Page 20 of The Fallen Man

“Oh, my God, Katie!”

Caitlin looked over at Angela Ramano as she exited the VAR Catering truck. The sound of fire trucks in the distance probably meant that Victor’s meeting was going to be rescheduled.

“Are you OK?” Angela looked at Jackson. She saw Angela take in the gun, the coat, and Katie’s naked legs. Angela crossed her arms over her chest, putting a wrinkle in her crisp white chef’s jacket, and raised an eyebrow at Jackson. It was the kind of facial expression that gave the sous chef nightmares.

“They took my clothes,” said Caitlin, her teeth beginning to chatter.

“What? Why?” Angela lost her angry look at Jackson but still looked perturbed.

“Fashion?” Caitlin couldn’t come up with another answer.

“You had better go wait in the truck,” commanded Angela. She gestured to Caitlin but kept her eyes on Jackson. Technically, here, at a completely different job, she didn’t work for either Vince or Angela, but when Angela spoke, everyone knew better than to argue. Also, Caitlin’s toes had now reached the painfully cold stage.

“Thank you,” she said, looking up at Jackson. She meant to ask about how to return his coat when she saw his sister waving at them from across the parking lot. “Your sister is over there.”

He looked around. “Shit. Thanks.”

He walked off immediately. So even mostly naked, she couldn’t keep his interest. That seemed about right for her life. Caitlin sighed and went to the catering van.

Dominique

Conversations

Dominique flipped through the campaign finance reports and frowned. The meeting with Eleanor’s campaign person had been mercifully quick because there were no problems to discuss. Well, that and because Evan had clearly had it up to his eyebrows with the man. Evan had hustled through the agenda with aggressive speed and then sent the poor fellow all but hurtling out the door with a to-go cup of tea and a box of tissues. Dominique wasn’t sure which had frightened the man more Evan’s firm goodbye or the box of tissues. She was relieved to be done with it and on her way home, but now she worried that she had missed something.

“Problems?” asked Jackson, fiddling with the radio.

“Everything seems fine,” said Dominique.

“There’s frowning,” he said, finally just flipping the radio off.

“Everything is… fine. I’m not used to it. Since Ralph Taggert stopped being so loudly annoying and Granger took a swan dive, everything is on track. I’m not sure what to do with myself without a mess to clean up.”

Jackson let out a short bark of laughter. “I know the feeling. Although there is some shit brewing in the Senate, and Granger’s mess isn’t entirely cleaned up. But yeah, everything’s been quiet.”

“Are there really problems?” asked Dominique, worried that he had been holding out on her. “You haven’t said anything.”

“Because there’s nothing to do.”

“You’d ask for help if you needed it, though, right?”

Jackson laughed again. “I have lots of help, and the Senate stuff is mostly Eleanor’s problem.”

“Well, yes, but I’m just saying…”

“And I’m just saying there aren’t any emergencies. If there were, I would ask, but there aren’t.”

Dominique let out a huff of annoyance. “I’m not used to that.”

“Neither am I. But I’m heading back to DC with Eleanor tomorrow,” said Jackson, as he slowed for the traffic in front of them. “So maybe I can dig one up for you.”

“Oh,” said Dominque, trying not to sound annoyed. “I wanted you on Sunday. Max is having man-friend withdrawals now that he’s not in the Marshals anymore.”

“I think we’ll be back for Sunday dinner,” said Jackson. “And I think Max and Aiden were doing some sort of MMA thing next week too.”

“Mmm,” said Dominique. She didn’t approve of her brother’s MMA habit. “He’d better not bring Max home with a black eye or something.”

“Dude, your man can handle himself,” said Jackson. “Aiden wants to sponge wrestling tips off of him. Stop getting all Eleanor-faced.”