Page 98 of Protected
Darci started to shake her head but took a closer look.
“I guess it could be. I only saw Theresa once or twice in college. When I knew her, she had long blond hair, but the height and weight are about right. I don’t understand any of this, Peter. Is this Kaden coming after me?” Theresa Holden was Kaden’s fiancée before he left school. Darci knew Theresa blamed her for making her fiancé leave school.
“I’m not sure I understand it either, Kitten but we’re going to get to the bottom of it. This helps. She was in your building the night it got broken into and she was one of the women at the pub who bumped into you according to surveillance footage. Maybe she’s working Kaden, maybe it’s someone else. Or maybe she’s working alone. We just don’t know.” It seemed like he wanted to say something else, but he didn’t. Instead, he planted a kiss on her forehead and stepped out again.
Feeling helpless, she buried her head in her hands. She wished she could know for certain if the woman in the photo was Theresa.
An idea came to her. In college, she had worked for the school newspaper and yearbook committee. At the time, they had been making the move to switch everything to digital, so most yearbooks were online. Maybe she could find a picture of Theresa. She frantically typed the school’s URL into the address bar. Within minutes, she was browsing the yearbook for her freshmen year. When she got to Theresa’s name, her face paled. She ran out of her office and found Peter.
“I’ve seen her in one other place.” Peter closed the distance between them and pushed her back into her office.
“Explain.” He was in all business mode now.
“At the benefit the night Marlie was killed. She was the coat check attendant. I didn’t see her at the pub, but I believe she was there. It’s Theresa. She looked different when I saw her at the coat check, but I thought she looked familiar. But now I’m sure it’s because I recognized her from school.”
“This is good, Kitten,” Peter said. He squeezed her shoulders and planted a kiss on her forehead. “I’m going to update Michael.”
Just then, her phone rang.
The name on her screen made her smile. “Hi.”
“Hey, gorgeous. Are you OK?” Bradley asked.
“I’ve been better. It’s good to hear your voice.”
“Have you checked out the news today?”
She hadn’t and told him as much. “I just haven’t been up to reading about Elise yet. Is there something I need to see?”
“Unfortunately, my connection to Elise, you, and the lifestyle has come out. It hasn’t hit national news yet, but it’s all over the local gossip blogs and newspapers.”
She closed her eyes. They had known this day would come.
“I’m sorry, Bradley. Does the senator know?”
“Yep. Confronted me about it as soon as I got to the office. He was oddly understanding. He swears he won't fire me. Mostly because he thinks if he does, I’ll go work for my dad.”
Darci laughed. “Well, maybe he’s smarter than I give him credit for then.”
“For now, I’m just staying out of the spotlight. I was about to resign as chief of staff and step up as campaign manager, but we’re going to name a deputy campaign manager instead and wait on that for a few weeks. The good news is that means I won’t be traveling with the campaign for a while.”
“I’m so sorry, Bradley. I know you like being on the trail. I don’t like the idea of doing anything to help Atleigh, but I’ll do whatever I can to help you. I’m sure my name is all over the papers today too. Lucky for me, I have bodyguards to keep the reporters at bay.”
They spoke for a few more minutes and she relayed the information about Tessa before Darci hung up and got back to work. She finally convinced herself to read some of the articles floating around. So far it wasn’t a major story, but it wouldn’t be long.
As she read, it occurred to her that Bradley’s parents would know about his involvement in all of this. She wondered how they would feel. They seemed open-minded, but they were still parents who probably didn’t want that many details about their son’s sex life.
Toward the end of the day, she e-mailed Bradley with a few ideas. Instead of distancing himself from the lifestyle, perhaps he needed to go a different route. Maybe she could talk Atleigh into attending a fundraiser for the ACSL with Bradley in attendance as the keynote speaker. She highly doubted the man would go for it. In the senator’s mind, the ACSL was a vile group that wanted to decriminalize prostitution and encourage everyone to be gay. It just wouldn’t do for the Republican front-runner to be associated with such an organization. She rolled her eyes just thinking about it.
Bradley picked her up from work at six. Rather, Bradley and four bodyguards picked her up from work, but Bradley was the only one she cared about. “I feel like the damn president with a motorcade with all this fucking security,” she whispered to him in the backseat.
“I heard that, Kitten. We had a deal.” Peter spoke from the front passenger seat in a disapproving tone. Darci blushed and cringed. How would Bradley react to Peter using his nickname for her along with his “Dom” voice? Turns out it didn’t faze Bradley at all. He just quirked an eyebrow up at her in clear agreement with the man in the front seat. She sighed. After the conversation this morning, she should have known there would be no winning with these two. At least Michael wasn’t here also.
“Sorry, Peter. I’m just tired, and I hate being smothered.”
“I know baby, but I would rather you be a little smothered than have you be dead.” This time it was Bradley that spoke. His words made her grimace. He was right, and she was rather fond of not being dead herself.
“So, what did you think of asking Atleigh to do something with the ACSL?” she asked, trying to shift the topic away from murder.
