group text but ignore the getting my rocks off in a Porsche comments.
Me – I know this isn’t your thing but you cannot text me all night. I’ll let you know if I get separated from her.
Asa – Roger.
Jarvis – Just saying, if you two get separated, my car is safe.
“Sir, empty your pockets into the basket and step through the scanner.”
Unlike my partner, hidden weapons are beyond my boundaries and I slide through security smoother than lube.
I’m thirty feet behind Bella and move to a separate check-in table with my ticket. Once I collect my seat assignment for dinner, I stay far enough back for her to take the lead into the main ballroom.
Now it gets interesting.
It’s been years, and the thrill—not only the job but working with Bella again—hits me in waves. This is the adrenaline shot I can’t get any other way, a concoction that only comes from working with her.
When she walks to the bar to order a drink where Randolph is talking to another man, I know it’ll be a dirty martini.
Bella
“Dirty martini, please.”
“Coming right up.”
I turn to the side and open my clutch to pull out a twenty. Charles Randolph is an arm’s length away—how I’d like to reach out and choke the bastard. I would if he weren’t the only human I know who could lead me to my path of freedom.
Exoneration is so close, I can taste it.
“You know I can’t do that, Jack. I need to keep my constituents happy. Florida is a swing state and I have too many retirees to support the bill.”
Jack is not happy. “We need you on this issue. The party needs you.”
Why do they not sound like they’re talking about the manatees who are now on the endangered list in the Everglades? Yes, I did my homework before attending tonight.
“I get where you’re coming from but I can’t bend. I’m up for re-election this year—”
“You mean you’re going to make a move for Majority Leader,” Jack corrects him.
“Ma’am, your martini.”
I turn to the bartender and hand him my Andrew Jackson. “Thank you. And keep the rest.”
He winks at me right before his eyes lower to my never-ending neckline. “Let me know when you need a refill. From the looks of it, you’ll need it to get through this downer.”
I raise my martini glass. “Don’t I know it.”
Randolph chuckles and I’ve never heard anything more bogus in my life. “If the party needs me, I’ll step up.”
“Dammit, Charles. We need your vote so others will follow suit.”
“Good luck, Jack. I’m not sure I’ll be in town the day of your vote. You know how things go during a campaign. I need to get down to Florida to spend time with my people.”
And just like that, Randolph has efficiently dismissed the poor bloke.
The Senator starts to turn to the bar but his eyes land on me. Without looking away, he brusquely orders a vodka tonic without a please or a thank you.
An arse with no manners to boot.
“I’m not sure we’ve met and I know a lot of people here.” He extends his hand and I take it, at the same time my insides roil for what I know he’s done to me. “Charles Randolph, Senator from Florida. And you are?”
“Kim Cartwright. The pleasure is mine. I’ve never met a Senator before.”
“Kim. And I disagree—the pleasure is in my court.” He gives my hand a squeeze before releasing me and stepping in closer. “What brings you here tonight? Nature conservationist or just a love for sea turtles?”
Charles Randolph is a handsome man—as much hatred that flows through my veins for him, even I can’t deny it. I knew this from studying him. But actually meeting him in person? He’s all JFK plus ten years. Tall-ish. Salting at the temples enough to add fake character and false wisdom. A tan that tells me he often travels home to the Sunshine State. I can see how someone like him, who carries the power and prestige in combination with his all-American-man aura, would win over the ladies he’s rumored to leave in his wake.
I know this because the all-American-man look definitely gets my British blood pumping.
However, I’m smart enough to look deeper. And deeper on the senior Senator from Florida is not good.
His wandering eyes give credence to the rumors his wife of twenty-two years does, in fact, have the right to live her separate life in their second home in Nassau.