by Cassia Leo
“Uh, yeah, I think I would prefer a meeting with a werewolf right now,” I replied, as the doors opened directly onto the penthouse antechamber.
The stark white wall in front of us boasted a surrealist painting I recognized from the art history course I took five years ago—just so, I could share a class with my college boyfriend. I wished I could remember the artist. It would make a nice conversation piece to break the ice.
Maybe Katherine didn’t like art. Maybe she hated it the way she hated me.
We turned the corner into the penthouse and found Chase sitting on a crisp white sofa with Katherine sitting next to him on the arm—above him. I was beginning to understand the dynamics of their relationship more by the second.
Chase stood as soon as he saw me, but I waited near the entrance for him to come to me. He planted a tender kiss on my cheek as I kept my eyes on Katherine’s dark flowing hair and haughty expression.
“Larissa, you’ve met Katherine,” Chase said, his voice a bit higher in pitch than usual.
“She’s not here to meet me,” Katherine said, casting a slow smirk in my direction. “She’s here to assert her authority over this debacle.”
“Katherine, please,” Chase said, as he motioned for me to take a seat on the sofa. “Let’s keep this civil.”
I shook my head. “I’ll stand, thanks,” I said, before I turned to Katherine. “Kathy’s right. You don’t mind if I call you Kathy, do you?”
“Call me Kathy and I’ll call you Larry.”
“Okay… Well, you’re right. I’m here to remind you all that I have the power to confirm or deny everything Heather wrote in that article and I’m tired of being a mouthpiece. For Christ’s sake, I have the hardest job here. I have to pretend to be in love with this!”
Teddy did not appear amused by my jab at him, but Katherine let out a hearty guffaw.
“I guess you’re not as dumb as Heather made you out to be,” she said, as she stood from the sofa and took two steps toward me so we were face to face. “If you can dig deep down into your bag of tricks and put on the performance of your life, I think I might one day grow to tolerate you.”
Bitch. Bitch. Bitch.
“Come now, ladies. There’s no need for all this vitriol,” Teddy chimed in. “We have to go down and face the hounds in twenty minutes. Let’s get our stories straight and get the fuck down there.”
Chase pulled me aside and put his lips to my ear. “Are you all right?”
“Peachy,” I replied tersely, as I moved to get around him, but he grabbed my wrist to stop me.
“Larissa, whatever happens down there today, I want you to know that I’ll be on the other side waiting for you, no matter how far apart we end up after the blast.”
“What are you implying? Are we going to have to break up if that’s what serves the campaign? Is that what you’re saying?”
“I’m not saying that. I’m saying that, according to Isa’s data, we may need to enact plan B if putting you and Teddy together doesn’t work.”
“What’s plan B?”
Teddy sidled up next to me. “Plan B goes into effect if the press presents photographic evidence of you and Chase together. In that case, you’ll have to go underground for a while.”
“Underground?” I repeated his word, as if I could glean the meaning by saying it aloud. “What the fuck does that mean?”
When Chase and Teddy remained silent, Katherine answered for them. “It means you, my dear, will have to admit to seducing Senator Underwood during your long hours together and you will concoct a heartfelt, public apology to me right before you disappear.”
“Disappear? What? Are you going to kill me?” I said, with a laugh and Chase took my hand and led me toward a corridor.
“Where are you taking me?” I asked, as I attempted to wrench my hand free from his grasp. “What? Are you going to throw me out the fucking window? Make it look like a suicide?”
“Stop it, Larissa!” he roared at me, as he led me into a bedroom and slammed the door shut. “Listen to me. Plan B means you’ll get a new identity and we’ll relocate you, somewhere off the grid, for at least six months until I’m in office and the scandal has died down.”
“Six months?” I whispered, as I realized what was happening. “Plan B means throwing me under the bus and putting me in solitary confinement for six months? You agreed to this?”
He shook his head at me. “Larissa—”
“Stop saying my name!” I shouted. “I know Teddy’s responsible for coming up with this, but I can’t believe you’re going along with it.”
