The Senator's Daughter (17 page)

Kat knew Mellie was only asking the question, not presenting an accusation, but she couldn't help feeling defensive. “Alex insisted. He and I weren't getting along.” It was the line she'd given everyone else.

“Did he push you away?”

“Excuse me?”

“That day you were in DC, Alex was buzzing with electricity. We had dinner together before he left for Iraq. Do you know how long I've been asking him out? He finally accepts and all he could talk about is how frustrating you are.”

Kat stared at Mellie. Alex had dinner with her?

“Alex doesn't let a woman turn his head. Believe me, I've tried.”

Kat resisted the urge to roll her eyes. Was there any woman who didn't have a thing for Alex? Except, as she looked around, she realized she had something in common with the other women in the room. They didn't just have a crush on Alex. They loved him.

“There's nothing between us,” Kat said quietly, more to herself than Mellie.

“If you want my advice...” Kat bit her lip to stop herself from telling Mellie to keep her opinions to herself. “Don't let him push you away.”

“Excuse me?”

Mellie put a hand on Kat's shoulder. “He doesn't let a woman get too close, but don't give up. A guy like him is worth fighting for.”

The day ticked by slowly. Exhaustion finally won and Kat managed to sleep for a few hours in the evening, which left her refreshed to continue working on her book late into the night. But her thoughts kept wandering back to Alex. Kat wondered whether his not letting women close to his life had anything to do with his father.
Oh, my God!

“Crista!” Kat screamed, aware of the hysteria in her voice. Crista stood, hearing her call, and Kat made a beeline for Nathan's cubicle. “Has someone contacted Alex's mother to let her know what's going on?”

Crista slapped a hand over her mouth. “I totally forgot. I'll call her now.” She reached for her BlackBerry, but Kat placed a hand over hers.

“You can't tell her over the phone.”

Crista swore under her breath. “She lives four hours away. I'm too tired to drive this late at night.”

“I'll go.”

Kat grabbed her purse and stopped at the twenty-four-hour café next door and bought two cups of espresso to combat her fatigue. But she needn't have bothered. During the long drive, she went over what she'd say to Alex's mother, the only woman who mattered in his life. Her apprehension kept her wide awake.

The GPS led her to a small town house in an area that looked much like her neighborhood, with neat yards overflowing with summer flowers. Kat had no idea if Mrs. Santiago would be home. She'd debated calling but then realized that even setting up a meeting would have the woman stressing for the four hours it would take her to get there. So she'd brought her computer and was prepared to wait if she needed to.

She parked the car on the street and took a deep breath. It was a dewy morning, and the air smelled fresh and bright, as if the day promised to bring good news. Kat's hands were clammy as she rang the bell, and she wiped them on her jeans, wondering whether she should have changed her clothes.

When there was no answer, she rang the bell again. It was early morning; maybe she was still asleep? Kat turned then heard the door open. The woman looked exactly like the picture she'd seen on Alex's desk. Mrs. Santiago was dressed in a gray uniform with a name tag pinned to her chest. She had black hair peppered with gray and dark eyes that beamed with kindness.

“Can I help you?”

“Mrs. Santiago, I'm Kat Driscoll. I work with Alex.”

The woman smiled widely. “Kat! I know all about you—come in.” She was a soft-spoken woman with a Central American accent. Kat followed her into a cozy kitchen that had a table with two chairs. “I had the night shift, so I just got home. I'm making breakfast—would you like something?”

Kat shook her head. The two cups of espresso were churning in her stomach like a stormy, frothy ocean.

“Where do you work?” Kat knew she was stalling, but she couldn't just blurt out information she knew would destroy this woman's world.

“At the Hilton hotel in town. I'm the head of housekeeping. I usually don't work nights—one of the advantages of being a manager—but one of my girls had a sick baby last night. I figured it was easier to do it myself than ruin someone else's plans.”

She put two plates of scrambled eggs on the table. “You look like you haven't had breakfast. Eat—that's an order.”

Kat looked up in surprise, suddenly and irrationally angry that her mother had never made her sit down and eat breakfast.

