Free Holy Terror by Graham Masterton

Sebastian Speed found her a part-time job at
American Interior
magazine, producing photographic features on elegant people’s elegant homes.
    Lacey first met Conor at one of the press conferences after the Forty-Ninth Street Golf Club trial, when she was filling in for NBC’s regular trial reporter. They were literally pushed together by jostling and shouting pressmen, and he put his arm around her to protect her. She met him next at a formal cocktail party given by the Mayor at Gracie Mansion. That was after Conor’s resignation, and hardly anybody would talk to him; not that he was ever an easy man to talk to. He looked sober and handsome that evening, in a snow-white shirt and a navy-blue suit. She wore a very low-cut dress of blue shot silk, with her hair pinned up. ‘You remember me,’ she introduced herself. ‘You saved me from the baying mob.’
    His only response was a smile. But Lacey persevered, even when he was silent, and the next day he called her up and asked her for dinner.
    They explored each other that evening, talking for hours. She was fascinated by Conor’s mixture of sly flirtatiousness and the unusual logic by which he lived his life. Every time she felt that she had opened up one door in his personality, there was another door, and another. He was romantic and occasionally sentimental, and he could take a joke, but she feltthat beyond the very last door there was a man who was capable of making very hard decisions indeed.
    For his part, he had never met a woman so outspoken, but he was alarmed by her disregard for her own emotional safety. He didn’t know how she could have stayed with a sadistic creep like Larry Elgar for so long. And she still blamed herself for provoking him into hitting her. ‘I should have known better. I was strong and he was weak.’
    â€˜Not too weak to crack two of your ribs.’
    â€˜So what? Physical strength, that doesn’t count for anything.’
    He fell in love with her because she was driven and unusual and beautiful. But he fell in love with her most of all because she was vulnerable and he wanted to protect her – just like, ultimately, he wanted to protect everybody.
To protect and serve
wasn’t just a slogan.
    She walked in wearing a plain white linen dress. ‘Do you want another beer?’
    â€˜No thanks. I could use a shower.’
    â€˜You don’t mind about the job?’
    He shook his head. He
did
mind, but how could he tie her down? He had learned a long time ago that nobody owns anybody else.
    While Conor was showering, Lacey sat on the edge of the bathtub and talked to him. He was very muscular, and she liked to watch the foamy water running down his chest. ‘So tell me all the grisly details about the hearing.’
    â€˜There’s not much more to tell you. I can get to see Fay whenever Paula thinks it’s convenient.’
    â€˜So what does
that
mean? Convenient?’
    â€˜In practice it probably means that I’m allowed to act as babysitter whenever she and that oily broker friend of hers decide they want to spend a long weekend upstate.’
    â€˜What are you going to do? Can you appeal?’
    â€˜I don’t know what I’m going to do. I’m beginning to think that it might be better if I turn my back on the whole situation.’
    â€˜I don’t understand.’
    Conor came out of the shower, looking as tired as a marathon swimmer, his chest hair spread in a dark wide fan. ‘Meaning I may be prepared to wait to see Fay until she’s old enough to come find me for herself.’
    Lacey stood up and rubbed him with his towel. ‘You’ve had a bad day. You don’t want to make decisions like that, not until you’ve gotten over it.’
    Naked, he held her close, and kissed her, and stroked her hair. She touched the star-shaped scar on his left cheekbone. It was kind of a code. It meant that she knew what hardships he had been