Fatal Affair Read Free Page A

“What calls?”
    After staring at her in disbelief for a long moment, he settled back in his seat and fixed his eyes on the cars sharing the Interstate with them.
    A few minutes passed in uneasy silence.
    “What calls, Nick?”
    “I called you,” he said softly. “For days after that night, I tried to reach you.”
    “I didn’t know,” she stammered. “No one told me.”
    “It doesn’t matter now. It was a long time ago.” But if his reaction to seeing her again after six years of thinking about her was any indication, it did matter. It mattered a lot.

Chapter 3
    The Loudoun County seat of Leesburg, Virginia, in the midst of the Old Dominion’s horse capital, is located thirty-five miles west of Washington. Marked by rolling hills and green pastures, Loudoun is defined by its horse culture. Upon his retirement after forty years in the Senate, Graham O’Connor and his wife moved to the family’s estate outside Leesburg where they could indulge in their love of all things horses. Their social life revolved around steeplechases, hounds, hunting and the Belmont Country Club.
    The closer they got to Leesburg, the tenser Nick became. He kept his head back and his eyes closed as he prepared himself to deliver the gruesome news to John’s parents.
    “Who were his enemies?” Sam asked after a prolonged period of silence.
    Keeping his eyes closed, Nick said, “He didn’t have an enemy in the world.”
    “I’d say today’s events prove otherwise. Come on. Everyone in politics has enemies.”
    He opened his eyes and directed them at her. “John O’Connor didn’t.”
    “A politician without a single enemy? A man who looks like a Greek god with no spurned lovers?”
    “A Greek god, huh?” he asked with a small smile. “Is that so?”
    “There has to be someone who didn’t like him. You can’t live a life as high profile as his without someone being jealous or envious.”
    “John didn’t inspire those emotions in people.” Nick’s heart ached as he thought of his friend. “He was inclusive. He found common ground with everyone he met.”
    “So the privileged son of a multi-millionaire senator could relate to the common man?” she asked, her tone ripe with cynicism.
    “Well, yeah,” Nick said softly, letting his mind wander back in time. “He related to me. From the moment we met in a history class at Harvard, he treated me like a long lost brother. I came from nothing. I was there on a scholarship and felt like an imposter until John O’Connor took me under his wing and made me feel like I had as much reason as anyone to be there.”
    “What about in the Senate? Rivals? Anyone envious of his success? Anyone put out by this bill you were about to pass?”
    “John hasn’t had enough success in the Senate to inspire envy. His only real success was in consensus building. That was his value to the party. He could get people to listen to him. Even when they disagreed with him, they listened.” Nick glanced over at her. “Where are you going with this?”
    She mulled it over for a moment. “This was a crime of passion. When someone cuts off a man’s dick and stuffs it in his mouth, they’re sending a pretty strong message.”
    Nick’s heart staggered in his chest. “Is that what was in his mouth?”
    Sam winced. “I’m sorry. I figured you’d seen it…”
    “Jesus.” He opened the window to let the cold air in, hoping it would keep him from puking again.
    “Nick? Are you all right?”
    His deep sigh answered for him.
    “Do you have any idea who would have reason to do such a thing to him?”
    “I can’t think of anyone who disliked him, let alone hated him that much.”
    “Clearly, someone did.”
    Nick directed her to the O’Connors’s country home. They drove up a long, winding driveway to the brick-front house at the top of a hill. When he reached for the door handle, she stopped him with a hand on his arm.
    He glanced down at the hand and then up to find her eyes trained on