He took my face in his hands. “Larissa, please. It’s the only way we’re going to get through this intact.”
“It’s the only way you three are going to get through this intact!”
“Please,” he whispered before his mouth was on mine.
I banged and shoved his chest, but he was too strong, and soon the gravity of his kiss pulled me under. He tore open my blouse and carried me to the bed. I undid his pants as he settled himself between my legs and yanked my skirt up. I gasped as he entered me.
“Fuck,” he whispered, as he buried his face in my hair.
I moaned as he thrust in and out of me. “Oh.”
“I fucking love you,” he breathed into my ear. “I won’t… I won’t let them hurt you. I promise.” His face hovered inches above mine as I gazed into his eyes. “Tell me you love me.”
“I love you,” I groaned, as his erection sunk deep inside me.
He kissed me slowly and deeply until I finally had to turn my face away to come up for air. His teeth sunk into my shoulder as his body shuddered and collapsed on top of me. His breath was hot and ragged against my skin as I wrapped my arms around his neck and held on as if he were my life raft. He buried his face in my neck, making no move to unearth his still throbbing cock from inside me. We lay like this for what seemed like no more than a minute before a knock on the door interrupted.
“Coming!” Chase shouted at the door, and we smiled at each other before he kissed me one last time.
Chapter 5
An army of twelve Secret Service agents was lined up outside guarding the front doors of the hotel. The minute we stepped outside, the cameras flashed and I was blinded. Teddy wrapped his arm around my shoulder to guide me forward. He used his other hand to shield my face from the flashes of light. I wrapped my arm around his waist and leaned into him. I wasn’t acting. I was terrified.
We approached a podium, which had magically appeared in front of the hotel. I wanted to bury my face in his shoulder, but Katherine and Teddy insisted I had to look strong, but vulnerable. If I could pull this off, it would be the greatest performance of my life. All those years of drama and acting classes better not have been a waste. All the faux tears I’d cried over faux tragedies. Surely, I could muster some faux strength in the midst of this very real tragedy.
“Good afternoon,” Teddy said, and the microphone on the podium sounded perfectly crisp and blaringly loud as I gazed out across the shouting and ebbing sea of faces.
My eyes wandered further over the crowd until my heart stopped. The mob stretched all the way to the end of the block and beyond.
“Senator and Mrs. Underwood and Miss Jacobs will not be taking any questions today,” Teddy’s voice echoed in my ears as his hand fell from my shoulder.
Not answering any questions? Miss Jacobs? That’s no way to address your supposed girlfriend, Teddy.
I turned around to confirm this new development with Chase, but he and Katherine were nowhere. They had been right behind Teddy and me as we approached the front door of the hotel. Now they were gone. They abandoned us. Chase abandoned me.
I looked to Teddy and the severe expression on his face as he glanced in my direction told me I was screwing this up. I didn’t look strong. I didn’t feel strong. I felt worthless.
Then I saw her. Heather Rodin stood in the front row of the pack of reporters holding up her hand to ask a question. And t
he anger returned; but I wasn’t angry with Heather. She was just doing her job. I was angry with Teddy for making me think this was a press conference to clear Chase’s name and make everyone believe Teddy and I were the ones having an affair. This wasn’t a press conference. This was my public lynching. This was Teddy sewing a big, fat “A” on my chest in front of a crowd of thousands of people. This was me being exposed.
“Larissa, how much did Senator Underwood pay you for your first encounter together?” Heather’s question whooshed past me as a roaring anger muffled my senses.
“I told you Miss Jacobs will not be answering any questions at this time,” Teddy repeated his mantra over and over as my vision blurred with rage.
“You lied to me!” I shouted, and Teddy quickly motioned to the nearest Secret Service agent.
The same handsome agent I had ogled on my visit to Baltimore with Chase now had both my arms in a vice grip as he shoved me toward the hotel entrance. My feet glided over the concrete as he practically carried me toward the doors.
