back.

“Would you consider cutting your vacation short?” She sipped her tea. “I need your help. It involves Haley.”

My breath left me in a rush and my fingers tightened around the handle of the porcelain cup so hard it snapped off.

“I’m sorry.” I stared at the fragment of porcelain in my palm.

“It’s all right.” Janice took the cup from my hand. “They were your grandmother’s cups, not mine.”

“Is Haley okay?”

Senator Chapman nodded. “I’m not sure if you know that she and Paige went to Havencrest University in Chicago after they graduated. She’s studying psychology. At least I thought that was what she was doing, but it turns out she is still trying to makeit as a singer in her spare time, playing gigs in shady bars and busking on Michigan Avenue.” She shared a look with Janice and shook her head before filling me in on the attempted kidnapping.

“Did they catch the guy?” It was an effort to stay in the chair. All I wanted to do was fly to Chicago, hunt the guy down, and make him pay.

“No, it was getting dark and there weren’t many people around. The few videos the police got from witnesses are blurry and they haven’t been able to track the van. Honestly, I don’t think the police are taking it that seriously. I talked to the detective in charge of the case right after Haley called to tell me what had happened, and he thought it was likely an opportunistic grab for a human trafficking ring.” She sighed and put down her cup. “I think it has to do with me.”

Janice frowned. “How could it have anything to do with you? It happened in Chicago.”

The senator’s hand trembled the tiniest bit. “The detective I spoke with told me Haley had mentioned that someone had approached her earlier that afternoon and asked if she was Senator Chapman’s daughter, but it wasn’t the same person Paige saw dragging Haley into the van, so he discounted that interaction. However, last week my husband Steve was attacked while he was running the Mount Vernon Trail in DC. Two masked men grabbed him and beat him up. He got away with a few bruises and a broken rib after some bystanders intervened. He reported it to the police, who wrote it up as a mugging, but the strange thing about it was that they didn’t take his phone, credit cards, or his cash. They just wanted to hurt him.”

My pulse kicked up a notch. “Do you think the two events are connected? Have you had any threats?”

“As a woman in politics, I get an inordinate number of threats,” she said, drumming her thumb on the table. “In the last few weeks, however, the threats have ramped up and some of them have specifically named Haley and Steve. I suspect it’s because I’m up for reelection and I’m considered a strong front-runner inthe Senate race. I’m also spearheading several contentious bills that will likely fail if I’m not reelected. Even so, I wasn’t convinced Haley was truly in danger until yesterday, when I received this.” She held up her phone and showed me a picture of Haley standing behind the counter of a coffee shop. Someone had edited the picture with a scrawl over Haley’s face and the words “Drop out or she drops dead.”

Haley. Danger.My protective instincts flared, and my pulse pounded in my ears so loud I could barely hear Janice’s gasp of horror.

“I received similar pictures of me and Steve in public places, and I went straight to the Capitol Police. They are going to provide Steve and me with a protective detail and they suggested we might want to get the US Marshals involved to protect Haley. The Chicago police don’t have the manpower for that kind of protection.”

“Jesus.” I was halfway out of my seat before I caught Janice’s stern look and forced myself back down.

---