Chapter 15

Renata and Logan traveled for a few more days on the campaign trail, and then she went home to take care of some of her own meetings. Logan was still on the trail, and she was relieved to be home alone. Luckily, there was so much going on when they were making political appearances that she didn't have to worry about her husband expecting to indulge his appetites. She followed her guard into the penthouse, and he was done in a few minutes and left her alone. Daria was already gone for the day, but she had faithfully left the kitchen stocked with whatever Renata might need. She poured herself a glass of lemonade and took out a plateful of her favorite little sandwiches, along with some fruit and cheese, after she changed her clothes.

After Renata had a chance to relax for a while, she sent text messages to Jacques and Gabe, to let them know that she was back. They needed to get together for a meeting. The final preparations were upon them, and Renata had to be careful to keep from getting excited. She had never felt such a strong urge to go spend some time at the farm, but she knew that it was the wrong time to try to do it. She knew she'd be there soon. And she didn't know if she would ever leave there again. She was in bed early that night, reading for only a short while before she was sound asleep.

Renata got her appointment set for her meeting and spent the first day home spending a little time with the kids at the children's hospital, as well as Daria, Bree, and Jackson. She ordered dinner in that night and made sure that she was ready to see Gabe and Jacques the next day. She spent some time talking to her mother and then spent some more time talking to Lee and Jo. She was calm as she looked over everything and realized that she felt that she was completely prepared. Once again, she got a good night's sleep.

Renata got out of the cab at the office building, looked around, and then strode briskly into the building. Gabe and Jacques were busily going over the final preparations, searching with a fine-toothed comb to see if there were any weak spots at all. Renata joined them, and after an hour of careful examination, they all sat back and stared at each other.

"We're ready," said Renata, a little unbelieving.

Jacques nodded with satisfaction and Gabe said, "Yeah. We are. Lee is ready; everybody is ready to step into place. It's going to be a helluva crash."

"And Drake and Ashleigh haven't been touched yet," Renata said hopefully. "Maybe we're going to get lucky."

"That works for me," said Gabe. "I know it means a lot to you. We're ready to give the word. We're only waiting for Logan to get back into town."

"Yeah," Jacques said with a grin, "I'd hate for him to be seeing all the fun from a distance."

"As soon as things start to topple, there'll be plenty of people to see from a distance. The shock waves in Portugal are going to be extensive, too."

"I'm going to have my mother moved on Thursday. Logan will be back on Friday." Renata's belly was crawling with anticipation.

They all stared at each other again, and then they all broke into grins. Gabe said, "This surely calls for a drink."

They toasted each other in grim celebration of the work they'd done, and Renata had to give hugs all around. "You two were unstoppable," she said. "I thought I could do it alone, but your help was invaluable, and it might have taken me years longer to sort it all out myself. Trust me when I say you saved my life and certainly my sanity."

Jacques grinned at her. "That's me, riding to the rescue of the lady in distress."

"What are you going to do after this? It's taken up so much of your time for so long."

"I'm going for a long vacation on a sandy beach."

Gabe said, "Yeah, we've never talked about it, but there are going to be some significant cash awards for us all. We pulled off something that nobody else was handling."

"Well, I don't need it. I own the farm free and clear now, and I don't want anything of Logan's."

Gabe pointed out, "Your share of any reward wouldn't be from him. And, if I'm not mistaken, I believe there's a children's hospital that you wouldn't mind being a benefactor of. So think it over before you turn anything down. And make sure you're secure."

Renata turned a smile on him. "That's a very good point about the children's hospital. I won't be hasty."

The three of them finished their drinks and then went their separate ways. The office they'd been using was completely bare except for basic furniture, and they were leaving no trace of having spent time there. They would be in touch from here on out only by phone and text. In a few short days, it would all be over. Renata said a prayer of thanks as the cab carried her to another shop, to let her out to make her roundabout way back to the penthouse. This was the last time she would have to slip away from her guards, and even better, soon she would have no need of a guard. As much as she hated the limelight, the publicity she would have to endure once everything happened would also guarantee her safety. Matt let her into the penthouse, and she greeted Daria with a brilliant smile.

"Well, what's got you so happy today?" Daria asked.

Renata laughed. "It's just an extra nice day and I have the rest of it to do whatever I want."

