The senator bobs his head. “It started with being offered a powerful position, and when that didn’t work, it’s now a shit ton of money to change my vote.”
I know the answer but ask anyway, “And that didn’t work either?”
He puffs on his cigar and the woodsy smoke billows around him. “Of course not. But nevertheless, the options to buy me are narrowing, which is why we might need to keep a closer eye on things.”
“You’ll let me know if things become tenser?” Politics is a fast game. One minute the world is falling apart. The next it isn’t. Sometimes it’s all about the waiting game to see if trouble is coming.
Gary gives a gentle smile. “You’ll be the first to know.” He pulls in another long drag of the cigar, blowing the smoke out in a perfect line. “Remind me again why I got into politics, Blackwood?”
“Because you’re a glutton for punishment, sir?”
He laughs, free and easy. “That must be true.” He taps the cigar, knocking off the ashes. “Now, before we get back to the party, we’ve got something else to discuss, don’t we?”
“Yes, sir, I believe we do.” There’s no avoiding the inevitable. We both know that.
Gary sits back in his chair and gives me a level look. “Are you sleeping with my daughter, Blackwood?”
His directness is expected. It’s what I respect about him most. “No, sir.” Would I like to? Now that’d be a different answer altogether.
He pauses. Then, thankfully, doesn’t ask the question I don’t want to answer. “Are you in love with her?”
I stare at him, thinking hard about how to answer him. I’d been with the Winters family for six and a half years now, hired on when Gary took office in his first term, but also stayed on for his second term. One brick through his window after he became senator, which nearly hit Hadley, had been enough of a scare to hire security. And now, with my parents cruising around on a sailboat at the moment alongside their retired friends and only calling when they were in port, I suppose he felt pretty close to being family, too. He deserves an answer. “I’m sure you’re already well aware that I care deeply for your family.”
Gary’s mouth twitches. “You do realize that’s not quite an answer to my question.”
“I’m aware, sir.”
A long silence stretches out between us. Then, “Do I take that to mean the answer is complicated?”
“Quite complicated” is my carefully worded response.
Gary is a smart man. He reads between the lines. It’s clear enough that I want his daughter in ways I shouldn’t. If he asks outright, I’ll never lie to him. That is a trust between us I will never break. But I have no intention of telling him that for a year now, his daughter has made advances on me. Advances that tempt me to do very dirty things to her. No matter how much trust lies between us, he doesn’t need to know any of that.
Gary taps his fingers against the armrest and examines me. He finally blinks, and his voice softens as he adds, “I hope you know that I’d give you my blessing to date her, Ryder.”
It’s a rare thing for Gary to use my first name. I admit it rattles me a little and makes things a bit too personal. I’m trying to forget about Hadley and keep my control around her, not indulge this line of thinking. “Right now, your daughter and I are featured in the grocery store tabloids for reasons totally unknown to me.”
Which isn’t exactly the whole truth. Just over a week ago, I found recording devices in my close friend Gabe O’Keefe’s pub monitoring our private conversations. The tabloids love my powerful San Francisco friends, which is why I’m on that damn cover. I don’t remember if it ever came up in conversation that I cared for Hadley, but I’m sure it could have been implied. The senator also doesn’t need to know these things. Reminded of how much he has on his plate, I add, “And now you have to deal with this corruption you mentioned. My mind is focused on those issues at the present time, nothing else.”
“You’ll let me know if your mind focuses elsewhere?” Gary drops his cigar, extinguishing it with the tip of his shoe.
“Of course.”
“Good,” Gary replies. “Now, speaking of the tabloids, will this be a problem for me?”
He’s not annoyed, I can tell. Just concerned by the rags’ sudden interest in me and Hadley and why we’re being lumped together, and I’d expect him to be. “It won’t
become your problem. I’ll find out not only who is behind this story about us but why the tabloids are focusing on your daughter at all.”
“That’s good enough for me” is his reply.
It doesn’t surprise me in the least that’s all he needs to hear to confirm I won’t let my problems become his. That’s my promise to him, and that’s exactly why Hadley is untouchable. I don’t complicate things. I never break my word.
“So,” the senator says, sliding back into business mode, rising from his seat. “We’ve got corruption on my end, the tabloids riding your ass, and perhaps a forbidden love situation with my beloved daughter, have I got that right, Blackwood?”
I rise with him and smile. “Just another day at the office, sir.”
Chapter 3