Page 65 of The Hardest Hit

Jackson turned away from the view of the back garden. The interior view was not nearly as pleasant. Eleanor’s primly feminine office, with the black and white chintz and toile patterns, and yellow trim, was designed to disarm visitors and leave them unprepared for whatever attack Eleanor chose to launch at them. But today there was no disguising the anger in Eleanor’s face.

“I’m not happy about it either,” said Jackson. “I was looking forward to Christmas.”

“Stop talking about Christmas! Who cares if Evan is at Christmas?”

“Well, I do for one,” said Jackson. “And Aiden seemed pretty peeved.”

“Dominique was obviously not concerned,” said Eleanor, her voice venomous.

“Yeah,” agreed Jackson, thinking that was suspicious. “I’ll have to ask her about that.”

“Dominique has a right to feel how she wants,” snapped Eleanor.

“I didn’t say she didn’t. I said I was going to ask her about it.”

“Leave her alone,” hissed Eleanor. “You should be focusing on doing your damn job. Granger continues to target us and there is only so much that I can do. I was relying on you to take care of this matter.”

Jackson eyed Eleanor thoughtfully. She was on edge and angry. Not a good combination.

“I’m working on it.”

“Working on it? He should never have been able to get within ten feet of Evan. He is the face of this family and I will not tolerate having him harmed.”

“Evan likes to ride the train,” said Jackson. “And he’s stubborn.”

“And it’s your job to bring him to heel. You have been too gentle with him. Don’t let all this sober living nonsense fool you. Evan is still Evan.”

“Which is it?” asked Jackson.

“What?”

“Is he the Deveraux of Deverauxs or is he the bad seed?”

“Don’t start with me,” said Eleanor. “This is not the day.”

“What’s going on?” asked Jackson, leaning his elbows on the back of the wingback chair.

“I’m halting the Absolex hearings tomorrow. We’re not officially shuttering them, but we’ll be sending recommendations to the Justice Department.”

“I don’t see the problem,” said Jackson. “You’ve got enough evidence of wrongdoing from Absolex that the DOJ shouldn’t have a problem making cases.”

“That’s not the point. There needed to be heads on the wall. If we can’t convict Granger then the whole thing fizzles.”

“It’s still a win,” said Jackson. “They’ll get him, for the attack on the train if nothing else. It’s just taking a little longer than we had hoped.”

“It looks weak, right when I need to look strong. Taggert is hounding me on the healthcare bill and things are… tense in the Senate right now. I cannot afford to have things like Nazis and trains happening right now. I need Granger to get prison time. Things need to go according to the damn plan. I need people to stop thinking about Evan, and I need Evan to stop poking into things that are better left forgotten.”

“What does that mean?” asked Jackson. “What’s Evan been poking into?”

Eleanor glared at him, seeming to bite down on words to keep them from escaping.

“Nothing. Evan’s violence just reminds everyone of his father and makes them dig up the past. It is not helpful. This situation needs to go away as soon as possible.”

“I can’t make the DA move any faster than they are, and while the train situation was unfortunate, you’re actually polling up off of that. It looked populist, progressive, and dynamic all in one video clip.”

“That is not the kind of help I want,” snapped Eleanor. “The kind of help I want is the kind where you do what you’re supposed to do.”

Jackson held onto his temper with an effort. “I’m working on it.”