“Are you okay?” A voice that was heightened in excitement spoke.
“Get off of me! Get. OFF!” I couldn’t squirm my way out from underneath him. He was just too heavy. If I was going to die, I was going to go out fighting. I did my best to kick and bite, but it was just too hard to maneuver with his body all over mine.
“I’m not trying to hurt you.”
I growled. “Then get the hell off of me!”
A door slammed, and the screeching sound of a car peeling out of the garage followed. My chest heaved up and down as I fought to break free. Suddenly there was a flurry of alarms and activity all around me. The shattered glass must have signaled the Capitol police.
I couldn’t place it, but I remembered that voice. I peered slowly up into his face as once clear blue eyes now almost a velvet blue stared down into mine. Brody Windham.
I managed to stretch out from underneath him to reach my hands up above my head just enough to grab the gun as I wiggled out from beneath that solid mass of muscle. He moved just a bit, which gave me enough space to push him off and scramble away. I pointed the gun at him. “What do you want?”
He didn’t flinch just kept his eyes trained on mine. “If I wanted you dead I could have let whoever killed your bodyguard kill you. Put the gun away.”
I wasn’t going to put anything away until I knew he wasn’t the one trying to put a bullet in my skull. “If you’re not trying to kill me, how did you manage to be in the right place at the right time?”
Brody ran his fingers through his hair, he looked frustrated. “I saw you go in the office with Braylee Hinsdale. I checked the docket to see what committee room she was going to be in and saw your name next to hers. Then, I did what any man would do. I looked you up on the internet.”
That was plausible, but someone had just tried to blow my head off so nobody could blame me for being a bit paranoid. “That still doesn’t explain your impeccable timing.”
“Nothing impeccable about my timing. We just happen to be leaving at the same time. I was already heading your way when I saw your bodyguard go down, and then when the glass shattered I knew you were in trouble.”
“Drop it! Drop the gun!” The Capital police finally showed up. That was good. The guns aimed at us—not so much.
Brody put his hands up in the air. “Whoa. You’ve got the wrong people.”
“She has a gun pointed at your head. Pardon us if we don’t know who the bad guys are here. Ma’am, I’m not going to tell you again. Drop. The. Gun!”
Today wasn’t the day I wanted to spend with my father, so I dropped the gun.
Chapter 11
It didn’t take very long for the Capital police to sort everything out once they saw the video tapes. Still, they kept Brody and me in separate rooms while they asked questions. Thank the moon and stars, he was able to use his considerable connections to keep our names out of the media reports about the incident.
“Ms. Lee-Xiou, you’re free to leave.” Finally. The last forty-eight hours had been pure hell. I picked up my purse and jacket then left the room. Standing outside the door was Brody leaned up against a wall with his legs crossed at the ankles and arms folded across his chest.
“Are you ready to go?”
“Go where? With you?” He must be crazy.
“Someone just tried to kill you and failed. Do you think it’s a really good idea to head back to your hotel room or wherever you’re going on your own?”
He was right about that. I could always check into another room, but I would be using my credit cards. It would be too easy to locate me. Maybe it wasn’t a bad idea to go back to his place to plan my next move. First, I had a couple of questions. “Why are you trying to help me?” My suspicious nature took over.
Brody pushed himself off the wall as he loosened his tie. “I’m not the kind of man who can walk away from a woman after she’s been shot at, and as far as I know doesn’t have anyone to make sure she’s okay.”
Ever so slightly I raised my chin. “I can take care of myself.”
“Maybe, but considering I could have been shot and killed too, I think I’m owed some type of explanation. Let me take you back to my place. You can answer my questions and make your calls from there. It’s a win-win for everybody.”
I wasn’t going anywhere until he answered one basic question. “You never answered me. Why are you trying to help me?”
“I want you safe.”
Safe. What in the hell was that? I studied him very carefully trying to determine if he was telling the truth. According to Braylee, he was the money behind the politicians. That meant he had to have a lot of it. Maybe his intentions weren’t good, but they most likely weren’t deadly either. I made a quick decision to take him up on his offer.
If all else fails and I was wrong, the Capital Police had given me back my gun.
*****
Getting into Brody’s home was like
