Our Little Secret Part 17

His hands roamed down her back to her soft bottom, pressing every part of her to him. Her body squirmed against his, rubbing purposefully across his erection. Drew groaned and backed her against the wall. They hit with an awkward thump, but their kisses never missed a beat. He leaned against her, pressing into every curve. If they got any closer he'd be inside her, which was exactly where he wanted to be.

One hand rose to find her breast and she arched into it, whimpering when his thumb pa.s.sed over the hard nub of her nipple. He sucked on her lower lip, kissed her firmly once more, then moved his mouth away from hers just long enough to utter a succinct, "Upstairs." No other words seemed necessary.

"Mmm," she replied against his lips, licking and nibbling and driving him insane. "That sounds like a good idea."

He dragged her into one last deep kiss, then whispered harshly, "Let's go," just as the doorbell chimed over their heads. He jumped like it had been a gunshot.

"What the h.e.l.l?"

Lauren's foggy expression cleared. "Pizza delivery."

"Let's ignore him."

She grabbed his arm. "Wait, I want food. Besides," her eyelids lowered seductively, "you're about to work up a very big appet.i.te. I promise. Take ten seconds to pay the man and I'll demonstrate."

He growled with a different sort of hunger.

"d.a.m.n." He reached for the wallet in his back pocket, shifting uncomfortably as he pulled against the snug fit in the front of his jeans. He pulled out bills while she opened the door. A crack of sunlight and cool air entered, then disappeared in a whoosh as she slammed the door shut. Panic widened Lauren's eyes as she stood with her back to the door.

"What's wrong?"

"It's Trenchcoat," she whispered, as if the man could hear her through the heavy door.

"Who?"

"The guy in the Burberry trench coat who hangs out with Hawknose, the guy with the gun."

Drew froze. "The man who tried to kidnap you is standing at our front door?"

"He's delivering our pizza," she squeaked. "He's wearing the pizza place's jacket and he's holding my extra large with mushrooms and green peppers, but I know it's Trenchcoat. I recognize him."

"s.h.i.t." He stuffed the wallet back in his pocket, his arousal already flagging. The doorbell rang again as he gave hurried directions. "Step back as you open the door, so he has to come inside. And talk to him so he keeps looking at you." He positioned himself to be behind the arc of the opening door, waiting tensely. "Go."

Lauren's face was still flushed and her hair slightly tousled. Drew hoped Trenchcoat found the sight as incredibly distracting as he did. If the man kept his eyes on Lauren, Drew felt confident of his ability to take him down.

She didn't question him, just turned to do what he asked. The door opened, forcing Drew backward. Following directions, Lauren stepped away, saying "Come on in," with such a slight quiver in her voice that he was sure the other man never detected it. Past the edge of the open door, Drew watched a red-jacketed man step into the foyer, a large pizza box in his hands. Trenchcoat.

Drew moved forward silently, stopping behind him. Reaching out, he tapped the man on the shoulder. Trenchcoat gave a startled jump and turned his head. Ready for the move, Drew aimed his fist at the man's jaw and threw his hardest punch.

Trenchcoat grunted and crashed against the open door. The pizza box dropped. Lauren darted forward, caught the box, and stepped back again as the man teetered like a drunk and fell to his knees. Raising a confused face, Trenchcoat tried to focus on the person before him. "Mrs. Creighton?" he asked, blinking dizzily. Drew caught him with a second punch, snapping the man's head sideways. His body followed, crumpling to the slate floor.

"Wow," Lauren said.

Drew grimaced and shook the pain from his hand. "Please tell me you're still sure that's the same man."

She bent over the unconscious figure. "That's him."

"Good." He noticed the pizza box in her hands and smiled. "Nice save."

She smiled back, losing some of her tension. Stepping over the man on the floor, he put his hands on her shoulders. He couldn't get closer while she held the pizza box between them. "Hey, I'm sorry I made you put yourself in front of him like that, even for a few seconds. I didn't think about how scary that might be for you."

