Read Online Last Snow by Eric Van Lustbader - Free Book Online Page A

said that she had begun acting out again. God only knew what her real mental state was.
    Regaining his composure, Jack stepped in front of Wilde so as to block her view of Annika. The last thing he needed was to answer awkward questions about who she was and why she was here and the fact that she hadn’t been vetted.
    “What the hell is she doing here?”
    Wilde again winced visibly as she said, “She’s going with you.”
    “What? She can’t. It’s not secure.”
    “You’re preaching to the choir, Mr. McClure.”
    Just then, Jack’s cell phone rang.
    “You’d better take the call,” Naomi Wilde said. “It’s the FLOTUS.” She meant the First Lady of the United States.
    Jack put his cell to his ear with some trepidation. Alli’s expressed preference to be with Jack had caused some friction between him and Lyn Carson. What he expected now was a severe dressing down, culminating in a stern order to send her daughter back with Wilde.
    “Hello, Jack.” Lyn’s voice was cool in his ear.
    “Ma’am, if I may, Alli can’t come with me,” he said. “It’s out of the question.”
    “Good luck with that.” Wilde gave a brief nod toward Alli. “I’ll wait outside, Mr. McClure. I won’t leave until you escort her to the limo or you take off.”
    “I’m afraid neither of us have a choice, Jack,” Lyn Carson said. “Much as I hate to admit it, she’s better off with you.”
    “Edward would never allow—”
    “Edward’s not here,” the First Lady’s curt voice cut in. “He’s in the air on the way back to the States, he doesn’t have to deal with his daughter or her threats to slip her guards and lose herself in the Moscow streets. Can you imagine what a nightmare that would be? Andyou know better than most why I don’t dare keep her under lock and key.”
    “But Mrs. Carson, you can’t expect me to take her now.”
    “I can and I do. Listen to me, Jack. I know we’ve had our differences, and maybe I’ve never told you how much I appreciate everything you’ve done—and are doing—for my daughter. But tonight I’m asking you to keep her safe. I have important state functions I need to attend over the next week. I don’t want to be at any of them, but I have no choice, it’s my job now and I have to do it. The same goes for you.
    “Need I repeat that Alli has threatened to ‘go off the reservation,’ as she colorfully puts it. You know her, Jack, she doesn’t make idle threats. The American press has been on her like flies ever since the . . . incident at the inauguration; they’ll ask too many awkward questions and when she doesn’t appear at the functions with me the Internet blogosphere will go ballistic.”
    Jack turned to see Alli walking down the aisle toward where Annika sat, swiveled around to face her.
    “Jack is married. He told you that, didn’t he?” she said to Annika.
    “The subject never came up,” Annika said. “Not that it matters.”
    “No?” Alli eyed her with one eyebrow arched. “I’d have thought otherwise. You look like you’re ready to jump into the sack with the man who’s standing closest.”
    Jack, feeling desperate, said, “Lyn, this is a very bad idea.”
    “If you have a better one, let’s hear it,” she said.
    “Jump into the sack?” Annika repeated in confusion.
    “Fuck,” Alli said. “You understand the word ‘fuck,’ don’t you?”
    “Okay, okay.” Jack felt boxed in by both Alli’s impetuosity and her mother’s inability to control her. “She stays with me.”
    “Thank you, Jack. I won’t forget this kindness.”
    “It’s hardly a kindness when—” But he was already talking to dead air. Snapping shut the phone he hurried back down the aisle.
    Annika smiled placidly into Alli’s scowling face and said, “Jack McClure, who is this delightful imp?”
    Without hesitation, Jack said, “She’s my surrogate daughter.”
    This sentence, spoken to a person Alli didn’t know, had the same effect as Aladdin rubbing