Mac's Angels: The Last Dance: A Loveswept Classic Romance by Sandra Chastain Read Free Book Online

implication that she needed a keeper. “Stay with me? As in prisoner and warden? Thankyou, Mrs. Everett, but I think I’d better have a little chat with Mr. McAllister.” She stood and made her way awkwardly to the door, clasping the frame in an attempt to stand straighter. “Where will I find him?”
    “Please, Miss Lindsey, don’t do that. He’ll think I offended you. It was my choice of words, not his.”
    Sterling heard the dismay in Elizabeth’s voice and stopped. She was overreacting, a trait she’d developed along with her independence. Conner accused her of donning her independence like a coat of armor. Sterling Lindsey didn’t need any help. She had her life under control.
    But she didn’t. Not anymore. That life was contained within a building back in Virginia Beach, and she was a long way from home.
    “I’m sorry, Elizabeth. I guess I’m just tired. I think I’d like to try out that tub,” she said, “if you’ll help me.”
    The woman brightened instantly. “Good idea. I’ll turn on the water and lay out your things.”
    Mac made his way to his private office. This room was the heart of Shangri-la, its mind and future direction. And it was all stored here, in his computer. With a few whirls and blinking lights he was into files where no “civilians” were allowed.
    Being a law-abiding citizen was a given with Mac. It always had been. But he didn’t have time togo through proper channels, and in this case, he wasn’t sure that such an inquiry would be safe.
    Mac glanced at his watch. He had only an hour. Damn! Why had he asked her to have dinner with him? He should have put her in the regular complex. She’d have private quarters there and she’d still be safe.
    She just wouldn’t be close.
    Mac forced his attention back on his computer.
    In a half hour he had a picture of the senator’s aide. His name was Vincent Dawson, an orphan who had been extraordinarily successful. There was no record of any existing family members. Vincent came on the scene when he entered and worked his way through undergraduate school at the University of South Carolina. After that came law school at Georgia State University in Atlanta and finally a political role as a White House Fellow. From there he’d gone to work with Representative Abigail Gardner from Florida until she retired. There was a gap of a year before he reappeared as campaign manager for the then-governor of Louisiana’s run for the Senate.
    Vincent Dawson, aide to Senator March, potentially the next president of the United States. None of it made sense. Mac reviewed the period when Dawson was originally appointed to the congresswoman’s staff. Those things didn’t happen without a full investigation of the applicant. Interviews, transcripts, letters of recommendation. Abigail Gardner was a tough woman and smart. If she took Vince on,he had to have been even smarter and without any blemishes on his transcripts.
    Mac couldn’t say the same for March. His background had been shady, but he’d managed to build a strong power base and was a master at wheeling and dealing. The possibility of having him as president made Mac’s skin crawl, but it could happen.
    Ten years before Vincent Dawson had worn a black ski mask and robbed and killed a man for a million dollars in bearer bonds. That would have been about the time Abigail had retired. What had old Vince done in the year after Abby left Washington? What had happened to Abby? He went into some different files.
    Then he found it, a newspaper headline proclaiming FORMER REPRESENTATIVE ABIGAIL GARDNER KILLED IN FIERY CRASH . AIDE ESCAPES WITH HIS LIFE . A few more inquiries revealed a family lawsuit over Abby’s will naming Vincent Dawson heir to her estate. But this was one time Vince didn’t win. The judge had declared Abby incompetent, and Vince had been stripped of his newfound wealth.
    So, Vince lost his meal ticket. He would have had to go to work. How and where could he start over? What