Chapter 8

Renata was waiting in a booth in a small town diner. She had slipped away from her bodyguards and made the short walk to a parking garage where her personal trainer, Bree, kept her car. Bree had handed her the keys without a single question. Renata gave her a quick hug of thanks and went on her way. Renata was dressed in dark, plain clothes, with her hair tucked up into a cap, and big, dark glasses obscuring her face. It wasn't long before the same tall, dark-haired man she had met at the coffee shop in the city joined her.

"Good morning," he said. "What's going on?"

"We have a complication," Renata said. She swiftly told him about the letter that had been left on Logan's desk.

"No idea whatsoever about who could be behind it?"

Renata looked frustrated. "No. If there's someone who's found out any part of this mess, it could be anything from a clumsy attempt at blackmail to something much bigger. Or, it could be that there's an investigation going on."

"We've never found any hint that there's any kind of investigation. Logan isn't talking?"

"No. He swears there's nothing, even well before we met each other. And, obviously, I know that's not true. So I don't think I'm going to get anything from him. He's not about to make any confessions. I need you to put out some feelers, see if there's any gossip, anything at all. I can't have everything ruined after all this work." Renata's expression was fierce.

"I'll do all I can. You could have told me this on the phone. Is there something else?"

"Yes." Renata handed a sealed envelope to him. "I need you to get this to our friend."

"All right. I can deliver it later today."

"Good. I'll be in touch. Thank you for coming out here." Renata laid some money on the table and rose.

"Be careful." The man watched her leave, tucking the envelope into his pocket. He stayed a little longer and then he left, too.

Renata wasted no time in getting back home. Her guards knew that, now and then, she liked to slip away for a little private time and they would keep quiet about it as long as she wasn't gone for too long. She returned Bree's keys to her on her way up to the penthouse and slipped through the front door to Daria's disapproving glare.

"And just where have you been, missy?" Daria stood with her hands on her hips, waiting for an explanation.

Renata hid a smile and said, "I had an errand to run."

"An errand! You ditched your guards again."

"I needed a little time on my own."

Daria sniffed. "Things aren't the way they used to be. There are a lot more crackpot people out there to be afraid of now that you're on TV all the time."

"I don't take any foolish chances, Daria," Renata said soothingly. "And everything is fine."

"I worry about you," Daria fretted. "And your husband was as nervous as a cat in a rainstorm this morning. He sure didn't act like everything is all right."

"Logan is under a lot of pressure," Renata said smoothly. "It just gets to him sometimes."

"Huh. Usually, he's gloating over how great his campaign is going."

Renata had to smile. "You have a point. He'll get over it as soon as he has another good debate performance. I'm going to my office; I've got some work to do since Logan is busy with debate prep today."

"Would you like a snack or a sandwich while you work?" Daria asked, wishing she could do more for Renata.

"Actually, a little fruit and cheese would be nice. And some water."

Daria brought a tray with a plate of fruit and assorted cheeses, along with a pitcher of ice and water and a flaky croissant. Renata worked for several hours, not realizing how the time was flying as she drew a timeline, filling it in with names and details from the information she had received recently. She felt cold as she looked at the story that was forming, the careful planning and the webs of influence that a small group of powerful people had created. It was even uglier than she had already known, reaching the highest levels of government of not just one, but two countries. It was suddenly much more real than she had ever felt it before, and she felt excitement mingled with an edge of fear sweep over her. She sat and thought deeply about whether it was time to take things a step further. She decided to sleep on it and look over everything once again tomorrow with fresh eyes.

Renata glanced at the clock and gathered up all of the paperwork and put it carefully and safely away. When she closed the office door behind her, there was no trace of what she had been working on. The assortment of newspapers was arranged across the project table, along with sheets of paper with campaign notes and personal notations. She carried the tray with her out to the kitchen.

"What have you been doing?" Renata asked her housekeeper with an appreciative sniff. The kitchen was fragrant with the aroma of something delicious.

"Logan isn't going to be home until late tonight so I made soup and bread for you." Daria bustled over to take the tray from her.

