Cooper Security 06 - Secret Intentions (11 page)

“I don’t know that Ms. Marsh’s charms will extend to you.”

Jesse’s eyes narrowed. “Meaning?”

“He’s not sure he can get an invitation for you to the drawing room.” Evie looked at Jesse, bracing herself for his reaction.

He did not disappoint. “No way in hell.”

“Do you want access to inside information or not?” Darcy asked.

“I’m her bodyguard. She doesn’t go anywhere without me.”

“I’m a DSS agent. Guarding people is my job.”

“So you get to go to the drawing room with her.”

“Of course,” Darcy answered sensibly. “I’m Henry’s godson.”

“I don’t know you from Adam’s house cat—”

Darcy pulled his cell phone from the inner pocket of his tuxedo jacket and held it out to Jesse. “Call Maddox Heller. He knows me well. Ask him if I can be trusted to protect Ms. Marsh.”

Jesse shook his head. “What am I supposed to be doing while you spirit my date away?”

Evie slanted a look at him. His date?

“There are things to learn among the unwashed, as well,” Darcy said with a sly smile. “I suggest charming the women with your quaint accent. I hear women like a hillbilly drawl.”

Evie closed her hand over Jesse’s arm, feeling his muscles bunch beneath the fabric of his tux. “I won’t stay in the drawing room all night,” she said firmly, shooting a warning look at Darcy. “But if I get the chance, I have to go.”

Jesse’s eyes met hers and softened. “I know. But if you can charm old Henry into including me in the invitation to roam—”

“I can tell him you’re a well-known security mogul,” Darcy suggested, his voice bone-dry.

Evie shot the DSS agent a glare. “What is your problem?”

Darcy’s eyebrows rose.

“Too much testosterone in a confined space.” A hint of a smile touched the corner of Jesse’s lips.

“Two males prowling about the same territory.”

She darted a quick look from one man to the other. Territory? What territory? Were they talking about her?

Well. That would be something new. She was used to Rita being the object of desire, the prize to be won. Evie might as well have been invisible, for all the attention she’d ever attracted.

She’d never had two men vying for her attention before, if that was indeed what was going on. As stressful as it was turning out to be, she couldn’t say she hated it.

The limousine pulled through a pair of iron gates and swept around the drive, under a short, square tunnel and into an interior courtyard where other cars and limousines lined up to decant their occupants.

When their limo reached the entrance, Darcy stepped from the vehicle and reached back inside to help Evie out. Jesse followed closely, his hand settling against the small of her back as they walked with Darcy up the weathered stone steps to the entry. A man with an earpiece met them at the door, speaking briefly with Darcy.

Evie eyed the opulence of the front entry, the pale stone walls and the tall glass-paned doors.

“The main hall is up those stairs,” Darcy told them, nodding toward a sweeping set of stairs leading up to a second-floor landing. He led them upward, smiling broadly at the tall, red-cheeked man who stood on the landing, a stately woman with silver hair and warm green eyes by his side.

“Sir Henry!” Darcy shook the ambassador’s hand. “Eleanor, you look smashing.” He bent and kissed the woman’s cheek. “I’m delighted to introduce my dear friends Evelyn Martin and her employer, Jesse Cooper.” He bent closer to Henry, lowering his voice. “You may have heard of Cooper Security? I believe you met his brother Richard some years ago when you were stationed in Burma.”

Jesse’s fingers flattened against Evie’s back. She glanced up at him and saw him staring at Darcy, his eyes narrowed.

“Rick Cooper? Yes, yes! I remember him quite well. Handsome chap and excellent to have on your side in a tight spot.” Ambassador Henry Steed shook Jesse’s hand with enthusiasm. “I believe he was employed with Jackson Melville at MacLear at the time, was he not?”

“I believe so,” Jesse answered carefully.

“Dreadful what happened to that company.” The ambassador shook his head. “I hope your brother suffered no permanent ill effects from his association with MacLear.”

“He works for me now,” Jesse answered. “I’ll be certain to give him your regards.”

“Do! I would love to hear from him again. You must have him tell you about our adventure in Mandalay.” The ambassador turned to Evie. “And it is a great delight to meet you, Ms. Martin. You look stunning.”

Evie smiled. “Thank you, sir. What a beautiful home!”

“I wish I could claim credit for it, but it was here, as you see it, long before I arrived. Come, meet my wife, Eleanor.”