She shrugged. "It was, a little, but I'm okay."

He smiled. "That's all I care about. Let's find out who this jerk is." Bending over the still form, Drew unzipped the red jacket and felt around. He found what he was looking for in the man's shirt pocket. Standing, he flipped open the thin leather ID holder.

And froze. "Oh, s.h.i.t."

"No kidding," Lauren said, peeking inside the pizza box. "They gave us olives instead of green peppers."

"Not that, sweetheart." He held the open ID for her inspection. "This."

Her face paled. "Oh, s.h.i.t," she agreed. She met his eyes. "Secret Service?"

Drew ran his hand through his hair. "We've captured a Secret Service agent. Swell."

Lauren didn't trust the man, even in his unconscious state. She stood several feet away, clutching the pizza box. "Maybe we should tie him up."

Drew was one step ahead of her. He had already yanked off his belt and was using it to fasten the man's hands behind his back.

"How can he be Secret Service?" she asked. "That man and his partner tried to kidnap me. At gunpoint! I thought Secret Service were the good guys."

"It's probably a fake ID," he said, cinching the belt around the man's wrists.

"That FBI agent told us the guys who tried to kidnap us were probably part of the bribery scam. He didn't say they might be Secret Service agents."

"That's what I'm saying, it's probably a fake ID. Or else that twerp didn't know what he was talking about, which wouldn't surprise me either."

Drew rolled the guy over, reached inside his jacket and came out with a gun. Lauren bit back a gasp, but Drew handled the gun confidently, looking it over before tucking it into the back of his waistband.

He folded his arms and surveyed the trussed agent. "Whoever he is, let's hope he's not the real thing. I could probably get several years in prison for knocking out an agent and a few more just for tying him up."

"No you won't, you were just protecting me." Drew hauled the moaning Secret Service agent to a sitting position and slapped his face. "Come on, fella, you're messing with my love life. Wake up."

His groggy eyes gradually opened. The man squinted first at Drew, then Lauren. Jerking his arms and finding himself bound, he aimed a nasty look at Drew, who gazed back, unmoved. With only the pizza box between her and her attempted kidnapper, Lauren moved closer to Drew and felt his arm come around her waist. That was much safer.

Gingerly, the man licked a drop of blood off his puffy lower lip and raised his eyes to Lauren. "Mrs. Creighton, I give up," he said in a weary voice. "I'm tired of chasing you. Would you please just tell me why you don't want me to protect you?"

Lauren's mouth dropped open. "Protect me? You tried to abduct me! And I'm not Mrs. Creighton."

"I did not-" He paused with a frown, appearing to doubt what he'd heard. "What do you mean, you're not Mrs. Creighton?"

"Mrs. Creighton is my sister, Megan. My name is Lauren." She didn't see any harm in telling him. At least he might stop trying to kidnap her.

The man's voice sounded confused. "Sister? I was told to pick up the Senator and Mrs. Creighton and take them to a safe house. I wasn't told about a sister."

"Who didn't tell you?" Drew cut in. "Who are you working for?"

"Secret Service. The name's Agent Chapman."

"Yes, Dwayne Chapman." Drew flashed the ID he still held. "I see that. But can I believe it?"

"Why wouldn't you believe it? Oh, yeah, because you get your kicks out of attacking agents and smashing them to the ground. Thanks a lot for that." He took a few moments to get his sneer under control. "Listen, I don't know what's going on with you people, but if you don't untie me and let me call my partner, you're going to have a whole team of agents storming this house in five minutes." He tested the belt confining his arms again and must have noticed the missing bulk behind him. He shot Drew a hard look. "And give me my gun."

"No," Drew replied. "First you make the call. Then I make a call, and if I'm satisfied you're who you say you are, you get the gun."

Their staredown lasted several seconds. "G.o.dd.a.m.n it," Chapman finally grumbled. "Okay. But hurry up."

