“Not me. I’m a claims adjuster, so I’m used to dealing with stuff that looks suspicious. That’s how I knew the brake line had been cut. You’d be surprised what some people will do to collect on a million-dollar life insurance policy.”
Stacie shook her head. “Very little surprises me anymore.”
“Anyway, I’ve asked one my private investigators to look into it. He came by last night and said something interesting.”
Colleen groaned as she accidentally moved her neck, and then said, “I told him what happened, that I left before the rally was over so I could go file my story. I didn’t really hit any traffic until I got out to the highway, and by the time I needed my brakes, they were shot.”
“The investigator said it would have happened a lot sooner if Mom had been sitting in traffic to get out of the parking lot. She wouldn’t have been going so fast and it would have been just a fender bender. I think their plan was for people to run up and help so somebody could snatch her briefcase in the confusion.”
Stacie liked thinking whoever did this hadn’t meant to put Colleen’s life in danger. “It would be interesting to know if they got any witness statements at the scene, but I wouldn’t hold my breath. It could have been somebody acting like a Good Samaritan until he got his hands on your briefcase and took off.”
Brian nodded. “I’ll ask him to check it out.”
“So how soon can you get me back in business?” Colleen asked.
As much as she wanted to see this story move along again, her first priority was getting the samples to the labs in Minneapolis, and her second was private time with Cathryn. “What say we meet Sunday afternoon at four? I can come by your house if you’re out of here by then. I’ll bring copies of everything I gave you, maybe even something new that’ll put you on Page One come Monday morning.”
The florist came in with a towering arrangement in lavender and white. Brian snatched the card and read, “Feel better soon, Cathryn Mack. Who’s that?”
Colleen snorted. “The spokeswoman for Nations Oil. She’s got a lot of nerve.”
“I don’t think she’s involved,” Stacie said quickly. “The people who do these things usually work so far under the radar that only a handful of people in the company know about it. They do it that way on purpose to give everyone deniability. There’s no way they’re going to involve their public face.”
“No wonder she sometimes looks like a deer in the headlights. Makes you wonder who’s pulling all the strings, doesn’t it?”
Stacie knew exactly who was pulling the strings. “If you feel better before Sunday, do some research on a guy by the name of Karl Depew.”
“He was at the press tour.”
“Then I can guarantee whatever he told you was a lie.”
Chapter Eleven
The two-and-a-half-hour drive to St. Paul should have been relaxing, but the creepy notion Depew might be keeping up with her whereabouts had Cathryn on edge. She’d made no secret of where she was going, so if he was tracking her car with some sort of electronic device, her story would hold up.
Funny how she’d once thought Stacie was paranoid and now she was the one obsessing over Depew. It made little sense he would care what she did. She’d done nothing to undermine her company, except perhaps to withhold Stacie’s conjectures about bitumen and the size of the spill, which she could argue left her in a better position to counter them.
None of her rationalizations would matter if their relationship were discovered. She’d be fired in a New York minute—no ifs, ands or buts. And yet the urge for two more nights together was more than she could resist. It made sense now why people took such extraordinary risks to have affairs outside their marriages, or how young lovers through the ages had forsaken their families to step across feuding lines. The desire for something this special was overpowering, so much that she was willing to ignore the consequences.
She pulled into the valet circle at the St. Paul Hotel, a cultural landmark decorated in the grand style of the early twentieth century with deep red velvet, heavy chandeliers and dark polished wood. Stacie had texted her through SappHere with the room number, allowing her to bypass the registration desk and go straight to the elevators. Her fear of being seen, baseless as it was, caused her to quicken every step until she finally reached the door.
“Thought you’d never get here.” Stacie was dressed again in only her plaid shirt and panties. “I wore this just for you.”
Cathryn dropped her bag and drew her into a hard kiss, as though the force alone might expel the tension from her body.
“Feels like somebody missed me.”
She had no idea what was driving her urgency. They had two whole days ahead of them and yet she felt the clock already counting down their minutes. Still without speaking, she doffed her jacket and kicked off her shoes.
“Whoa, Cathryn. Let me help.” Stacie loosened all her buttons and pushed her shirt off her shoulders.
Cathryn slipped out of her bra and snuggled inside the open shirt to press their flesh together, resting her head on Stacie’s shoulder. It settled her momentarily, but the longer she held the embrace the clearer it became that the source of her anxiety had as much to do with her feelings for Stacie as her paranoia about Depew. Ordinary physical longings always surged when the chemistry was right, but this was more than sexual lust. She hadn’t been drawn to anyone this way in a very long time, and would never have risked so much just for sex.
“I feel like I’ve been looking over my shoulder all week,” she said. “It’s crazy to keep doing this but I can’t help it. I need to be with you.”
“I can’t help it either.” Stacie lifted the covers and led her into bed. “If my friends had any idea we were here together, they’d all assume it was to squeeze you for information. I promise you, nothing could be further from the truth.”
“What is the truth?”
“That when I’m with you, I don’t care about anything but us.” She pressed her lips to Cathryn’s forehead and held them there for several seconds. “And when I’m not with you, I want to be.”
