“Are you quite finished telling me what I’m going to do?”
“No, you have to promise to protect Jessica. The President put you here because you needed to be kept safe. I don’t want any of the flak surrounding you to impact her.”
“Is that all?”
“For now.”
“Good. Then I’ll race you back to the gatehouse.” He looked back over his shoulder. “And this time you won’t win, Melissa.”
He hadn’t promised anything, but she hadn’t really counted on it. It was enough that he knew what she expected of him. “It won’t bother me.” She started after him. “I’ll just work on it.”
I’ll just work on it.
Travis stood in the doorway and watched Melissa race up the drive. That single sentence seemed to sum up Melissa Riley. Courage in adversity and a determination to have her own way no matter what it took. On the other hand, maybe that sentence didn’t encompass her entire personality. He’d never seen anyone with such glowing vitality. In her book Jessica had talked about the first months after Melissa had come back. Not only had her sister displayed a superior intelligence, she had also shown an insatiable thirst for life, which Jessica had attributed to the desire to make up for lost time. She’d said she expected the effect to dwindle after a few years.
Well, those few years had passed and he had an idea Jessica had been wrong. Melissa Riley was a firecracker and more complex than any of them might be able to imagine. Jessica had bargained and handled him with reason and maturity. Melissa hadn’t tried to bargain. She’d analyzed his character and then thrown down a challenge . . . and a threat.
How phenomenally well she’d read him in such a brief encounter.
Interesting . . .
“What were you doing down by the pond with Travis?” Jessica’s voice was disapproving. “Not a good idea, Mellie.”
“He’s not off limits anymore.” Melissa grinned over her shoulder as she started up the stairs. “And he’s more interesting than I first thought. He’s very bright, and intelligence is mega-sexy.”
“The President may have said he’s not off limits, but I didn’t. For God’s sake, he’s a criminal.”
“And you want me to find a lawyer or a doctor or maybe a computer executive. What about a banker?”
“Sounds good to me.”
Melissa smiled. “Okay, I’ll look for one the minute I go back to school.”
“I’m not joking, Mellie.”
“I know you’re not. You think I need a stabilizing influence. You’re probably right. Stop worrying, I didn’t ask him to go to bed with me. We just took a little run together.”
Jessica moistened her lips. “I didn’t think you— I wouldn’t ask you to tell—”
“But I’ll tell you anyway.” Her smile faded. “I’d never do anything to cause you concern. If you don’t want me to go running with Travis, it stops right here.”
“And you think I’m a nosy bitch.”
“I think you love and care about me. And not running with him is no great loss. Our little jog couldn’t have been more casual.”
“It didn’t look casual. It looked damned intense.”
And it had felt intense. For the few minutes they were running together, Melissa had been aware of a weird sense of intimacy. And when they had been talking at the pond, she had almost felt the sparks, the undercurrent, that lay beneath every word. It had been . . . exciting. He had been exciting.
Well, danger was always exciting, but Travis could become an enemy in a heartbeat.
So? Playing games with the enemy was stimulating too.
Still, that didn’t make it the best option to choose in this circumstance. She started back up the stairs. “Nah, it’s definitely the banker for me, Jessica.”
Amsterdam
“Something very interesting is happening,” Provlif told Deschamps over the phone.
“You found Cassie Andreas?”
“No, but while my CIA contact was nosing around trying to locate her, he stumbled on another bit of information. Andreas sent Air Force One on a hush-hush trip to Amsterdam a few weeks ago.”
“Carrying his daughter?”
“No, it was a retrieval. They picked up Michael Travis and brought him to Andrews Air Force Base.”
“Travis?” Deschamps was puzzled. It didn’t fit with the information he’d gathered. “The CIA captured him?”
“They picked him up and delivered him to the President. They left together for an unknown destination.”
“You’re sure?”
“My source in the CIA is impeccable.”