He had forgotten what that feeling of doing something illegal was like.
The grass was warm and soft against his skin as he ran his hands over it. What the hell. If they got caught, they got caught. It was their vacation, after all. And they were a long way from home.
“Now you have too many clothes,” he said.
“Oh, I like this game,” she said, giving him a kiss and then pulling away.
As he watched, she unhooked her bra, tossing it aside with the rest of their clothes. The soft light made her skin seem ultra smooth and silky, as if there wasn’t a mole or wrinkle anywhere.
“Like what you see?” she asked, looking down at him.
“Much more than like,” he said. “How about love? Admire? Adore?”
“You say all the right things,” she said, her laugh carrying into the darkness of the desert and golf course. She lay on top of him. The feel of her breasts against his chest was wonderful.
“Nice,” she said, pressing her leg into the hardness of his crotch.
He pulled her tight and they kissed again, moving their bodies slowly against each other. He wanted to touch, to stroke every inch of her. He loved the way she felt against him, her soft skin moving slowly against his.
He kept at it until she finally pulled his head up and kissed him long and hard.
He returned the kiss, suddenly not caring if anyone else was nearby or not. She rolled him over on his back and kneeling beside his legs pulled off his underwear with a frantic jerk, flicking them into the air over her head.
“Oh, I like this,” she said, running her hands over him.
“You’re not the only one,” he said. The sensation was wonderful and much more intense than it had been in a long time.
The warm night, the fear of someone nearby, the grass against his back all seemed to vanish as his body pushed upward. Before she was all the way into position he couldn’t help himself and started to move up and down under her.
After a wonderful eternity, they lay panting, sweating, both trying to catch what air they could manage.
That had been intense, and wonderful.
He kissed her neck and she shivered. But she didn’t move.
He kissed it again and got the same reaction. Only this time she hugged him, being careful to keep him in the same position.
“Wow,” he managed to whisper into her ear.
She squeezed him with her entire body. “Yeah. No argument there.”
She carefully stretched out her legs and lay down on him, keeping them together as they rolled over so they were facing each other in a full hug. On one side he could feel her soft skin the length of his body, and on his back grass was sticking to his sweaty body.
With the stars above and warm night air around them, it was a moment he didn’t want to let go of.
Clearly Bonnie didn’t either.
There was no sound of anyone walking toward them.
The night was quiet, so they just lay there, holding each other, not saying anything.
He couldn’t remember feeling this good in a long time. It was an absolutely perfect start to the vacation.
He closed his eyes and let his body completely relax.
CHAPTER TWO
Friday, April 7th
9:46 p.m.
DANNY BAINES TOSSED his bag on the hotel bed and looked around. In all his life he had never felt so scared, so alone, so completely out of his mind.
This all had to be a nightmare and he would wake up very shortly.
He walked into the large bathroom and stared in the mirror.
His eyes were red and he looked like he hadn’t slept.
Actually he’d had a good night’s sleep last night with Steph and this morning had headed to the course to get his clubs and help get ready for the weekend rush of players before he had to leave for Phoenix.
When he got home, he found his bag packed and sitting by the front door. A man he didn’t recognize was sitting on the couch, pointing a gun at him.
Steph was nowhere to be found.
He almost went crazy when the guy said they had taken Steph. He stormed at the guy.
“If I shoot you,” the guy had said, pointing the gun at Danny, “I have to kill your wife as well.”
That stopped Danny.
And then Danny’s blood seemed to freeze as the man laughed. “And she’s a looker, too. It would be fun doin’ her.”
“So why are you doing this?” Danny had asked.
For the next twenty minutes the man had explained exactly why they had taken Steph. And what they wanted him to do to get her back.
Then the man had helped him carry his bag to his car, helped him check the apartment to make sure everything was turned off, and then stood there and watched Danny drive away.
Now Danny was in Phoenix, checked into his room, and going crazy. He couldn’t do what they were asking.
He just couldn’t.
But it seemed he had no choice.
He headed through the bedroom and out into the main area of the small suite.
The phone was sitting on the desk under a mirror. He moved over to it. He had to call the police. He had to have help.
He picked up the phone, then put it back down, the man’s voice echoing in his ears. “Trust me,” the man had said, “you call the police and we can kill your wife before you hang up the phone.”
Those words echoed through his mind. How would they know if he called the police?
He couldn’t take the chance.
The image of Steph’s face filled his mind and he moved over to the couch and sat down.
It was going to be a very long night.
And an even longer golf tournament.
CHAPTER THREE
Friday, April 7th
9:53 p.m.
BONNIE’S BREATH WAS even against his neck, the grass soft under him, and he wasn’t sure if he hadn’t even dozed a little. Amazing, falling asleep nude in the middle of a fairway. This just wasn’t like him at all.
Suddenly he realized what had woken him up.
Someone was coming!
The sound of a deep, male voice in the distance drifted over them.
