by Cassie Cole
I felt his lips pull into a grin. “Then we’d better get you into the bath.”
31
Elizabeth
By the time the tub was filled with water, the entire bathroom was steaming like a sauna. Luca finally unchained me and insisted on carrying me to the bathroom like a wounded animal, which I suppose I kind of was.
“I have this,” I said, tapping my bandage. “Can it get wet?”
He lowered me to my feet and removed the bandage. I winced as the cloth pulled against my wound, then finally peeled free. A square of pale white skin surrounded the gash, which was about an inch long and held closed with stitches. The skin underneath the stitching was purple and swollen.
“That’s attractive,” I muttered, feeling a tingle of self-consciousness even though I was totally nude and had just had Luca’s face between my legs.
He dragged his fingertips across the wound in a loving caress. “I think you’re beautiful,” he said, kissing me softly on the cheek. “Because you’re strong enough to survive an assassination attempt, not in spite of it.” His fingers tapped on the wound. “This will eventually scar over, but don’t ever let it feel like a weakness. This is proof you can withstand anything life throws at you.”
“I hadn’t thought about it that way.” I touched the wound tentatively. “Is it safe for the water?”
“Pretty sure it is. I’ll reapply the bandages later.”
“My hero.” I kissed him on the lips and then stepped into the tub. The water was so hot it made my toes tingle. I had to stand knee-deep in it for several seconds before lowering myself down a few inches at a time. Finally I gripped the edges and lowered my upper body underneath the surface, sighing as the soothing heat spread through my body.
“Oh, that’s nice.”
Luca sank into the other side of the tub, stretching out his legs. His toes poked against my thigh.
We closed our eyes and enjoyed the soothing water, too relaxed to speak.
Sometime later Luca said, “Something just occurred to me.”
I opened one eye. “What’s that?”
His head was still craned back and his eyes were closed. “I left my sidearm in the other room. If anyone knocked the door down…”
“Boomer will protect us,” I said. “Won’t you, boy?”
At the sound of his name, the black lab came trotting into the bathroom. I squealed as he licked my face and neck.
Luca leaned forward in the tub. “No! Don’t go just yet.”
He wrapped his arms around me and scooted toward my half of the tub. “I wasn’t.”
He pulled me forward until my legs were wrapped around him and my chest was pressed wetly against his. “Hi,” I said.
“Oh, hello.”
“I hate to spoil the mood,” I said, “but bath sex isn’t as sexy as it sounds.”
He smiled knowingly. “Water isn’t a lubricant. I’ve made that mistake before.” He cupped a handful of water and sloughed it over my back. “I just wanted to hold you close. Get the sticky wine off you.”
“Mmm,” I hummed. “I retract my previous objection. Carry on.”
I closed my eyes and enjoyed my Secret Service agent holding me close and rubbing me down with slow, loving strokes.
*
The next two days were wonderfully carefree. I stopped checking my email because I was getting tired of Megan’s frantic insistence. Luca and I ate smoked venison, and we made love, and we hiked in the woods like two lovers on their honeymoon, hand-in-hand.
I stopped caring about the stresses of Washington. Of my campaign. Of the man—or men—who wanted to kill me. Those could all wait until this was over. This perfect wooded getaway with a man whose job it was to protect my life.
And then, one day, everything fell apart.
32
Elizabeth
We were out for an after-dinner hike along one of the many game trails in the forest. The chill in the air intensified as the sun dropped below the tree line, but that also gave us a gorgeous painting of a sunset spreading across the clouds, orange and pink and purple as far as the eye could see.
It was beautiful out here. It made me miss home a little bit.
Boomer suddenly shot away into the woods after a squirrel. Both of us laughed. “I thought we’d never be alone,” Luca said.
“What do you mean?”
He turned and pushed me against a tree, kissing me forcefully. His tongue was warm and soft as it wedged its way into my mouth to swirl with my own, and his hand pried open my legs. I moaned as he rubbed me through my jeans there in the forest.
