All Night Long

wonder
p. you look so good in black trench coats and leather boots.” He contemplated the shadowy ceiling.
    “Remind me to get you a little whip for your birthday. It would sort of complete the outfit, you know?”
    She stretched languidly and cuddled closer. “I don’t think my high school guidance counselor ever mentioned that becoming a dominatrix might be a good career path for me.”
    “Goes to show those high school guidance counselors don’t know everything.”
    “True, but I’m sure they do their best.” She levered herself up onto her elbow and regarded him wit smug smile. “Enjoy yourself, Marine?”
    “‘Ooh rah.” He tumbled her back down across his chest and contemplated her with a sense of certainty.
    “I don’t think I’m ever going to get enough of you.”
    She looked pleased. “That sounds nice. Are you going to be able to sleep now?”
    “Are you kidding? After that experience it’s a wonder I’m not comatose.”
    “It has been a very long day, hasn’t it?” She yawned.
    “For both of us.” He sobered as events flooded back into his head. “My personal issues aside, that wa clever idea you had, checking out the locksmith over in Kirbyville.”
    “Adeline Grady trains her reporters to follow up on the details.” She made a face. “I almost got into a serious accident on the way back, though.”
    He levered himself up on his elbows. “What are you talking about?”
    “I was so busy thinking about the key and what it might mean, that I wasn’t paying attention to my driving. I was moving very slowly on that curvy section of road along the south end of the lake. Some jerk in a big SUV came up behind me and got really pissed off.”

    He felt the ail-too familiar prickle of awareness. “What happened?”
    “I think he sort of lost it, to tell you the truth. Major road rage. He came up really hard and fast behind me. He was probably just trying to scare me to death, but a part of me wondered if maybe he was so angry he wanted to force me off the road into the lake.”
    He jackknifed to a full sitting position. “The hell he did.”
    “I decided that the best thing I could do was get off the road, so I turned into that old subdivision a he end of the lake.”
    “Ventana Estates?”
    “The idiot followed me.”
    “You are scaring the living daylights out of me.”
    “Have to admit, I was a little tense myself at the time.” She shivered. “But that old road through the subdivision was still covered in gravel, just as I remembered.
    What’s more, it hasn’t been maintaine ery well. It’s a real mess.”
    “I know. I drove through Ventana Estates shortly after I moved to Dunsley just to check it out.”
    “A little local recon, hmm?”
    “Tell me the rest of it.”
    Her smile faded. “I did the only thing I could think of. I stomped on the accelerator as soon as I realized the SUV wasn’t going to back off. Believe me, he got a windshield full of gravel and rocks.”
    “That,” he said, thinking about it, “was a very good maneuver.”
    “I could hear the rocks and pebbles hitting the SUV I’m pretty sure I did some serious damage to the windshield and the finish on the hood and front fenders.”
    “He didn’t follow you out of the subdivision?”
    “No. I had my eyes glued to my rearview mirror all the way home. Never saw him again.”

    “Did you get a good look at the SUV?”
    She shook her head. “Not really. He came up behind me very suddenly. I was so rattled that it wa ll I could do to concentrate on my driving.”
    “What color?”
    “Silvery gray, like yours and a few hundred others in the area. It was one of the larger models wit inted windows. But that’s all I noticed.”
    “License plate?”
    “Are you kidding? I never even got a glimpse of it.”
    He sat quietly for a moment.
    “Luke?”
    “Yeah?”
    “You’re thinking that maybe it was more than a case of simple road rage, aren’t you?”
    “I’m thinking that’s a real possibility,” he said, forcing all emotion out of his voice.
    “Both Pamela Webb and Hoyt Egan are dead. If you had gone off the road into the lake today people would be talking about your unfortunate accident tonight. And Senator Ryland Webb could rest a little easier, knowing that the woman his daughter had contacted just before she died was gone.”
    “That bastard isn’t going to rest easy for the rest of his life if I have anything to say about it,” she vowed. “Tomorrow night at the