Daria smiled back at her. "I guess you don't get that very often, do you? I left a salad and some homemade soup and bread. The usual things are in there too."

"That sounds about as perfect as it could get. Why don't you go on and get out of here for the day? I'm in for the night."

"Well, if there's nothing you need, I can go see my grandson play the tuba at school." Daria beamed at her.

"Why didn't you tell me there was a program? You could have planned on leaving early."

"No need, this works out just fine. This is first year elementary school band. It's a tossup how much fun it's going to be to listen to. But I'll go anyway."

Renata laughed at her. "It should be…interesting."

Daria laughed too. "That's exactly the right word. Okay, I'll see you tomorrow." And she was gone in an instant.

Logan called Renata later, before heading out to an appearance, and she spoke to him for several minutes. Even Logan couldn't make her feel bad. Things were finally going to happen, and the years of work and sacrifice were finally going to pay off. And Logan and all the rest of them were going to pay the price for what they'd done. It would never be enough, but it would tell the story for the world to see, and the people who had been betrayed the most would finally be known as the innocent ones. It was justice, and it was going to be stark and harsh. Finally.

Renata slept soundly that night.

***

Renata had half a dozen events and appointments to attend the next day, giving each one of them her full attention, as if nothing were changing. In two more days, Logan would be back, and then the axe would fall. She went calmly about her duties with Matt following her as attentively as always. Matt was shadowing her, and another guard stayed with the car, serving as driver as well as guard. She had a lunch meeting with several women from a local small business women's organization, which went extremely well, and then she left there to head down the street to an outdoor meeting that an environmental group was holding.

There seemed to be a little bit of a fuss going on in the small crowd that surrounded the platform where the speaker was standing, and Matt was on his radio, looking for information. As Renata got closer, the fuss suddenly grew more strident and she could see some shoving going on. Suddenly, so quickly that she didn't know what happened, a couple of people staggered in front of her and she was surrounded by people. She couldn't see Matt and felt a hand on her shoulder, then something on her face, and then she was gone. Matt was shouting, the driver was running his way, but there were people everywhere and no sign of Renata. All in all, it took a total of three seconds for her to completely disappear from her guard's sight. There was mass confusion in the park where she'd been a moment before, and any evidence was going to be impossible to find.

Before long, there was mass confusion all over Washington, especially at Logan's campaign headquarters and office. There were women crying and men shouting over each other, police officers had been dispatched, and reporters were already starting to show up. George Russell rushed in a few minutes later and let out a roar, adding to the hysterical confusion.

"What the hell is going on here?" he bellowed. "I want some calm, right now!" Shocked, the roomful of people actually quieted a little. "Who's in charge here? Right here, right now, in charge of the campaign?"

A harassed-looking redheaded man stepped forward. "I'm Doug Brate, assistant communications manager."

"Let's go into Logan's office and sort some things out. Is there someone here from the police?"

"On his way. Captain Lesko is sending someone. He's at the scene." Brate was relieved to have some actual information to pass along.

"All right. Put someone out here in charge of collecting him as soon as he gets here and put a couple of people on keeping the press away. Then follow me." George went into Logan's office and closed the door.

Brate walked in and said, "There have to be twenty reporters out there. This is a nightmare."

George Russell looked at him grimly. "This is the worst fucking nightmare you've ever seen. This is the next First Lady of the United States. We'd all better pray on our lives that it doesn't get worse."

Brate stared at him uncomprehendingly until his face dawned with horror at George's meaning. "Oh, God. No, that can't happen."

"You got that shit right. Not only is she the next first lady, but she's a helluva a good lady, all the way around. This country needs her. So get a real good handle on exactly how big this is. There can't be any mistakes."

Doug Brate was looking ill. The door opened after a quick knock, and a uniformed officer walked in. George looked at him with relief. "Baker. Thank God they sent someone good over here. What do you know?"

"Not very much, at this point. She disappeared without a trace, according to possible witnesses. Bystanders cut her bodyguard off, including his line of sight, long enough for her to disappear. Nobody saw a struggle or a weapon, nothing really suspicious, just the usual yelling and scuffling around. DC police detained everybody they could over there for questioning, but you know as well as I do that it looks like they whisked her right out of there."

