Darker After Midnight by Lara Adrián Read Free Book Online Page B

he usually reserved for those times when he was about to ask her to work the entire weekend or help him find a last-minute gift for some society function hostess whom it was crucial he impress. “Tomorrow morning is the charity breakfast for the children’s hospital.”
    Tavia nodded. “Eight o’clock at Copley Place. I sent your dry cleaning to your house and emailed your speech to both your mobile and your home computer before I left the office for the police station tonight.”
    She’d covered all the bases for him, as usual, but he didn’t look satisfied. He winced a bit. “I was thinking of making some changes to the speech. Actually I was hoping you might help me rewrite itcompletely. With everything that’s been going on lately, I haven’t had a chance to talk to you about it. I’m sorry, Tavia. And I know you’re probably exhausted, but can you spare me an hour or so tonight yet? We can work at my house, since we’re halfway to Marblehead already—”
    “I can’t,” she replied, the words tumbling out even before she realized she was going to say them. She’d never refused any task he gave her, but something about tonight—something about Bobby Clarence himself—made her instincts stir with an odd wariness. She shook her head, even as his look of surprise turned to one of disappointment, then cool disapproval. “I wish I could help, but my aunt is very sick. I have her medicine right here.” She reached into her purse and pulled out a prescription bottle full of white pills. “I’m afraid if I’m not there to make sure she takes it and has a proper meal …”
    “Of course. I understand,” the senator replied. He was aware of her general living situation—the fact that her aunt Sarah had raised her alone for most of Tavia’s life. She was the only family Tavia had ever known, and the fact that Tavia would drop everything to take care of the older woman was no stretch. At least that much was true.
    The Suburban slowed, crunching ice and snow under its tires, as they approached the little gray Cape with its neat black shutters, Christmas wreath on the front door, and cheery yellow light glowing from nearly every window. Tavia met the senator’s watchful gaze from across the wide bench seat. “I’m sorry I can’t help this time. I’m sure your changes will be just fine.”
    He nodded. “Give your aunt Sarah my best. Tell her I hope she feels better soon.” His mouth curved into a smile that might have looked sympathetic if not for the dark gleam of doubt in his eyes. “I’ll see you in the morning, Tavia. We can talk more then.”
    She opened the SUV door and started to climb out.
    Perhaps she should have bitten her tongue, but a question had been riding the tip of it since the moment they left the police station—a question that disturbed her almost as much as the ones now swirling in her head about the senator himself. In fact, it wassomething that had been nagging at her even longer than that … from sometime last week, and the instant she first laid eyes on one of Bobby Clarence’s most generous supporters.
    She paused outside the vehicle, pivoting to peer in at the senator. “How well do you know Drake Masters?”
    She saw it then. The slip in an otherwise careful facade.
    “Drake Masters,” he said, less a question than a demand. The senator cleared his throat and attempted to school his features into a mask of mild befuddlement, but Tavia had already seen past it. “What does Drake Masters have to do with anything?”
    She let the question linger and stretch out. She didn’t have an answer for it. Not yet.
    But she fully intended to find out.
    “I have to go now,” she said, and turned to make the short walk up to the house.
    Aunt Sarah met her at the door, dressed in a red velour track suit with a green Christmas-themed apron tied around her hips. Holiday music poured out into the night, along with the aroma of fresh-baked bread and cinnamon and something meaty