At the Pleasure of the President (The Perfect Gentlemen 5)

Sara sighed. “I wouldn’t know. I’ll go find my sad bottle of water.”

Gus gave her a grin. “Well, I did have the chef send up food. We’ve got all kinds of delicious apps and a whole tray of macarons.”

“You’re a lifesaver, Gus,” Sara said, pushing her way through the door.

Gus’s grin turned down as she looked at Liz. “Please tell me you’re not hesitating to spend time with us. We’ve been your friends for a long time. I know Everly and Lara are new to the group, but…”

“I’m not a wife or a fiancée. And I’m not pregnant with anyone’s baby.” In fact, Liz wasn’t sure where she and Zack were heading. When they made love, she felt so close to him…but she also sensed some hesitation on his part. Despite being with her—and on her—all the time, he still had some barrier up between them. She couldn’t pinpoint why.

“But you will be,” Gus said with a congenial pat on the back. “And since you two are constantly getting busy, it probably won’t be long before he slips up and gets you pregnant. Come on. Don’t you want to know what’s going on with the investigation? Trust me, the guys are downstairs right now, examining all the information they’ve collected, thinking they were so smart for leaving us delicate flowers out of the discussion. But I started planning this the minute I heard Everly was back.”

Trust Gus to be one step ahead.

Liz followed her friend through the door because she did have a couple of questions. “Why would they leave us out? Gabe took Everly with him to Moscow, right?”

A nice blaze burned in the gorgeous fireplace and, sure enough, a hearty buffet had been laid out. Since Liz had skipped dinner, she was grateful Gus had ordered enough for everyone.

At the sound of her name, Everly glanced up from her plate as she sat next to Holland on a couch that had probably been a gift from some past foreign leader. “Oh, he took me along but when it got the slightest bit dangerous, he started arguing that I should stay behind in the hotel room and do ‘research.’ I won that argument, by the way.”

“Those men are downstairs doing what they always do,” Holland explained with a wave of her hand. “Getting their stories straight. It’s an old habit that needs to die hard.”

“They used to do it as a way to stay out of trouble. Well, as much as possible.” Sara stood at the buffet, a plate in her hand. “Now they do it in an attempt to keep all of you out of trouble. Their words, not mine.”

Lara took the vodka from Gus and started pouring it into a shaker. “I’m used to it. Connor tells me most stuff, but I’ve decided to be serene about the whole killing thing. You have to love the whole man, and for me that means loving the fact that he’s good at assassinations. He’s promised me he only kills truly evil people and he uses very kind methods. Do you want a martini?”

Liz felt as if she could surely use one. “Please. Can someone explain how not talking to us keeps us out of trouble?”

Holland shook her head. “It doesn’t, but they think it does. I assure you right now Dax assumes I’m on our sofa cuddled up with a book, and when he comes home later tonight, he’ll give me whatever version of the truth they’ve decided on. It could be the actual truth if cooler heads prevail. Who knows?”

“Connor always wants to lay it out there,” Everly continued. “Dax usually votes with him. The others…always a guess.”

Lara gave her a serene smile. “I trust Connor to keep me in the loop. He takes care of the bad guys in a physical manner while I deal with them intellectually.”

Gus poured herself a Scotch. “Lara and Connor have a deal, and she’s never broken it. She didn’t follow him on his recent jaunt to South America like some of us would have.”

Sara sat, settling her plate on the table beside her. “Followed him? Why would you do that? He’s a trained operative. And don’t try to tell me he was some pencil pusher at Langley. We all knew he was a spy.”

“I didn’t,” Lara said. “Not until someone told me. I was blinded by love.”

“I would totally follow Dax,” Holland argued. “If he was going into something dangerous and he tried to leave me behind, I would be on his ass in a heartbeat. He’s been captaining a ship for years, not hunting down criminals and terrorists. And honestly, he’s taken enough bullets that I question his ability. I think he’s really the beauty in our relationship.”

Everly leaned toward her. “That’s what I say about Gabe. When was the last time my husband had to tackle a corporate spy, much less a real one? I did that a couple of months back, though it was more like I tripped over him because he wasn’t very coordinated. Anyway, they know the situation we’re dealing with is dangerous and they’re doing their ‘man feelings’ circle thing and figuring out how much they risk telling us.”

“But we can’t go off on our own,” Sara argued. “This is exactly why Mad claims he broke up with me and faked his own death. It’s ridiculous.”

“I agree that it was on the extreme side.” Gus sat across from Sara. “But I understand how he thinks. He panicked that night because he’s never had to deal with vicious threats, much less actual physical violence. It must have been hard for him. I remember almost losing Roman, and I would have done or said anything to stop it from happening.”

“It’s not the same,” Sara said, then went quiet as she sat back.

“I guess I can’t know, huh? I only know how it felt for me.” Gus glanced Everly’s way. “So what exactly did you and Gabe discover in Moscow?”

“That Russians are tight-lipped,” she replied. “We couldn’t get anyone to go on record, but we did learn there are several syndicates with close ties to the Kremlin, and yes, the Krylovs are one of them. We met with a member of a rival syndicate, someone higher up who Connor put us in touch with.”

Sara’s jaw dropped. “Gabe let you meet with a member of the Russian mob?”

Everly shrugged. “He didn’t have much of a choice. And Dusan was surprisingly charming. Not once did he pull a gun on me. He’s concerned about Krylov getting too much power. Apparently his group is more into oil than natural gas. Stealing it, that is.”

“What did he have to say?” Liz took the martini Lara had concocted for her, gripping the cool glass like it was a lifeline.

In a way it was. She couldn’t forget Zack’s hollow expression when he’d come to her the night before. It still haunted her.

What would you say if I wasn’t Zack Hayes?

He had to be. He was. No matter what came from this complicated tangle of political blackmail and espionage, he was exactly who she’d always thought he was.

“Dusan told me and Gabe that he’d asked some of the older men about the incident. None of them actually knew Natalia, but it was no secret the Kremlin often placed women—or men—in the households or hotel rooms of foreign dignitaries as assistants or domestic help. Often, the syndicates procured these people. We already know there’s a connection between the Krylovs and Tavia Gordon’s foundation, except back then, her mother was running the organization,” Everly explained. “Those ‘workers’ were really captives and sex slaves used to spy or gain blackmail material on the men and women whose households they’d been placed in. Dusan wasn’t at all surprised that we believe Frank had an affair with Natalia. Seducing him was likely her mission.”

“But did she have a baby by him?” Lara asked.

That was one question they were all desperate to have the answer to.

Everly’s lips thinned as though she knew what she had to say would disappoint everyone. “On the few records we were able to locate, the baby’s father was listed as Natalia’s husband, but who knows the truth? When we tried to track down people who had known her all those years ago to corroborate that possibility, we discovered they’d all died. Mysterious circumstances.”

Liz winced. Another damn dead end. That would kill Zack.

“I’m sorry.” Everly squeezed her hand. “I know it’s maddening, but Dusan says he’ll keep digging for us.”

Awesom

e. The future of the country might depend on a Russian mobster.

“Not to add to the problems, but we’ve had another potential one arise.” Liz hoped this was the right forum to talk about her concern. Zack hadn’t acted like he cared much. In fact, he’d brushed her worries off entirely. “I’m wondering if we should pull the interview Gus and Roman are supposed to give this weekend because Joy’s father showed up yesterday. He wasn’t very happy about the way Lara’s story made Joy look, and he threatened to fight back in the press.”