Page 88 of End Game

“Don’t handle me, Kayla. You know as well as I do that ever since Mama became governor the State has owned her. I can’t even get a clear answer as to what happened the night she was murdered.” She turned pleading eyes on her friend. “I want to know, yet I’m so afraid. I can’t count the number of times I’ve picked up the phone to reach out to you, only to set it back down.”

Kayla folded a hand over her friend’s. Her chest rose on what could have only been a fortifying breath. “I’ll tell you as much as you feel comfortable hearing.”

Ash’s pulse snapped to attention and he fought the urge to remind her of their agreement that he’d do the talking. But he sensed both women needed this moment. He would trust Kayla to know what she should and shouldn’t share and pray his faith wasn’t misplaced.

“Did she suffer?”

“No, it was over quickly.” Although her tone was empathetic, Kayla had tapped into her lobbyist persona for the strength to deliver the words.

Tears tumbled onto Linda’s cheeks. “What was she doing in the gazebo by herself? Where was her security detail?”

“She wanted to speak with me privately, so she sent her guards away.”

“What did she need to talk to you about?”

“I don’t know.”

“How can you not know?”

“She sent me a text, requesting to meet. I showed up, and—” Kayla struggled to finish or find the gentlest words; either way, Ash couldn’t stand watching her suffer.

“And that’s when the assassin shot your mother.” Ash’s contribution didn’t appear to have any impact on the woman.

She kept her focus on Kayla. “You have to have some idea.”

“We were working on several projects together, including her reelection. There’s no way to pinpoint which one she wanted to discuss.”

“Why don’t you pinpoint it down to the one where she was willing to put her life at risk.”

Kayla grew still, as if Linda’s words had cut through her, clear to her backbone and hovered there, ready to make the final slice.

When the lobbyist spoke again, her voice was low, raw. “I’ve tried. Believe me, I’ve tried. But I can’t even be sure Vicky wanted to discuss one of our ongoing campaigns. It could have been something completely unrelated to our working relationship.”

“Like what?”

A brief hesitation. “You.”

Linda pressed deeper into the sofa’s cushions. “Me?”

“I understand the two of you had a falling-out,” Ash said, reinserting himself into the conversation.

“Falling out? Who told you we’d had a falling-out?”

Her head swiveled Exorcist-style toward Kayla. “You?”

When Kayla said nothing, the pregnant woman shot up from the sofa. Well, more like hoisted herself to a standing position.

Ash kept his attention square on Linda. He couldn’t think of any reason why Kayla would lie to him about the governor’s relationship with her daughter.

Unless it was to cover for someone else.

“Ms. Krowne is here to offer you support, while I spoke to you, knowing your husband would likely be at work.”

He hoped his comment would direct her attention away from Kayla. When the woman continued to stare down her childhood friend, Ash decided to try a different tactic. But first, he needed to get the mother-to-be to sit or they’d all be standing in an awkward circle. Lynette Blackwell would’ve rapped the back of his head if she found him sitting in the presence of a pregnant woman.

He gestured to her spot on the sofa. “Please sit down, Ms. Collier.”

She placed a hand over her baby boulder before reluctantly doing as he requested.

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