Luca pulled away with a sigh, eyes boring into mine with happiness. “What was that for?” I asked.
“I just really wanted to kiss you, is all.”
A giggle escaped my lips. “I bet you say that to all your assignments.”
“Just the ones I want to take back to my cabin and ravage.”
“Ohh. That sounds like fun. Break out the chains again?”
“Only if you’re a naughty girl.”
“Naughty senator,” I corrected. “Show some respect.”
We held hands and continued on our hike.
“Let’s assume the worst,” I said.
Luca frowned at me. “I don’t like this change in conversation at all.”
“Let’s say you do get forced into retirement after this assignment,” I said. “What kind of alternative careers do you have lined up?”
“None,” he said, resigned. “There’s nothing else I would like to do. I’m open to suggestions.”
I gave him a long, appraising look. “You’d make a good lumberjack.”
“Hah!”
I ticked off points on my fingers. “You look good in plaid. You like the outdoors. And you look very sexy swinging an axe.”
“You were watching me chop wood the other day?”
“How could I not? That was hotter than porn.”
He smiled to himself. “I’ll take it under consideration. What else do you have?”
“All joking aside, the obvious answer is private security. A bodyguard. I bet some big Hollywood stars or other New York celebrities would pay a lot of money to hire a former Secret Service Agent as their bodyguard. Your life and job would hardly change at all.”
“I’m skeptical that protecting a teen pop star would be as fulfilling as protecting the leader of the free world. But that’s not a bad idea.”
“Or you could actually retire,” I said. “I don’t know what your financial situation is, but you could live out here. Hunting and fishing and chopping wood to your heart’s content.”
He shook his head. “These are the kinds of things I like to do for just a few days. I’d go nuts after a week. I need something real to do.”
CRACK-POW came the sound of a gunshot behind us.
There was a thudding sound, and Luca cried out. He dropped to his hands and knees and groaned.
“No!” I said, falling to my knees beside him. “Are you okay?” There was a little fabric bag on the ground behind him. Tan, like a tea bag.
He fell to his side and rolled over. Pain was painted on his face as he reached for his sidearm. “Elizabeth… Run…”
Leaves rattled. I turned my head to see a man sprinting through the trees toward us. A black ski mask covered his face, and he held a shotgun in his hand.
I raised my rifle, but a second man was suddenly at my side, grabbing the rifle and wrenching it from my hands. He stepped over me and kicked Luca’s pistol. It bounced along the hard ground and came to a stop 10 feet away.
“No!” I screamed, full of fear and panic and dread. “Please don’t kill me, I’ll do anything…”
“Elizabeth!” Luca roared, cutting off as the other man wrapped duct tape around his mouth. He rolled Luca over and then tied his hands behind his back.
“Leave him alone!” I shouted. “Please don’t hurt us…”
I kicked and fought and punched at my assailants, but it was like striking two
brick walls. They carried me like a sack of grain between them up the game trail. Luca’s muffled cries faded behind us.
A rusted Jetta was parked next to Luca’s rental car at the cabin. They opened the back seat and shoved me inside. One of them joined me in the back while the other climbed into the driver seat. Gravel flew as the car peeled out of there.
“You’re going to go to jail for the rest of your lives,” I said. My heartbeat was a pounding drum in my ears. “Kidnapping a senator… killing a senator…”
The man next to me smiled behind his ski mask. “Hey there, sugar.”
I squinted. “Anthony?”
He pulled off the ski mask. His dark hair was a mess but he had a huge grin on his face. “Miss me?”
The driver pulled his mask off. Familiar green eyes glanced at me in the rear-view mirror. “Sorry about all this, Elizabeth. Figured you wouldn’t mind once you knew it was us.”
“What… What the hell are you two doing here!”
