Rook (Political Royalty Book 2) (3 page)

“The senator can’t have children.” Haven said the words slowly, with the authority of someone who knew them to be the truth.

The other woman’s face drained of color and he wondered if the shock was bad for her, considering her condition.

“Our attorneys have started working on the preliminary filings for a slander suit. If we move forward, the police will have to decide if they want to pursue blackmail charges. I’m not sure about North Carolina, but I believe most states still allow mothers to be with their babies for twenty-four hours before the infants are put into foster care.” She waited a moment to let her words sink in. “Before I tell them to proceed, I’m going to give you one more chance to answer my question. And think very carefully before you do because I can prove I’m telling the truth and we both know you can’t. Who hired you?”

The other woman’s nostrils flared, and she pushed against her forehead with the heel of her hand. When she looked up, fear and resignation etched every line of her posture.

“Jack Crouch.”

“Tall, short blonde hair?” asked Walker, meeting the woman’s gaze for the first time.

“Yes.”

“Crouch is Jenson on again off again muscle,” he said.

Bastard.
He should have known. Jenson was the only one in the race dirty enough to think of something like this with the resources to take a run at him.

“I was supposed to get the senator to agree to pay me and then go to the press.”

Haven nodded her head as if she’d had something she already knew confirmed. “Excellent. Now this is how the rest of this situation is going to go. I’m going to take care of your boss and you’re going to leave here and never mention the senator’s name again. If I hear so much as a whisper connecting you and that baby you’re carrying to Senator Walker, I’m going to unleash our team of lawyers and sue you into oblivion. You will spend the rest of your life defending yourself from slander suits.” She paused for a moment, watching the other woman.

Shep could practically see the weight of Haven’s words settling on the other woman’s shoulders. If she hadn’t accused him of knocking her up, he might feel sorry for her. She didn’t stand a chance against the powerhouse of a woman. Anyone would have to be a fool to stand in defiance against Haven when she set her mind on something. The woman was breathtakingly beautiful and unstoppable. He said a silent prayer that she hadn’t set her mind against the two of them.

It didn’t matter. He didn’t give up any easier than she did and if it came down to a battle of wills, he’d keep going until he won her back. It helped that he knew deep down she wanted him as much as he wanted her.

“Before you get any ideas about Jenson or anyone else paying your legal bills, remember he doesn’t have the resources the Walker family does and he couldn’t protect you even if he wanted to. Justin, could you please escort Brandy to the lobby and put her in a cab to wherever she’d like to go.” She didn’t wait to see Justin move to follow her request. Clearly dismissing the other woman, she turned her back on the room and went to gaze out the window to the city below.

He waited until they were alone and then went to stand behind her, close enough to feel the warmth coming from her body without touching her. He didn’t want to give her a reason to reject him again. Not yet.

“Thank you,” he said. “You were brilliant.”

“It’s what you pay me for.”

“I’ll get my father to take care of Jenson.” Walker senior would love nothing more than to put the screws to the governor, and he had more than enough ammunition to use to threaten him. Shep wasn’t worried. It was the perfect way to use his father’s unique talents.

“Nothing public without clearing it first,” she said, glancing over her shoulder at him.

The position stretched her neck into a long, graceful line and his palm practically itched to touch her. To run his hand along the slender column of her throat as he pressed the length of his body against hers.

“You made your point last time,” he said, smiling at the memory of Haven and his father going head to head over his father’s political scheming. Under any other circumstance, his father would have appreciated Jenson’s tactics. It was the kind of game he played.

Haven turned her attention back to the window and the view below, leaving him staring at the back of her head.

“Haven,” he said, taking a chance and gripping her arm.

“Don’t.” She stepped out of his reach, heading toward the door before he could stop her. “Come on, Senator. We need to go.”

He was out the door after her before he realized he hadn’t heard her say his name since she called him on the trail.

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M
ATT BLEW THE gorgeous blonde still sprawled in the bed a kiss and gave her a wink before closing the door behind him and stepping out into the hallway. He’d met the woman at one of Senator Walker’s fundraisers. She was an octogenarian’s trophy wife with the kind of body only youth and a great deal of money could supply.

He loved fucking married women. They never wanted anything more than sex with no strings attached. The trophy wives whose husbands relied on little blue pills to rise to the occasion were starved for a young man who could take them for a ride. He could make it his mission in life to take care of all the rich neglected wives who were relying on expensive vibrators instead of their husbands for their orgasms.

He came around the corner, heading for the elevator and almost ran into Justin, the second-in-command in the Walker campaign, escorting a hugely pregnant woman. Matt managed to back up just in time to avoid being seen. He ducked into an open housekeeping door and waited until Justin and the woman disappeared into the elevator, taking just enough time to snap a probably illegible picture with his phone as the door slid closed. Thank God, the pair had been too busy with whatever was going on in their world to even notice him.

Interesting.
Justin preferred men, and the guy was in a pretty serious relationship. At least that was the talk on the bus, for what it was worth. Mat had never gotten an inkling that the guy swung both ways or that he was anything other than happily committed to the dude waiting at home for him. Campaign buses were tight quarters. He’d have known if the aide was getting something on the side and regardless of his predilection, the pregnant woman would be a supremely odd choice.

He’d held the woman’s arm like it was something unpleasant. Combined with his demeanor, it made it unlikely she was a sister or even a friend. Which brought up the original question.
What was Senator Walker’s campaign aide doing in an expensive hotel with a pregnant chick?

He hated the direction the story took him. His editor would go nuts. She had a hard-on for catching Walker in a sex scandal, but Matt didn’t have the stomach for it. Given his own loose sexual mores, the last thing he wanted to do was bring the hammer down on a fellow indulger. People got so twisted up about sex. It didn’t matter if they all did it; if a politician got caught, the public lost its collective shit.

