Part 32 (1/2)
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 rehas.h.i.+ng 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.”