He pulled back enough to see his wife’s face in the dim light. Her eyes were closed and she seemed to be asleep as well. He could feel their skin sticking together.
He leaned in close to her ear. “I think someone’s coming,” he whispered, trying not to startle her.
“Oh, damn,” she whispered back.
Her eyes snapped open and she rolled away from him.
The stickiness on his stomach had dried his skin against hers and it pulled like removing a bandage.
“How long were we asleep?” she whispered as she grabbed her shoes and the pile of clothes and moved over toward the side of the giant boulder that towered over them and the fairway. If they stayed against the backside of it, they wouldn’t be seen from the cart path.
He grabbed his shoes and followed her as again the male voice could clearly be heard. At least two people were coming from the direction of the clubhouse, walking along the same path they had walked.
Bonnie, her back against the tall rock, slipped on her underwear, then shorts. He started to do the same, then realized his underwear was still out in the middle of the fairway where Bonnie had tossed them aside.
He eased away from the rock slightly and glanced toward the clubhouse. The silhouettes of two men could be seen coming up the small rise about a hundred yards away. One was smoking a cigarette and the red tip glowed in the dark.
“Shit!” he said, softly.
Craig pointed at his underwear and Bonnie snickered. If he went back out onto the fairway to get his underwear, he would be seen, so he slipped his pants on without them.
“Watch that zipper,” Bonnie whispered as she put on her bra. “I don’t want that part hurt.”
“Trust me,” he whispered back, “neither do I.”
She laughed softly and they both sat down with their ba
cks against the rock, waiting for the intruders to pass as they put on their shoes. He felt like a kid again, almost getting caught at something he shouldn’t have been doing. His heart was beating hard and he was enjoying the feeling as the two men moved toward them.
This was fun.
And for some reason damn scary at the same time.
The sound of their footsteps seemed very loud, echoing over the grass and desert like irregular drum beats. Neither man had said a word for at least fifty paces. Then one with a high voice and a slight New York accent said, “I still can’t believe we’re doin’ a Senator.”
“Believe it,” the other man said.
The second man had a deep, distinctive voice that sounded like a musician’s.
“I don’t much like the idea of the entire fucking government comin’ after me.”
The two men were even with the rock and passing.
Craig glanced at Bonnie. Her eyes were huge and she was holding her breath just as he was. Suddenly this had turned from fun to something very serious.
“If nothing goes wrong, no one will be coming after you,” the deep-voiced one said. “We just make sure it looks like an accident.”
“Yeah, sure,” the first man said as the two started down the hill away from Bonnie and Craig. “I better be gettin’ paid real good for this.”
“Trust me,” the deep-voiced man said, “you are. We all are.”
“We better,” the man said. “A senator. This is nuts.”
Craig stared at Bonnie as the two men moved on, clearly headed somewhere out on the golf course. He couldn’t believe what he had just heard. And he didn’t want to think about what those words seemed to mean.
Bonnie finished putting on her shoes and he followed suit, not saying anything. He stood and made sure the men were long out of sight, then went out and grabbed his underwear off the fairway, stuffing them into his pocket as he turned.
He joined Bonnie on the cart path, headed back toward the clubhouse. After about ten steps he whispered, “Did that sound to you like it sounded to me?”
She put her finger up to his mouth and shook her head. “In the room,” she whispered, just loud enough for him to hear.
Then she took his hand and they headed toward the beautiful hotel at a much faster pace than the stroll that got them there.
CHAPTER FOUR
Friday, April 7th
10:07 p.m.
THE WALK BACK to the hotel and up to their room seemed to take forever for Bonnie. Her heart was racing and her mind twisting at what they had overheard out on the course. She desperately wanted to talk to Craig about it, but knew that they didn’t dare until they were safely in private. Just as they had discovered, voices carried on that golf course, especially at night.
After Craig closed the door behind them in their room, she dropped down onto the bed, enjoying the softness of the mattress and the silky feel of the bedspread. “Tell me what you heard.”
Craig paced between her and the dark television, a frown on his face. “Two men talking about causing a Senator to have an accident.”
Bonnie nodded, her stomach now even more in a knot than it was on the walk back. “That’s what I heard as well. Could we have misunderstood?”
“I’ve been wondering the exact same thing,” Craig said, still pacing. “And the answer is yes, of course we could. They could have been talking about a game they were playing. Or the word accident could mean something completely different to them.”
“Like what?” Bonnie asked, wanting to believe him, but not really following his logic.
Craig stopped and faced her. “They said they were going to do a Senator, right?”
Bonnie nodded. Those were the words she remembered very clearly.
“Who knows,” Craig said, “maybe they were talking about getting a hooker for a senator and accident was how they were describing it.”
Bonnie laughed, but she knew Craig was right. A single part of an overheard conversation could mean so many things, they didn’t dare jump to too many conclusions. Especially the conclusions they were both jumping to.
“So what do we do now?” she asked.