Renata gave her an impulsive hug and said, "You have no idea how good that sounds. How do you always know exactly what I need?"

Daria gave her a wink. "That's my job. And I worry about you. You work too hard and you get too little for it."

Renata smiled slowly. "I think I'm going to get a great deal for it. It's taking time, but it's going to be well worth it."

"Well, I hope you're right. I don't know why anyone in their right mind would want to be involved in politics."

"It's an ugly business, that's for sure. But someone has to do it. It's important that the people doing it are good people."

Daria gave a snort. "And that's what we have? Good people in politics?"

"We will. Change is coming."

Daria looked skeptically at her. "That's going to take a helluva lot of change."

"Yes. It is." Renata was ready to change the subject. "How are the grandbabies?"

It was successful, as usual. Daria launched into a description of her little grandson taking his first steps and had to show her latest photos to her boss. Renata was charmed by the little ones and just the tiniest bit envious of the simple love of family that Daria basked in. Well, maybe someday…

Logan called later that evening and told her brusquely that he would be staying at his office overnight. Renata smiled as she hung up the phone and realized that the night was hers to enjoy. She read while she enjoyed a steaming bowl of soup with warm, crusty bread and sipped a glass of wine. After her dinner, she checked for messages on her private phone and was relieved to find nothing new. She returned a couple of messages regarding political matters and then shut off the outside world for the rest of the night. Her guards were on duty and her time was her own. She ran a hot, fragrant bubble bath and poured a fresh glass of wine before she sank into the scented water with a sigh of pure pleasure.

When Renata finally emerged from the big, luxurious bathroom in her favorite nightshirt and warm socks, she felt like a new woman. She vowed that one day all her nights would be her own and she would spend them exactly as she pleased. Her phone was blinking, and she frowned at it, tempted to ignore it. Finally, with a sigh, she picked it up and read the text message. "Damn it," she muttered as she read the terse words, "Pick up". She went to her closet and got the other phone. "Shit, shit, shit." She answered it quickly, got a confirmation, and turned it off.

Renata paced and thought furiously. She had been summoned to a meeting the following day, and suddenly things seemed to be moving too fast. "Stop it, Renata," she said out loud. "This is exactly what you've been working for; you can't chicken out now. This is a good thing. Finally, things are going to come together." She felt the stirrings of excitement and suddenly the nervousness was gone, and she felt a cold resolve as she looked forward to the coming meeting. "You could be out of this hell soon. And people will finally pay for the evil they've done."

When Renata slipped into bed later that night, she thought sleep would be a long time coming, but she was wrong. She slept deeply and peacefully, knowing that she was ready for what was to come.

***

The taxi pulled to a stop at the curb outside one of a million glass and brick buildings, in a decent business neighborhood, not the high-powered top tier of businesses, but good, solid businesses. The street was busy with people coming and going, keeping appointments and carrying on their everyday work lives. Renata walked into the building, completely unnoticed, carrying a briefcase and wearing a business suit like any of a hundred other women. She handed a card to the receptionist and the girl escorted her to an elevator and keyed in the floor she was going to. When the door opened, she walked into a waiting area where another woman sat at another desk. Without a word, the woman picked up the phone, spoke briefly and listened for just a moment. She stood up and motioned Renata to the door leading to the inner office and opened it for her.

Renata walked in to see the long-haired man she'd met with previously. There was another man across the room with his back to her, staring out the big glass wall. It was a full minute before he turned to face her. When he did, her eyes widened, and she gasped in shock. "You! What are you doing here?"

Without smiling, he walked a few steps closer and motioned to a cluster of chairs. "Have a seat, Renata. We've got a lot to talk about."

Numb with shock, Renata sank into one of the chairs. "I'd say you've got a lot to explain." She was trying hard to recover her poise.

"Maybe so. More importantly, we've got to find out exactly what your goal is."

"My goal has been clear from the beginning. If you're the person I've been communicating with all along, then you know that. If you're not, then just what the hell is really going on here?" She was beginning to get angry.

The man swiftly said a few things to her that made it clear that he was, indeed, the unknown person she had been working with. Renata's confusion grew. "Then who are you, really? The person I met is not the person I've been sending messages to."

