CHAPTER TWO
Nick
It had been a long day and the last thing I wanted to do was attend an event where I would be expected to schmooze a bunch of strangers. But being a Senator meant that my free time wasn’t my own time. I had obligations that I had to meet, so I showed up to the event late and tried to make the rounds as quickly as possible so I could make an early exit. Naturally, I ran into Vice President Anderson less than five minutes after arriving.
He was grilling me on my upcoming vote on Bill 132 when I heard a woman’s voice over my shoulder saying, “Excuse me.”
Detecting the annoyed tone of her voice, I said, “I’m sorry, Miss. Gentlemen, let’s make some room.”
She froze and stared at me blankly for several seconds.
I said, “Did you need something?”
“No. Sorry.” She shook her head and started to proceed forward.
It was a narrow path in the crowd and she had to squeeze between us. I put a guiding hand on her back just as I saw a Secret Service agent jump in front of the Vice President. Another agent yelled out, “Gun!”
As the crowd reacted, the men around me bumped the woman and she stumbled. I caught her by the arm and brought her close to me as I forced us both to the ground.
“Stay down,” I said, keeping my voice steady.
I could feel the woman’s heart pounding against my chest. Her head was tucked against my chest when she said, “What happened?”
“Someone pulled out a gun. The Capitol police are handling the situation.”
“Gun? Why?” She sounded like she was in shock.
I tried to look around without lifting my head. “That isn’t something I can answer presently.”
“Did they catch him? If not, we need to get out of here.” She jerked away and looked around the room.
Three agents had pinned a man to the ground while other agents hurried the Vice President from the room. An agent approached me with his gun at his side and said, “Senator, I need you to come with me.”
We were taken to the elevators at the back of the hotel, passing a dozen agents that were scurrying around. They all wore the same grim expressions.
“Friends of yours?” the woman said sarcastically.
“They’re good friends to have,” I quipped. I actually did recognize quite a few of them from my time in D.C. “We’re alive, aren’t we?”
As we got on the elevator, the man leading us, whom I knew to be Agent Flynn, turned to the other agents. “The penthouse is unoccupied and this elevator is one of the two entrances onto the floor. I want two men guarding it at all times and two men at the stairwell. No one enters this floor without clearance from me, got it?”
The elevator doors opened and everyone moved into action. Everyone but the unknown woman I had just finished shielding from danger.
“Coming?” I asked.
She frowned at me. “I don’t think I really have a choice.”
Agent Flynn waved her forward. “You don’t.”
More agents milled about in the penthouse, talking on cell phones and making plans in loud voices. Agent Flynn pointed to an oversized couch on the far side of the room.
“Have a seat and get comfortable. You’ll be here for a while.” He hurried away without a backward glance, marching straight into the bedroom and closing the door decisively behind him.
I took a seat on the far end of the couch and turned my attention to the television. A woman wearing a dress that was just a little too tight was standing outside the hotel, reporting on the shooting.
“Why the big deal?” the woman next to me wondered out loud.
I pointed to the bedroom. “I think it might have something to do with the VIP hiding in the bedroom.”
“What VIP?” She gave me a confused look.
“Vice President Anderson is in there. He was standing next to me when the chaos went down and he was the first person escorted up here.” I turned back to the television, wishing that I had stuck with my initial instinct to skip the event. “So much for women and children first…”
“I suppose you expect me to thank you for saving my life.” She gave me an annoyed look that I was certain I didn’t deserve.
I said, “Did I say something wrong?”
“No, forget it. I’m still frazzled I guess.”
“Let’s start over,” I suggested, offering her my hand. “I’m Nick Moore.”
She laughed as she shook it. “I know who you are, Senator.”
“Nick, please,” I said almost pleadingly. Any hope I’d had that she hadn’t recognized me vanished instantly. “So you know who I am, but I still don’t know who you are.”
“Charley. Charley Tanner.” When I raised a questioning eyebrow, she continued, “It’s kind of a nickname. I realize Charley isn’t a typical name for a woman.”
“No objections from me. I like it.” I smiled for the first time all night. “I hope no one is waiting for you.”
“I’m sorry?” Her eyes widened.
I laughed. “That didn’t come out right. I just meant, you were on your way out when all this happened, so I hope you weren’t meeting someone or they will either be very worried or very mad.”
“Oh.” She shook her head. “No, I wasn’t meeting anyone. I was just going home.”
“Was it really so boring that you needed to leave before ten o’clock?” I tugged at the knot of my tie, wishing I could take it off.
“I’m not much of a socialite,” Charley said.
“So, what brought you to the event then?”
She hesitated for a second before saying, “You.”
“Me?” I coughed uncomfortably. That was not the answer I had been expecting. “Well you certainly are forward.”
She shrugged. “My brain is too fried to come up with a believable lie.”
“You didn’t come here to kill me, did you?” My joke fell flat as one of the secret service agents entered the suite and went directly to the bedroom door.
“I came to schmooze you actually.” She glanced toward the bedroom where raised voices could be heard. “I work for Eva Porter and Children First.”
“Ah, Eva. I know her well.” I smiled reluctantly. Eva had my office number on speed dial. “This is about Bill 132?”
