“Governor Bloom is waiting in your office,” Camille whispered. “I’ve never seen a man that angry since my stepfather—”
She cut herself off, ducking her head. Valerie gripped her shoulder tightly as she saw Camille’s hands shaking. Of course, this had to be especially difficult for her. She’d been abused as a child and sometimes couldn’t even watch TV with men yelling in anger because it triggered her so badly. Valerie glared at the door, all the while her heart aching for her PA.
“I’m sorry. You should never have been put in this situation. Go home, get some rest.”
“I’ve dealt with worse; you have angry men in your office all the time.”
“Go home, Camille.” Valerie made her voice firmer. “It doesn’t matter if you can deal with it other days. You’re shaking like a leaf, and you look like you’re about to pass out. You don’t need to deal with this, it’s my mistake and my problem to handle.”
Camille bit her lip.
Valerie embraced her. “I’ll be fine. I can handle whatever he says. Just go take care of yourself.”
“I… okay. I’m sorry. I just—”
“I know. Go on.”
Valerie waited until after Camille had pulled on her coat and rushed from the room before she faced her own office door. She had never viewed it with so much dread before. Straightening her shoulders, she took a swig of the coffee (it wasn’t quite cold, but it was getting there) and marched into her office.
Bloom sat at her desk, his knuckles white. As soon as he saw her, he leapt to his feet. Valerie wasn’t sure how Governor Brock Bloom could look so furious and so smug at the same time, but somehow, he managed it. She nodded toward him coolly.
“Finally! Do you have any idea how long I’ve been here? You’re lucky I don’t fire your fat ass on the spot.”
Fat? Valerie forced herself not to react to the insult. If Bloom thought that he was going to chase her off with kindergarten comments, he had another thing coming.
“I have gone to bat for you over and over and over again. And then you turn around and betray me like this? Not only is it disgusting, immoral behavior—” And there it was, the slut-shaming. “—it’s wildly unprofessional. And with a criminal no less? Did you tell him that you were going to keep him out of jail? Did you pay him?”
The implications were clear, and Valerie wanted to snarl at Bloom that it was no more immoral than the stories that had been circulating about him stepping out on his wife. She remained silent, though. Nothing she could say would stop the tirade.
It took a full ten minutes for Bloom to stop yelling. By then, he’d called her pretty much every name under the sun. He’d referenced her ‘acting like a whore’ at least five times and ended it with, “This is why women should not be judges. You are ruled by your hormones!”
Says the man that claims that punishments for violent rape should be lessened because men just can’t control themselves.
“At least have some respect for yourself and step down from your position, Gilson. Don’t make me fire you.”
Even if she had been planning to do that before, she wouldn’t have done it now. Not after that tirade, how he tried to humiliate her, all the things he had just said.
“I—”
“If you don’t, believe me, it won’t be good for you.”
“I don’t see how—”
“Believe me, you will not like it if I have to fire you.”
Valerie gazed at him coolly. “I wasn’t finished. I don’t see how you would have any legal right—”
“No legal right! Caught consorting with a criminal. One that you helped get out of jail by mishandling the evidence!”
“I wasn’t finished.” Valerie waited for a beat. “I don’t see how you would have any legal right to fire me just because I was filmed kissing my fiancé after he proposed to me.”
Bloom, who had opened his smug-looking mouth as soon as she started talking, now froze. His eyes bugged out of his head, and Valerie had to fight not to smirk at him. Half of what he had raged at her only had a basis in the assumption that this was a random encounter and that she and Kavan had just happened to be at that bar together, only for her to decide that she wanted to fuck him.
Which isn’t exactly false, she thought regretfully but again kept her expression blank.
Bloom sat heavily. “Fiancé?”
“Kavan came to me several months ago, telling me that he suspected that someone in the justice system purposefully mishandled evidence in order to get his trial thrown out in order to ruin my reputation and career,” Valerie said smoothly. “He suspects that it’s someone with strong anti-paranormal prejudices since I tend to try paranormal cases the same way I’d try non-paranormal cases. Demanding evidence and all that.”
Bloom’s face colored and his hands clenched.
“He is regretful of his actions and has left the mafia because he no longer wants that life of crime.” She was going to have to talk to him about that as soon as she could, get them back on the same page. “He’s been helping me try to find this suspected person with the intent of surrendering himself back to the law as soon as they are found. We have grown closer and have decided to marry, even though we expect that he will be back in jail by the end of the year.”
For a brief moment, alarm flickered across Bloom’s face. He tensed. Then he laughed, the sound forced and his eyes glittering. “Do you really expect me to believe all that bullshit?”
“If you do or not, it doesn’t matter. It will be very unfortunate, though, if you should fire me and it comes out to the press that Kavan and I have been looking for someone in a high position who was trying to get me fired.”
Bloom jumped to his feet again. He opened his mouth, looking furious, then snapped it shut again. His nostrils flared as he glared at her. “Fine. If that’s how you want to play it. You can try the new Lancaster case that’s come up, then.”
