Total pages in book: 85
Estimated words: 82077 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 410(@200wpm)___ 328(@250wpm)___ 274(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 82077 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 410(@200wpm)___ 328(@250wpm)___ 274(@300wpm)
She blinked at him and then turned to look at Hannah. “Thanks for getting me away from those guys. I didn’t know any of them.”
“That’s what I figured,” Hannah said gently. “Listen, I have flats in my bag. Do you want to put them on?”
The young woman nodded, and Hannah helped her take off her four-inch stilettos and put on a pair of leopard-print flats. They didn’t go with her dress, but from her sigh of relief, it clearly didn’t matter.
“What did you think about the guys?” I asked Sam.
“Not much. They told me they didn't know her, only saw her walking around and decided to take her with them to get a drink.”
“Because that's what she needs, more alcohol.”
Sam grunted. “They assured me that they were just taking a shortcut down that alley, but I put the fear of God into them, and I explained that I was opening a file into each of them.”
“Which you're not,” I teased him.
“The hell I'm not,” he growled. “I sent their info off to Elyes so she can look at it in the morning and compile a report for me.”
Sam's assistant was scary efficient and helped him get home on time. I adored her.
Sam and Hannah alternated trying to get some kind of information out of the girl as the four of us walked back to our hotel. But she didn't answer, far more interested in recalling the events of her day. I understood then that a cousin of hers was getting married. The good news was, what I had thought was her being stumbling drunk was actually due to her being a little drunk and her original shoes. In flats, she was far steadier.
Once we arrived at the hotel, Sam had Hannah sit with our new friend. I took the love seat across from them as he went to the front desk to find out where the closest emergency room was.
As we waited, a woman walked up to me.
“Hi,” she greeted me. “Are you Jory Harcourt, Sam Kage’s husband?”
“Yes, I am,” I said, offering her my hand. “And you are?”
“I’m Jocasta Warren,” she answered as she took my hand. “I’m a chief deputy out of Boston, and your husband and I chat quite frequently.”
“Oh, well, it’s very nice to meet you.”
“And you,” she replied, smiling. “But I must say, respectfully, that your husband is gorgeous.”
I chuckled. “Thank you. I think so too.”
She nodded. “There were several of us having drinks earlier, and when he walked over to give me a hug, I was the envy of my table.”
“As I am when I’m out with clients and our paths accidentally cross.”
She squeezed my hand then and was about to leave when she noticed something. “Isn’t that your daughter?”
“It is.”
“And she’s friends with Senator Powell’s daughter, Beatrice?”
“Sam,” I immediately called over to him.
He turned, saw me with Jocasta, and jogged back across the room. “Jo,” he said when he reached us, putting a hand on her back. “Are you all right?”
She nodded and tipped her head at Beatrice, who was leaning heavily on my kid. “That’s Senator Brad Powell’s daughter, Sam. He’s from Maine, and the only reason I know that is because I had to handle some extra security for him when he was in my town last May for his son’s graduation from Harvard.”
“Okay, then I guess I’ll go see if Ted is still at the Carousel Bar here, and if he is, ask if he can get us in contact with the senator.”
“I’ll go. You stay with your family and guard the senator’s daughter.”
Sam took a seat beside me, and when he spoke, he lowered his voice so only I could hear. “The good news is that the three of us won’t have to spend all night in the ER while they check out Hannah’s new friend and pump her stomach. The bad news is, this is still going to ruin my night with you.”
I smiled at him. “You just wanna get laid.”
“Hell yeah, I wanna get laid. That door between the rooms closes, you know, and once Hannah’s headphones are in and she starts with TikTok or Instagram or whatever it is, I don’t worry about her hearing anything.”
I kissed under his jaw.
“Not happy,” he growled.
“Yes, you are. Your daughter did a good thing.”
“She did, and I’m proud, but why can’t I have both?” he asked me. “Why can’t I be proud of my daughter and get laid?”
“No good deed goes unpunished?” I teased him.
He grunted.
Jocasta returned with Ted Ortiz, chief deputy of the Eastern District of Louisiana, who flopped down beside Sam—they were apparently friends, from the lack of personal space—and put in a call to the head of the senator’s detail.
“I’m looking right at her,” he told whoever was on the other end of the line. “Sam Kage, he’s one of us, a marshal out of Chicago, found her on––” He looked at Sam.