After Jesse and Evie greeted the ambassador’s wife, Darcy pulled the ambassador aside briefly while Eleanor Steed answered some of Evie’s questions about the architecture. A moment later, Darcy rejoined them, directing them down a long hallway with a harlequin-patterned marble-and-slate floor and into an enormous, ornate ballroom lined with faux Siena marble columns.

Evie had never attended a party at the British Embassy, but she’d been to enough tony Washington parties to be able to walk around the splendid ballroom without gaping at the massive chandeliers, the ornate carved plaster frieze lining the top of the walls or the striking Andy Warhol portrait of Queen Elizabeth hanging over the large mantel.

“I didn’t know what to expect,” she admitted, “but this is very—”

“Excessive?” Jesse drawled.

She cut her eyes at him. “Overwhelming.”

“Well, get over that feeling, and quickly,” Darcy said. “I was able to procure a tour of the house for both of you, and an invitation to visit the drawing room.”

“Both of us?” Jesse looked surprised.

“Yes, both. I assume you know how to behave in good company.”

The look Jesse gave Darcy would have killed a lesser man. Darcy merely answered with a placid smile.

“I hope you didn’t mind my earlier name-dropping. I thought the ambassador’s fortuitous prior connection to your brother, however tenuous, might help bring you into his inner circle more quickly.”

“How did you know about it?” Jesse asked. “I didn’t know my brother and the ambassador had ever met.”

“After you contacted me and dropped Maddox Heller’s name, I did my homework. In case Heller’s time away from the Marines had dulled his normal instincts for trouble.”

Evie slipped her hand into the crook of Jesse’s arm, hoping to steer both men away from trouble before things got any tenser between them. “I don’t see anyone here who’d recognize me,” she said with relief.

Her days of attending parties with her father had ended almost a decade earlier, when she’d been skinny and shy, a gangly teenager still trying to get comfortable in her own skin. She’d eschewed makeup and worn her dark hair in a long braid down her back.

Even if someone she recognized had been here at the party, it was unlikely that person would look at the redhead in the blue chiffon dress and connect her to the awkward child she’d been ten years ago.

“What happens next?” Jesse placed his hand over Evie’s where it lay in the crook of his arm.

Darcy’s dark eyes scanned the ballroom. “I’ll introduce the two of you to some people who will probably be in the drawing room later, after dinner. That way, you won’t be so isolated when you go there.”

“Won’t you be there?” Evie asked.

“I have somewhere else to be,” he said cryptically. “I’ll try to join you there before the party ends.” He nodded toward a group of men standing in the corner of the ballroom near one of the tall mirrors. “Come, let me introduce you to someone.”

Evie and Jesse exchanged glances as they followed Darcy across the room. So the DSS agent had his own reason for being at the party. Maybe the secretary of energy wasn’t the only potential bad guy who’d be at the ambassador’s dinner that evening.

In short order, Darcy introduced them to a half-dozen fellow guests, including a brigadier general in the Air Force who recognized Jesse’s name from the recent news about General Harlowe’s kidnapping and subsequent release. He seemed inclined to ask Jesse questions about the case, but Jesse handled the inquiries with polite nonanswers that the general soon read—correctly—as well-mannered versions of “no comment.”

They also met a talkative guest named Talbot Dreier, a pretty blonde in her mid-thirties whose husband, Robert, worked at the Department of Energy. “He’s pretty low down the totem pole,” she told Evie with a smile, edging away from the men, who had entered a discussion of college football.

Evie followed. “Everyone starts somewhere.”

Talbot took a canapé from one of the white-suited butlers carrying trays of hors d’oeuvres. Evie selected a prosciutto-wrapped date and nibbled at it as she and Talbot went with the flow of partygoers out of the ballroom and across the corridor to the terrace overlooking the gardens.

“Stunning, isn’t it?” Talbot asked, waving her half-eaten canapé at the symmetrical garden spreading out before them. “I wish you could have visited a few months ago when the roses were at their best.”

“So you’ve visited here before?”

“A few times. Robert has become a particular favorite of Secretary Gamble, so when he has a chance to bring someone along to one of these events, Richard is often his choice.”

“You’ve met the secretary yourself, then?”

“Of course. A charming man.”

Evie heard an odd note in Talbot’s otherwise cheerful voice. “He comes across very polished and urbane on television.”