“So you're the girl Alex is in love with.”

Kat dropped her fork. “I think you have the wrong...”

Mrs. Santiago reached over and patted her hand. “Alex hasn't stopped talking about you. All he's said is how difficult you've made his life. I know my son. Only people he cares about get under his skin.”

Kat opened her mouth then shut it. “I have something to tell you.”

She nodded. “He hasn't called me in two days and his phone goes straight to voice mail. You're here to give me really bad news, else Crista would've called.”

Kat swallowed. There was no easy way to do this. She told her the whole story. To Mrs. Santiago's credit, she remained calm. Dabbing at the tears in her eyes, she asked the same questions the campaign staff had been asking for the past several hours. It somehow felt even worse relaying the unsatisfactory nonanswers than hearing them.

“I'm so sorry—it's my fault. If I hadn't come back early, maybe the extra security could have prevented this.”

“Katerina, how do you feel about my son?”

Mrs. Santiago sat silently, content to wait for whatever answer Kat was willing to give. What was she supposed to tell Alex's mother? She couldn't even describe their complicated relationship to herself.

“I like Alex. I'd like to see what there could be between us, but he's pushing me away. I don't understand his excuses.”

Mrs. Santiago finished her eggs then wiped her mouth and peered at Kat.

“Alex doesn't believe in love. His father was not a good man, and life wasn't easy for us when he was growing up. He's always been very driven and he doesn't want to do anything that will jeopardize his career.”

Kat nodded. That much she'd figured out for herself.

“You will have to show him.”

Kat looked at her quizzically. “Excuse me?”

“When he returns, you will show him what love is.”

Kat put a hand on her stomach. Alex would return. He had to. But she'd already told him how she felt and he'd rejected her. She couldn't keep throwing herself at him. Besides, what did she know about showing someone how to love?

She stood. “Mrs. Santiago, I promise to call you as soon as we have news, but let me give you my cell-phone number. Call me anytime, day or night—”

“I wish to show you something, Katerina.”

Kat nodded but had to suppress a sigh. She didn't want more questions she didn't have the answers to. They walked up the narrow staircase to what was obviously Alex's childhood bedroom. Kat walked in, studying everything with interest. There was a twin bed that seemed impossibly small, even for a child-size Alex, a set of dresser drawers and a little desk. The walls were lined with formal pictures of presidents. There were no toys, no teddy bears, no posters of rock stars or turtles dressed like ninjas.

“Does this look like the room of a child to you?”

Kat shook her head.

“I tried to protect Alex, but he saw more than he let on. I was a young woman when I came to America. I didn't speak English properly. I trusted Domingo, Alex's father, but he was a very violent man. It took me too long to find the courage to leave him. The women's shelter got me a job at the governor's mansion.”

Kat put her arm around the tiny woman as she stared off into the distance. Her own throat closed, her breaths coming in short bursts.

“The governor expected certain favors from me, and I gave them. Domingo couldn't get to us in the governor's mansion. We had a place to live, food every day. Alex was a growing boy...” She clasped her hands and looked down.

Kat tightened her embrace. “You did what you had to do to protect your son. It's more than most mothers could stomach.”

“We've never talked about it, but I know Alex knows.” She lifted her sleeves and Kat's stomach roiled as she saw the scars on the woman's wrists and upper arms. “Alex would insist on changing my bandages. I told him these were just accidents, but it's a little hard to keep burning yourself with cigarettes, especially when you don't smoke.”

Bile rose in her throat. She could picture Alex changing his mother's dressings with warm, gentle care.

“Alex was an angry young man growing up. He never threw temper tantrums, but there was always a darkness around him. When he was a teenager, he was sweet on this girl—she was the head cheerleader in his high school. He was in love, but she was playing some kind of joke on him. Her boyfriend and some of the other kids ganged up on Alex and he got into a fight. In the tussle, the girl was hit. I know in my heart it was an accident—Alex would never hurt a girl—but she made a big deal saying he did it on purpose. Convinced him of it, too, even though Alex's friend later told me it was definitely an accident.”

