“I know, but those screeners were looking for different things than I am. And they didn’t know what I know now.”
“That you think one of us could be a bomber?”
He flashed her a wry smile. “It does add a new wrinkle.”
Stacy dragged her gaze away from the dimple that had formed in Harlan’s cheek when he smiled and made a note on her BlackBerry to get the list of ranch staff for Harlan.
“I’ll also want to see your event plans each step of the way,” Harlan added.
She looked up in surprise. “By each step, do you mean-”
“I mean I want to know everything you’ve done each day toward throwing this shindig. Is that a problem?”
She frowned. “It’s a little control-freakish,” she blurted before she could stop herself.
Harlan’s lips curved again. “Maybe. But if I find security loopholes at this stage, it’ll be a lot easier to fix them than if we wait until the party’s half-planned, right?”
She couldn’t quibble with that. “I work from home in the afternoons, unless Zachary has a riding lesson. Then I work from wherever I am. But I can check back in near the end of the day.” Her mind was already racing to figure out what she could do with Zachary during the time she was supposed to be meeting with Harlan. Charlotte, Zachary’s preschool special ed teacher, was often happy to help out, but Stacy would never ask her to babysit every afternoon.
“You know you can bring Zachary here if you need to,” Harlan said quietly.
She looked up and found him watching her with a look of sympathy that made her feel like a helpless idiot. “That’s kind of you, but-”
“But you’d rather scramble around every day finding someone to watch him?”
She pressed her lips into a flat line. “I don’t want you to accommodate me. I don’t need special favors.”
“You need to give yourself a break,” Harlan said flatly. “And if it matters, I need you working at full attention, and you won’t be doing that if you’re worrying about your son.”
“I suppose that’s your way of saying you don’t think I can do both? Work this job and be a mother to my son?”
Harlan shot her a frowning look. “I don’t talk in riddles. I say what I mean.”
“I’m sorry,” she said. “And thank you.”
His frown faded. “I need to check in with some of my associates, so go ahead and make the calls you need to make this morning, and we can regroup after you pick up your son from school. What time will that be?”
“I pick him up around noon. I usually get him fed and settled down and then go back to work.”
“Perfect. We’ll regroup after lunch.” He gave a nod that she took as a dismissal. With a tiny sigh, she headed out of Harlan’s office and returned to her own, where a long to-do list taunted her from her desk blotter.
Nine in the morning and her head was already starting to pound from the stress. How long was she going to be able to keep juggling her job and her son’s overwhelming needs?
And what would be left of her by the end?
LILA LOCKHART DROPPED BY Harlan’s office around ten-thirty to check on how his first full day at work was going. “Is there anything more you need from me?”
Harlan smiled at the governor. “I think it’s just a matter of getting everything done at this point. Thanks for the files on your staff. It helped to have access to what background checks had already been run.”
“You didn’t find any problems, did you?”
He shook his head. “No. You have good instincts about the people on your political staff. Do you also hire your ranch staff personally?”
“Not all of them. I hired the foreman, and the head groom, Cory, has been with my family for years. Why do you ask?”
“Stacy said you don’t always restrict your political discussions to your office and the main house.”
“That’s true. I don’t,” the governor conceded. “Feel free to have Stacy round up a list of our ranch staff if you think they need to be investigated, as well. I’ll warn them what’s coming so they don’t become alarmed.”
“No, don’t do that,” Harlan said. “I don’t want to tip off someone if he or she is behind the bombing.”
He could tell she didn’t like the idea of screening the ranch staff behind their backs, but she finally gave a reluctant nod. “Speaking of Stacy, how are you two getting along?”
“Fine,” he said, wishing he believed the assurance himself. They’d started off well enough, thanks to the bombing, which had forced them to work together smoothly or else. But real life had blown that camaraderie to bits, and short of another crisis, he wasn’t sure when they’d be on solid footing again.
Damned shame, really. She was the first woman he’d met in a long time who didn’t remind him the least bit of his ex-wife. Alexis wanted nothing to do with kids, for one thing.
Like a fool, he’d thought she’d change her mind.
“Stacy’s an interesting woman.” Lila settled into the chair across from his desk. “Have you read her file?”
It had been the first he’d picked up. He’d told himself that, as Lila’s most trusted aide, she was the biggest potential threat if she was a traitor. But that was total bunk.
He’d just wanted to know more about her. What made her tick. What made her vulnerable.
What made her smile.
“What her husband did to her and that sweet boy is unconscionable.”
Harlan agreed. Maybe Stacy’s husband had other reasons for walking out of the marriage, but that was no excuse to cut himself out of his son’s life. Beyond the court-ordered child support he paid like clockwork, he’d had nothing to do with his son in over a year, if the background check on Stacy was to be believed. The assessor had made a note that Stacy merited close monitoring-not because there was any question about her integrity but because as a mother of a special needs child, she would be particularly susceptible to outside pressures.
In other words, someone might try to use her son against her in order to get to Lila.
It wasn’t an unfounded suggestion. He thought it might be a damned good idea to keep a close eye on Stacy himself, even if his motives weren’t strictly professional.
And now that they were working closely together, he’d have a built-in reason to do so.
“WHO IS HARLAN and why does Zachary talk about him non-stop?” Charlotte asked Stacy when Zachary’s kindergarten class let out at noon that day.
Stacy managed a rueful laugh. “I was hoping he’d be over that by now.” She explained to Charlotte about Harlan McClain’s visit the night before, including the way things had gotten out of hand after Harlan tried to correct Zachary. “I really thought Zachary would have forgotten all about him after that, but I guess he got over the scare and remembered how interesting he thought Mr. McClain was.”
Charlotte walked with Stacy out to her car. “Is he? Interesting, I mean?”
“He’s different,” Stacy admitted carefully. “He’s from Georgia, so he has that accent.” The one that made her nerves quiver just a little every time she heard it. “He’s a former Marine, so he’s got that G.I. Joe thing going for him.”
“Mmm,” Charlotte said with a grin. “Married?”
She’d assumed not, since he’d invited himself to dinner and then spent the next hours after that working at the ranch house office, but what did she really know about him? “I don’t know,” she admitted. “Does it matter?”
“Well, let’s see. Zachary’s crazy about him, apparently, and you’ve been blushing since I brought up the name. So, yeah. It probably matters.”
“We work together. That’s all. You know why that’s all.” Of the people in town, only a handful knew the full story of her marriage breakup. Charlotte was one of them. She knew the way Anthony had let Stacy and Zachary down when they’d needed him most, and she knew that Stacy had no intention of ever letting a man do that to her or her child again.
It surprised her, a little, that she’d let as much slip to Harlan McClain as she had. There was just something about him that seemed trustworthy. Maybe that’s why the governor had chosen him to keep her safe. If anyone could ferret out a person’s deepest, darkest secrets…
“They’re not all like that, you know,” Charlotte said. “Sometimes the guy is the one who gets hurt. The guy who’s the one left behind to raise a kid with problems.”
