Seduction in Session (2 page)

“I’m afraid when we received your report, someone tossed it aside in the ‘kook’ pile. After we pulled it out and dissected it, your conclusions were so spot-on that a faction within my group assumed you were involved in the attack, even though we’d already prosecuted four of the perpetrators and were pursuing two others. They wanted to question you, but I got one of my tingles.”

“Sounds like you need a shot of penicillin, buddy.” Connor didn’t like the feeling he was getting. Why would the CIA come out here? Why not give him a call? Why wait over a year to question him?

The man chuckled again. “I’m talking about instincts not STDs, but I enjoy your sarcasm. The Navy won’t. I’ve been studying you and I’ve decided you have exactly what it takes to be an operative.”

“So you’re not here to accuse me of working with terrorist groups? Because I’m not. I follow them. I believe they’re beginning to get sophisticated. There’s this new thing. The Internet. I know DARPA has had it for years.”

“Yes, you know that because you managed to hack into the system. You’re the reason they’re developing security to protect themselves. By next year, the Internet will be fully commercialized, and we need a new wave of operatives. You understand that communications is changing. The way we listen is changing, and analysis just got interesting. So you can join up and do the Navy thing for a couple of years, or you can let me pay your way to Yale. You’ll get a degree in communications with a minor in world politics.”

“Ivory-tower professors know nothing about real world politics,” Connor said with a huff, but his brain was working overtime.

“No, they do not, son. But a degree from such an esteemed establishment looks good on paper and will help you rise through the ranks.” He smiled. “You’re going to be a spectacular find. What do you say? While you’re getting the degree I mentioned, you’ll also begin a physical training program that will teach you everything you need to know to survive in the field. In exchange, you’ll receive tuition and books, along with room and board. If you live up to your end of the bargain and join the Agency, you’ll receive some information your mother has withheld that might lead to a turn in your financial fortunes.”

“What are you talking about?”

“Secrets, son. Information is power. Power can be turned into money. If you say yes, I can promise you you’ll never worry about money again. And it will be so much fun helping you get your hands on it. You’ll find I never do merely one job when I can do two.”

The door opened, and Roman strode out wearing his swimsuit and a dress shirt he hadn’t bothered to button up. He had a girl on either arm and a bottle of tequila dangling from his left hand. “You seen Scooter? I have to make sure he doesn’t spend the entire night studying. We just graduated, damn it. Why does he have to go to freaking summer school?” He straightened up when he saw the man standing there. “Hello, sir. I was just taking this bottle out of the house so none of our underage guests can find it and drink it.”

“Sure you are, Calder. Just make sure no one takes pictures, and don’t talk where someone can record it. And make damn sure Zack Hayes doesn’t inhale.” He turned back to Connor. “Are you in?”

He didn’t get time to decide? What was he thinking? He didn’t need time to decide. He loved Dax, but fuck the Navy. He could be a CIA agent. He could have everything he wanted. “I’m in.”

“I’ll contact you.” The mysterious man in the suit started to walk off, then turned, shaking his head. “And don’t ever tell the story of how you boys came to call Hayes Scooter. It could really hurt the kid’s chances when the presidential elections roll around. By the way, a patrol car was
on its way out here to investigate the party, but I think you’ll find the locals will leave you alone for the summer. Consider it my graduation present to you, Connor.”

The agent walked back into the shadows as though he belonged there. Connor realized that he’d never gotten the man’s name.

“Who the hell was that?” Roman asked. “That dude was creepy.”

“I’m pretty sure he was my version of a fairy godmother.”

Roman shook his head. “You’re in a fucked-up fairy tale, brother.” He grinned. “But we’re going to Yale. We’re going to take over the world, aren’t we?”

For the first time since he’d gotten his financial aid offer, Connor smiled. “Yes, we are.”

He followed Roman down to the beach and joined the party.

Washington, D.C.

Twenty-one years later

I
don’t really need a bodyguard.” Lara Armstrong took a sip of her chai tea and sat back, staring out the coffeehouse window. Everywhere she looked, people bustled by, their briefcases in hand, cell phones pressed to their ears. They were lawyers and politicians, along with their aides, and anyone else who thought they were important on the political spectrum. Soon, one of the people moving along this street would be a man sworn to throwing himself in front of a bullet for her.

Connor. No last name. Or maybe that was his last name and he hadn’t given her his first name. She wasn’t sure. She only knew that enigmatic Connor had commanded she meet him here at three thirty. Did he realize how bad traffic was going to get?

“Look, someone knows what you’ve been doing, L, and that means you need a bodyguard.” Her best friend, Kiki, traded a look with the only male at the table.

Tom sat forward, his hands around his nonfat latte as though he needed the warmth. “I don’t know. I kind of agree with Lara.”

Kiki rolled her dark eyes. “You always agree with Lara. You even agreed with her when she broke off your engagement. You’re a doormat.”

“I’m helpful and practical.” He frowned. “Look, she’s only received a couple of e-mails, and it wasn’t as if the sender attached a bomb or anything. The contents simply stated that they ‘know.’ Know what? That could mean anything.”