“Where’s Chase?” I asked the agent, but he didn’t answer. “Drew, please, where is he?”
I never addressed the agents by their names. He probably thought I didn’t know his name because something changed in his face for just a brief moment. He shook his head as another agent grabbed my other arm and they both led me toward the elevator.
“How can you guys do this?” I whimpered, as the reality of how powerless I was at this moment finally hit me.
The tears rolled down my face in a never-ending stream of regret. I had trusted the wrong man. No, I had trusted the most wrong man. I had never screwed up this badly in my life and I had no safety net. I wouldn’t be surprised if they had already cleaned my bank accounts to erase all ties to me. They were going to erase me. Anything, so Chase could become the next president. Because the numbers showed that he still had a chance, but, obviously, only if I no longer existed.
“Larissa?” Drew’s voice startled me as the elevator carried us upward. His young face was wrought with guilt.
“What?”
He opened his mouth to say something, but instead he shook his head. “Nothing.”
“How could he do this to me?” I whispered to myself.
The elevator stopped at the penthouse and, for a moment, I allowed myself to think that Chase would be waiting on the other side of the doors. The elevator doors slid open and the antechamber was empty. They led me into the sitting area and there he was, sitting on the bottom step of the staircase.
“How—”
“Wait,” he interrupted me, as he strolled across the black tile toward me. “Just be quiet for a moment.”
He knelt in front of me and grabbed my left hand. “Larissa Jacobs, I love you more than I ever believed I could love someone.”
My breath came in shallow gasps as the tears began to fall again.
“I know you must be very angry with me right now, but I’m asking you to trust that this is all going to work out. I’m asking you to trust me… for now and forever. Will you please marry me? Will you please let me love you for the rest of our lives?”
My stomach twisted inside me at the sight of him kneeling before me brandishing the ring I had picked out six weeks ago. Every piece of me wanted to scream yes, except for my shattered heart.
“You’re sending me away,” I said, gritting my teeth against this painful truth.
“I’ll be back for you very soon.”
“You said you wouldn’t let them hurt me. What happened? What changed in the last twenty minutes?”
He glanced at my feet for a moment before he slipped his phone out of his pocket. He played a video of the two of us together in the hotel room last night, which appeared to have been taken from the hotel across the street.
“Teddy got this earlier, when we were making love,” he said, the muscle in his jaw twitching as he stood.
“So this is plan B? Parade me in front of a horde of reporters then send me away to some remote cabin in Montana for six months. And I’m supposed to just wait for you?”
“Not six months.”
“Then how long?”
“Three or four months tops. We need to at least wait until a few weeks after the inauguration… for things to die down.”
Drew stepped forward. “Sir, the chopper’s here.”
I shook my head as I realized the chopper was there for me. “I can’t believe this.”
Chase squeezed my hand, as he looked me in the eye. “Please let me put this ring on you.”
“Do I even have a choice or is this some kind of mandatory witness protection program?”
“Of course, you have a choice,” he replied with a glance at the ring.
I looked into his dark eyes, searching for a trace of deceit. Had I been wrong about him all along? Was this all a ploy to keep me loyal to him while I was in hiding?
No. He wasn’t lying. We were both being tossed by this violent ocean of lies—lies we had both told. Lies we had told ourselves.
Drew cleared his throat. “Sir?”
“Just a minute,” Chase replied, his eyes locked on mine as he awaited my answer.
I swallowed the fear lodged in my throat and nodded. “Yes. Yes, I’ll wait for you.”
He smiled like a boy with a new bicycle as he slipped the ring onto my finger. “You’ll hear from me tonight.” He kissed me, a deep, urgent kiss. “I love you,” he said, as he rested his forehead against mine. “I’m going to make this up to you.”
My chest ached as I tore myself away from him. “I know.”