“Your vote is key. It can make or break your future in politics. I’m sure you don’t need me to tell you that.” She had clearly done her research on me. “You want to be on the right side of this one.”
“And the right side is your side?”
“I know we don’t know each other, Senator, but one thing you should know about me is that I’m always right.” She stared confidently at me with her mesmerizing green eyes.
“Nick. Call me Nick.” I leaned forward intently. “Tell me something, Charley. Why this bill? Why do you care enough about this bill to come to an event hoping for two minutes of my evening to give me the same pitch I’ve already heard a dozen times?”
“After what almost happened tonight, do you really need a reason? Someone was able to get within a few feet of the Vice President of the United States while carrying a gun. Isn’t that reason enough?”
“No.” I shook my head. “It’s not enough. Passing this bill doesn’t guarantee that all the bad guys will stop finding ways to kill people. I’m sure you can agree with that.”
“Life doesn’t have any guarantees, but that doesn’t mean you give up and don’t do anything.” She was growing annoyed, but it was an adorable look on her. I had a hard time not smiling as she continued, “Look, people speed every day, but that doesn’t mean we get rid of speed limits. It’s safer to drive slower, so we pass laws to that effect. Bill 132 is the same thing. Yeah, some bad guys are still going to get guns but we should make it as hard as we can for them.”
“What about the Second Amendment?” I challenged.
“Stop. You’re not honestly going to argue that the Second Amendment was intended to protect a potential criminal or mentally ill person’s right to own an assault weapon, are you?” She groaned loudly.
“No, I wasn’t going to argue that. I was just trying to annoy you.” Now, I let myself smirk. “Has anyone ever told you that your nostrils flare adorably when you are irritated?”
“Has anyone ever told you that you are kind of an ass?” She smiled sweetly.
“Too many people to count,” I answered easily. I was enjoying our banter so much that I didn’t even want to check the dozen calls that I had missed while we were talking.
“Not that this hasn’t been a knee-slapping good time, but how long do you think they are going to keep us here?” She nodded toward the two agents lurking in the far corner of the room.
“No clue.” I have her a sidelong glance. “For a bit longer I hope.”
“Really?” She raised a surprised eyebrow.
I thought about all the drama that would play out the second we left the hotel and knew I would much prefer spending more time with Charley. “The real world waits on the outside. Plus, there’s the stimulating conversation we’ve been having.”
“I’d rather be watching bad reality television right now.” She smiled at me and I felt a strange flutter in my chest.
“We could bust open the mini-bar and get drunk if you’d like,” I offered.
“I like the way you think, Senator Moore.”
I lost track of the number of drinks after the third one, but I had no regrets. Especially when Charley asked the question, “What really happened with the fiancé? Did you get caught cheating?”
“Wow. That’s an extremely personal question.” I tried to act offended, but the alcohol had numbed my feelings. That was probably a good thing since I was still stinging a little from the break-up. For the record, I was not the one that cheated. “That’s not something I usually talk about on a first date.”
“This isn’t a date,” she said. “This is an imprisonment.”
“Drinks. Awkward conversation. Hotel room.” I ticked each item off on a finger. “Sure sounds like a date to me.”
“I’m beginning to see why you aren’t engaged anymore.” She finished her drink in one big gulp and we both looked up in surprise when the bedroom door opened.
Agent Flynn stepped out of the room looking frazzled. “You two are free to leave,” he said through tight lips. “An agent will drive you home, and we’ll escort you through the back exit.”
Agent Flynn took us down the same elevator we went up in, but headed to the back of the hotel as we exited. The main lobby was still locked down and swarming with secret service agents.
“You’ll be able to avoid the media this way also,” Agent Flynn explained as he led us in the other direction. “I hear it’s a bit of a circus out front.”
“I imagine there are quite a few clowns out there,” Charley said and I laughed.
Agent Flynn stopped short at the end of the hallway and pressed a finger to his ear, listening to whatever the mystery voice was saying in his ear piece. “Your car is here,” he said, pushing open an unmarked door.
A black sedan waited for us in the alley.
“No offense, but I hope we don’t meet again,” Charley said to Agent Flynn. He didn’t look the least bit offended as he opened the car door for her.
I checked my phone as Charley gave the driver her address. When she started playing with her phone, sighing loudly at what she saw, I said, “Glad to be back in the real world?”
“You might’ve been on to something,” she admitted.
“I know we don’t know each other very well, but something you should know about me is that I’m always right.” I smirked as I used her own words against her.
She gave me a reluctant smile. “This is me,” she said as we pulled up in front of her building. “Maybe I’ll see you around town.”
“Maybe.” I suddenly felt the urge to ask her for her number, but then I thought better of it. “Have a good night.”
She was almost out of the car when another urge hit me. “Charley?”
“Yeah?” She gave me an expectant look that I couldn’t read.
I chickened out again and said, “It was really nice to meet you.”
“Ditto,” she said, sounding a little shy. “Thanks for the stimulating conversation.”
“Anytime.”
As we pulled away, I knew that it wouldn’t be the last time I would cross paths with Charley Tanner. In fact, I had every intention of seeing her again.