"Son of a bitch." George leaned on the desk heavily as he spoke. "How could this happen? Okay, there must be something I can do. I can offer a reward. I can provide manpower if you need it. Publicity. What about publicity?"

Lieutenant Baker gave a short laugh. "Oh, I'm sure there's going to be plenty of that."

"Yeah, I guess you've got a point."

Baker asked, "Does Wakefield know yet?"

Doug Brate answered, "No, he's out on some appearance on a ship. They expect him back in an hour or so."

"I can get his crew and plane ready and standing by for him," George said heavily. "He wasn't expecting to fly back for a couple of days yet. I'll do it right now." He moved over to a quieter spot and got on his cell phone.

"You're the assistant communications director?" At Doug's nod, the lieutenant went on. "Were you in charge here while he's gone?"

"Yeah, Brian is the campaign manager and communications manager in one. He's with Logan."

"So do you have his full itinerary? I'll need that. Plus, all the schedules from what's been going on here in the office this last few days. I need personnel files, backgrounds, everything. What about Mrs. Wakefield? Who's her personal assistant?"

"She doesn't have one. I think she was getting ready to find one, but she hadn't done it yet."

Baker grunted and then asked, "What about her schedule?"

"She handled it herself, but Logan kept a copy in his office. She worked out of her office at home."

"Okay, get me that first."

"I'll get right on it," Doug responded.

"Doug. Doug, right? Do it yourself. Don't let anyone else help with it."

"Yes, sir. I'm going out on the floor first and pick up everything that's current."

The officer nodded. "That's good thinking."

Doug stepped over to Logan's desk and looked through the papers on top, selecting one to hand to the officer. Then he hustled out onto the floor to gather all the current notes and schedules and lists of tasks. Baker looked over the schedule for Renata's week carefully, but there was nothing unusual there. Most of the people she was meeting with were well known, like the governors' wives. He took a picture of the schedule and sent it to Captain Lesko, so that he could go over it with Renata's guard and driver. Dozens of people worked frantically for information that would help them rescue the beloved future first lady.

The clock kept ticking and the private phone in Logan's office began to ring. Doug stared at George Russell, scared to death. "How am I going to tell him this?"

George gave him a withering look and then waved him out of the office. "Close the door. I'll do it."

Doug Brate scurried out without a backward glance, and George picked up the phone. "Logan. You need to get back here. Renata is missing." There was shocked silence before Logan responded. "I mean, she was apparently taken from a crowd of people today. We're working on finding her, but right now there's not much to go on. There was a scuffle and some people got between her and her guard, and just a second later, she was gone."

Logan was half panicked and half disbelieving. "How? How could this happen?"

George lowered his voice. "Listen, I've got your plane ready and waiting. Get back here and we'll go over everything. Maybe we'll know a little more by the time you get back here. And, Logan. Think carefully about Renata on your way back. Has everything been all right? Has she been acting normal? Does she have a reason to want to get away?"

Logan blew up and George held the phone away from his ear a little, waiting patiently for the storm to subside.

"Just think about it on your way back. We can't have any more problems now. I need to know everything you know. You understand me?" A moment later, he hung up the phone with a grim little smile. Now the waiting would begin.

***

Renata stirred a little then lay still. A minute later, she stirred again. She moved her head and moaned with the sensation it caused. She slowly opened her eyes a little, then she squeezed them shut again. She felt like she was suffering from a terrible hangover. When she opened her eyes again, she was hit by a wave of dizziness, even though she was lying down. She struggled to understand what had happened and realized that she didn't know where she was or how she'd gotten there. She carefully wiggled her fingers and toes, checking for pain or injury. Other than her pounding head, she seemed to be okay. Finally, she opened her eyes again and looked around her. She was in a small bedroom, simply furnished with a bed, dresser, and chair. There was a bottle of water on the single nightstand.

Hit with a sense of urgency, Renata pushed herself to sit up and swing her legs over the side of the bed. She sat still, until her head cleared, then opened the bottle of water and drank thirstily. She opened the drawer in the nightstand and found only a box of tissues. As soon as she could get to her feet, she crossed the room to the door and found it locked. Another door led to a small bathroom and there was also a closet, empty except for an extra pillow and blanket. She searched the bathroom and found nothing that could be useful to her as a weapon. She checked her jacket pockets and, of course, her phone was gone. A shudder of dread crawled down her spine and she forced herself to gather her strength. There was a window; when she went to it, she discovered that there were bars on the outside of it and a large bush growing in front of it, successfully blocking any view there might have been. The most she could discover from looking out was that it was still light outside.