“Megan sent us,” Anthony said. He rubbed my thigh reassuringly. “We had to bring you back. This whole thing with the Secret Service hiding you away in the middle of bum-fuck Ohio? It’s all a bullshit excuse by POTUS to make you seem weak. Hide you away after your announcement like a coward.”
“You didn’t have to wear masks!”
Ethan scoffed, his hands tightening on the steering wheel as we flew down the dirt road. “We knew Captain Serious-Face wouldn’t disobey orders and let you leave. So we took things into our own hands. And we had to keep our identities secret since it’s sorta, kinda, maybe illegal to restrain a Secret Service Agent with duct tape.”
“Restrain him?” I asked. “You shot him!”
“Only with a bean bag shotgun,” Anthony clarified.
“Hell of a shot from that range,” Ethan said.
Anthony grinned. “I know, right?”
“He was in pain! You might have broken one of his bones!”
Anthony rolled his eyes. “I knocked the wind out of him. It’ll leave a huge welt, but he’ll be fine.”
My eyes widened. “Boomer! What did you do to Boomer?”
“Who? The dog?” Ethan asked. “He was a sweetie. Lured him with a juicy steak stuffed with sedatives in it, Scooby Doo style. He’s taking a nap in the woods.”
“I put a blanket over him,” Anthony added. “We’re not monsters.”
I began to relax. I had wanted a way out of the cabin. This wasn’t how I would have gone about it, but I was finally going back to Washington. And I had just gotten used to the simple life.
“Relax, sugar,” Anthony insisted. His hand remained on my thigh, a warm and comforting presence. “You’re safe with us now.”
“How did you find me?”
“You can thank your campaign manager for that,” Ethan said with a chuckle. “She saw a remote login to your email address. Traced that IP address to a cell phone hotspot, then called in some favors to track it to a cell tower down here. From there she figured out that Agent Santos had a family cabin in range of the tower.”
“It was impressive,” Anthony said. “Real detective shit.”
“Megan is nothing if not persistent,” I muttered. “Before working for me, she was fired from another campaign for doing something shady like that.”
“Elizabeth,” Ethan said. “You didn’t want to be hidden away down here, right?”
“Of course not,” I said. “Why would you suggest that?”
He shrugged his shoulders. “I thought you’d be happier to be rescued by us.”
“No, I am happy,” I insisted, reaching up to squeeze his shoulder. “I’m just in shock. And still a little confused. How did the two of you pair up to look for me?”
Anthony barked a laugh. “Your bodyguard tackled me in the crowd in Columbus. Thought I was a threat, even though I was working with the Columbus PD to search for threats in the crowd. Can you believe he thought my walkie-talkie was a gun?”
“My view was obscured!” Ethan protested. “Plus, you were the guy tailing us on the motorcycle. I was right to be suspicious.”
“Anyway, so he tackles me. Then the real gunshots went off,” Anthony continued. “Everything was chaos, people screaming and running for their lives. Before we knew what was happening, Agent Santos had you whisked away to a hospital. By the time Megan and us got there, you were gone again. To an undisclosed location. They wouldn’t tell us anything.”
“We met up with Ms. Hanram after that since we didn’t know what else to do,” Ethan said. His eyes met mine in the rear-view mirror, and he cleared his throat awkwardly. “That’s when Anthony told us.”
“Told you what?”
“That he was your boyfriend.”
33
Elizabeth
Boyfriend.
He’d told them that he was my boyfriend.
“I… um… what?” I managed to say.
“I couldn’t stand around doing nothing, and I couldn’t try to find you on my own,” Anthony explained. His hand was still on my thigh. “I know you wanted to keep us a secret, but I had to come clean with them. It was the only way to convince them to let me help find you.”
Ethan stared at me in the mirror. Waiting to see what I would say about this.
Boyfriend. Oh lord.
I wanted to explain that of course he wasn’t my boyfriend. That he was just a Capitol Policeman I’d hooked up with because I was lonely on my birthday. But I also didn’t want to upset Anthony by minimizing our relationship. If you could even call it that.