Was that physical want, or did she feel the same emotional pull? Cathryn needed to believe she wasn’t falling into something one-sided. She could love a woman like Stacie— fighting selflessly for a better world against overpowering odds—but how could Stacie ever feel that way about someone she didn’t respect?
Love. They’d known each other not even a month and were as different as night and day. All they had in common was here between the sheets, yet Cathryn could no longer claim her own heart.
As they kissed, her hands wandered, remembering contours and sensitivities, all the little places that caused a ripple or gasp. The smooth curve of Stacie’s hip. The warm hollow at the apex of her thigh. And yet after a subtle battle for dominance, Stacie emerged on top.
Cathryn gave herself over. With nearly two full days ahead, there would be plenty of chances to express her feelings. Right now her body wanted to listen.
Warm lips nibbled her neck, and as they drifted lower she pushed her breasts together in a silent plea. When Stacie took them in her mouth, Cathryn dropped her hands between her legs, opening herself to feel the friction of the soft belly as it gently rocked from side to side. If she concentrated on the sensations the way Stacie had described the last time they were together, it might even be enough to climax, especially if she continued to hold her lips apart.
Then a chill crossed her breasts as the wet mouth tracked lower across her navel, and her legs were pushed apart. Stacie must have read her urgency because she didn’t tease at all. Her tongue slid the length of her slick folds, alternately soft and flat, and then rigid as it probed her with precision.
With her eyes tightly closed Cathryn envisioned herself climbing, every stroke another step. Focusing only on that, she was able to quiet the emotional noise, but when her climax finally erupted, it was like tumbling from the peak. She feared crashing, coming apart physically and mentally as confusion
once again overwhelmed her. Stacie somehow knew her hold was tenuous and eased her down slowly until her body was still.
Their hands found one another as Stacie rested her head upon her thigh, smiling in a way that seemed tender rather than amused. “Are you all right?”
The insight and compassion of that simple question caught her off guard and she nearly blurted out what would have been a ridiculous declaration of love. Instead she retreated to safe territory. “I’m officially wasted. You should be very pleased with yourself.”
“You’ve obviously misunderstood my intentions.” Stacie wriggled one of her hands free and gently stroked her stomach, tickling the triangle of hair. “That was supposed to be all about pleasing you, and if you didn’t notice that, I’m going to have to do it again.”
Ridiculous or not, Cathryn knew what love felt like. This was it.
* * *
“How can anyone say no to bacon?” Cathryn asked, playfully waving a crispy strip under Stacie’s nose. “Does this qualify as being obnoxious?”
“Would it make any difference if I said yes?” Stacie loved how easily they moved between passion and mischief, as if they’d known each other for years. “I hate to burst your bubble but you aren’t annoying me nearly as much as you think. My aversion to meat is—wait for it—political.”
“Why am I not surprised? Everything you do is political.”
“Not everything. I drove to West Virginia once for no reason at all.”
“You expect me to believe that? I bet you drove there to hook up with some woman you met on SappHere.”
“Technically true, but she stood me up. Ergo—no reason.”
Cathryn held out a peace offering of sorts, a ripe red strawberry. “Her loss.”
“Aw, what a nice thing to say. So unlike you.” She bit into thin air as Cathryn snatched the fruit away. “That’s the woman I know and love.”
The word seemed to startle both of them.
“Figure of speech?”
“Something like that…maybe,” Stacie conceded.
On the drive down from Duluth, she had admitted to herself she was falling in love, but that didn’t mean she was ready to shout it from the mountaintop, least of all to Cathryn. It was absurd. They’d spent nearly half of their time together hiding who they were. Cathryn would think she was one of those starry-eyed romantics who latched onto everyone she dated—the very sort of person “Marlene” guarded against on SappHere. Trying now to walk it back as a slip of the tongue would be clumsy and rude.
“But don’t worry, Cathryn. I’ve been arrested lots of times but never for stalking.”
“Who says I’m worried?”
“Okay, then. I said it. You heard it. We don’t have to overanalyze anything.” The fact they both were smiling was meaning enough.
Cathryn scooted her breakfast tray into the hallway for pickup. “Let me get this poor dead pig away from you before you organize a protest.”
“I’d probably have better luck getting Americans to ride skateboards everywhere than to give up eating meat.”
“Speaking of protests, that was a decent program you put together in Chester Park…as much as I hate to admit it. And I was thoroughly impressed that you turned out such a big crowd.”
“Thanks. That’s high praise coming from a pro like you.” Stacie explained their strategy of doubling every day. “I have to get good speakers because I’m not very good at it.”
“We all have our strengths. You’re a good organizer.”
“A lot of people support what we do, but it’s hard to get them out of their chairs to be counted. We depend on a few people to make a lot of noise.” Then she playfully smacked Cathryn’s arm. “Especially when you turn around the next day and flood the airwaves with those ridiculous feel-good ads.” In a child-like voice, she squeaked, “Thank you, Nations Oil!”
Cathryn couldn’t help but laugh. “What got you started with all this? Or did you come out of the womb yelling at the doctor for having too many lights on?”