Valerie’s eyes widened with horror. So, he wasn’t even going to pretend anymore, was he? For her to be involved with a former member of the Lancaster mafia family and now to judge a case with the Lancaster family? There was no way this was going to end well! And that was even before the mess with Carl Lancaster was brought into it.
“I am far too close to the situation and cannot judge it in a fair and unbiased manner.”
Bloom smirked at her. He had suddenly calmed down quite a bit, and Valerie hated knowing that he’d been acting so enraged because he wanted to see her afraid. Now that she was unsettled, now that she could feel the fear creeping through her bones and was unable to stop it from showing on her face, he was calm. He’d gotten what he wanted.
“If you are too close to the matter,” he said, “then your entire ability to try cases has been compromised. If that’s the case, then you should simply quit.”
She bit her tongue, fury lashing at her chest and burning away her fear. It had never been so obvious that he wanted her gone.
“If you can’t do as you’re told, then I will fire you,” Bloom continued. “On the grounds of refusing to do your job and showing deferential treatment to the Lancaster family. Hell, I’m sure that Carl would be more than happy to have your warrant proved to be unethical because of lack of evidence and his son released.”
She clenched her hands and didn’t reply.
“Whores don’t belong in the law,” Bloom continued, his smirk growing wider. “So you can fight me all you want, but you’ll never get away with it. If you wanted to keep this job, then you should have kept your legs shut and not fucked an animal.”
Oh, if only she had set her phone to record this conversation! It would be enough to get Bloom some serious flack. Although, he could admit to sexual assault on camera and there’d still be people who would excuse it. Fuck, there were other judges in the state that had been exposed to have paid for underage prostitutes and all they got was a slap on the wrist and a clap on the back. So who was to say that this sexist, racist tirade would have any effect on Bloom’s career.
Valerie did not respond to his accusations, his insults, or his threats. Because it had just occurred to her. He didn’t want to fire her. He must recognize that, despite the bad press floating around her claiming she was anti-paranormal, there was still a significant portion of the population that supported her.
He didn’t want to fire her because if he did that, it would cause a public backlash. Especially now that she was engaged to a shifter. Plenty of people would be disgusted and most would think she had no right to try any cases when she was so linked with a known criminal, but the paranormal community especially would be outraged.
There were rumors that Queen Morticia of the Starlight Mountains was putting pressure on the Federal government to treat the paranormal community with more respect. Lots of valuable resources came from the vampires. Could it be that Bloom was afraid of pissing them off?
“Fine,” she said, watching him closely. “I’ll try the Lancaster case. And I am going to make sure every letter of the law is followed. I will ensure that there is nothing you can use against me in this case. And come the next election? I will be sworn in as governor and you will be crying in your pile of racist, sexist shit and I will be damned certain to bring every single one of your crimes to the public knowledge and see you punished for every fucking one of them.”
Maybe now wasn’t the best time to threaten the governor, but Valerie didn’t care. She kept his eye, holding herself straight, proud and strong. If he wanted to play games with her, that was fine. She could play along and wasn’t going to be some cowering little girl for him to walk all over.
“You bitch,” Bloom breathed.
“You bet I’m a bitch,” Valerie shot back. “And this bitch is going to have your job.”
Bloom snarled something out. He slammed both his hands on the desk, but Valerie didn’t flinch. Her parents hadn’t raised her to be polite and nice and to take care of other people. They had raised her to do the right thing and stand her ground no matter how hard it was.
Just then door opened and Kavan strode in. He carried a brown paper bag and glared at Bloom with death in his eyes. “You forgot your lunch, darling,” he said, passing the bag to her. “Did I hear shouting?”
Valerie took the bag, hating how happy and relieved she was to see him. Bloom stormed from the office, slamming the door hard behind him. And Kavan took her hand in his, looking concerned.
“Are you okay?”
“Fine.” She pulled away from him and opened the bag. It was a salad, hot soup, and a fresh cinnamon bun. “I don’t need you to rescue me. Thanks for the food.” She set it down, sat and tried to get her nerves back under control. “Now. Let’s get the details of our relationship pounded out, shall we?”
***
Kavan settled down opposite Valerie, not liking the anger in her eyes or the tension in her shoulders. He had heard enough of her conversation with Governor Bloom to know that she was on edge from it but decided not to point out that she was angry at him, not Kavan. She clearly needed some time to cool down.
“First off, I want to point out that I didn’t vote for that guy,” Kavan said, lacing his fingers together. “There was some serious talk in the family about assassinating him when the election results came in and he emerged the winner.”
Valerie opened up the soup and blew on it. The tension was starting to ease slightly from her shoulders, but there was still a hard edge to her gaze. “Right. That’s how democracy works, isn’t it? Elections come in, someone wins and since it’s not the person you like, you decide to kill them. Yup, that’s democracy. That’s what keeps things honest and fair.”
“If everybody votes for a guy who’s going to kill you, do you just sit back and let yourself get killed?” Kavan shot back, annoyed.
Of course, she didn’t understand. Even though her track record showed she had great sympathy for the paranormal community, she was still human. She didn’t understand the terror of things like a shifter registry or laws that put vampires drinking from humans—even if that human was their spouse and fully willing—in the same category as aggravated assault offenders.
