Rook (Political Royalty Book 2) (5 page)

Matt grabbed a hand towel off the stack of perfectly folded towels on the counter and headed to the line of treadmills facing a wall of televisions. It was too early for any but the most dedicated or guilty to be up, so all the machines were empty except one. Senator Walker ran at an impressive pace for a guy who’d been racing back and forth across the country. It made sense. How else could he put away all those fried fish firehouse dinners and not have the thick middles most of the guys who spent their time behind desks got?

Except the senator didn’t run like he wanted to stay in shape; he ran like he was trying to get away from something. Matt wondered for a minute if it had anything to do with the pregnant woman at the Ashton, but he pushed the thought aside in favor of his own workout. Despite predictions to the contrary, Walker won big in Nevada. By the end of the day, he was likely to lock in more than a handful of wins with a delegate count high enough to ensure he’d stay a major player for at least the next couple of months. As long as Walker still had a shot at the nomination, Matt was more than content to sit on the news of his possible infidelity. He’d sure as hell rather cover the presidential nominee than chase down mistresses of the former senator from South Carolina.

He skipped the treadmill beside the senator and slung his towel over the bar on the next one. Sucking in a breath because he’d rather be upstairs burning calories with Jess than working out, he hit a couple of buttons and started to run. Like everything else in the hotel, the equipment was top-of-the-line and the machine responded to his command for more speed without a pause. He pushed harder until he knew he was running faster than the senator. Silly maybe because unlike the older man, there was no way in hell he could keep up the pace, but it was a point of pride. He had to prove he could do it before he backed off to a sustainable level.

By the end of a half hour, he was struggling to catch his breath and the sweat rolled down his face. He bumped the machine to slow down and stole a glance at the senator, who thank fuck had started his own cooldown. Matt couldn’t start later and finish earlier than the older man. Walker glanced over and caught him watching, and Matt nodded, trying to act like running next to the senator he was covering was an everyday kind of thing.

“Hey,” said Walker, nodding his head in Matt’s direction while he toweled the sweat from his face.

The dude looked like a Nike ad. No wonder he got action outside his marriage. It was still kind of sleazy even given Matt’s flexible sexual morals but understandable.

“Hey.” He responded with a single syllable. He was going to tell himself it was because he didn’t want to spook the senator and not because he was having trouble catching his breath.

“You work for the
Tribune
, right?” he asked, shocking the hell out of Matt. It was a decent-sized paper, but it’s not like it was the
Times
or something. Given how many people he met in a day, the fact that Walker remembered the paper he worked for felt kind of exceptional.

“That’s the one. A colleague and I sprang for a travel upgrade,” he said, feeling the need to explain what he was doing in the workout room of a hotel clearly above his pay grade.

Walker just nodded and smiled, and he felt like an ass who offered too much information. They walked side by side in silence for a moment and Matt wondered why the senator hadn’t turned on the news. He hated noise in the morning. It felt like getting beaten awake, but in his limited experience, politicians were news junkies, especially on a day like today when it was likely to be about him. Maybe that was it. He might be more nervous about the results than he’d let on.

“Are you ready for today?” he asked, taking a chance and going out on a limb. The guy could always ignore him, but if he got a little insight into the man who might be the next president, it could only help him later.

“As much as I can be. Justin said you asked to cover the campaign. Why?”

Matt missed a step and almost went sprawling on his ass. He managed to catch himself at the last minute. It was like the guy was bionic or something.
Even if Justin had mentioned Matt’s request in passing, how the hell would the guy remember it with everything else he had going on?
He could try to spin a more noble answer but he felt pretty sure the senator would see through his bullshit.

“I got tired of chasing stories. I figured if I covered you and you went all the way, I’d have a guaranteed gig for at least a year. And if I was lucky, maybe longer.” He managed an aw-shucks smile he didn’t have to fake, to show he’d gotten used to being lucky.

“No family at home?” The senator slowed the treadmill down another couple of clicks.

“Nope. Not even a dog. My apartment’s crap so the hotels and traveling have actually been a step up.”
Why on God’s green earth had he offered that?
But the senator grinned so it couldn’t be that big of a disaster.

“Where are you from?”

Jesus,
he
was the reporter. He was the one who was supposed to ask the questions, but when he glanced over at Walker, the senator’s expression made it look like he actually wanted to know.

“Minnesota,” Matt answered and waited for the inevitable question.

“Did you have a chance to see your family when we passed through?”

Matt’s home state had been on the Super Tuesday push but there hadn’t been anybody at home he wanted to see. After his daddy lost the farm in 2009, he’d lost his way too. His parents split and Matt made it his goal to keep things as steady as he could for his kid sister.

He had no intention of telling Walker any of that or of letting him know that part of the reason he wanted to cover him was because of the aquaculture tech Walker invented. He’d left his family’s farm before the crash. It had been crystal-clear early on he wasn’t cut out to be a farmer, but agriculture was in his blood—literally. Four generations’ worth. Before ethanol subsidies drove corn prices through the roof, running centuries old dairies out of business, his family had been farming since his great-great-grandfather arrived from Poland with nothing more than a young bride and a determined spirit.

“No, there wasn’t time.” Not strictly speaking a lie, just not the whole truth.

“Any brothers or sisters?”

What was with this guy and his twenty questions?
It was bad enough that he was practically middle-aged and looked like he could outrun Matt without breaking a sweat, but why did he insist on digging into his personal life? He’d work his way up to being angry except the senator seemed genuinely interested and it wasn’t like the information was anything he could use so it had to be because he wanted to know. Maybe he got tired of always being the one under the magnifying glass. Maybe he was the decent guy he appeared to be.
Unlikely.
He was a politician, but maybe.