Of course, Walker was married. That put a different spin on things, especially if the pregnant woman was his mistress and the baby in her belly his bastard. The family values voters loved that in their chosen ones. Walker was already struggling against Collins. He’d win South Carolina, but that was a gimme. If he couldn’t pull together Nevada, any momentum he had would be gone and Super Tuesday would likely be a bloodbath. An illegitimate love child would put a fistful of nails in his coffin.

It would also mean Matt’s easy gig would be gone and he’d be back to beating the bushes looking for news along with all the other poor bastards. He might get a brief bump from being the one to break the story, but it wouldn’t have coattails long enough for him to ride anywhere. And there wouldn’t be a book deal and morning talk show appearances in his future.

Jess would go nuts for a lead like this. Of course, the only way she’d find out about it was if she read it in his article. An article he still wasn’t sure he wanted to write. Honestly, what did he really have? A blurry picture of someone from the Walker campaign with an unidentified pregnant woman. There were still a lot of dots to connect before he had anything resembling a story he could print. He’d just about convinced himself he was making something out of nothing and he could get out of the damn closet when he heard footsteps coming down the hall. He ducked back just in time to see the senator and his campaign manager heading for the elevator like they were trying to outrun something. She wasn’t looking at him and Matt could feel the arctic blast from his hiding place.

Fuck
. Someone needed to start a remedial course for politicians on those safe sex and abstinence programs they were always pushing. It was like none of them had a clue how to use a condom.
Put a fucking raincoat on it, man.
They were all stupid enough or arrogant enough to think they wouldn’t get caught. Matt clenched his jaw and watched the doors slide closed behind the senator and the campaign manager who couldn’t even look at him. He was mad at himself for needing the story and even angrier at Walker for getting caught.

Shaking his head, he closed the closet door behind him and headed for the stairs. On the off chance they were still in the lobby, he didn’t want them to see him. The exercise wouldn’t hurt either. Matt could sit on the story for now. If Walker won Nevada and it looked like he still had a chance, he didn’t have to dig any further. If he lost, Matt could kick him while he was down and make the best of it.

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“H
E WAS TELLING the truth,” said Justin, following Haven out of the small auditorium they’d been using for debate prep.

Walker was still inside with Abby and Travis, going over the questions she’d put together, but she couldn’t spend another minute watching him on the mock stage. As soon as she was certain the others had things under control, she’d bolted, intending to run through the polling numbers one more time before touching base with the captains on the ground. She hadn’t been expecting Justin to corner her in the hallway.

“I know.” She looked around to make sure they were alone. The hotel staff assured her they’d have the whole floor but she couldn’t afford any more screw-ups. “I was pretty sure before you found the picture. Nice job on that again.”

“Hicks confessed.” Justin watched her, searching her face. “He told you the truth.”

She tried to keep her expression neutral but looking at her friend made it hard. She thought she’d almost gotten away with it until he grabbed her arm and steered her into an empty room. He turned on the light and closed the door behind them before spinning her to face him.

“So what’s up? He didn’t lie. Hicks is gone and you still can’t stand to be in the same room with him. Why?”

Justin waited and she fought the urge to squirm. It was stupid. She was a grown woman, not a teenager, but she’d put his future in jeopardy as much as her own. She wanted to promise she wouldn’t do it again, but that would be another lie. She didn’t know if she could stay away from Walker. She’d done her damnedest to avoid him, no easy feat considering she was running his campaign, but it hadn’t changed her feelings for him. The fact that she couldn’t see a scenario where they ended up together—hell, even one that didn’t end in disaster and heartbreak—didn’t stop her from wanting him. It was what she imagined addiction was like. An irrational need despite the risk and consequences. And like an addict, she couldn’t say no.

She honestly didn’t know what she was going to do, so she took the asshole’s way out and lied by omission. The irony wasn’t lost on her. She’d seen the tapes of Clinton debating the meaning of
is
, but knowing she hadn’t been the first to employ the tactic didn’t help with the heartache. And it didn’t help when she met her friend’s gaze.

“I’ve got a lot going on. You of all people should understand that. Half of it is stuff I delegate to you.” She smiled, trying to make light of his concerns, but he didn’t bite. “Listen, Justin,” she said, when it became clear he wasn’t going to speak. “It doesn’t have anything to do with Hicks. I believe Walker told the truth.”

“That’s what I’m afraid of,” he said, leaning back against the conference table. “If it’s not the baby scare then it’s something between you and him, and if it’s something between you and the married senator, then we’ve got a problem. I know you, Haven. A guy like this, a good, honest guy who is who he says he is, who can deliver what he promises, is like crack to you. He’s an idealist who can actually back it up. I get the appeal. I do.”

Justin had been with her through every real disappointment she had. He’d watched her start out believing the world was good, that even if she didn’t always agree with them, the people elected to govern were smart, competent, and with the greater good foremost in their minds. It had only taken one campaign, one candidate who’s good guy persona had been built on a base of corruption, and he’d had his illusions shattered alongside hers. He’d stood at her side as she made the shift from idealist to pragmatist, and celebrated with her when it turned into wins. He was right. An honest-to-goodness champion like Walker was her Achilles’ heel. But knowing she’d finally found what she wanted didn’t mean she got to have it.

“I overreacted,” she said, telling him the only version of the truth she could. “I thought he lied to me and I hammered him. When I realized he was telling the truth, I had a hard time pivoting. Don’t worry. I can handle this.”

She turned away from him and opened the door to the hallway before he could call her on her bullshit.