When Drew released his hands, Agent Chapman called someone Lauren presumed to be Hawknose, explaining in clipped words that he was talking to the subjects and would be out in fifteen minutes. He disconnected and wordlessly handed over the cell phone. While Drew called a number he got from Gerald's desk, Chapman tested the movement in his jaw, wincing with each motion. Lauren hoped he didn't expect an apology. The man had scared her to death, and Drew had obviously reached his limit of tolerance with Secret Service agents.

When Drew's call ended, he flipped his phone shut and told her, "The agency confirmed his ident.i.ty. He's authentic."

She didn't know whether to be relieved or not. That meant they had a legitimately p.i.s.sed off agent on their hands.

"d.a.m.n right I'm authentic," Chapman said. He stuck his hand out, fixing Drew with a cold stare until his gun and ID folder were handed back. He tucked them away and looked only partially mollified as he said, "So now do you want to explain what the f.u.c.k's going on here?"

"I think all of us have some questions," Drew told him, folding his arms. "How do you feel about mushrooms and olives?"

He'd declined the pizza, but it was well past lunch time and Lauren quickly put away two pieces while Agent Chapman complained about his sore jaw.

"d.a.m.n, you hit me hard. I think I have a loose tooth."

"Sorry," Drew said, not looking sorry. "If I'd known Secret Service agents were dressing in Gino's Pizza jackets these days, I would have restrained myself."

"I needed a cover. When you ordered the pizza, it gave us an opportunity to get in the house without drawing attention."

Lauren lowered her third slice of pizza. "You heard me order pizza?" Her voice rose with outrage. "You tapped our phones?"

He seemed surprised that she asked. "Of course we did. We couldn't get bugs planted, and we had to know if you were being threatened by someone."

Having her phone conversations overheard could be embarra.s.sing. Thinking back, she decided it was more embarra.s.sing for Jeff than her; someone must have had a good time listening to his stilted attempt at phone s.e.x. That one could become a department cla.s.sic.

Drew, on the other hand, couldn't seem to have a conversation with her without throwing in a s.e.xual innuendo. Her gaze skimmed his shoulders and legs, and she remembered stroking a hand down to clutch that tight, muscular b.u.t.t. h.e.l.l, his whole body was s.e.xually suggestive. Taking a thoughtful bite, she considered some of the possible results of exploring those suggestions.

"Lauren? Are you listening?"

"Hmm?" She focused on Drew's concerned face. "Yeah, he tapped the phones."

"Because Dad and Meg volunteered to help them catch whoever has been blackmailing senators."

"They did?" She frowned at Agent Chapman. "Is that what this is about? Where's my sister? Is she okay?"

He shrugged. "I don't know. Until a couple minutes ago, I thought you were Meg."

A tiny flutter of panic tightened Lauren's chest. "What do you mean, you don't know? I thought you were Secret Service. I thought you were experts at protecting people."

She'd obviously hit a nerve. Before Chapman could snap out a defensive reply, Drew diverted his attention.

"Why did you let them help you? My dad and Meg are civilians, and catching blackmailers sounds dangerous."

The agent relaxed slightly at hearing a question he could deal with. "We didn't have much choice. They're targeting senators, and we couldn't exactly put someone undercover, pretending to be a senator. We were lucky Senator Creighton was willing to do it. These guys are using s.e.xual indiscretions as blackmail, and he's impervious. The senator is, um"-he glanced hesitantly at Drew-"he's known to date around."

"You mean he's a womanizer," Drew said in a flat voice.

"Well, yeah. You can't blackmail someone who looks at a picture of himself in bed with a woman and asks for enlargements." At Drew's cool look, Chapman cleared his throat and continued. "Senator Creighton came to us when another senator, a friend of his, received some revealing pictures, along with instructions on how to vote on an upcoming bill. That senator wasn't willing to risk an otherwise solid marriage to catch whoever did it. Senator Creighton wouldn't tell us who the first victim was, but he and his secretary volunteered to make themselves potential targets to help us catch these guys."

