And Able (25 page)

An hour’s worth of research after the party verified all of Claire’s suspicions.

The farmer in question had died of a heart attack even though he’d had no history of heart problems. The land developer had become something of a town father and when his son entered local politics, no one had been surprised.

The son was medium build with gray eyes…he also had aspirations to the governorship, which was motive for a man with little conscience to silence Lester and anyone else who might be able to blow apart the house of cards his father had built. The question was…did the politician have no conscience?

There was still the agency director in D.C. to take into consideration. According to Ethan, whether he had a conscience or not was also questionable.

Hotwire shut down his laptop and closed it. “That’s it, then.”

“This guy is the most solid lead we have,” Wolf said, supporting his dozing wife as she sat sprawled across his lap.

“I want to talk to the feds before we go after him.”

“I’m still not convinced that director had nothing to do with the attacks on Claire,” Nitro said, echoing Hotwire’s thoughts.

“I got a voice mail from Ethan. He said he has Raymond Arthur ready for a meet in D.C.,” Hotwire said.

“When?” Claire asked.

“Tomorrow.”

Her face fell. “I promised your mother and sister I’d go shopping with them. I’ll have to cancel.”

“There’s no reason for you to go. In fact, I’d rather you didn’t.”

“Why not?”

“You’ll be safer here. I don’t want to take you into the lion’s den until I know they aren’t hungry.”

“Smart man,” Nitro approved.

“Why don’t I go shopping with Claire and the others?” Josie asked. “I can keep an eye out for trouble while you all fly up to D.C.”

“Why do Wolf, Lise, and Nitro get to go and I don’t?” Claire asked.

“I told you, I want you safe,” he said at the same time as Wolf growled, “Lise will not be going.”

Lise’s eyes widened and then narrowed in a way that promised retribution for the high-handedness of Wolf’s pronouncement, but she didn’t argue.

Claire frowned. “I’ll miss you.” Then she brightened a little. “But I’ve got to say that though I’ve never actually looked forward to shopping, after this afternoon with Eleanor and Josette getting ready for the party, I really am.”

He pulled her from her chair into his lap. “I’m glad you’re getting along with my sister, sugar.” He liked the thought of her missing him, too.

“Are things going to get mushy around here? Because if they are, I think I’ll take my pregnant wife to bed.”

“
Bed
 
being the operative word,” Nitro said in a deadpan voice, but everyone laughed anyway.

“Are you saying that’s not where you want to take me?” Josie asked with a coquettish smile that threw Hotwire.

He’d crawled beside this woman through the rain forest, mud caked on their clothes, both of them armed to the hilt and feeling mean enough to chew nails. She didn’t look mean now. She looked like a woman who enjoyed taunting the man she’d married.

Hotwire had to stifle a grin he was pretty sure Nitro wouldn’t appreciate. Marriage had changed some things about his friend, but not everything. He could still be a mean son of a bitch when he wanted.

Nitro swung his wife in the air and carted her from the room slung over his shoulder, the only sound coming from the couple her shrieking laughs and promises of reprisal.

Lise tried to argue she was too heavy when Wolf cradled her against his chest and carried her out of the room, too, but he paid her no mind.

Claire looked at Hotwire, her expression warm and intimate. “Are you going to carry me out of here, too?”

“That depends.”

“On what?”

“Where I get to carry you.”

She batted her eyelashes and his dick jumped in his pants. “Bed?”

“You said the magic word.” He stood up in one fluid movement with her tightly held in his arms.

He took her to his bedroom where he proceeded to do what he’d wanted to the first time she’d worn this dress…peel it off her and then spend a long time making love to every inch of her beautiful body.

They left for D.C. with Lise holed up in her and Wolf’s room writing, while Josie kept her promise to accompany the other women shopping.

Hotwire wasn’t surprised that Wolf got his way, not after how neatly he’d convinced his wife to rest the day before. Wolf was not a stupid man, nor did he make the mistake of thinking he’d married a dumb woman. Hotwire had taken note for the future, the thought of having to use similar techniques with Claire a sweet one.

Maybe he should get a pregnancy test kit and ask her to use it. Some were highly accurate within hours of conception. The image of Claire large with his child flashed in his mind, sending arousal rushing through him while a funny feeling twinged in his chest.

Man, that would be sweet.

They flew into an airport outside D.C. and rented a car to drive straight to the park where they were to meet Ethan.

He was waiting for them by the fountain he’d told Hotwire to look for. Three other men were also there. The one in the middle had steel-gray hair and an expression colder than the arctic in his gray eyes.

Raymond Arthur.

The other two men were the agents who had attended Lester’s funeral. Ethan’s ability to get all three there brought him up another notch in Hotwire’s estimation. He had to have some pull in Washington.

“Hotwire.” He put his hand out. “Good to see you again.”

Hotwire shook his hand. “Claire sends her regards.”

Ethan smiled slightly. “I bet you hated passing them on, though.”

“I’m not that bad.”

A scoffing sound came from his right.

Hotwire frowned at Wolf, who looked too innocent to be believed, and then made the initial introductions. Ethan introduced the other agents as well.

Raymond Arthur frowned at Hotwire, his expression filled with impatience. “You have something that belongs to us.”

Hotwire crossed his arms over his chest, and raised his brows in question. “Do I?”

The sense of impatience emanating off the other man grew. “Let’s not play games. You’ve got the kill book and we want it.”

“That’s unfortunate, because you can’t have it.”

