Page 32 of An Impossible Love
“While you’re there, you can do light duties,” Lucas gave her his best gimlet eye, “And I meanlight. No protective detail or physical stuff. At least a week.”
“But I can help with the investigation?” She looked so hopeful that both Duke and Lucas had to laugh.
“Yes, Agent Scully, you can help with it.” Lucas smiled at her, his eyes questioning. “Are you sure you don’t want to transfer to the FBI?”
Both Duke and Emmy made derisive sounds, echoing the rivalry between the agencies and Lucas tried to look disapproving and failed. “Okay, well, the car’s outside when you’re ready. The president wants to see you as soon as you get there if you’re up to it.”
“Of course, sir.”
Emmy excused herself to use the bathroom in her room and stared unhappily at herself in the mirror. A dark bruise was forming on her forehead, and there were scratches and cuts on her face. On her jaw, another bruise was already turning black. “Jesus you look like a horror story,” she muttered to herself, then dipped her head to splash water on her face.
In the car, Duke looked over at her. “Hey, you okay? Don’t mind telling you, there were a lot of scared people worried about you.”
“I’m okay. I’m sorry about Martin Karlsson. Underneath his rabid support for Brookes Ellis, he was a nice guy.”
Duke nodded. “Yeah, I think you’re right.”
“Which makes me wonder why anyone would want him dead.”
“What did you two talk about?”
“Just Max Neal and his time at Princeton. We know there’s a leak in the White House now, and I think… I think I might have a lead.”
Duke’s eyebrows shot up. “Who?”
Emmy hesitated. “Kevin McKee.” She waited for his reaction.
Duke’s shoulders slumped. “Em… you can’t be the one to… God, Em, if anyone found out that you were digging into McKee, they wouldn’t see an agent. They’d see a bereaved woman trying to find a reason to punish McKee for her lover’s death.”
“I know, I know, which is why I’m telling you and not Lucas. Help me, Duke. I may be way, way off the mark, but there’s a scholastic link between McKee and Neal, and I want to see if there’s more to it.”
Duke chewed this over. “Okay, but you know it’s a longshot, right?”
“I do, but right now, we haven’t got a lot to go on.”
Duke nodded, and they drove in companionable silence for a while before he spoke again. “Em… can we talk about the elephant in the room?”
“What’s that?”
“That dude, Tim…”
“Yeah. Zach’s cousin.”
“You two having a thing?”
Emmy didn’t mind Duke asking; it must have been so strange for him to be suddenly confronted with a man who so resembled his dead friend. “Definitely not. Tim’s become like a brother to me. I won’t deny that early on, there might have been a little mutual crush, but no. Just friends. And he saved my life, so there’s that.”
“Amen, sister. He seems like a really good guy.”
“He is.”
They smiled at each other. “Good genes.”
“Yeah, I think he and Zach got the lion’s share of the good ones.”
“Word.”
Emmy sighed as they drove. “Duke… do you think it’s a little weird that the president ordered an agent to Camp David for R&R?”
