Rook (Political Royalty Book 2) (8 page)

Collins had her own version of the perfect family, but her comments about going back to work as soon as she could when her children were infants had definitely rubbed at least some of the voters the wrong way. She won Maine in a landslide, but Walker squeaked out wins in Kansas and Kentucky. Louisiana had been close enough they were still counting the votes. It would be days before they knew the results.

Estevan took Puerto Rico and Matt had to laugh thinking of the other
Tribune
reporter still stuck on the campaign trail with the crazy billionaire. He knew the man had taken the assignment because he assumed Estevan would be out and he’d be home by now. The momentum Estevan had gained in his battle with Collins raised his profile more than it diminished hers and it didn’t look like the publishing magnet would be out any time soon.

Either way, things had taken a turn in Walker’s direction, and Matt was feeling pretty damn good about everything. Everything except the fact that he couldn’t get a hold of his baby sister. Walker’s wife took the stage, leading their little girls by the hand, and the crowd erupted. They were loud enough, he’d have missed his phone if he hadn’t set it to vibrate. When he pulled it from his pocket, he saw a text message from his sister.

I’M FINE. JUST BUSY. DON’T COME.

It should make him feel better but it had the opposite effect.
Why didn’t she want to talk to him, and why couldn’t she be bothered to return his call until he threatened to drop in on her?
Making his way through the cheering crowd, he started walking and kept going until he was out of the gym and someplace quiet enough to make a call. He ducked into an alcove close enough to the exits by the press area so he could see if something happened and then he dialed. When it rang through to Becca’s voicemail, he hung up and dialed again. It was after six and he doubted she had a class. He hit Call a third time and she finally picked up on the fifth ring.

“What the fuck?” he asked, replacing his worry with irritation. “You can’t take the time to call me back?”

“I’m sorry.” Her voice sounded small and he thought he heard a catch.

“Hey, it’s okay,” he said, toning back the asshole. “I’m just giving you grief. Everything okay there?”

She waited a second too long to answer and his body went on hyper alert. “I’m fine,” she said, clearly not.

“What’s wrong, Becs? And don’t bullshit me.”

“It’s nothing. I’m fine, really.” The artificially chipper tone was almost worse than the sadness he thought he’d heard earlier. She was lying to him and he had no idea why. Pushing her over the phone didn’t seem likely to get him the answers he wanted so he made a split-second decision. They weren’t scheduled to be in Arizona for another week and a half, but he didn’t want to wait that long to see what was going on. The world wouldn’t end if he wasn’t there to cover Guam and the Virgin Islands. He’d wait for the results from the next day’s contests and then he’d head to Arizona a couple of days early. He could be back on the bus before the swing states in a week.

“I’m coming to see you,” he said, more sure of his decision with every word. “I’ll sleep on your couch, flirt with your roommate, and take you out for a decent meal. I remember campus food. It’s a lot like campaign food. What do you say? I think we could both use a break.”

He waited, listening to her shallow breathing on the other end of the line. It sounded like she was trying not to cry. Her answer didn’t matter. He’d go either way, but it didn’t hurt to let her think she had a choice.

“Okay,” she said, her voice sounding so tight it made his heart clench.

“Don’t worry, baby. I’ll see you in a couple of days.” When he hung up, he mentally bumped up his departure time and worked to convince himself she’d be okay until he got there.

He scanned the crowd leaving the gym and caught a glimpse of Jess’s auburn head. Weaving through the throngs of people like a fish swimming upstream, he finally managed to get close enough to grab her arm. She whirled to face him, but something in his expression must have stopped the smart-ass crack he could practically see on the tip of her tongue.

“What’s wrong?” she asked, gentling her normally ball-busting tone.

He pulled her out of the sea of people and into one of the alcoves leading to what looked like the locker rooms and coaches’ offices. When he looked into her eyes and saw worry, his chest squeezed tight. Jess didn’t worry about him. She fucked him and fucked with him. Seeing anything else reflected in her gaze made everything that much more real and cemented his resolve to get to Becca as fast as he could.

“It’s my sister. I’ve got to go see her. Tonight.”

“Tomorrow he’s stumping in Ohio.”

“I know.” They were scheduled to leave Michigan and head to Ohio after the next stop. The senator wanted to spend Election Day canvassing the swing state he needed in the general. The state’s commitment to preserving dwindling farmland made a strong case for Walker’s message resonating with Buckeye voters.

“You’re not fucking around, are you?”

“No.” He let the word hang between them. He rarely worked as hard as Jess did and she knew it, but this wasn’t one of those times.

She searched his face and seemed to read the difference; then she nodded and something in his chest relaxed a fraction of an inch.

“Okay. Keep your phone on. I’ll feed you basic stuff, but if I finally get something juicy on Walker, all bets are off. And if I get bedbugs at the next skeazy hotel, I’m sharing them with you.”

M
ATT USED THE LAST OF his frequent flyer miles to get from Detroit to Phoenix. It took him four hours in an overpriced one-way rental to get to the airport, but less than twenty-four hours after he talked to his sister on the phone, he was pulling onto the campus of University of Arizona. He stopped at the visitor center for a map and a guest parking pass and five minutes later, he pulled into an empty space within walking distance of Eller. He had no idea what her class schedule looked like but whenever he talked to her, she seemed to be in the computer lab in the commons or somewhere in McClelland Hall, both of which were in the Management College.

