She stole a look at Chapman. If he kept grinding his jaw like that, he was going to end up with another migraine.
"So I turned the volume off on the phone and took matters into my own hands. I crept around the back of the car to the other side where Agent Renke could see me. And you know me, if I"m creeping through the undergrowth, something must be seriously wrong with this picture. Even a moron would know that, so I thought there was a chance he would figure it out."
"Which he did," Lauren said. Renke deserved at least one positive comment.
"Sort of, but don"t get ahead of me." He brushed off Renke"s part in the story. "I had to crawl back around the car, and I mean on my hands and knees. Look at the dirt on these trousers! It"s-"
Drew cleared his throat.
"Right. So I waited behind the driver"s door. I knew they would roll down a window so they could shoot Mihaly, who was getting close. That would be our only chance to take them by surprise. Which was exactly what happened. Simple deductive reasoning."
He looked at Chapman and Renke to make sure they appreciated how right he was and how dense they were not to figure this plan out themselves. "The guy"s hand came out holding a gun, and I grabbed it and twisted. The gun went off, but he didn"t drop it. So, I bit him. Works every time. The guy screamed like an enraged bull and opened the door, which knocked me down, which knocked the cell phone out of my pocket, where he stepped on it and broke it." Gerald looked at Renke. "You might want to bill the government for that."
Renke"s lip curled with disgust.
Gerald shrugged. "Your loss. Anyway, I grabbed the guy"s ankle and knocked him down. That"s when Mihaly ran up to us, stuck a big black gun in the guy"s face, and I let him take over."
"You let him take over." Chapman shook himself out of his mesmerized state and turned to Renke. "What happened with the other guy?"
"The man in the pa.s.senger seat jumped out when the cat fight started on the other side. I had my gun on him before he could turn around."
"Because he"d seen me creeping around the car earlier and he knew something was wrong," Gerald said. "Right?"
Renke gave him a resentful stare. "Right."
Chapman looked slightly ill. "I"m glad you"ll be writing up that part, not me," he told Renke.
Lauren imagined the whole report would be a masterpiece of creative writing.
Beside her, Gerald gave a slight gasp and grabbed her hand. "I just realized you were alone with that despicable Senator Pierson. Did he try to hurt you?"
"Um, not exactly."
Drew moved his arm from the back of the sofa, slipping it around her shoulder to pull her closer. "Don"t worry," he told Gerald. "She handled it."
She had. She wasn"t sure how Drew felt about that, but she was pleased with herself. She credited Drew with helping her find her new confidence, but she owed a little to Gerald, too.
"AGAs," she told the senator"s secretary with a wink. "You just have to know how to handle them."
CHAPTER Sixteen.
By the time Chapman, Renke, and Gerald left at 3:00 a.m., Lauren was physically exhausted and emotionally drained.
She didn"t give much thought to the fact that Drew became more quiet and introspective with each rehashing of events. He"d been up a full forty-eight hours by then-no wonder he seemed so pensive.
"You"re going to bed," she ordered.
"Shower first," he corrected. "Then bed." He pulled her against him, thoughtfully touching her cheeks and tracing the shape of her eyebrow. "I hope you"ll take this the right way, Lauren, when I say you"re looking awfully dirty."
She figured it sounded good either way she took it. "You think I need a shower?"
"Desperately." He kissed her.
She hadn"t thought he"d have enough energy left for a session of hot, steamy s.e.x in the shower, and he didn"t. But slow and tender lovemaking, pressed against a cold shower wall, turned out to be just as good. When he pulled her into his bedroom afterward, Lauren was so satiated she fell asleep within moments of curling against his body, a deep dreamless sleep that she woke from to the sound of pounding on the bedroom door.
She squinted at the bright sunlight blasting through the window, then at Drew as he propped himself up beside her with the same disoriented expression.
The door vibrated again under four hard knocks. "Andrew! Wake up!" Gerald"s voice continued in lower tones to someone in the hallway, a half-whispered, urgent conversation. As they listened, it grew more agitated.
"I said I"d get him," Gerald hissed. "Wait downstairs."
Lauren and Drew exchanged confused glances.
The other voice, female and just as agitated, protested his order in words Lauren couldn"t make out.
"Andrew!" Gerald pounded on the door again. "It"s past noon, for Pete"s sake. Open the door."
"Let me." She heard the woman"s suspiciously familiar voice, along with the unmistakable sounds of a scuffle.
Lauren turned alarmed eyes on Drew. "Is it locked?"
"Yes." He ran a hand through his hair and sighed. "But it doesn"t sound like they"re going to go away." Grabbing a wool throw off the chest at the foot of the bed, he wrapped it around his waist and walked to the door.
"Hang on," Drew grumbled. Turning the lock, he cracked the door open. "Gerald. Why aren"t you home sleeping?"
Lauren couldn"t see Gerald, but she heard him clearly. "Because your father called me when no one answered the phone here."
Drew straightened. "He"s back? I never heard the phone."
"Obviously," came the dry response.
"Where"s Lauren?" the woman"s voice demanded.
"Who are-" Drew"s voice cut off, apparently having realized the answer to his question.
Stunned, so did Lauren.
"You must be-" Drew began.
The door banged open as she barged past him into the bedroom.
"Meg!" Lauren held the blanket to her chin and stared at her sister.
Meg stopped dead. "Lauren?" She stared, incredulous.
Lauren gave her a sheepish smile. "I broke up with Jeff."
"Obviously." Meg looked from Lauren to Drew, then back to Lauren. "I"d say we have some catching up to do. I"ll be downstairs." Turning toward the door, she looked Drew over. "You"re Drew, huh? I should have guessed."
Drew smiled pleasantly. "Hi, Mom."