The pieces fell together. "You mean they pretended to get married so someone could attempt to blackmail Senator Creighton when he continued to see his current girlfriend," Lauren said.

"Exactly."

"Then they aren't really married!" she exclaimed.

"Not exactly. Sort of." Seeing Lauren's impatient look, he explained, "There wasn't a ceremony, but we filed a real certificate with the state of Maryland. If the press tracked it down, it had to look real. So officially, Maryland says they're married."

"Get to what happened," Drew said. "Someone took pictures of my dad and tried to blackmail him?"

Chapman shifted in his seat, looked away, then back at Drew. "We don't know. He received something, an envelope, we think, but that's when they both panicked and ran. We never saw what it was."

Lauren thought of the pictures in the safe deposit box, and her alarmed gaze flew to Drew. He shook his head, warning her to be silent. "Why? Where did they go?"

"I wish to h.e.l.l I knew. We think they must have received a threat to their lives. My partner and I were watching the house so we could take them into protective custody as soon as they received the bribe. But apparently the bribe went to the senator's office in the regular mail delivery and they didn't tell us. Tuesday morning Meg left for work and never came back. Senator Creighton checked in to say she'd made an overnight trip for him, but then he disappeared the next morning so he must have been covering for her until she got away. That's when you arrived, Miss Sutherland, and we thought you were Meg. We tried to get you away from this guy," he nodded at Drew, "when he seemed to be forcing you to go places with him. The bank, the senator's office. We thought he was holding Senator Creighton somewhere until he got what he wanted from you."

"Well, he isn't." He didn't have to. When she risked a glance at him, the amused lift of his eyebrow made her falter. G.o.d, she loved when he did that. It also distracted the h.e.l.l out of her. She fastened her gaze on Agent Chapman. "What's the problem? Everyone knows where they ran to. They're somewhere in the Virgin Islands. Doesn't the government have ways of tracking them down?"

"Yes, we do," Chapman snapped, obviously resentful at having to explain his whole case. "That's how we know they aren't there. They were at the airport, and they obviously wanted us, or someone else, to think they left, but they never boarded a flight. They disappeared, and we don't know why."

She put down her half-eaten slice of pizza. "You lost them? Do you mean to say you have absolutely no idea where they are?"

He didn't seem to care for her wording. "Ma'am, people generally want our protection. We aren't used to people running from us, and we can't protect them if they don't cooperate. Senator Creighton and his secretary didn't do what they were told."

That was his excuse for allowing an endangered United States senator and his wife to disappear? She stared, unable to speak. Drew knuckled a spot on his forehead, as if talking with Chapman was giving him a headache. "Do you know anything about the money that was deposited into my dad's account last Friday?" he asked.

"Yeah, I do. That was another attempt to pressure the Senator into doing what they want, and you two made it simple, showing up at that party. All they had to do was pay some idiot to pose for a picture with you, then make sure the D.C. police pick him up on trumped up charges. Bingo, Bingo, Senate bribes are headline news, and you guys provide the perfect proof that Senator Creighton is involved. Nice going." Senate bribes are headline news, and you guys provide the perfect proof that Senator Creighton is involved. Nice going."

Drew became still-too still. Lauren noticed the tiny muscles clench in his jaw. Remembering the surprising effectiveness of his first attack on Chapman, she hurriedly said, "We're sorry about that. We never would have done it if we'd known what was going on. You could have informed us, you know."

Drew's hard gaze never left Chapman as the agent slid a sour look her way. "We didn't know who you were."

"You do now. Did you find out which bank employee deposited the money into the senator's account?"

Chapman shot her a close look. "What makes you think it was a bank employee?"

She shrugged. "It's the logical way to do it. Anyone else making a deposit would be on camera. An employee could access the account anytime, and move money from one account to another. But you'd be able to tell who it was from their access code on the computer terminal. So have you found the person who did it?"

"How do you you know all that?" know all that?"

"It's basic banking procedures. Doesn't everyone know it?"

Drew's look threatened violence. "Don't go there, Chapman. Lauren's on your side."