He should have called his sister to let her know he was coming, but his reporter’s instincts sensed he had a better chance of getting to the truth if he didn’t give her a heads-up. If he couldn’t find her at the commons, he could always call and let her know he was on campus. Putting the parking pass on his dash so it was clearly visible, he stepped out of the car and sucked a breath of air more suited to early summer than early spring. It was a nice change from the gray, dormant landscape he’d left behind. If he hadn’t been so worried about his sister, he could get into slipping on a T-shirt and board shorts and spending the afternoon playing Frisbee and co-ed watching on the lawn. As it was, he barely noticed the desert landscape and the mountains stretching above them in the distance.

He stopped in the nearest building and a pretty young woman with more energy than he thought he’d ever had took his map and used her Sharpie to draw a path to McClelland Hall and the Information Systems labs. He still didn’t understand exactly what his sister’s major meant. He knew it had something to do with facilitating the link between computers and the people who used them, but every time Becca had tried to explain exactly what it was she did, his eyes had glazed over and his mind had wandered. It was enough for him to know she was brilliant and in one of the best schools in the country for her field, and that she’d have a good job when she graduated and wouldn’t have to go back to the dying town they grew up in.

She was in the third lab he checked, the only one in the dimly lit room. He almost missed her. She’d buried herself under an ASU hoody and curled in on herself, hunched in front of the computer. The light of the monitor illuminated her face and even from the doorway, he could see by her profile that something had changed. It was more than an all-nighter or hangover. She looked shrunken, sallow, and as if she hadn’t bathed in far too long. He cleared his throat and she jumped as if she’d been electrocuted, spinning her chair to face him, fear etched clearly on her face.

“Oh baby, what’s happened?” he asked, closing the distance between them and dropping to his knees in front of her.

He reached for her, pulling her close and felt her resistance, her body stiff against his. A second later, she let out a sob and it was as if someone had cut a string and she collapsed against him, weeping in his arms. He held her while she cried, wondering what the fuck he was supposed to do. The only thing he knew for certain was that he couldn’t let her go so he held her, and she cried, big wracking sobs that shook her small body and broke his heart.

“We can fix it, baby. Whatever it is,” he crooned over and over, his lips against her hair, praying to a God he hadn’t really believed in since elementary school that he was right.

When she finally stopped crying, he managed to get her back to his car but he couldn’t get her to talk
. Some fucking reporter he’d turned out to be.
He couldn’t even uncover whatever had hurt his baby sister.

“Is your roommate at home?” he asked, going for a question he hoped she’d answer.

“Probably.”

That clinched it. He knew her well enough to know he’d never get her to talk to him with the threat of an audience. He turned out of the campus and toward the string of hotels downtown. He hadn’t bothered to book a room, but he’d passed a place on the drive in that looked decent. Not good enough for his sister, but above his normal standards. He made the short drive across town and pulled into the lot. Grabbing his duffel from the back, he debated leaving Becca in the car while he checked in but he wasn’t sure he trusted her to still be there when he came back and it scared him to leave her alone. He opened the passenger door and tugged on her hand until she got out of the car and followed him like an errant child.

Slowing down when they reached the lobby, he plastered his best
you know you want to help me
smile on his face and set out to try to charm the desk clerk into a better rate. A few minutes later, he had a keycard in his hand and a AAA and a military discount on the room, which made it just bearable if they didn’t stay too long.

“Do they ever say no?” asked Becca when the elevator doors closed behind them. It was the first bit of speech she’d offered, but instead of the teasing smile he was used to, her expression was as flat as the tone of her voice. The only time she seemed completely alive was when she’d been crying.

“Rarely.” He ushered her out into the empty hall and kept his hand on her shoulder as he led her to their room. If he kept touching her, he could push back the feeling that she might shrink into herself and disappear at any moment.

The room was clean with a single king bed, a small television on the narrow dresser, tiny loveseat, and not much room for anything else. He’d asked for a double but even though he knew the desk clerk wanted to help him, she hadn’t been able to find an open one. It didn’t matter. His sister was safe with him, the bathroom looked clean, and the AC worked. Becca had to be roasting in her sweatshirt, but if she was, she didn’t let it show. He dumped his duffel on the bed and pulled out an extra pair of sweats and a T-shirt. It would be big on her, but it wasn’t like they were going anywhere and with the way her sandy-blonde hair hung around her face, it didn’t look like she’d showered in days.

“Here, take these and go get a shower,” he said, pushing the clothes into her hands. “I’ll order room service.”

He stuck to the tangible things he could do to make her more comfortable until he could figure out what was going on. When he heard the sound of the water running, he called room service and ordered cheeseburgers, fries, and a two-liter of diet soda. At the last minute, he added a six-pack, reasoning the alcohol might help Becca tell him what had happened. Shoving his duffel off the mattress and onto a chair, he collapsed back on the bed and flipped on the television to see what he’d missed while traveling.

Jess had been texting him polling results from inside the campaign, interspersed with smart-ass comments about how she was doing his work for him. It was true and he’d owe her big time. The digs also added a layer of normal to a situation that definitely wasn’t.

Matt had roughed out a couple of story outlines on the plane. It wouldn’t win awards but once he filled in the details, it should keep his editor happy and buy him time until he could get back on the trail. Although God knew how long that would be. He couldn’t leave with his sister walking around like a broken zombie. He’d risk getting fired before he let her face whatever it was alone. He flipped to a cable news channel and reached for his tablet as the talking heads started going over the results.

Walker pulled Michigan, which would make the campaign happy. When he left, polls had the senator running just behind Collins. Mississippi still said too early to call but it was already swinging heavily toward Collins, with Walker taking a distant second place. It would be the next day before they had results for Hawaii but it was heavily favored for the retired general as well. Idaho was Walker’s only other shot at a win. Jenson’s name hadn’t shown up anywhere. If he didn’t turn things around fast, he’d be lucky to still be in the race by next week.