Scarlett frowned and opened her laptop. “Hey, I just got something from Conrad.” Xander peered over her shoulder as she clicked on an attachment and Carl Sheffton’s details unfolded in front of them. She smiled and murmured appreciatively, “Nice job, buddy,” as she perused the contents.
When she was finished, she turned to Xander who mirrored her quizzical expression. “Was that the most sanitized, bullshit background detail you’ve ever read?”
Xander nodded, agreeing. “Not even a single parking ticket. Is this guy for real?”
“No one is that squeaky clean. Not even politicians with big dreams.”
“I don’t trust perfect people because perfect doesn’t exist, which means someone went to great lengths to make sure anything unflattering or questionable was removed from his record.”
“Who has that kind of power?” she asked.
“You’d have to go pretty high up the chain to reach that level of access.”
“Like Secretary-of-Defense level?” Scarlett supplied and Xander had to agree it was a solid theory. She groaned. “Is it bad that I was really hoping we could get away from pointing the finger at the Secretary of Defense?”
“No, I was hoping we’d skate past that possibility, too.”
“I guess we’re not that lucky.”
He smirked. “Tell me about it.”
Scarlett leaned back in the chair, propping her feet against the opposite chair. “So how do we go about finding the evidence we need to take down the man in charge of the nation’s defense? It might be easier to prove that Santa Claus is real.”
Xander felt the flutter of Scarlett’s panic as if it were his own. The odds had always been shit but they’d just gotten so much worse.
“We could go straight to the source...”
Her eyes bugged. “Uh, no. Roughing up the secretary is not going to happen. For one, he’s going to have major security, far more than we can handle, and two, even if we managed to pull off getting information out of him, confessions made under duress are inadmissible in court. Not to mention, once we played our hand, chances are we’d be dead a few days later. If the man is willing to blow up a US senator, he’s not going to blink an eye at taking down you and me.”
No argument there. He moved to her laptop, gesturing, “May I?” and when she nodded and slid the computer toward him, he looked into the government calendar, scanning for any event the secretary might be in attendance.
Bam. Xander snapped his fingers and pointed. “Here it is—and damn, if our luck isn’t turning. Sheffton is going to be in attendance, too. There’s a preliminary hearing on H.R. 720 happening in two days’ time. That’s our best time to put some surveillance on the two and see if one leads us to the other.”
“They’d never be so obvious,” Scarlett disagreed, shaking her head. “If anything, they’d probably avoid any contact with one another so as not to raise any suspicion.”
“You could be right but we don’t have the option of turning our noses up at any possible lead.”
Scarlett nodded, even though he could tell she hated this plan. To ease her fears, he suggested, “We can have Zak and CJ take care of surveillance under the guise of providing additional security if anyone asks. They have the credentials. No one will second-guess them being there.”
“I don’t want to involve Red Wolf in this. Feels too dangerous.”
“Which is exactly why Zak and CJ will friggin’ jump at the chance to do it.”
She knew he was right. The thrill of doing something covert was like a drug to them. They liked the danger.
“Fine,” she conceded and reluctantly made the call. As expected, Zak and CJ were all in. While they worked the appropriate credentials needed to gain access to the federal building, Xander closed his eyes and tried to recall every detail from the night of the bombing, but from a different angle.
From Sheffton’s angle.
“You know, there’s a term psychologists use for people who say and do something and then attribute their actions and words to someone else...”
“Yeah, it’s called transference. Where are you going with this?”
Xander straightened, his gears moving fast. “We can both agree that Sheffton’s record is plastic as shit. His politics are also firmly planted in family values soil. If the rumors are true and it wasn’t McQuarry but Sheffton who was having an affair, it would serve Sheffton to redirect those rumors away from himself.”
“Yeah, a family values platform doesn’t usually leave much room for adulterous affairs with members of the same sex.”
“Exactly. What if McQuarry found out about Sheffton and threatened to go public with his findings? That’s some serious motive, don’t you think?”
Scarlett agreed. “I think someone who is willing to go to such lengths to ensure his record is squeaky clean is willing to go to any length to keep it that way.”
Xander thought so, too. For the first time since this nightmare began, he thought he saw a glimmer of hope.
Out of habit, he began to reach for his pill bottle but stopped. Scarlett caught his action and quickly looked away.
There was nothing he could say that would convince her that he was serious about going clean, and he got the impression that the more he insisted, the less she believed him so he said nothing.
Instead, he just showed her by his actions that he was serious and that meant going longer between pills, even if it killed him, because he had to start somewhere.
It was late and Scarlett’s eyes burned with fatigue but she didn’t want to stop, not when they were getting closer and the urgency was becoming more intense.
Rubbing at her eyes, she tried focusing harder but Xander took control of the situation and gently closed her laptop. She looked up at him with a frown but he just shook his head and grabbed her hand, saying, “Look, we’re both seeing double at this point. We need to get some sleep.”
She didn’t want to argue. In fact, it felt good to let someone else call the shots for once. Nodding, she followed Xander’s lead, quickly stripped and climbed into the bed.
As was becoming their norm—Xander’s arms closed around her and she snuggled against his solid warmth. His soft breath on the back of her neck soothed her nerves and she relaxed almost immediately.
“Do you have any brothers or sisters?” she asked sleepily.
His low chuckle rumbled through his chest as he answered, “Why? Are you thinking of trading me in?”
She smiled. “No, I was just curious.”
“No. I’m an only child. You?”
“Same.” She smiled wider, even though there was nothing remotely funny about her next quip. “Dad only got the opportunity to screw up one kid.”
But Xander got it and chuckled, too. “Same.”
“Why does this work?” she asked, too tired to guard her tongue. Everything about this moment felt wonderful, even if it was ill-fated. “We shouldn’t work. Nothing about this should work.”
“Yeah, I know. But somehow it does. And works pretty great, too. We’re a good team, Rhodes.”
“Yes, we are, Scott,” Scarlett returned with a sleepy giggle but there was more happening between them than seamless teamwork. She couldn’t imagine snuggling with Zak or CJ. Hell, she hadn’t even enjoyed cuddling with Conrad. Up until now, sex was fine but snuggling had been a no-go.
But being here with Xander, she couldn’t explain it. It was simply everything she never knew she wanted.
That was some deep shit.
Probably too deep to discuss in their current situation. Her mouth didn’t seem to agree. “Have you ever been in love, Xander?” she asked, very interested to know his answer.
She felt his deep sigh in her soul. “I don’t know...maybe once. It didn’t last. Couldn’t last. I’m just no good at that stuff.”
She could relate. “Me, neither.”
His arm tightened around her, as if to say he understood and he didn’t hold it against her. “Scarlett...” he ventured, hesitant.
“Yeah?”
“Can I tell you something?”
She stilled. “Sure.”
“It was never about just scratching an itch. I want you to know that.”
She closed her eyes, knowing what he meant. Scarlett jerked a nod to indicate she’d heard. When she found her voice again, she admitted, “It wasn’t for me, either.”
His entire body relaxed as if he’d been holding his breath until she answered. “Good.”
“Goodnight, Xander.”
“’Night, baby girl.”
She silently thrilled at the small endearment. In this moment, she wasn’t the badass TL, the ball-busting boss or the broken girl who couldn’t seem to let anyone in. She was simply his.
And no matter how messed-up their situation or how wrong it was to cling to something so fleeting, it felt right.
So right.
And she’d deal with her feelings later.