Raymond turned to Ethan. “What the hell is this? You said they were prepared to cooperate.”

Ethan shrugged. “Maybe Hotwire’s definition of
 
cooperate
 
is different than yours…or maybe he changed his mind when he came face-to-face with your charming personality.”

“Bullshit.”

Ethan just looked bored.

Raymond turned back to Hotwire. “Tell me what you want in exchange for the kill book.”

“Stop trying to piss me off. I’m not going to give you the kill book under any circumstances. Ethan is a different matter, however, but that has nothing to do with you.”

“Then what in the hell am I doing here?”

“I want some information from you.”

The expression in the director’s eyes was not promising, but Hotwire wasn’t worried. “Claire Sharp has been attacked twice. I want to know if your men are responsible.”

“They’re not. I read their reports and although they searched her house and your hotel room, they never physically accosted her,” Ethan said.

“Not even four days ago at her college after she took a final?” Hotwire pressed.

Ethan ignored the singeing glare he was receiving from the director. “Not unless they left it out of their report.”

Hotwire turned to the two men in question and asked, “Were either of you watching her at the time?”

The younger agent nodded once.

“Did you see who went into the bathroom with her?”

He looked uncomfortable. “No.”

“Why?”

The look he gave his director was met with stony fury. The agent tugged at his collar and swallowed. “I thought she was taking her test. It was supposed to last over an hour. I decided to grab some food. When I got back, she was already gone and neither of you returned to the hotel that night.”

“She finished her test early,” Hotwire said with some pride. She was so damn smart.

“Yes, well. I didn’t know she’d been accosted in the bathroom.”

Hotwire nodded and then looked at the director. “Dismiss your men.”

Raymond did so with a flick of his hand. The two agents left.

Hotwire had been able to determine that neither was currently wearing the exclusive cologne Claire had identified with her first attacker. One thing about expensive cologne…being oil-based, it lingered on a man’s clothes, even when he wasn’t wearing it. There was not even a trace of the unique scent on either of Raymond’s men.

Besides, neither gave the impression of a man who would sweat with fear at the prospect of accosting a woman to gain information from her.

He focused his attention on Raymond. “I want you to leave Claire and Queenie alone.”

The response he got was pithy and foul, but he smiled anyway. “There’s a reason the FBI hires me for certain jobs. You don’t want to mess with me or my own.”

Nitro and Wolf gave Raymond identical looks of icy disdain as they nodded in agreement with Hotwire’s words.

“It’s a crime to threaten a federal officer.”

“So is hiring an assassin to kill someone your agency can’t touch.”

“You work freelance for the government.”

“Not as an assassin and you’d do well to remember that distinction. I have nothing in my past that wouldn’t bear scrutiny. We both know you can’t say the same.”

“Are you going to make the kill book public?” Raymond asked with a damn good poker face.

“Not at this time.”

“What does that mean?”

“It means I want the bastard who attacked Claire nailed. If the kill book is necessary evidence, I’ll use it.”

“There is no point in me staying here any longer, then.”

“Not once I have your word you’ll leave Claire alone.”

“You would trust my word?”

This time Wolf’s snort was loud and derisive.

“No.”

“Then why ask for my promise?”

“Because then there can be no mistake in our understanding. If you screw with me, I’ll come after you with everything I’ve got.”

“You have my word.” Raymond then spun on his heel and walked away.

Hotwire pulled a memory fob out of his pocket and handed it to Ethan.

“What’s this?” the other man asked.

“The database from the kill book along with the results of the cross-reference search we did on it with the people your uncle saw during the last month of his life.”

“Does it tell me the name of the man who attacked Claire?”

“Yes.” Hotwire related the politician’s history and the name of the cologne Claire had smelled on her first attacker. “I want him locked up.”

“I’ll take care of it, but it might be a good idea to keep Claire out of sight for a while longer.”

“I will.”

“With what you’ve got and knowing who the civ involved is, it shouldn’t be too hard to gather enough evidence to neutralize him.”

“That’s what I figured.”

“I’ll call you when the arrest is made.”

Hotwire handed him a card. “This has my contact information in Montana.”

“Is that where you’ll be?”

“Yes.” He was going to take Claire to his home and convince her to marry him come hell or high water.

They were in the car on the way back to the airport when Nitro said, “So, what’s the holdup with you and Claire getting hitched?”

“She hasn’t said yes.”

“Why not?”

“She says it’s because I want to marry her for the wrong reasons.”

“And what would they be?” Wolf asked.

Hotwire would never admit this to anyone else, but he trusted Wolf and Nitro with his life. “I forgot the condom the first time we made love.”

“She’s not on the pill?”

“No. Her last lover was in high school.”

“You’re kidding.” Wolf whistled. “She’s twenty-eight, right?”

“Yeah.”

“That makes it what…
ten years?”

“She didn’t think much of sex and she was too busy taking care of her mom to have a social life, then too busy trying to fit four years’ worth of school into three.”

“I guess.”

“So, the fact that you forgot the condom and are her first lover in a really long time made you feel like you had to propose marriage?” Nitro asked, having made no comment at all on Claire’s dearth of sexual escapades.

“I want to marry her.”

“Does she know that?”

“Of course she does. I asked her.”

“But she thinks you want to marry her because you forgot the condom and she might be pregnant, right?”

He thought over the last few days. “I think she knows I want her regardless.”

“Have you told her you love her?” Wolf asked.