Renata searched the room again, looking into each dresser drawer, behind the furniture, under the bed, under the bathroom sink. There was nothing she could use and nothing she could learn about where she was. She sat down in the chair, checking under the seat cushion first, and tried to think. But she had nothing to work with, so she retraced the events that led up to the time when she'd apparently been knocked out and taken. She remembered the hand on her shoulder and then the touch on her face and had a memory of an odd smell. They must have drugged her and carried her away. She remembered Matt yelling her name and people jostling around her, causing her to lose sight of her guard. Matt must have been frantic, and she felt bad, knowing that Logan was going to blame him for everything. She settled down to carefully examine the events of the past few days, searching for any clues that might help her. And to wait.

***

Gabe put away his fishing pole and got into his truck. He'd had a day to kill and had felt the need for some relaxation, some peace and quiet. He took his phone out of the console and saw that it was blinking. There were several missed text messages from Jacques and then more from Lee. He called Lee immediately.

"Gabe, where the hell are you?" Lee's voice was tense. "Have you seen the news?"

"No, I was fishing, and I left my phone charging. What's wrong?"

"Renata's missing," Lee said shortly. "We've got to stop everything; we can't move until we find her."

Gabe felt like he'd been dropped into some kind of alternate universe. "What do you mean, she's missing? What happened? Keep talking, I'm headed your way." His tires threw gravel as he took off, racing toward Lee's house.

"She was making an appearance at an environmentalist's rally, people started jostling around. They blocked her guard's view, and then she was just gone. Everything's gone crazy. Cops are on the scene, but you can imagine what it's like."

"Fuck, fuck, fuck!" Gabe pounded his fist on the steering wheel as he tore through the gate at Meadowbrook. He leaped out of the truck in front of Lee's house and ran up the walk to the door, where Lee was waiting.

Lee said in clipped tones, "We need to act fast. First things first; we have to make sure we stop everyone who was getting ready to move. We don't know who has her or what they're up to, but we have to assume that it's connected with what we're doing. Have you talked to Jacques yet?"

"No, I'll do it right now. He's the most organized part of this whole operation. He has a plan to shut it down if needed." Gabe got Jacques on the phone and spoke to him for several minutes.

"Okay, he's on it. Nothing will go another step forward."

"Good. Now we need to figure out who to look at. Logan is on his way back to Washington. A whole lot of people stood to benefit from stopping us. If that's what this is, then we've got a long list of possible suspects. On the other hand, it could be something entirely different." Lee rubbed a hand over his face.

Gabe looked hard at him. "But you don't believe that."

"No. I think that somehow someone got suspicious and this is to stop us. Maybe they don't know the details, but they know something."

"It has to have something to do with the guy who took Jacques and Renata's picture that day. But how the hell did he get suspicious in the first place? The photographer was probably sent to watch for them and get the picture. Who sent him?"

Jo rushed into the room, her face as white as a sheet. "Lee! Renata…what happened to her?"

Lee put his arms around his wife and held her. "We don't know yet. But we're going to find out."

The tears were rolling down her face. "What do you need? What can I do?"

"Can you call Renata's trainer, talk to her and her husband? See if they know anything at all, even if it doesn't seem important."

"Yes, of course. Renata introduced me to both of them, over the phone, to make sure we were familiar with each other for when the time came for her to get away. I should talk to Maggie, too; she's Renata's personal shopper and she was part of the circle too."

Lee was impressed. "That's good. If they have anything at all that you think needs to be checked out further, let us know right away. What about the housekeeper?"

Jo shook her head. "Renata loves her dearly, but she didn't confide any of this to her because she had to interact with Logan too closely. Renata didn't want her to know anything that she would have to keep secret."

"Good. If you can take care of that, it'll be a real help." Lee kissed his wife's forehead and said, "We're going to find her."

