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question politely, her voice soft, but Dax knew a landmine when he heard
     one.
    He shook his head. “I think NCIS did the best they could with the information and
     resources available at the time. No one was ready for the way the story exploded in
     the press.”
    “No, we weren’t. Any media relations training we have is cursory. I think even the
     feds would have had trouble with a story of that magnitude,” she admitted. “Normally
     it would have lasted one news cycle and been over.”
    “My father wasn’t news for what he did but because I’m his son and I have powerful
     friends.” Guilt still twisted his gut over that fact.
    Holland was correct. The news would definitely have run the story about the admiral’s
     disgrace, but the tabloids wouldn’t have covered it. His father hadn’t been a rock
     star or a celebrity. He’d been old school money serving in a position of prestige.
    Dax was the celebrity. It didn’t matter how hard he tried to stay out of the press,
     the media associated him with two of the most self-avowed playboys of the Western
     world, along with the White House chief of staff and the president of the United States.
     Somehow, Connor managed to duck the news coverage. Probably because he never allowed
     anyone to take a full-frontal picture of him. And the CIA kept him out of the public
     eye. Being dragged into the news had never bothered Dax much. It had been fine. He
     was used to it. But his parents had not been.
    “I wish I could have kept them off the story. We tried to keep it quiet.” She reached
     out, her hand almost touching his before she abruptly pulled back.
    Damn it. He wanted her hand in his, wanted any touch she would give him. It had been
     so long since he’d felt any kind of affection for a woman. From a woman. “I know.
     They were always going to find the story and they were always going to spin it to
     sound as salacious as possible. It’s their job.”
    She settled back in her chair. “So you think you have new information?”
    She seemed determined to keep things professional. Maybe that was for the best. He’d
     come for a mission, not a woman. “I’m approaching the investigation from a new angle.
     It wasn’t hard to do. There was really only about a week of actual fieldwork put into
     the case. I was surprised at how thin the file was.”
    She put a hand up. “I don’t want to know how you got a copy of that file.”
    He was resourceful. He was also good at flirting with secretaries.“I’ll keep that to myself. Anyway, NCIS closed the investigation into my father’s
     case after his death was ruled a suicide.”
    “There was no one to prosecute. It didn’t seem right to drag his name further through
     the mud. I actually had some say in making that call. I asked Bill and Jim to stop
     looking into it because they would have had to question your mother. I didn’t want
     to put her through that.”
    He could understand her decision. “I appreciate that, but I think there’s more going
     on here than the report suggests. Did you know the girl my father was accused of sleeping
     with had disappeared?”
    He used that bland euphemism. What his father had been accused of could be construed
     as anything from statutory rape to sexual assault of a minor.
    “No. I wasn’t aware of that.” She took a sip of the wine he’d brought. “But she was
     a teenage prostitute with a history of running away. It’s not so surprising that she
     would go missing.”
    “But Amber Taylor went missing before the investigation was closed. No one on your
     staff ever spoke to her. There’s no record on file to indicate they even attempted
     to contact her.”
    She raised an elegant brow in surprise. “Really?”
    Dax nodded. “The only evidence against my father is that videotape and the testimony
     of two of his aides.” For Dax, those clues made an awfully thin reason to tear a man’s
     reputation apart. Even if he’d been proven innocent, the