“I probably yelled about something but it wasn’t that. I wasn’t all that conscious of the environment until high school. That’s when the Exxon Valdez dumped its whole load in Prince William Sound. Such a beautiful place spoiled forever. My dad’s shipping business moved a lot of petroleum products, and I realized how easily something like that could happen in the inland waterways. They’d have called it the Pilardi River Spill or the Pilardi Disaster, and I would have felt personally responsible.”
“It’s hard to imagine you owning part of a company that makes money off shipping oil. I’m surprised you haven’t sold out.”
“Believe me, my brother Philip would like nothing more than to buy me out, but I like having the power to change how things are done. Dad came around just before he died and helped me push through safer standards that laid a lot more financial culpability on the shippers, which they passed on to the oil companies. My brother still has to honor them if he wants my voting shares.” Stacie fluffed the pillows and patted the space beside her.
Cathryn lay on her side, resting her head on Stacie’s shoulder. “I admire what you’ve done with your life. I don’t exactly agree with your doomsday scenario for the planet, but I respect you for standing up for what you believe. And you’re right about some of the benefits of oil probably not being worth the costs. It depresses me to see what they’re doing to the land in Alberta, and especially to the First Nation people.”
Canada’s indigenous peoples complained bitterly of fouled air, water and land caused by the tar sands industry. All so oil companies could churn obscene profits.
“Unfortunately,” Cathryn went on, “I’m never going to have enough power to stop that kind of abuse.”
“People have more power than they realize. Sometimes all it takes is one person speaking up for others to realize they’re not alone. You’re in a good position to do that because you know better than anyone how the public feels.” She was impressed Cathryn would even consider bucking her company’s party line. It would take a lot of courage but the first step was realizing change was possible. “You’ve got a lot to be proud of too. You came out of a tough situation at home and made something of yourself. What drives you to work so hard?”
“Nothing quite so noble as you, I’m afraid. Sorry if that disappoints you, but I’m basically all about me.”
“I’m not buying that. I’ve seen my share of selfish people and you don’t fit that bill.”
“I didn’t say I was selfish. I’m just looking out for myself so I won’t ever have to depend on anyone else. My mom put up with a lot of shit because she didn’t have anywhere else to turn, and I don’t ever want to end up like that. She’s been apologizing to me for thirty years, so I guess you could say what drives me is wanting to prove to her that I’m okay.”
With her arm wrapped around Cathryn’s shoulder, she could feel the muscles tightening in her back. “You’re tensing up again. What are we going to do about that?”
“I get this way every time I think about how my father used to treat us. I’d just as soon talk about Depew.”
“Then we’d both be in a bad mood. I’ve got a better idea.”
She lit a couple of candles in the bathroom and filled the tub with warm water and lavender scented bubbles from a powder tin in her duffel bag. They eased in on opposite ends and tangled their legs in the center.
“You have the best ideas,” Cathryn said. “I need more candles and lavender in my life.”
“Everyone needs more candles and lavender. You’d be surprised how soothing it is just to turn everything off for a few minutes a day.”
“And we’re saving all this water by bathing together. I feel better about myself already.”
“That’s how it starts. Before long you’ll be chaining yourself to a bulldozer.”
“Don’t bet on it. The closest I want to get to a jail is sleeping with you.”
“That’s okay. I need somebody on the outside with bail money anyw
ay.” She cupped her hands and squirted a stream of water toward Cathryn. “That would be interesting—me getting arrested for protesting Nations Oil and you coming to bail me out. What would your bosses think of that?”
“You mean my ex-bosses. I’d be fired faster than you could say oil slick.”
“But then the worst-case scenario would be behind you. We wouldn’t have to sneak around and there’d be no more assholes like Depew to worry about.”
“And I wouldn’t have to worry about my mortgage either because the bank would take my house.”
“Nah, you’re a survivor. You’d land on your feet.”
* * *
Cathryn looked up from her smartphone as Stacie emerged naked from the bathroom and bent over to get something out of her bag. “My, my. I’d sure like to have that in an eight-by-ten glossy.”
“You can have the real thing anytime you want it. How soon do we get to do this again?”
“Looks like I’m going to be here at least another week or two.”
Stacie looked down at the bed. “Hey, you have two phones.”
“D’oh. Of course I do. You think I want the tech guys at work tracking my SappHere dates? The black one’s just for work-related stuff. The white one is personal.”
She pulled a package out of her backpack and ripped it open, dumping out a pair of prepaid cell phones. “If I’d known that, I’d have only bought one of these. I was going to give you one so we could talk instead of text. What’s your number?”
Cathryn recited it and then picked up her personal phone when it rang. “You’ve reached the Texas Department of Lesbian Services. There is no one available to take your call because there are no services for lesbians in Texas.”
“Cheeky.”
“How come you need another phone?”
“Same reason, sort of. We have a business plan, so Jenn and the auditors have access to all my calls. Not my SappHere texts though. It’s not that I don’t trust them, but I like keeping the personal, personal.”
“Believe me, I understand.” With their business in Duluth nearing its end, they’d have to work around their schedules to squeeze out every minute they could. Cathryn was even willing to take chances. “Are you still staying at the Weller Regent?”
Anyone But You Page 14