I turned away before I could change my mind and chased Drew up the staircase. A private elevator on the second floor of the penthouse delivered us onto the roof where a helicopter waited for us. I raced toward the helicopter, pushing aside worries about how I was going to get all my stuff to this secret destination. I climbed into the cabin and Drew helped strap me into the seat.
“Where are we going?” I shouted at him over the roaring squeal of the engine and the thwack of the rotors.
He shook his head before he strapped himself into the seat next to me. I didn’t know if this meant he didn’t know where we were going or he couldn’t tell me, but I was starting to realize it didn’t matter. Even if he knew, he wouldn’t tell me.
The helicopter lifted off the roof and swept across the sky toward the west. I gazed at my ring and the way the light refracted off the stone and onto the ceiling of the chopper. Suddenly, I couldn’t breathe. I tucked my hand under my thigh and turned my attention to the window. As I gazed at the Vegas strip below, I thought of California and my ex-roommate Shane. He said I hit the jackpot when Chase picked me out of all the girls at the escort service. Suddenly, I was beginning to lose my taste for winning.
Part 4
Closure
Chapter 1
When life hands you a precious gift, wrapped in a flashy bow, sometimes it turns out to be a boxful of lemons. That’s how I felt about Chase’s proposal, which came minutes after having our affair broadcast to millions of people yesterday. My father used to say, “When life kicks you down, grab it by the balls and twist as hard as you can.” Right now, I didn’t have the energy to make lemonade or grab anyone’s balls. All I wanted at this moment was a comfortable bed and nine hours of sleep. The flight to Chase’s villa in Tuscany had me jet lagged and I had an interview with Diane Sawyer in ten hours.
I followed Secret Service agents Drew Hardwick and Michael Pham up the marble staircase to the second floor of the lavish villa where I would be spending the next three to four months as Chase attempted to glue his campaign and possible presidency back together. I resisted the urge to run my fingers along the polished mahogany banister as I went over the interview script in my head. Gideon Vernon, Chase’s public relations director, and Laura Greene, his speechwriter, had come up with a script for tomorrow’s interview. It wasn’t so much an interview as it was a chance for me to deny publicly my affair with Chase Underwood.
&nbs
p; The whole thing reeked, but the campaign statistician insisted it was the only option if they wanted any chance of salvaging Chase’s rapidly plummeting poll numbers. As my heels clicked against the wood floors in the corridor, I wondered if I was just a number. What if Chase had other mistresses in hiding?
That was way too much to fathom at this time. I needed to rest up, do the interview, and try not to worry about what my parents would think when they saw me on ABC World News. This wasn’t exactly the big break I’d been hoping for when I left home for Hollywood two years ago. I hated the thought of my mother turning to my father after seeing my interview and saying, “I told you so.”
“This is your room, Miss Jacobs,” Drew said, as he opened a set of tall double-doors revealing an enormous master suite that could easily fit my entire L.A. loft—four times.
“You can call me Larissa, Drew. I won’t tell Diane Sawyer if you don’t,” I said, as I set my purse down on a chaise lounge and wandered across the sumptuous carpet. “This is huge. I don’t think I need all this space. Are there any smaller rooms?”
Drew set my luggage down next to a massive armoire and glanced around. “This is nothing compared to his palace in San Diego. You’ll be fine in here; but if you really need something smaller, I can see if one of the servants will switch with you. Of course, Mike and I will have to bunk in the next room, wherever you decide to sleep.”
“Servants? No, no, that’s fine. I’ll stay here. Thanks for bringing up my stuff.”
“Yes, ma’am,” he said with a nod of his head before he and Mike exited the room.
Ma’am? Miss Jacobs? I would have to talk to Drew about that later. Since he and Mike were the only agents assigned to guard me, and the only other people in this house who spoke English, we needed to at least be on a first name basis or the next three to four months would be very depressing.
I unzipped my suitcase and pulled out a nightgown to change into. I peeled off my lilac silk dress, which was now a wrinkled mess after so many unsuccessful attempts to fall asleep on the plane. As I tossed the dress aside, the bedroom door swung open.