"I'm exactly who I told you I am. This is my job. I didn't tell you about that, but to be fair, it didn't come up, did it?"

"How could it? You presented yourself as a neighbor, just a casual acquaintance. I don't even know if you gave me your real name! Who exactly are you?"

"Renata Wakefield, I'm Gabe Fletcher. Pleased to meet you." He held out his hand with a mocking grin.

Renata regarded him grimly, ignoring the hand. "Start talking. If you don't have the right things to say, then we've got a big problem here."

"I've been working on the same thing you have for about the same length of time that you have. Every communication we've had with each other is the real thing. Our goals are the same. I want this unholy alliance taken down just as much as you do. Now we're close and it's important that we're working together. This is too important to take any chance of it going wrong."

"You can't possibly want it as much as I do. It's personal to me. More personal than you could ever know." Renata's eyes were fierce.

Gabe said smoothly, "I do know. And it's personal to me too. You're not the only one who's been wronged by these people."

"You understand nothing. I lost everything because of these people. Everything. Everyone. Whatever wrong was done to you can't come close to that." Her tone was bitter.

Gabe was silent for a minute. "Maybe not. But it still means enough to me that I will do anything to keep it from going wrong. So we need to be on exactly the same page. Agreed?"

"You're going to have to explain a lot more than that before I'm ready to agree to anything."

"Fair enough. I had a friend. The kind of friend you only find once in a lifetime. His family was destroyed by some of these people. I promised to do everything I can to bring them down and, once I learned what they are, what they've done, it was reason enough to keep that promise. I was introduced to our friend Jacques, here, and I set out to gather every shred of information I could find. You know the information; I've been sending it to you via Jacques. You know what I've given you and I know what you've given me. I'm fairly confident that we're working toward exactly the same goal. I brought everything I've learned with me and I assume you've done the same. We need to go over it all together, and then I think we'll be ready to set the final plans in motion."

"Who introduced you to Jacques?"

He studied her for a full minute. "Lee Bedford."

Another shock ran through Renata. She struggled to understand the enormity of what he had said. "Lee? Lee was involved with this that long ago?"

"Lee got interested when his time in the secret service was nearly over. The rumors were not as well hidden within the inner circles of Washington. He's not deeply involved, but it was important to him to know that something was going to be done, so he gave me the push I needed. The corruption is so bad, it's got to end. It has hurt too many people and it stands to hurt a lot more, especially if your husband gets what he wants."

For a moment, the hatred was naked on her face. "Logan can never get what he wants! He's got to be stopped. That's the easy part. He's left himself vulnerable. But there's a problem with whoever it is who left him the note. Was that you?"

Gabe shook his head, frustrated. "No. It wasn't me and we don't know who it was. It's an unknown, and that could be a problem. I assume Logan's still not talking?"

"No. He's not going to say a word."

"Well, have I explained enough? Are you willing to go on working together?"

She stared at him. "No, you really haven't explained enough. But it appears that we've been working together for some time already. I'm not prepared to start over, and I couldn't, even if I was prepared. There's too much we already know. But understand that I'm watching you. You'd better not fuck this up."

Grimly, he said, "I have no intention of fucking anything up. This is too important. Now let's look at what we've got."

Renata pulled out her paperwork while Gabe spread his out on the table. She felt as if she was in some kind of unreal world, still stunned at the fact that Gabe was the unknown man she'd been working with for all that time. She had to concentrate hard on what they were looking at to keep her focus. And yet when Gabe's hand brushed her arm as he moved around the table, she felt a tingle that traveled all the way down her spine to end in a long, warm pull low in her belly. Renata's face was flushed, and she gave herself a mental scolding, stepping away and forcing her attention onto the work in front of her. She managed to focus on what she was reading and discussing, but she still felt him constantly, as if he was just a little too close all the time.

