“You tell me.” He sounded impatient.
What’s new?He always sounds impatient.
Taking a deep breath, she reminded herself he had a very important job. And chances were good he was calling in the capacity of that job and not in the capacity of his role as her father.
“What do you mean?” She frowned unseeingly at her door, trepidation making her heart kick up a notch.
“A report just came across my desk. Apparently, that D.O.D. computer hacker— What was her name?” Over the airwaves, Eliza could hear papers shuffling. “Oh, yes. Here it is. Hannah Blue. Anyway, I just received a report she was caught leaking sensitive information to a rogue group of online vigilantes who are holding a major U.S. pipeline hostage. The FBI apprehended her there in Chicago earlier this evening, but she managed to escape custody and rode away on the back of a souped-up motorcycle after an all-out Wild West shootout.”
Her heart went from a fast trot to a full gallop. With their plan hinging on them getting to the Lone Star State incognito, and then pulling off the mother of all cons by posing as feds, shecouldn’tbring her father into the know now.
He was the president’s right-hand man, after all. He took the job of protecting Madam Presidentveryseriously. And the verylastthing the president would want was her personal fast-action response team getting embroiled in a situation involving a suspected criminal conspirator.
With that certainty burning in her brain, she went against her honest nature and chose willful ambiguity. “Was anyone hurt?”
“One of the agents took a round to the foot. But it was only a graze. He’ll be fine,” her father reported. And then, in typical Leonard Meadows fashion, pressed forward before she could form a response. “Isn’t Hannah Blue the same woman the Knights brought in to help bring down that Russian misinformation ring last year? Wasn’t she the one on the phone that night when you called and begged me to set up a sit-down with the head of the FBI?”
“She was.”
“So am I to assume it was Black Knights Inc. who helped her flee from the authorities tonight?”
“You know assuming things rarely works out well for anyone, Dad,” she said evasively.
A deep, resounding quiet echoed from the other end of the call. It highlighted how loudly her blood pounded between her ears.
Her father was a wily sonofagun. One didn’t make it as far as he had in political life without being whip-smart, uncannily shrewd, and in possession of the rare ability to sniff out a lie.
She nearly jumped out of her skin when he finally spoke. “Are you saying itwasn’tBKI who absconded with Miss Blue?”
Instead of answering the question, she posed one of her own. “If we had an FBI fugitive in our midst, don’t you think I’d have called you to report on the situation?”
“I wouldhopeso, young lady.” His voice boomed through the phone. The little girl in her, the one who’d always been a little afraid of him, wanted to curl into a ball on the floor. “But I didn’t get the details on Agent Grace Beacham’s situation until you all had secreted her away somewhere safe.”
“I called you as soon as we got a handle on things,” she insisted and wanted to addwhich is the same thing I’m doing now. Instead, she slyly changed the subject. “And it’s Agent Jackson now. Remember? I told you she and Major Jackson got married.”
Once again, silence reigned from the other side of the call. And once again, she was left to listen to the rhythmicwoosh-woosh-wooshof her own blood rushing through her veins.
She was about to lose her mindandher bravado, just blurt out the truth and ease her guilty conscience, when her father finally spoke up. “So I’m supposed to believe it’s coincidence this Blue woman made her escape on the back of a motorcycle and all the men working at BKIridemotorcycles?”
“How about this, Dad. I’ll have Ozzie look into these charges you’ve leveled against her. He might be able to find something the feds overlooked. If he does, you’ll be the first person I call.”
She was a master of conversational roundabouts. She’d learned from the best.
“Don’t bother.” The two words were staccato. “Let the FBI do their jobs. I don’t want the Knights sticking their noses into this and bringing attention to themselves if there’s no need for it.”
“Okay.” She waited a tick before asking, “Is there anything else?”
When he paused again, she worried he’d continue to poke and prod. But all he said was, “That’s it for now. Get some sleep, Eliza. You sound tired.”
Before she could sign off, the line went dead.
“Love you too, Dad,” she whispered despite the disconnected call. “Hope you’re doing well. Good night.”
Sighing heavily, she told herself it was past time she let go of her girlhood fantasy that someday, in some way, she and her father could have arealrelationship. You know, instead of the pseudo-business association they shared now.
It’s a pipedream, Eliza. For a man like him, everyone is just a chess piece to be moved around the board.Includinghis own daughter.
She went to push open her door just as Fisher poked his head from the next room.