She shook her head. “The governor called the principal personally and we kept it quiet. In an odd way, the incident seemed to change his life. He took it hard. I think he saw too much of his father in himself, and he's worked hard to find inner peace. He's become a man I'm proud of, but he's still afraid he'll turn out like his father.”

And suddenly it clicked into place for her. Why he wasn't willing to be with her. “He's afraid of hurting me.”

His mother nodded then shook her head. “That's what he thinks, but I know that the truth of the matter is that he doesn't know how to love. He needs someone to teach him.” She looked meaningfully at Kat.

What do I know about love?
She'd spent her entire life trying to make friends and unable to keep any of them. How was she supposed to show a tough-as-nails man how gentle he really was?

Thankfully, Alex's mother didn't expect an answer and began telling her about Alex's school days.

They chatted for another hour, neither one saying out loud what was on both of their minds.
Is Alex even alive?

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

A
LEX
LOOKED
AT
his watch, the only electronic device he had access to, wishing he had bought one of the new ones that was also a phone. When their car was ambushed, he'd been on his BlackBerry and dropped it to grab the gun in the seat pocket so he could shoot back. By sheer bad luck, the two other security guys had damaged their phones in the scramble to escape.

So they were all stuck in a mud pit, now exhausted from debating whether the man who'd given them shelter would turn them in before a friendly force found them. They were resigned to waiting for their fate, something none of the men were programmed to do.

He found a corner that was relatively dry and sat down, his pants still damp from sleeping on the cold, wet earth. He closed his eyes and let his head rest on the stone-and-mud wall behind him. His skin crawled, itchy from the bites of various desert creatures. He knew scratching would just expose his skin to more bacteria and invite insects to come for a bite, so he sat still, gritting his teeth.

He closed his eyes and the image that had comforted him for the past week blissfully filled his mind. Taking a contented breath, he watched Kat's blue eyes smolder in anger, ice with determination and sparkle with anticipation. Her lips brushed against his cheek; the scent of her hair tickled his nose.

Alex felt the fire she ignited inside him. Here in this muddy hole, staring down at the very real possibility that he'd never get out alive, he needed to feel the flames he'd been running from all his life. It was the only thing that would keep him alive as night descended on them and the cold wind set in. All they had were threadbare blankets, and one of the guys was already shivering.

They'd promised to pay the informant an exorbitant sum of money to hide them. That was on top of the cash they had already given him, a substantial sum the security guys had been carrying to bribe their way through insurgent checkpoints. Alex didn't trust the man who was hiding them. The mudhole was a basement of sorts beneath his house. The only access point was a trapdoor above their heads. There was no other exit. If he sold them out, they'd be like sitting ducks. The first few nights, the men had taken turns keeping watch until they realized they were all sleeping with one eye open.

Alex studied the two other men in their corners. They'd all talked about their families. Roger, who was currently praying, was an ex-Delta guy who had a wife and two teenage kids at home. He'd taken the security job for a two-year stint to earn his kids' college tuition. He was a month away from finishing his contract. Larry, the guy with his eyes closed, was a divorced recovering alcoholic whose grown kids wanted nothing to do with him. He had taken the job to find something that made his life feel like it was worth living. Roger and Larry had significant life-insurance policies, so their families would be financially set if they died. Alex's mother would be okay on that front, too; he had saved money for her and bought the house she lived in. But would she ever recover from his death? Kat would go to his funeral, and she'd meet his mother there. Somehow he knew the two of them would bond. That was the kind of woman Kat was.

He closed his eyes again, reliving the kiss at the base, when she'd come to him with abandon. When she'd freed herself from whatever hold she'd put on her heart. Here in a literal hellhole, he wanted to feel what it was like to lose control with a woman he loved, to imagine what a mundane nine-to-five life would be like with her.

A loud noise above them had all three men on their feet in an instant. Alex's pulse kicked into high gear and he knew without a doubt that the time had come. The make-or-break moment when they'd know their fate for sure.

A gunshot rang out, shattering the door in the ceiling.