She had been pretty far gone earlier, and while she had come back down before he took her home, sometimes subs still experienced sub drop several hours later, so he always liked to follow up with them to make sure they were all right.
His thoughts had just begun to drift back to the beautiful sight of her with his marks all over her body when his phone rang through his Bluetooth headset.
He tapped the button to answer, knowing that usually calls this late at night didn’t bring good news. “Alexander.”
“Dex. Tanner here.”
A prickle ran across Dex’s nape. He’d known his boss long enough to recognize the tightness in his tone. “What’s up?” he asked as he changed lanes, narrowly avoiding a collision with a teenager texting on his cellphone, not paying attention to the busy freeway.
“There’s been a development in your case, and I wanted to notify you right away.”
Dex’s stomach knotted. “I’m on my way to Kate Fretwell’s, so I’m glad you caught me now, so I can talk freely. What happened?”
“Congressman Fredericks was just shot in downtown D.C.”
Dex’s stomach clenched. Fredericks was one of the congressmen who had been blocking the bills that would funnel money to terrorists. Dex had reread the man’s dossier after his earlier call with Tanner. “Is he alive?”
A long sigh laced with frustration sounded from his boss. “Yes, but in critical condition with a bullet to the upper torso. By all accounts, even though he’s in his late seventies, he’s expected to make a full recovery. He’s a tough old bird. Survived an alligator attack three years ago in Louisiana on vacation.”
Dex changed lanes as he answered his boss. “I saw that in the newspapers when it happened. It stuck in my mind because it was such an unusual event.”
Tanner cleared his throat. “He refused all our attempts at security, but we had a shadow team on him anyway. They were able to neutralize the shooter once he’d revealed himself, but Fredericks was already down.”
Dex ground his teeth. “Now it remains to be seen if they will be content to let him recover in the hospital and miss a few votes, or if they’ll try to finish what they started.”
Tanner made a sound of agreement. “His wife overrode his protests and accepted full security for him and his family, so we’ll be able to protect him at the hospital and after he gets out. He could reverse her decision, but after talking to her, he would be either brave or foolish. I wouldn’t want to piss her off.”
Dex gave a small smile, glad the congressman’s wife was able to make a smarter choice than her husband. “One down and five to go, if the intel named everyone who is being targeted, which we can never be sure of.”
“I’m afraid so,” Tanner agreed.
The creaking of a chair sounded across the line as Dex took the freeway exit toward Kate’s penthouse.
“You said you were headed to Kathryne Fretwell’s. Any new developments on your end?”
Dex shifted in his seat. “No. I just need to maintain my Dom presence of caring for her after our first scene earlier. Also, this will give me a chance to talk to her about Fredericks, although I’ll have to be careful how I do it since I doubt the shooting has been released to the media yet.”
There was a long silence, in which Tanner would normally ask him more details about the scene he mentioned had happened earlier. But with everything else going on, Jason would most likely table his curiosity for later. “Keep me apprised. Tanner out.”
The line went dead, which was the man’s usual habit when he had a long To Do list and a lot on his mind.
Dex guided his car up to Kate’s building just as a red Jeep pulled away from the curb, leaving him a miraculous empty parking space. He slid into the space, careful not to park too close to the car in front of him. He had grown up in Phoenix, so he hadn’t had to deal with the parking and traffic situation that Los Angeles was well-known for. But he had heard enough horror stories from Brent and others to know to be careful.
He waited until there was a gap in traffic so he didn’t get plowed down, and then slid out of his car. A quick glance at the top-floor windows as he made his way around to the sidewalk showed several lights on, and the silhouette of a cat in one of them. He took the stairs two at a time, wondering if Kate was ready.
In his experience, twenty minutes for a shower and getting fully dressed and beautified, as his grandmother had always called it, was an impossible time frame for most women. His mother and sisters had never been able to manage it, no matter how often they swore they did. He made a mental note to call his mother this weekend for her birthday, and to make sure she had received his gift in the mail.
When he reached Kate’s front door, he knocked, and was surprised when the door opened immediately.