“Polished and urbane. Yes, that fits him well.” Talbot snagged a champagne flute from a passing butler and lifted the glass in a brief salute. “To Secretary Gamble and his saint of a wife.”

Now Evie knew there was more behind Talbot’s words than their surface meanings. Clearly, she didn’t have a completely positive opinion of Morris Gamble.

Evie dug a little deeper. “I didn’t realize the secretary was married, although I shouldn’t be surprised, should I? Behind every powerful man lurks at least one woman who made him what he is.”

“At least one,” Talbot agreed. “Or more than one.”

“Theirs is a second marriage?”

Talbot’s cherry-red lips curved in a wry smile. “Oh, no. Phyllis is his only wife. High school sweethearts.” She took a sip of the champagne. When she spoke again, her voice was as dry as the wine. “Married nearly thirty years now.”

Evie spotted Jesse watching her from the other side of the terrace. Even from that distance, she felt his gaze as surely as if he’d reached out and touched her. Dragging her gaze away from his, she smiled at Talbot, pretending to take her comments at face value. “What a romantic story.”

“I’m not sure
romantic
is the right word.” Talbot emptied her glass of champagne as a butler approached. She set the empty flute on the tray, snagging another. After another long sip of the sparkling wine, she leaned a little closer to Evie. “Men his age feel they still have a lot to prove. Don’t you find that to be so?”

Evie widened her eyes. “He hasn’t tried anything with you, has he?”

Talbot gave a little huff of surprised laughter. “No, no, definitely not me. I’m nowhere near important enough for the secretary to notice.”

“So I suppose he’s not bothering the clerical help, then.” Evie darted another quick glance across the terrace. Jesse had moved out of sight.

She swallowed a sigh.

“Oh, no. Unless you’re already occupying the Oval Office, if you’re serious about furthering your career, you never cheat down. You only cheat up.” Talbot laughed at her own joke, her cheeks flushed from the champagne. “This town makes you cynical quickly.”

Evie saw Talbot’s gaze wander across the terrace to a spot near the door where a handsome man in his late thirties was talking to a well-dressed woman in her mid-forties. “Your husband?” she asked Talbot.

Talbot smiled, but Evie wasn’t sure there was any pleasure behind the expression. “Yes, that’s Robert.”

“The woman he’s talking to looks familiar.”

“That’s Senator Dalloway from West Virginia. She’s probably lobbying him for fewer coal-industry regulations or something.”

“Shouldn’t she be talking to Secretary Gamble instead?”

“Good luck finding him.” Talbot drained her second glass of champagne. “He came without Phyllis tonight, so he won’t be sticking around long.”

“Can’t stand to stay away from her very long?”

Talbot laughed. “More like, it’s his chance to disappear for a few hours without his wife wondering where he is.” She started to trade her empty glass for another full one but held herself in check. She shot Evie an apologetic look. “I’ve been rambling, haven’t I? I should know better than to drink on an empty stomach.” She waved at one of the butlers carrying hors d’oeuvres. He detoured to her side and she selected a couple of tiny puff pastries from his tray, thanking him.

“I’ve enjoyed talking to you,” Evie said, meaning it. And not just because the woman had provided a whole new element to Morris Gamble’s connection to the Espera Group.

Talbot changed the topic to fashion, a subject that left Evie floundering for something intelligent to say. As soon as she could do so politely, she excused herself and went looking for Jesse. The look of relief in his eyes when he spotted her made her insides go liquid and warm.

“Don’t wander off without letting me know,” he said in a raspy growl.

“Sorry. Talbot was in the mood to talk, so I didn’t want to interrupt.” She tucked her hand in the crook of his arm and edged him away from the crowd, looking for someplace relatively quiet. She found an unoccupied corner of the ballroom and drew him with her into its cozy confines.

He looked at her, curious. “You learned something?”

“Maybe.” She lowered her voice. “I think Secretary Gamble is having an affair.”

Chapter Nine

Dinner, followed by a visit to the drawing room, interrupted Evie’s account of her conversation with Talbot Dreier, forcing Jesse to chafe through an hour of polite conversation before he could even think about getting her alone again.

He saw his chance about thirty minutes into their visit to the drawing room, when the ambassador mentioned there would be dancing in the ballroom beginning at nine-thirty. Most of the ambassador’s contemporaries, who made up the bulk of the drawing room crowd, chuckled at the announcement, but a few minutes later, the ambassador himself approached Jesse and Evie, smiling indulgently.