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Darci took a deep breath and spoke again. “Can you meet me for lunch today? Say in an hour? I want to help you, Tessa.”
There was a pause, and then she heard muffled voices as if Tessa were talking to someone in the background.
“I can't today. Maybe tomorrow?”
Darci switched to tomorrow’s view on her calendar. “I could make that work. If you give me your email or a cell number, I can send you a couple of restaurants to pick from.”
She wanted to meet her today because it was so easy for people to get cold feet when it came to reporting an assault, but she wouldn’t push Tessa. That might drive her away, too.
As Tessa said goodbye, her boss stuck his head in her door. “You have any lunch plans?”
She waved him in and shook her head. “Nope. What do you need?”
He handed her a sticky note with an address on it. “Go there and have lunch with Senator Atleigh’s chief of staff. Brad, something or other. I’m terrible with names. I was supposed to do it, but my daughter just called and needs me to pick her up from school. She went and got herself suspended.”
Darci chuckled. “Teenagers. I pray I have your patience when I have my own someday.”
Jim snorted. “If you’re smart, you’ll send them to boarding school.”
She knew Jim wasn’t serious. He was a devoted father who loved having a hands on role in his children's lives.
“Anything in particular you were hoping to get out of the meeting? I was just on the phone with a receptionist in his office, trying to get a meeting with Atleigh.” She might get that meeting after all. Talking to a chief of staff was sometimes as close as you could get.
“I’m organizing a panel for Georgetown, and I want the senator or someone from his office to be on it.”
Darci’s eyes grew wide. “Dear, God. Why?”
Jim dragged a hand over his face. “Because there’s a damn good chance this man will get the nomination from his party. It would be better to have a contact with his office already established.”
“OK, Jim. I can do that.”
He nodded. “Thank you.”
As she was walking out, her cellphone rang.
“Hey Carrie, what’s up?”
Her friend cleared her throat and didn’t say anything.
“What is it? I’m about to be late for lunch.”
“OK. First, we miss you at Exposure. I wish you would come back. Second, I wasn’t looking for this, I swear. And I'm not sure if I should tell you. But I feel like you deserve to know.”
Darci stayed in the lobby and waited for Carrie to spill. “Come on, Carrie. Now you know you have to tell me. Just spit it out.”
“Facebook suggested Kaden as a potential friend, so I clicked on his profile. It looks like he’s in D.C.”
Darci felt the blood drain from her face. “Fuck.”
“Yeah.”
She took a deep breath. “It’s fine. He doesn’t have any power over me and the court granted a permanent restraining order. It’s fine. I really have to go to lunch.”
3
BRADLEY Givens walked out of his office in time to see his assistant slamming the phone back into the cradle.
“Everything alright, Adara?”
