Follow Your Heart (Catalina Cove #4) - Brenda Jackson Page 0,74
Aunt Dora on a twenty-day cruise.”
Victoria threw her head back and sighed. She’d forgotten about that cruise her great-grandmother took with her oldest son and daughter-in-law about this time every year. “Twenty days?”
“Yes.”
“Then I need to talk to her when she returns.”
Christy didn’t say anything and then she asked, “How do you feel about Roman, Victoria?”
She decided to be honest. “I’m falling in love with him, Christy. I know that I am. That could only mean one thing.”
“What?”
“Somehow Mama Laverne made a mistake in pairing me with Tanner.”
* * *
“SWEET THING, I GOT the photographs you sent over and read your PI’s report. Sounds like your senator has been busy.”
Audria leaned back against the seat of her car. She hated when he called her “sweet thing” and would usually correct him. But not this time. She needed Buddy’s help. “So when will you run the story?” There was no need to tell him that she’d doctored John’s report to make things look worse than they really were. People didn’t read The Tattler for the truth, anyway.
“The Monday after he returns. My sources tell me the senator will be back in DC sometime that Friday. I want to think of it as ‘The Monday Surprise’ and prefer using my capital reporters to question him. They are known to be aggressive. And I have a reporter in place in New Orleans, as well, for Ms. Madaris. It’s best to handle them separately. On top of that, we also plan to question Tanner Jamison to see if he had any idea just what his girlfriend has been doing behind his back.”
She could hear a shuffling of papers, then Buddy said, “Only thing, we can’t find any articles or news reports of a romantic relationship between Jamison and Victoria Madaris or an announcement of an engagement. The only thing we could find is the mention of him opening some nightclub in New Orleans.”
“Not sure why their engagement hasn’t been public, unless they are keeping it a secret for some reason. I figure the reason he’s opening the club in New Orleans is to keep an eye on her. I think deep down, Tanner Jamison knows she can’t be trusted,” she theorized as she glanced out the car window, knowing what she was saying was all lies, but Buddy wouldn’t question it. More than anything, she needed him to run that article.
“You’re probably right and that’s the angle we’re going for. We’re going to paint Jamison as the victim in all this, with the senator and Victoria Madaris having an affair behind his back. In other words, we will implicate the senator in a love triangle with the Madaris woman. Even if they deny it, it will throw shade on both of their reputations because we have all those photos to back up our claim.”
Audria’s smile widened. That’s what she wanted. Roman would seek her out to help clean up his image. “And I happen to think that angle is a good one.”
“You owe me, sweet thing, and I intend to collect. Be at my place tonight at nine and don’t be late.”
Audria frowned at the sound of the phone clicking in her ear.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
TANNER TOSSED THE report he’d been trying to read for the past half hour on his desk. He rubbed the bridge of his nose, feeling a tension headache coming on. He never got headaches of any kind. What was going on with his body...other than the obvious signs of sexual withdrawal?
He stood and shoved his hands into his pockets as he walked over to the window to look out. The workers had left for lunch and he was in the building alone. Hank had popped into his office more than once to report the renovations of the bathrooms were finished and the workers had started on the walls and floors. Then there had been the sounds of men at work, voices, the sound of a hammer against wood and the hum of a drill. Now everything was quiet...except for the sound of his heart beating in his chest.
What in the hell was wrong with him? Why did Lyric Evans still have him tied in knots? After all they’d shared on Monday, she should be out of his system by now. Yet here it was Thursday and she was even more deeply embedded in there. He thought about her every waking moment and when he went to bed at night, he dreamed about her, reliving every single thing they did together. Every