Lara sighed and lowered her voice. Only a couple of people in the world knew what she did for a living and she meant to keep it that way. “He knows I run CS.”

Capitol Scandals, D.C.’s most fun and informative news site. Oh, most people called it a horrid tabloid rag that aimed to ruin the lives and reputations of politicians and bigwigs, but Lara liked her description better. And she never ran a piece about any deserving public servant that she couldn’t verify. Well, at least not any serious piece. She didn’t personally know the size of the current president’s penis, though several confidential informants had used the words
extra-extra-large
.

“Shit.” Tom’s thin lips flattened further, and she knew she was in for a lecture. Unlike Kiki, who often wrote articles for CS, Tom thought the site was a horrible idea. “I told you something bad would come of this. You can’t expose the powerful people you do and expect to get away with it. I thought someone had finally realized you spearheaded the effort to remove vending machines from public schools or something.”

“Those vending machines never sell anything but processed foods. Kids should have healthier options in school,” she began.

Tom shook his head and every strand of his light brown hair stayed perfectly in place. “People don’t like it when you take away their sodas, L. They get crabby. Still, I was fairly certain no one would actually kill you over that. But running a tabloid that ruins high-powered careers? That might be a little different.”

Kiki nodded. “Exactly. Have you told your father?”

Lara winced. Her father knew about Capitol Scandals. He’d been very supportive when it had been a little site that reported on things like environmental bills and ran essays on the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act. When she changed the contents to the current iteration, she knew she’d tested him. He’d called screaming when she ran a not-so-glowing story about one of his closest allies on the congressional floor. She’d detailed just how much money the congressman had spent on hookers outside his district while those actually working in his district had lamented about a drastic downturn in income.

She’d been perfectly right to publish the story since the congressman had been running on a platform to bring new jobs and opportunities to his constituency. All the while, he’d been making deals with businessmen to send jobs offshore to Korea. So it really was a true-life metaphor for all that was wrong in politics.

Shortly after she’d published the story, the late-night TV talk show circuit had picked it up. While the comedians and hosts had laughed about the hookers, their viewers had also heard the very true news about backdoor deals, too. Lara had learned early on that she needed to catch the public’s attention if she wanted to do any good in the world. And she wouldn’t do that with a protest or a well-crafted op-ed piece.

“I’m not telling my dad about this. He already blackmails me. If he found out that someone else knows and is sending me semi-threatening e-mails, he would likely strong-arm me into moving in with him or something. It would be awful.”

It wasn’t as if she didn’t love her father. Her parents were amazing people. She couldn’t think of another man in the world who would support her the way her dad did. He’d been angry when he’d learned about CS, but he hadn’t outed her. And given that he was a senator from the great state of Virginia, he probably should have. Instead, he’d forced her to accept a condo in a swanky part of town. She could never have afforded her Dupont Circle pad on her own. She’d
wanted a little loft in a more real part of town, but her parents had been insistent.

Luckily, she’d never had to decide whether or not to run a story about her father. He was madly in love with her mom and he played things straight. She’d never gotten a tip about him taking bribes or selling out his constituents. When she’d started Capitol Scandals, she realized a surprising majority of politicians thought they were acting in the public’s best interests. It was just that rancid 10 percent who really screwed things up for everyone else.

She’d created Capitol Scandals to call them out.

“Maybe you should stay with your folks temporarily. Your dad has a serious security system.” Kiki set down her mocha. “Not just a doorman named Moe who sleeps on the job.”

“Moe has a serious case of narcolepsy. You shouldn’t judge.” She shook her head. “Besides, I can’t risk working at Dad’s place for two reasons: One, I don’t know who’s watching him. I’ve long thought the CIA, the NSA, or DARPA listens in on all elected officials.”

Tom coughed but the noise sounded suspiciously like he’d called her paranoid.

She ignored him because she knew paranoia could be a lifesaver. “And two, if anyone ever learns my secret and outs me, I want my parents to have plausible deniability.”

“I don’t think they’d care. They would stand by you,” Kiki said.

Bringing trouble down on them was Lara’s only real fear. Well, that and global climate change. She fought for what she believed in, but she loved her parents, too. She didn’t want to cause her dad issues.

“I have a plan,” Tom said, getting serious again. “Hear me out. You close down the site for a while and come stay with me. I have a second bedroom. I can watch out for you. I am a Krav Maga god. We’ll hang, and the heat will die down. Then you can go back to fighting the good fight.”

She loved Tom, but she wasn’t going there again. There was a reason
she’d broken off their engagement. There was also the fact that Niall thought she needed someone to watch out for her.

Niall Smith. Her heart gave a little shiver as she thought about him. Since he ran a small site that called for transparency in California politics, he’d come to her as a confidential informant. Nothing he’d sent her had actually panned out, but that wasn’t so surprising. Ninety percent of her leads were dead ends. But Niall had come to mean more to her than just a source. Over the course of a few months, she’d come to view him as something of a soul mate.

“No,” she said with a sigh. “I need to meet this bodyguard. I’ll talk to him and see what he thinks. He’s supposed to be a professional. He can give me advice.”

