In my Arms Tonight (NYC Singles Book 2) (7 page)

“Something the matter?” Alex enquired, clicking his shoes.

“Um… I don’t have my purse. I must’ve… left it at the station.”

Shame saturated her. How could she have forgotten her goddamn bag? That thing was as big as a baby panda. Why hadn’t she checked? She was a responsible, independent woman, for chrissake.

Sketching her sweetest smile, she faced the receptionist. “Can I show my health insurance proof later?”

The woman’s eyes glittered impatiently. “If you don’t have health insurance, we require a deposit to be paid upfront. Hospital policy.”

Telling the lady that she didn’t have any money would be humiliating, so instead, Kat asked, “How much do I have to pay?”

“A hundred and fifty, ma’am.”

Kat clamped the heels of her palms around her temples. A hundred and fifty? Where was she going to get that kind of money from?

Queasily, she looked to Alex. “Alex, can I borrow your phone for a sec? I have to call my friend.”

One more groan of pain tore through her and she winced. The thought of spending an hour or two waiting for Bella or Ashley to show up and bail her out of this mess was depressing. How would she last that long without painkillers?

“You don’t look so good.” Alex’s dark eyes darted from her to the lady at the reception.

Plucking a silver credit card from his wallet, he handed it to her. “I’ll pay her deposit.”

The receptionist inserted it into the card machine lethargically.

“What? No. You don’t have to. I mean… don’t. I can’t let you pay for me,” Every syllable stumbled onto the other. “Give me your phone.”

No man had ever paid for her before, and she never wanted one to. This was against her principles as a twenty-first-century woman.

“Return the money later.” Alex waved away her reluctance with a sweep of his hand.

“Are you crazy? How can you pay for someone you don’t know?” she spat, shocked and surprised he would do this for her.

“I’ll consider it giving back to the community.” He managed a thin smile, then entered his PIN.

He didn’t even know her and by this point Kat was certain he didn’t like her, but he was going out of his way to be helpful.

Was he like this to every woman?

Probably not, or he’d have an army of women lining up to be with him.

Then again, maybe he did. If she dug deep enough, Kat might be able to find out just how many. There could be a story there. A sex scandal waiting to explode.

Kat shook her head.
Give the guy a break; he saved your life.

She’d let him him go. Just for today.

“R
eady for the first debate? It’s in what, a month?” Chad chugged down his Coke and nipped a fry from beside his cheeseburger.

With his stomach rumbling, Alex wasn’t in the mood for greasy food, but it was all Deanna’s diner served. “You know the answer to that already. But since you asked, I’m assuming you want to bring it up for some reason.”

He’d never have chosen this place, and honestly, he wouldn’t have expected Chad to, either. A few years in politics gave every man a taste for fine dining.

“My advice to you is just be energetic. People vote on charisma. If you stand out, they’ll remember you. If they remember you, they’ll vote for you. It’s that simple, really.” Chad threw a flirtatious glance to the waitress who’d deposited their order on the table. “Hey, baby.”

“Chad,” Alex bit out, frowning.

Defensive, Chad slammed his hand on the table. “What? I can’t even flirt now? I’m married, for chrissake, not the Pope. I’m allowed to look.”

He drew a long gulp of Coke.

Chad was fifty-three and had been, to quote him, ‘stuck in a soul-sucking marriage’ for twenty-five of those years. Chad and his wife Marie lived separately unless he was campaigning. At present, he was in his final year of his first term as a senator and had flown down from DC for his daughter’s wedding, which was, to quote Chad again, “going to be another weeklong ‘we’re a happy family’ show for the media.”

A show to which Alex was invited.

“What does Christine’s fiancé do?” Alex inquired, curious to know about Chad’s future son-in-law.

“Banking. His dad was in banking, too. Old money. To tell you the truth, I’m happier than Christine that she’s marrying him.” When Alex raised his eyebrow in amusement, Chad scoffed. “What? You know how bloody expensive campaigning is. I need more money if I have to run for a second term.”

Alex concurred. “It wasn’t like this when we started.”

According to the latest disclosure report his staff had submitted to the campaign finance board, he’d netted six million dollars in campaign contributions in the last year. And that wasn’t sufficient by a long stretch.

“Bloody right it wasn’t.” Chad bit into another fry. “But no point in thinking of the good old times because they ain’t gonna come back.”

The 80s-themed music that hollered in the background filled the short pause, which Chad took full advantage of by trying to woo the waitress.

Alex cleared his throat. He was no saint, but at least he was good at looking like a saint in public.

“I heard the president finally signed that veteran entrepreneurship bill you introduced,” Alex started, trying to distract Chad. They were already getting some looks from the other people seated around them. That couldn’t be good news for Chad. Or him.

“Here she comes.” Chad rubbed his palms together in anticipation as the blonde waitress he’d been not-so-subtly ogling sashayed towards them.

“Not another one.” Alex muttered, placing his elbows on the table and screwing his eyes shut. No matter how many men he saw cheating, he couldn’t get used to it.

“All part of my charm.” Puffing his chest out, Chad cocked his head at the blonde waitress. “Hey, baby.”