Meg narrowed her eyes at him while Lauren groaned and ducked her face into the blanket. She"d run through several happy scenarios for her reunion with Meg. This hadn"t been one of them.
Wearing only the wool wrap at his waist and a smirk, Drew held the door as Meg turned to leave. He"d nearly closed it behind her when she turned around.
Braced for a caustic comment, Lauren was relieved when Meg gave her a wry smile. "Thanks for coming, Rennie." She winked. "Nice haircut."
Lauren and Meg lay in lounge chairs on Senator Creighton"s secluded back yard patio, talking and soaking up the last rays of a beautiful spring day.
Drew frowned at them from the kitchen window.
"How long you going to stare out that window? You look like a peeping tom," Harlan said, stirring the large pot of chili on the stove. "Why don"t you slice some of that bread to go with the chili, and leave the girls alone."
Drew grudgingly left the window but figured he was too preoccupied to be trusted with a knife. Slouching against the refrigerator, he brooded as he watched his dad add chili powder to the bubbling pot.
"Nice girl," Harlan said.
"Who?" He looked at his father"s patient expression. "Oh, Lauren? Yeah, she is."
"She seems to like you, too."
"Hmm." His father hadn"t been in the house when he and Lauren had gone downstairs, and Drew saw no reason to tell him about their sleeping arrangements. "She hated me at first. Thought I was a shiftless ski b.u.m. And being your son wasn"t a point in my favor. "
"A discerning girl. It seems like she got over that."
"Gradually." With a few nudges from him. Not that he felt guilty about Lauren dropping her dud of a fiance. That was something she should have done a long time ago.
"Guess you two got pretty well acquainted while I was gone."
Drew rea.s.sessed his dad"s expression. Harlan Creighton didn"t usually take an interest in his son"s personal life. Drew didn"t know why his dad would be fishing for gossip now, but he wasn"t going to offer any. "I suppose."
Harlan stirred the chili in silence, then said thoughtfully, "Gerald said they found Lauren in your bed. I"d call that well acquainted."
Drew shot a threatening look toward the office where Gerald was working. "Aw, h.e.l.l," he muttered. "I didn"t want this to become an issue. Yes, we were sleeping together. So what? Believe me, Lauren and I are a lot better acquainted than some, no, most of the women you"ve been in bed with."
Harlan raised an eyebrow at him, which was enough to make Drew regret his tone. "Sorry," he mumbled.
"Why? You"re right," Harlan said. "But you"re not me, Drew. Grabbing every willing girl was never your style. So I want to know if you did this because, well, because her sister has a bit of a reputation, and G.o.d knows I do, and you thought we"d gotten married..."
Drew shook his head, brow furrowed in confusion. "What are you getting at, Dad?"
"I"m asking if you thought Lauren was an easy score, and maybe you wanted to get back at me by sleeping with Meg"s sister."
Drew stared. "h.e.l.l, no!" He pushed off the refrigerator and paced a tight, frustrated circle, stopping to glare at his dad. "Yes, I thought the idea of you marrying Meg was ridiculous, but using that as an excuse to sleep with her sister would be..." He paused, searching for the right word. "I don"t know what, but it"d be a whole lot worse. And Lauren is not not easy. You have no right to-" easy. You have no right to-"
He broke off at his dad"s upraised hands.
"Hey, whoa. I didn"t imply that she was." The corner of his dad"s lip quirked upward. "Looks like I hit a sensitive spot."
Breathing hard, Drew let his temper subside. "Yeah," he grumbled.
"Look, son, I asked because I have a lot of respect for Meg Sutherland, and after all we went through this past week it feels like Lauren practically is is my sister-in-law." my sister-in-law."
The irony of it struck Drew as absurd, and he startled his dad with a bitter laugh. "Your sister-in-law? h.e.l.l, Dad, if I had my way she"d be your daughter-in-law. I"m just not sure I can talk her into it."
Harlan put the spoon down and turned his back on the chili. "Well, I"ll be d.a.m.ned, Gerald was right."
Drew groaned. Was there anything that man didn"t know?
"So why aren"t you doing anything about it? She can"t agree to marry you if you"re standing in here with me."
Drew c.o.c.ked his head toward the window. "As I recall, you just told me to leave them alone."
"Not if it"s keeping me from my future grandchildren. Get movin", boy, I"m getting older by the minute."
"Huh," Drew gave an amused snort. "I wish Lauren were that easy to convince."
"How do you know she"s not?"
"Because I was stupid enough to point out how regulated and dull her life was, and she bought it. She"s decided to be more like her sister, and not tie herself to one man. Smart move on my part, eh?"
Harlan laughed. "Maybe smarter than you know. Meg"s so sick with love for that Romanian boyfriend of hers I think she"s about to get down on her knees and beg him to marry her."
A smidgen of hope sparked to life inside him. "Yeah?"
Drew took another thoughtful look out the window at Lauren and Meg. Both women sat in the strong spring sunshine, identical haircuts catching golden highlights. Anyone else might have said they looked alike, but Drew saw a big difference. Lauren had a sparkle, an aura around her that kept him entranced. It made her sister look ordinary in comparison.
"I think I"ll go outside for awhile."
Lauren nibbled at the worn corner of her fingernail and considered Meg"s comment. "I don"t know, it sounds risky to come right out and say it."
Meg shrugged. "What have you got to lose?"
Everything. She could lose Drew.
He"d upset her entire life, rearranged her priorities, and now she didn"t know how to go on without him.
But in one more day, she"d find out. She"d go home to Michigan. He"d go home to Colorado. She couldn"t afford a long-distance relationship. They would have to say good-bye.
"Hi."
She hadn"t heard Drew come up behind them. She flashed the goofy smile she always had when she was around Drew. It probably looked as dorky as it felt.