“He can give you protection,” Kiki argued. She was dressed in her normal Bohemian garb, a peasant blouse and a flowy skirt. She somehow managed to make it sexy. “You have to take this seriously. Whoever sent you that threat knew your personal e-mail.”

“But there wasn’t anything specific about the threat,” Tom argued, then turned to Kiki. “In fact, I’m not even sure it was a threat. Maybe we’re freaking out about nothing. What are the real odds that someone’s put all the pieces of the puzzle together? There are rumors everywhere about who runs CS, and not one of them mentions you, Lara.”

She wasn’t sure that was true. What might someone else know about her? She was Senator Armstrong’s vegan hippie daughter, whom everyone in the Republican party knew not to put on camera because she would use the opportunity to talk about policy as she saw it.

There really wasn’t anything else about her that would be considered even slightly gossip-worthy. Good grades in the right schools. A degree in political science that would probably lead to law school when she found the time. She’d broken her engagement an acceptable amount of time before the wedding. She hadn’t even dated in the two years since she and Tom had broken up. Capitol Scandals was the sum
of her “nefarious” existence. She’d put everything she had into it, and she was finally scenting something big.

Could this new threat have anything to do with the anonymous stranger who claimed to know what really happened to Maddox Crawford? He’d hinted that if she figured out the truth, the trail would lead to something much bigger.

She merely needed to find a woman named Natalia Kuilikov. Just find one Russian immigrant, and the yellow brick road would open up and take her straight to Oz.

Lara found it interesting that her first big case and her first potential death threat had come so close together.

“I don’t know that there’s no threat, but simply figuring out who I am doesn’t mean someone intends to kill me. I might have overstated that,” she admitted.

“To your Internet guy?” Kiki wasn’t Niall’s biggest fan. She might have suggested on more than one occasion that he was likely a middle-aged creep looking for an online hookup. “He’s the one you told, even before you told me. Before you told Tom. I hate to say it, but you seem to have some stake in the guy and that’s why you’re listening to him.”

“Maybe you should listen to the people who have been with you for years. What do we know about this Niall guy? Next to nothing. You can’t just let this random dude start to dictate your life.” Tom hopped off his barstool and straightened his V-neck tee. “I’ve got to run. We have oral arguments on the McNally case tomorrow. Lara, call me if you need me. You know I’m always here for you.” He walked away.

Tom clerked for an appellate judge, so he was always talking about oral arguments and drafting opinions. She had to admit, watching Tom was one of the reasons she hadn’t given in to her parents’ pressure and gone to law school. He was endlessly writing other people’s opinions. She wanted to make up her own mind.

“Holy jeez. My mouth just watered.” Kiki’s eyes went wide as she
stared beyond the door through which Tom had exited moments ago. “I finally understand what that means.”

“What?” Lara turned and caught sight of a man in jeans and a black T-shirt. He stood right outside the coffeehouse, his cell phone pressed against his ear.

His shoulders were so wide they almost spanned the window. He had to be six and a half feet tall, and his T-shirt molded to every muscle and sinew of his lean form.

He turned slightly, his profile coming into view. Lara realized then that
mouthwatering
was really just an elevated term.
Drooling
was more accurate. The man was stunning. His jaw looked perfectly square, though the lines of his face were far too angular to be beautiful. His dark blond hair was cut in an almost military style, accentuating his features. Manly. Handsome. Sexy.

His lips suddenly curled up in the hottest smirk she’d ever seen.

Caveman. Alpha male. And probably straight off some military base. While she could appreciate him on an aesthetic level, Lara preferred her men a little more civilized. “He’s very nice looking, Kiki.”

Kiki groaned. “Nice looking? There is nothing ‘nice’ about him. He’s dirty. He’s bad. And you can’t dare call him a boy because he’s all man.”

Lara adjusted her glasses. “I like Niall more.”

Niall had perfect surfer hair and the sweetest face.

“You’ve never met Niall.”

She shrugged. “But I know Niall’s soul. He’s more my type.”

“And by that you mean a thousand miles away and safely unobtainable.” Kiki slapped the table. “Damn it, it’s time you got laid. How long has it been?”

“Not long.” She put her head down and mumbled. “Two years.”

Kiki gasped. “You haven’t slept with anyone since Tom? Oh my god. I never imagined it was this bad. I thought you just didn’t want to talk about it.”

“I talk to you about everything and you didn’t think I would mention a couple of one-night stands?”

Her stare trailed back to Caveman Hottie. He really was amazing to gawk at. The slightest hint of a beard spread across his jaw. Though he’d probably shaved this morning, his masculinity wouldn’t be tamed or denied.

“It’s a muscle, you know. You have to use it to keep it healthy. I think your vajayjay has atrophied. That’s why you can’t think straight about this death threat stuff.”

“It’s not a muscle,” Lara argued. But it probably had atrophied . . . and maybe grown a few cobwebs because she hadn’t even played around down there herself in the longest time. She hadn’t had time. Even in her head she sounded prim, like she was already hoarding cats and newspapers in preparation for old maid–dom.