And I really didn’t want to have this conversation right now.
I should have stuck with anonymous escorts in hotel rooms.
“Where is Megan?” I asked.
“Back in Washington,” Anthony said. “She’s been working 20 hour days doing damage control for your disappearance. Canceling all the interviews and appearances she’d lined up, and scheduling new ones for when you hopefully reappear. That woman is a force of nature.”
“She’s the best,” I said. “What’s the plan? Fly out of Columbus?”
“Megan insisted we drive back,” Ethan said. Was his voice colder now? More detached? “Tomorrow is President’s Day. A number of senators are giving speeches in front of the Washington Monument. Megan wants you to crash the event, make a speech. Generate a bunch of buzz.”
“Of course she does,” I said, shaking my head.
“We’ll stop for the night in Virginia and make the final leg of the trip in the morning. Secrecy will get us the biggest media boost when you do appear, so we’re laying low tonight.”
Anthony handed me a piece of paper. “Here’s the speech she wrote for you. She wants you to memorize it before tomorrow morning.” From his tone, he thought that would be impossible.
“Not a problem. It’s only three paragraphs,” I said. Anthony’s jaw dropped so I added, “Being a politician means being good at memorizing speeches. Normally I have only a few minutes to prepare. Having an entire car ride back to Washington is luxury.”
Anthony laughed, but Ethan remained silent behind the wheel.
*
We drove through southern Ohio, old mining towns similar to where I had grown up. The sun had set by the time we crossed into West Virginia and climbed up and down the winding roads that traversed the Appalachian Mountains. We stopped only to fill up on gas and buy greasy fast food for dinner. After eating some form of venison for 10 straight meals my burger and fries tasted fantastic.
We passed into Virginia and drove up I-81, eventually reaching Harrisonburg at 9:30 at night. Ethan stopped at a small motel on the northern edge of town, which was deserted except for a single car in the back of the parking lot. If not for the light on in the small lobby I would have assumed it was closed.
“James Madison University is in Harrisonburg,” Anthony said absently while we walked to our rooms. “You think they’ll ever name a school after you?” Elizabeth O’Hare College.”
“I have to win first,” I said. “
But I do like the sound of that.”
“I guess only the really old presidents get colleges named after them,” Anthony said. “I’ve never heard of a Carter or Bush university.”
“She’s not even running for president,” Ethan snapped. “She wants a VP spot.”
“What? Why?” Anthony stared at me. “You can win the whole thing. You’re 35 now.”
Ethan rolled his eyes.
“We’ll see,” was all I said.
I had a room to myself, while the boys were sharing another. “We need to be on the road by 5:00am at the latest,” Ethan said. “We’ll be right next door if you need anything. Just scream. We have the spare key to your room just in case.”
He went inside his room without another word. Anthony gave me a wink before following.
I stepped into my room and let the door swing shut behind me. The room was clean and smelled fresh. Couldn’t ask for more than that.
I dropped my suitcase into the lone chair by the door and sat on the edge of the bed. I had remained in shock for most of the drive here, but now I was finally beginning to process everything. The campaign trail would be a lot of this: long days and short nights in hotel rooms before waking up early and starting all over again. It was exhausting to think about.
But after my few days of relaxation with Luca, I was almost ready for the grind. Deep down I was itching for the opportunity to do what I did best: campaign. Convincing people to vote for me, that I would do the best job representing their interests. It was what I was born to do.
Three days in a cabin couldn’t change who I was.
The cabin. I felt a pang of regret for Luca. I hoped he wouldn’t get in too much trouble for allowing me to be taken. More than that, I hoped he wasn’t upset at me. I did warn him that I would have to make an escape eventually. I’d been mostly joking at the time.
Maybe I could look up his number and call him. Apologize for what happened. Mostly I felt guilty for abandoning him so quickly without so much as a goodbye, even though it wasn’t my fault that I’d been hauled away kicking and screaming.