“Um...hi.” Rubbing a piece of paper between her fingers, the waitress extended her hand...and stuck it in Alex’s pocket.

Alex’s eyes widened.

“See you later.” She fluttered away with a coquettish grin.

It took him a long minute to process that. What the hell had just happened?

“Lucky bastard.” Chad smirked and reached out a fist to give Alex a chest shove, but his hand didn’t reach Alex from across the table.

“For all you know, it’s the bill for dinner,” Alex remarked wryly, but as he pulled out the paper, he recognized it as a phone number. Chad caught onto his expression, cursing.

“What’s it about you that draws women? I mean, look at you. You’re pushing fifty and she’s not a day older than twenty-five.” Shaking his head, Chad soothed his hurt ego with another swallow of Coke.

It was ironic for Chad to be commenting on his age when Chad was seven years older.

Alex tossed the piece of paper onto the table. “Take it if you want it. I think she meant to give it to you anyway.”

Chad grunted. “No, she didn’t. And returning her interest won’t kill you.”

“The primaries are two months away,” Alex cautioned.

“Come on, don’t be so uptight. You’re not even shackled in marriage. Who can criticize you for being a man?” Chad egged.

Uptight? Sure, he might look that way. Because that was the image he’d cultivated in all these years—uptight, hardworking, mind on the job.

No one, not even Chad, knew about most of his childhood. Or the tattoos on his body. Or his real name.

And it was going to stay that way. Secrets were a commodity more precious than gold in this business. His were going to the grave with him.

“So what did you do today?” Alex modulated his tone so Chad would know what he was hinting at. “Other than tasting wedding cakes.”

The trace of white icing under Chad’s lips earlier had given that away.

“Played golf with Logan and Barry. That was probably the highlight of my day. By the way, I heard something disturbing from Logan.” Chad heightened the suspense, pausing and biting into his burger. “And coincidentally, it was about you.”

Alex had been waiting for this. Chad wasn’t the type to meet up over dinner casually, so when he’d asked to meet, Alex had known something was up. “How disturbing was it?”

Dabbing his oily fingers on a napkin, Chad reached into his pocket and played a video on his phone. “See and decide for yourself.”

The initial frame rolled by. As the forms crisscrossed into each other, Alex’s heart came up to his throat and threatened to fall out of his mouth. He slapped his forehead.

Oh, hell
.

Video footage of him on the subway, punching and kicking the man, blinked in front of his eyes. The alarm bells in his head went off instantaneously.

It hadn’t looked so brutal when he’d done it, but watching it made him look away. If the public saw this…

“Five hundred thousand views and counting,” Chad declared, impressed.

The sickening nausea in Alex’s stomach grew.

The media was going to butcher him. Even the combined forces of the public relations firm he’d hired and his press secretary couldn’t bail him out of this one.

This was violence, whichever way you looked at it. True, he’d done it in the spirit of saving someone, but looking at this video, that wasn’t immediately clear. Only Kat’s shoes showed up in one corner of the screen, making it look like he was engaging in a brawl rather than trying to prevent a woman from getting sexually harassed.

Great. Just great.

“You have moves. I’ll give you that.” Chad’s appreciative laugh sounded so distant, it could have come from three blocks away.

Digging his fingers into his thighs, Alex kept himself from reacting.

When the screen faded to black, Alex bit out his verdict. “This is bad.”

“Wait till you’ve seen the way your opponents are bludgeoning you on Twitter.” Chad’s voice was laced with exasperation. “Hashtag summerviolence has been trending since yesterday.”

The last thing he needed was wrath on social media.

Inhaling, Alex urged himself to remain calm. Crises were his daily routine. It would be fine. Things would quiet down.

“How long has it been up? The video?” Alex enquired.

“A day. Is your press secretary off on vacation or something?” Chad cupped his chin, sarcastic.

Alex scrolled down to read the comments. “I’ll have to check—”

“Don’t.” Chad’s palm closed around his. “You don’t want to read the comments. There are some really nasty ones.”

If Chad thought they were nasty, they must be mean, because Chad had a high threshold for hate.

Alex uncurled himself from the table. “Can you excuse me for a moment? I need to make a few urgent calls.”

His phone rang as he lumbered outside the diner.

“Alex, it’s me. Listen—” Selia, his campaign press secretary, didn’t have the opportunity to finish her sentence before he cut in.

“Selia, what the fuck have you been doing? There’s a video of me on YouTube—”

“I know. I tried flagging it and getting it removed but it didn’t work.” She sounded hyper-nervous. She should be, since she was going to lose her job soon. “I’ve posted a statement on the website and facebook already. We’ll have to do a press conference, first thing tomorrow.”

“Obviously.” Alex kicked the wall outside the diner, anger bubbling like lava under his skin.

So close. He was so close to being in the Gracie Mansion. Even the possibility that he could lose twisted his insides in a painful way. Damn it.

“Can you come to the campaign office right now? We need to have a meeting about this.”

“On my way.” He disconnected.

Stalking away from Deanna’s diner, Alex wondered how saving a woman had ended up backfiring so severely for him.