"Yes. You are." Jo wiped away her tears and walked away with a straight spine to make her phone calls. Sometime later, Jo returned. "I didn't get anything from Maggie, but Bree's husband, Jackson, said that he gave Renata some information about Elaine Howard. She felt that Elaine had some kind of connection with Logan from back a long time ago, and she wanted to find out exactly what it was. Jackson told Renata that Elaine's assistant, Mallory Bishop, would know more about her boss than anyone else. He said that this Mallory has a thing for good looking men and if someone like that got her drinking, she might give out something useful."

Gabe was staring at her. "That's right. Jacques approached her and got her drinking and dancing. She finally took him back to her place one night. We need to get Jacques here as soon as he has everything under control. We should get this story exactly right. I'll call him."

Jacques promised to be there within a couple of hours, and Jo decided to keep herself busy in the kitchen. These guys were going to have to eat and she could handle that.

***

Logan came down the steps from the plane and went straight to George Russell's car. The rest of his staff went with Brian back to the campaign headquarters or home, depending on who they were. Brian would be at the office later, and after looking at the notes that were left on the desk, he sent those who were left home. The words were spilling out of Logan's mouth before he even got all the way into the limo.

George raised a hand to stop him. "I know you're worried, but we'll find her. We've got the very best looking for her, looking for clues."

"How could this happen? What the fuck were her guards doing? How could they let this happen?" Logan was nearly incoherent with worry and fury.

"Logan, calm down. This isn't helping anything. It looks like it was very well planned and well executed. They did an expert job of cutting off Matt's line of sight and separating them. And they had her out of there in a matter of seconds. There's literally nobody who saw anything. The guards were doing their jobs. In hindsight, there needed to be more guards surrounding her. But it would have been pretty difficult to get Renata to agree to that, wouldn't it?"

Logan knew he was right. He was sick at the thought of his wife in the hands of strangers, subjected to God only knew what. She was his. He couldn't bear the thought of anyone else touching her. Everything he had always wanted had been almost within his grip, and now everything was teetering on the edge of a precipice.

"Logan, do you have any idea of how the American voters are going to gather around you now? They idolize Renata; this is the hottest subject in the country tonight. There is nothing more important to the entire country tonight. We need to get you ready to talk to them. When they see how it's tearing you apart, how brave you are to keep going, surviving this, they're going to love you even more. This is a terrible thing that's happened, but we need to use it to your advantage."

Logan was staring at him as if he'd grown a second head. "That's sick! She's my wife! She's everything." His voice broke.

"Yes, she is," George said calmly. "And the people are going to rally around you in sympathy and support. We're going to move everything we have to so we can bring her home safely. But you can't waste the support of the people. This is going to put your election in the bag if you handle it right."

Logan's belly crawled with revulsion, but the logical side of his brain told him that George was absolutely right. He would be stupid if he let the advantage slip away from him. This was right up his alley, to garner the sympathy of the voters. He knew how to talk to people this way. They would be putty in his hands when he was done. A thought occurred to him and his eyes narrowed as he looked at George.

"Did you do something? Do you know more about this than you're saying?" Logan asked suspiciously.

"Don't be ridiculous. Do I look stupid to you, Logan? Just because I want you to make the right moves now doesn't mean I had anything to do with your wife's disappearance. I'm going to give you a break here because I know how upset you are, but don't you ever say anything like that again. I'll walk away from you and withdraw every bit of my support if you do."

Logan looked stunned, and then he slumped back against the car seat. "I'm sorry," he said miserably. "I just can't believe this is happening. What if they've done something to her?"

George poured him a stiff drink and poured one for himself too. "Don't even think something like that. You've got to have faith that we'll find her, and we'll find her safe."

Logan took the drink and tossed half of it back in one shot. "What do I do?"

"First of all, you need to know that the FBI has searched the penthouse for clues. Your phone is bugged and they're monitoring it. I'd prefer to have you come and stay at my house, but they want you there in case someone makes contact. Your housekeeper was there all day and didn't get any calls from anyone. And she kept an eagle eye on them while they searched. She wasn't about to let them mess anything up. We're going to get you out of the office every day so that you can be home by six. The housekeeper will stay each day until you get here."

"Okay." Logan was numb as he thought about spending a night there alone without Renata.

"Tomorrow, we'll get you ready to speak to the public and the press. Tonight, get some rest. You're going to need to be sharp."