Smoke and Sin (The Perfect Gentlemen 4)

“Ellen told me this place used to be her grandfather’s farm. It’s where her mum grew up, but it went under long ago since it’s too small to truly be lucrative. Her mother hadn’t lived there in years, and then Ellen held on to it for sentimental value. Now she’s leaving her cottage and the farm to a pet rescue society.” Gus turned to him and teased, “What if Ellen’s already turned the farm into some feral cat sanctuary. Maybe we’ll get a rousing chorus of hungry meows.”

He shuddered at the thought. “Why don’t you go into the barn first?”

She grinned at him. “It’s good to know you have weaknesses, Calder. You’re terrified of affectionate felines.” She sobered slightly and looked back out the window. “I hope those tapes have survived the years. At least her mother claims to have put them in a locked tack room and boxed them to keep the elements at bay.”

He hoped that was true. “It’s sad that Ellen never even listened to them because she realized those very tapes had likely gotten her mother killed. I understand she was too scared to try. Might be the most common sense she’s shown. She seems like an otherwise odd bird.”

“She just wanted to be left alone with her cats,” Gus replied, her tone sympathetic. “I think she was tired of fighting, too. She’d seen her mom do too much of it, and knowing now that she’s dying herself… I suspect she just doesn’t want any more turmoil. Can you imagine what would have happened if we hadn’t listened to our Deep Throat and gone looking for Ellen? According to what the doctors told her, she’s only got another month to live. All of her property and belongings would have been put up for auction. What if someone else found those recordings?”

He grimaced. He didn’t want to think about how close they’d come to that happening. “It would depend on whether they realized who was talking. If they figured out the psychiatric patient was the president’s mother, we might have been facing a media nightmare. We could have been blindsided, and likely right before the election cycle.”

“Do you think Zack will run for reelection? I know it’s ridiculous to think about not running. He’s popular and has a great approval rating, but it might unravel this whole conspiracy if he announced that he’s going to be a one-term president.”

“Maybe. Or maybe whoever is behind this mess gets pissed and accelerates the timetable for whatever disaster they have in mind. Or they start offing the rest of his friends to show they mean business. After all, they threatened to blackmail us. Murder might be the next step.” Roman had lost a lot of sleep these last few months considering this exact problem. “These people have already killed at least four of Zack’s loved ones. I don’t think murdering a few more would bother them.”

It was precisely why they had to find out what the Russians wanted…and what dirt they had.

“You’re right. Constance, my father, Joy, and Mad.” Gus shook her head. “We have to find these tapes and help solve some of this riddle or the Russians will always have a hold on Zack. And if they don’t get what they want, they’ve already identified his weak spot.”

“His friends.” He glanced across the cabin at her. He needed her to understand why, despite wanting her back at the White House, he’d maintained distance between them. Last night had brought them closer than ever, and there would be no hiding that in the future. Her admission explained so much for him—why she’d avoided him for years, why she’d seemed somewhere between hostile and resentful so often. Now he needed her to understand where his heart had been. “This is a big reason I’ve kept distance between us lately, Gus. I wanted to keep you out of it. I didn’t want you too closely associated with me.”

She crossed her arms over her chest. “Well, you didn’t think through that strategy. You’ve said before that you want to protect me, but it feels a lot like you’re coming up with another excuse to push me away.”

“What?”

“Seriously. Your reasoning is ridiculous. You didn’t want me too closely associated with you? Fine. Let’s pretend that no one’s ever noticed how sparks fly between us when we’re in the same room. Let’s go with the idea that if you ignore me, you obviously don’t care about me.” She snorted. “That doesn’t take into account that I work for Zack and I was a damn bridesmaid at his wedding. I guess we could fix that by you firing me and banishing me from DC, but then we come to the final problem with your argument, the one tie you can’t cut. How exactly do you plan to fix the fact that I’m Dax’s sister? You going to convince him to disavow me, too? Seems to me that the Russians always knew.”

She brought up valid points, but that wasn’t the one he’d been driving toward. “I could never convince him to do that. And I’m absolutely not going to fire you. But I think we need to talk about what happens when we get back to DC.”

“I know what happens.”

His cell phone trilled. He glanced down at the screen. Connor. He couldn’t ignore the guy, even if his friend’s call was inopportunely timed. “Oh, I seriously doubt that. It’s something we will absolutely talk about later. Can you answer that call for me, baby? Put Connor on speaker.”

Gus did as he requested. “Hey, Roman and I are on the road. We can both hear you, so watch what you’re going to say because tender female ears are listening.”

Roman rolled his eyes. “Gus…”

Connor whistled over the line. “Damn, she sounds pissed. I thought you were supposed to be soothing her, not riling her up again. We have to talk about your technique.”

No, he needed the damn chance to finish explaining what he’d meant. But it could wait until Connor wasn’t listening in because some things should be private. “Don’t mind her. And don’t listen to her, either. You can say whatever you like. I’d just tell her later anyway. What’s going on, brother? Where did Kemp lead you?”

“That’s the problem,” Connor said, his tone turning serious. “I think the fucker managed to ditch me.”

Roman tightened his grip on the steering wheel. “Tell me you’re joking.”

“I wish I could. It’s hard to tail someone on these country roads. If I don’t give him a little space, he’ll make me in a heartbeat.” There was a sigh over the line. “I think he must have turned off somewhere a few miles before we reached the village.”

“But you knew where he was going. We told you he’d written down Homewood’s address. This is his only day off,” Gus argued. “If he doesn’t go today, when would he?”

“I don’t know, but I’m here at the hospital and I have been for an hour. He never showed, and he left London maybe five minutes before me. I’m going to drive around town,” Connor said. “Maybe I’ll spot his vehicle somewhere.”

“Don’t bother.” Roman would rather have backup. Roman knew he was a hell of a lawyer, but he wasn’t some ninja warrior. He wasn’t a trained CIA agent. If Kemp somehow got the jump on them, Roman knew he and Gus wo

uld be in serious trouble. “It doesn’t matter if Kemp somehow met with the staff at Homewood. He wouldn’t have found any information there.”

But if Kemp was, by chance, out searching for them, they could be in danger.

“Agreed.”

“Her doctor at Homewood recorded her sessions. We know the location of those tapes. They’re hidden in a barn off the main road. We have to beat Kemp there, get in and out and gone. You’re looking for a tiny place called Farrington Farms.” He recited the address. “You’re about twenty minutes away. Get over here. Once we locate what we came for, we’ll head back to London together. And if Kemp shows his face again, we bring him in for questioning.”

“Roman, why don’t you stop where you are, get back to London now? Let me go in,” Connor said, his voice deeper than usual.

“Because I’m sure Kemp is nearby, and if he’s figured out what we’re on to then he’s heading this way, too. We can’t let him have this evidence. We’ve lost too much and have too much at stake to give him any opportunity to grab those tapes. From what we’ve gleaned, this information falling into enemy hands would be catastrophic.” Gus sat up in her seat, pointing to the dirt road up ahead. “We just found the turnoff. We’re not far now.”

“I don’t like this,” Connor said. “I don’t like the fact that he’s suddenly missing and you two are out there alone. Something’s off. Deep Throat sent you here?”

“Deep Throat sent us in the right direction. By the way, she was a woman this time. I think she was wearing a wire and getting her cues from someone else.” She’d also said she had redundancies in place. What had she meant?

“Really? We suspected they were different, but I did not see that coming.”

“I’ll give you a full debrief when we get back to London,” he said.

Connor sighed. “I still don’t like this. Even less so now that I know where you’re getting your intel.”