When she came out of the lavatory, there wasn’t anyone left on the plane.
Except for her dad.
CHAPTER TWENTY
Naval Air Station Fort Worth, Texas
Veronica’s father enveloped her in his arms and didn’t let go for a long time. When she looked at him, she could see that tears had collected in his eyes.
“I’m so happy you’re okay, Vonnie,” Alexander Hammond said. He kissed her on the forehead, just as he used to do before tucking her into bed when she was still a child.
Veronica was genuinely happy to see him. Since she was a kid, she’d been the apple of her father’s eye, and until very recently, she’d always enjoyed a close relationship with him. She wouldn’t have become the woman she was now if it hadn’t been for her father’s love and unyielding support. Despite being absent from home a lot due to the relentless pace of the deployments, he’d managed to have her back when it counted the most. The only hiccup had been recently, when he’d started expressing his strong opposition to anything even remotely connected to Drain. She’d attributed some of it to the stress of the presidential campaign and his natural worries for his family’s safety; she’d hoped his objections would fade, but now she tensed, prepared for his chastisement.
“They told you what happened?” she asked.
Her dad’s face hardened, and his eyes grew dark. “Yes,” he said. “I was briefed.”
He motioned for her to take a seat across from him, which she did. He unbuttoned his suit jacket and loosened his tie before sitting down. “There’s a whole bunch of people who want to speak to you,” her father said. “And time is of the essence here.”
She expected as much. “I know,” she said.
“We caught one of the attackers alive,” he said, a brief smile appearing on his lips. “The one you stabbed in the back.”
The man with the silver hair. Veronica shivered at the thought. She could still see him punching Clayton’s face, his fists like pistons. She remembered vividly plunging the knife into the man’s back and the noise it made when the blade hit bone.
“You did well,” her father said, placing a comforting hand on her knee. “You saved Clay’s life. You know that, right?”
Veronica guessed that was true, but by then Clayton had already killed two intruders. “He saved mine, too, Dad,” she replied.
Her dad nodded. “Yeah, I’m aware of what happened in the room, Veronica. All of it.”
She didn’t like the tone her dad had used to say that. She looked straight at him, her head cocked slightly to one side, her eyes narrowing. Her dad pointed at the engagement ring on her finger.
“Is that for real? Did this really happen?”
She was momentarily caught off guard, but decided not to play defense. Clay would probably get some heat because of it, but with everything that had happened and the way he had ultimately saved the day, she didn’t think she would put him in a bind by admitting that much to her father. She clasped her hands together and leaned toward him. “Yes, it did, Dad.”
Her father dipped his chin, looking disappointed. “I was afraid of that,” he said.
“What do you mean?”
“Clayton admitted the same to a Secret Service investigator,” her father said. “He’s been placed on administrative leave pending the results of a full investigation into today’s events.”
Veronica wasn’t sure what it all meant. “Why? That doesn’t sound good.”
“Because it isn’t. Odds are he’ll get fired from the Secret Service. He may end up facing charges too.”
She was taken aback by her father’s words. It didn’t make sense to her. Why would he face charges? Their relationship was forbidden by some regulations within the Secret Service code of conduct, but charges?
“I don’t think I understand,” she said.
“Really? C’mon, Veronica,” her father snapped back. “How long has this been going on?”
She had rarely seen her father so confrontational, at least with her. Clearly she had misjudged the entire situation. “I’m not sure what you want to hear,” she said. She quickly understood this wasn’t an acceptable answer.
“You have to be kidding me,” he said, slapping his hand on his thigh. “I don’t want you to tell me what I want to hear, I want to know the damn truth. Do you realize how much trouble Clay is in?”
She was starting to. “A while,” she admitted. “Just before you ran for office.”