"There are a couple of things that have been puzzling me, things Logan has been doing, and I need to know everything that he's up to. For one, he met with Drake Chambers a few weeks ago. Drake has never been involved with politics in any way, but now he's on Logan's dirty little list of donors. The notes are cryptic, and I need to know exactly what Logan threatened him with. Drake and Ashleigh are some of the best people I know, and I'd like to get them out of this." Renata was sick at the thought of Logan using the Chambers.

"Well, we'll all do our best to find out, but if it jeopardizes taking Logan down, then I'm afraid they'll just have to go down with him."

Renata looked at him bitterly. "I don't want that to happen. Understood?"

Gabe lifted an eyebrow and said, "Don't lose sight of the goal, Mrs. Wakefield."

If looks could kill, he'd have died instantly. Renata said, "There's something else. Logan seems to have something on Elaine Howard. He's very cocky about her, says he doesn't have to worry about her."

"Elaine Howard, the journalist?" That took Gabe by surprise.

Renata gave a short laugh. "If that's what you want to call her. She's a stone cold bitch, willing to do anything for a story, including shaping the story to say what she wants it to. She's already moderated one debate, and she's going to be one of the moderators in the last debate before the primary. That's going to be here before we know it."

"Is Logan having a fling with her?" Jacques asked.

"I don't know. I went through his office pretty carefully the other day and I didn't find anything about her, but he's got some kind of influence with her."

***

Gabe found himself picturing Renata and Logan together, and he was swept with a feeling of rage at the idea of Logan touching her. He had to stuff the anger down and remind himself that Renata was in the position she was in by her own doing. He had no idea what their private life was like and he had no desire to know. But it still pissed him off when he looked at her and remembered what she had looked like riding her horse through the meadow. He was suddenly more than ready to get this all over with. It grew uglier all the time, and it made him realize that he needed to be careful not to let his feelings mess up the work he was doing.

Jacques said, "What about that journalist you know, Renata, the one who's married to your trainer?"

"That's a good idea, Jacques, I'll get in contact with him and see if he can find out anything useful about Elaine."

Gabe said, "I'll ask Lee the same thing. He's still got a lot of good connections. Now, let's have a look at the note that was left for Logan."

Renata took out the copy she had made of the note and they studied it intently.

Logan, You think you're soon to see all your ambitions come true. You've been living the good life, setting yourself up to get everything you've ever wanted. Think back on all the things you did to get there. It's close, isn't it? You can feel it, you can taste it, it's almost yours. All those people you used to get what you wanted, they were just collateral damage, weren't they? Well, guess what? You didn't keep your secrets quite as well as you think you did. People know, Logan. The truth is going to come out, pretty boy. Your chickens are going to come home to roost, and it's going to be quite the spectacle when it happens. Get ready; the end will be soon.

Boom.

Jacques gave a low whistle and said, "That's quite a threat."

Gabe said thoughtfully, "It could be someone just messing with him, but it feels like more than that. We know Logan did things that could blow him out of the water, so it's certainly conceivable that other people know. In fact, it would be almost impossible for there not to be people who know. He couldn't possibly have shut everyone up."

"It feels real to me too," Renata said. "And that means it could be someone who could screw everything up for us."

"Does it really matter who brings him down as long as it happens?" Jacques asked.

"Yes," Renata said fiercely, "because they might not get the whole picture. We have the net around them all and I don't want any of them to get away. We can't have somebody jump in after Logan and let all those other scumbags go."

Gabe said, "I agree with Renata. We need to find out who this is and keep them from blowing the whole thing."

They discussed and argued and finally settled on a plan. Renata packed up her paperwork, checking the time, and said, "I've got to get going. Logan will be home in a couple of hours."

Gabe felt that rush of rage again and said roughly, "You be careful."

Renata gave him a scornful look and said, "Don't concern yourself about me. I know exactly how to handle Logan."

The rage only deepened at her words and the mental image they gave him. The thought of Renata naked in her husband's arms made him furious. He started stuffing his paperwork into his briefcase and forced himself to calm down. "Everyone, be careful. And keep in touch. This is a critical time, so we all need to be on top of things."

Renata slipped out the door, and Gabe walked to the window to watch her emerge from the building and hail a cab. The time to spring this trap couldn't come soon enough.