“I suppose we should take things one step at a time,” Craig said. He glanced at the clock on the stand beside the bed. “It’s only a little after ten. Let’s find out if there’s a Senator registered here.”
“And just how do you plan to do that?” she asked. “I doubt anyone is just going to tell you.”
“You would be surprised,” he said, smiling. He picked up the phone and punched a button.
Bonnie lay back on the bed. She could still feel the tingle from the fun they had had on the fairway. It had been intense, that much was for sure. And even more startling that they could fall asleep nude like that in the middle of a fairway afterwards. The thought made her smile.
If she had her way, there were going to a few more encounters just like that one before this weekend was over.
As soon as they got all this stuff settled.
“Front desk?” Craig asked. Then after a moment he said casually, as if he said the words every day, “Would you connect me to the Senator’s head-of-staff, please?”
“Good thinking,” she whispered, smiling at her husband. “but it won’t work.” Craig was such a good detective, she knew. And he had ways of getting information that most people would never think of. But a stranger didn’t just go calling a hotel front desk and ask if a United States Senator was staying there. It didn’t work that way. Important people had layers between themselves and the regular public. Protective and necessary layers because of all the nut cases in the world.
Of course, Craig hadn’t asked to talk to a Senator, but instead he had asked for the Senator’s head-of-staff. That detail might make all the difference.
“I’m being connected,” he said, his eyes suddenly full of worry. He was clearly as surprised as she was, both at his idea working, and the fact that there was a Senator staying here.
“Oh, shit,” she said, suddenly remembering why Craig was making the call. “There is a Senator here. Now what are we going to do?”
He held his hand up. “Yes, hello, uh... Senator Knight,” Craig said, giving her the wide-eyed shock look.
Craig was actually talking to Senator Knight! Bonnie thought her stomach was going to jump out of her body. Senator Knight from California was one of the more powerful Senator’s in all of Washington. What was he doing here? And what was he doing answering his own damned phone?
Craig went on, clearly deciding to tell the truth as he went. “My name is Detective Craig Frakes from Seattle. I’m sorry to bother you, but my wife and I overheard a conversation this evening that I think we should relay to you and your security staff, if you have a few moments.”
Bonnie watched as Craig listened to the Senator. Then he said, “I don’t honestly know how important it is, Senator. I suspect you would be the best one to judge that.”
Craig nodded, then said, “Yes, sir. From Seattle. I can give you some names to call to check on who we are.”
There was another long pause then Craig finished with, “Thank you, Senator, we’ll be right up.”
He hung up, then turned and smiled at her. “Better comb the grass out of your hair. We’re about to meet Senator Knight.”
“Wonderful,” she said, shaking her head as she jumped to her feet and headed for the bathroom. “He’s going to think we’re a couple of nutballs, you know that, don’t you?”
Craig laughed. “More than likely. But at least our consciences will be clear. He can decide to do what he wants with the information we heard.”
He followed her into the bathroom as she grabbed a comb from their travel kit and started to brush the dried grass from her hair. She looked ruffled, and she doubted she was going to change that much in the few moments they had.
Craig reached under her arm and cupped her right breast, giving it a light squeeze. “Just checking to make sure they got put back into the right place.�
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She smiled at him. “Looks who’s talking.” She pointed at the lump in the front of his pants. “You might want to take your underwear out of your pocket. We don’t want the Senator getting wrong ideas.”
Craig laughed and pulled his underwear out and tossed them at the suitcase.
“We better take our badges with us,” she said, putting the comb down and grabbing her purse, even though it didn’t go with her shorts and blouse. “If I were the Senator’s people, I’d damned well want to see them.”
“Good thinking,” Craig said, moving to dig his out of his suitcase. Bonnie knew that when traveling he never liked to carry it. He figured it would get him in more trouble than it was worth. But this time was different.
“And one more thing we might want to think about before we go up there,” she said.
“And that is?” Craig asked as he stuffed his badge in his back pocket.
“What happens if one of the Senator’s people is one of the people we overheard?”
“Shit,” Craig said softly. He had clearly not thought about that possibility. “Would you recognize either voice?”
“Easily,” she said. She doubted she would ever forget those two voices.
He nodded. “I think I would too. We’re just going to have to chance it. And play it by ear if one of them is there.”
She didn’t much like playing a situation like this “by ear,” but it seemed they had no choice.
Five minutes later they were on the top floor knocking on Senator Knight’s door. Bonnie could feel the knot grow in her stomach as they waited. This was just plain crazy. How did they go from making love on a fairway to talking to a powerful United States Senator in the space of an hour? This was turning out to be one really strange vacation, and they hadn’t even gotten through the first evening yet.
A young-looking man that Bonnie guessed to be no more than twenty-five, opened the door and nodded. “Identification please?”
Bonnie sighed at the sound of his voice. The young man clearly was not one of the men they had heard. She could tell Craig knew that as well.
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