“A younger sister. She’s a sophomore at Arizona State. She’s been Dean’s List both years,” he added, unable to stop himself. After his less than stellar academic performance, he was so proud of Becca.

“ASU Sun Devils? That’s a fantastic school. Can she score you baseball tickets?”

“In the student section, but yes,” said Matt, grinning. “The game between the Wildcats and the Devils last season was almost worth the cost of tuition.”

Walker glanced over at him, a crease forming in the center of his forehead. “You pay your sister’s tuition?”

Fuck.
Now he could either look like an ass in front of the man who could give him access to his next six months of stories and maybe eventually enough material to write a book or he could tell him the truth. No one but Becca knew he paid the tuition at ASU. Well, him and student loans. His family didn’t even know, and he wanted it to stay that way. After the farm failed, there hadn’t been anything left for his sister. No one who wanted dairy cows with pedigrees built over generations could afford them. When he couldn’t afford to feed the cows anymore, his father sold all but the very best for hamburger. The cream of the herd fetched pennies on the dollar.

The family still owned the land, not that they could afford to do anything with it. The taxes were strangling them, but it was enough of an asset to knock Becca out of the running for most government aid. The only way his National Honor Society member sister was going to graduate from college was with massive student loans and Matt wasn’t okay with that. He sure as hell wasn’t okay with her staying in their dying community, taking whatever job she could get and tying herself down with a husband and kids. So he helped her fill out the loan papers for her tuition and then he paid them down as fast as he could. He wouldn’t get her in the black by graduation, but there would be a lot less red.

“Not all of it,” he said when he realized the senator still watched him. “I’m just helping with her student loans.” He kicked the treadmill up a couple of notches, hoping that if he was running he could stop telling his secrets to the man who seemed to see too much.

“Off the record?” Walker asked.

Matt nodded, figuring anything was better than having his life under the microscope.

“My brother is a disaster. He’s had everything handed to him and he hasn’t done a single worthwhile thing. Maybe that isn’t completely true. At least he hasn’t gotten caught doing anything really vile.” Walker ran the towel over his face, soaking up the nonexistent sweat. “You’re lucky.”

Anderson Walker being a waste of space wasn’t news. It was pretty standard knowledge that the older Walker son had gotten all the ambition and the younger one inherited the party gene. But the senator hadn’t needed to say it out loud and the fact that he did meant something to Matt. He’d made himself and his family look bad to elevate Matt’s by contrast. It took some of the sting out of thinking about his family and his past, and it made Matt like the guy in spite of himself.

For a moment, Matt let himself hope the guy kept winning and made it all the way to the White House and not because he didn’t want to spend his time chasing ex-mistresses for stories, but because he wanted to see what kind of president the senator would make.

“I am,” he said, kicking the treadmill up another couple of notches so he wouldn’t have to spend any more time looking at his feelings.

Walker hit a button and stepped off his machine, turning to go.

“Good luck today,” said Matt.

“Thanks. See you on the trail.”

Matt ran just long enough to be sure he wouldn’t run into the senator at the elevators and have to share an awkward ride to his floor. When he was sure the other man had had plenty of time to get to his room, he stopped the treadmill without bothering to go through a cooldown. He’d head upstairs and see if he could convince Jess to get dirty with him before he snagged a shower and they spent the day chasing the senator around the state along with the rest of the press. Maybe he could talk her into taking the shower with him.

There were some good possibilities ahead of him and his mood had definitely improved by the time he got in the elevator. At the last moment, he hit the button for the lobby. He may as well make sure they had the credit card thing sorted and find out when checkout was. Neither of them could afford an extra charge. The hotel had been a big enough splurge to begin with.

“I’m in room 302,” he said, hitting the pretty front desk clerk with his best cocky grin. “I wanted to make sure you could divide the room between the two credit cards you’ve got on file.”

“Of course, sir.” She glanced down at her computer screen and after a few seconds, her face brightened. “The bill’s already been taken care of, sir.”

Maybe he’d waited too long to catch Jess upstairs. It would be just like her to go all early bird on him and take care of things herself.

“Did it go on both cards?” he asked.

“No, sir,” she said, gracing him with a smile bigger than the situation deserved. “Senator Walker took care of your bill.”

“Thank you,” said Matt, slightly stunned. Jess would figure out a way to spin it so the senator looked bad, but he couldn’t help but like the guy’s style.

H
AVEN SUCKED BACK HER FIFTH 16OZ. Styrofoam cup of tea for the day. She’d had so much sugar it was a miracle she wasn’t bouncing around the makeshift war room like an elementary school kid hopped up on Easter candy. After the eight straight days of travel, including working their way halfway around the Commonwealth of Virginia since that morning, the caffeine and sugar were a necessary evil. She’d be dead on her feet without them. As it was, she was barely holding on, but it looked like their hard work might actually be starting to pay off.

Walker had gone from a second or third place finish in most of the polls to second in most and first in a handful. And their internal exit polling had him doing even better than she’d predicted. They wouldn’t get Arkansas, but she’d never expected to. It was Jenson’s home state, but a strong second place finish meant Walker would still get a share of the delegates.

Bible-thumper Simpson was set to take Alabama and Tennessee but it looked like Walker might peel off Minnesota. At the very least, the decision in that state would probably go past nine Central Time, which meant even if he did lose it to Simpson, the news would probably come after most of the East Coast was fast asleep. By morning, the news would be cold or it would be another notch in Walker’s tally.