She was a judge, her parents paid for her to have all sorts of tutors as a kid and for her to get through law school. She’d never gone hungry a single day of her life. She couldn’t understand what it was like for them, no matter how much empathy she had.
But that wasn’t what he wanted to talk about right now. Kavan took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “We didn’t assassinate him. Lancaster decided that it would be a waste of our resources.”
“Speaking of, I told Bloom that you left them willingly.”
Kavan rolled his eyes and let out a sigh. “So how much did I have to pay to get away without being killed?”
“How much do you think it needed to have been?”
Kavan thought a moment. “Let’s go with fifty thousand. I’ll call up Philip later on, tell him that he needs to play along with that if the cops come knocking. Now, I’ve put together a timeline for our relationship. I was released from jail last year and two weeks later I came to your house with my theory. We’ve been working together closely. The other week when we were paired by the dating agency that’s when we realized that we had feelings for each other. I confessed that I loved you at the bar last night and proposed.”
“And I said yes. Even though we’ve never really dated.”
“Exactly.” Kavan nodded. “We’ve known each other for a year, though, and so we need to know everything about each other.”
“That’s going to take a bit of work.”
“Don’t I know it. I figure we can start with the basics. I was orphaned at a young age. Bounced around the foster care system for a while before I was finally allowed to stay with the Family.” Kavan hesitated a moment. He didn’t want to talk about his experience in the system. Being a shifter and facing so much of the prejudices there had been hard. He cleared his throat and spoke quickly and quietly. Some of it was a matter of public record, anyway. “When I was ten, I was taken from the Family again and placed with a family that thought shifters were devil spawn. Every time I shifted, they’d beat me. If I got hurt, they refused to take me to the hospital because shifters heal fast enough that it would just be a waste of resources.”
Valerie flinched and turned her gaze to her soup.
“I finally had enough and one time when the mother was beating me with a broom handle, I took it from her and punched her in the face. I was arrested. It was decided that, even though I was a child defending myself, there were extenuating circumstances and it went to trial. I was put in juvie. After that, I determined never to go back and hid with the Family. They protected me.”
“I’m sorry.” She lifted her gaze again, those clear eyes locking on him. “That should never have happened.”
“I know,” Kavan replied gruffly. “But it did.”
Valerie didn’t respond, but the sympathy was clear in her eyes, along with what appeared to be anger. Kavan relaxed slightly. She wasn’t pitying him; she wasn’t looking at him like he could be her next project. She was looking at him like a kid who’d been through what he shouldn’t have and angry that it had happened to begin with.
“Anyway,” he continued, reaching into his pocket. “When I was a kid, I found this.”
He pulled a diamond ring from his pocket. The gold was scuffed, the diamonds dirty, with one of them missing but it was a diamond ring. He’d gotten it appraised some time ago when he was considering selling it in order to get himself on his feet a little easier. It was silly, but the ring held sentimental value to him.
“I liked to pretend it was my grandmother’s and that I’d one day give it to my mate. It’s real, you can check if you want. And if it doesn’t fit, you can put it on a chain or something. I just figured since we’re pretending to be engaged, we might as well have a ring to go with it.”
Valerie took the ring from him and stared down at it. “It looks old.”
“I’ve been carrying it
around for fifteen years.”
“That’s a long time to have something like this without losing it.”
Kavan understood the undertones of her statement but ignored it. He took the ring back and gestured for her to hold her hand out. She did and he solemnly looked into her eyes. “Valerie Gilson, will you be my fake wife?”
He slid the ring on, expecting resistance but meeting little. Both of them looked down in surprise. The ring fit her finger perfectly. Both of them were silent, staring at the glittering diamonds that winked and sparkled at them.
Valerie withdrew her hand and held it out, studying the ring. “Well, it’s a bigger diamond than what Justin gave me. But then, that was fake. Turned my finger green before I found out he was still married and fighting his divorce.” She sighed as she dropped her hand back to the table. “Going to have to get it cleaned and the diamond replaced, though.”
“Yeah, well, I never said it was perfect.”
“Maybe we can do that where you work. Philip got you a job as a security guard at a jewelry store, didn’t he?”
Kavan didn’t reply to that. If she wanted to ask, then she could come right out and ask. He wasn’t going to defend himself against unspoken accusations. He wasn’t going to give her the satisfaction. He knew what she was thinking, that didn’t mean he was going to say it for her.
“Did you really find it?” She pulled the ring back off and put it in the center of her desk. “Really?”
“Yes.”
“You didn’t steal it?”
Kavan rolled his eyes. Even though he knew that was what she had suspected, there was still something about the way she asked it. Like she didn’t expect him to tell the truth anyway. It grated on his nerves, and he wasn’t going to just sit back and take that. Honestly, did she think he was really so stupid that he’d give her, a judge, a stolen ring?
“You can get it looked at if you want. You’re not going to believe me no matter what I say.”
The Shifter's Fake Fiancé Page 6
