by Avery James
Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Epilogue
Chapter 1
The bar at the Dorset Inn was not the kind of place where people went to be seen. It was the kind of place where senators and congressmen went when they wanted to avoid unwanted attention. It wasn't listed on the hotel's website or in any directory. To anyone who didn't know better, it simply didn't exist. For every marble facade or monument in Washington, D.C., there were at least a dozen backrooms like the one at the Dorset, rooms with mahogany paneling, leather-clad chairs, and the quiet promise of anonymity. It was the kind of place where the rich and powerful went to let loose without repercussions. Of course, their idea of letting loose usually involved getting piss-drunk and hitting on anyone other than their wives. It was the kind of place Abby Hardigan would never have gone on her own.
Which was why it was perfect for what she was about to do next.
Abby looked down at her phone and read the text from her best friend and coworker, Maggie, one more time: He's running late. At least fifteen mins away. The show was about to begin, and it was Abby's time to shine. She motioned to the bartender and laid two hundred-dollar bills down on the bar. “Water on ice in a short glass,” she said to him, “and whatever they want.” He was good-looking but nondescript. He raised a brow when he saw the money.
"You'll understand soon enough," she said. "I'll have a gin and tonic. What would you guys like?" She turned to the two trainees who were shadowing her for the night. They were at the end of their first week at Haven Communications, and they looked at her with cautious optimism as they waited for her to continue. "You made it through the first week," she said. "That's cause enough to celebrate." She texted Maggie, when do you get here?
Feeling under the weather, Maggie texted back. I think I’m going to do a movie night with Harry. This was the third time in two weeks Maggie had skipped out on going to a bar with her. Abby was starting to wonder what was going on. It looked like she was going to be stuck alone with the new hires. Abby and Maggie had each been assigned a trainee for the fall. Abby had taken to calling them the Wonder Twins, or the twins for short. They were both young and bubbly, and entirely inexperienced. She and Maggie were to bring them up to speed, show them the ropes, and keep them from making mistakes. In a business like theirs, even one mistake could be too many. Of course, their inexperience was also a strength. It meant they could be built up to do things the right way. The next few weeks of their lives would be a kind of boot camp for defusing explosive PR situations, mitigating reputation damage, and learning how to keep a client’s best interests in mind even when the client seemed hell-bent on destruction.
It seemed to Abby that she’d just been in their position. She'd started at Haven Communications nearly six years earlier, fresh out of grad school, eager to make a difference. When she started, she barely had a clue what the job entailed. For the first few days on the job, she wasn't fully sure what crisis management and strategic communications even meant. Then she received the unofficial orientation. From that moment forward, she knew it was the only job for her.
Abby had started at Haven before Maggie, but she’d watched her friend blossom both personally and professionally over the past few years. Abby always swore up and down that she wasn’t interested in romance, but as she watched her best friend fall in love and get married to a seemingly perfect guy, she couldn’t help but wonder if she was missing out. Maggie had a love live. Abby had a sex life. That’s That was how she’d always wanted it, but as she stared across the half empty bar, she wondered if maybe it wasn’t time to stop looking for fun and start looking for love.
There were a few lawyers down at the far end of the bar, celebrating something. Interspersed throughout the room, there were dignified looking men with salt and pepper hair and flag pins. They had to be lobbyists. There was at least one man she recognized as a federal judge. It was still early, and relatively quiet. This would do nicely. She only had a few minutes to fit her demonstration in before the real work of the night began.
"I need you to do me a favor," she said to the twins. "Look around and tell me what you see."
The twins looked at each other and then at her. "Is there anything in particular we're supposed to notice?" one of them asked.
Abby laughed. "You'll know when you see it," she said. Then she cleared her throat and said in a voice loud enough to carry through the entire room, "SEX." She watched the look of surprise on the twins' faces and gave them a moment to process.
"How many people turned?" she asked.
"Everyone," one of the twins, Liz, said.
"I know you've spent all week learning about internal protocols and procedures, but this is the most important lesson you'll learn. Every man, every last one of them, no matter how young or old, no matter how rich or poor, has one thing on his mind. Now, I want you to look again and tell me what you see." She waited a moment and looked down at her phone. Five minutes out, Maggie's text read.
"GLASS-STEAGAL," Abby said. Again, she didn't bother to look for the reaction of the people in the room. Like before, she didn't have to. "How many people looked?" she asked.
"One," the twins said in unison.
"Hm," Abby said. "Usually it's no one. Must be a policy wonk. Still works for our purposes. No one really cares about what goes on in this town. You can do almost anything you want with one exception: sex."
“He’s coming over,” one of them said.
“Who?” Abby asked.
“The one guy,” the twin said.
“Another learning opportunity,” Abby said. “In this job, you have to read situations and react, often in the blink of an eye.”
Abby was good at reading men. One look was usually enough to tell her everything she needed to know. Maybe it was time to give another demonstration. She turned to see what she was dealing with. Whoever he was, he wasn’t from D.C. That much was clear from one look. He was tall and broad shouldered, and there was a wild confidence in his bright blue eyes that screamed of someone who hadn’t been broken down by the realities of an ordinary life. He had at least a day’s worth of stubble, which he wore well. It darkened the already angular lines of his face, and made his eyes seem brighter.
“Banking?” he said. “You know, there’s a group of guys down the other end of the bar who would probably love to hear what you have to say about that.” He motioned to the bartender and then looked at Abby again. “Is this what all bars are like here?” he asked. His voice was both smoky and smooth, and he had a hint of an accent she couldn't place. It wasn't quite English. It wasn't Irish either, but the second she heard it, she wanted to hear more.
“In America?” Abby asked.
“In D.C.,” he said. “I live in New York.”
“Your accent,” she said. It definitely wasn’t a New York accent.
He grinned and turned fully to
wards her, leaning in like he was going to share a secret. “It’s real,” he said. He gave her an almost imperceptible wink. He smelled good. He smelled really good. Cocky. Confident. Clearly the kind of guy who was looking to blow off some steam. There were a thousand reasons to shut him down then and there. Besides, she was working, and he was everything she’d just told herself she should stop falling for.
Abby shot him her most unimpressed look. “I got that much. Where’s it from?”
“All over,” he said. He held a hand out. “I’m Nolan.”
She took his hand and shook for half a second, taking care to give his palm a good squeeze. “Abby,” she said.
“What’s someone like you doing in a place like this?” he asked.
“Same thing you are,” she said.
“Preparing to lecture someone about Scotch?”
“So that’s where the accent is from,” Abby said.
“And the rest of me,” he said. “Last time I checked, anyway. Scotland by way of London and New York.”
“Quite the globetrotter then,” she said.
“What are you drinking?” he asked.
“I’m good,” she said, looking down at her glass.
“If it’s flavored vodka, I’ll just give up now,” he said. “All hope will be lost.”
He laughed and pointed one finger behind the bar at the lineup of high-end liquor bottles. “Do you see those bottles up there? Three of them in a row, all made on the same little island. They’re all on the same road, too. It’s a nice drive. It seems like there’s always fog or rain, but it’s green as can be there. And the buildings, they barely look like more than a couple of warehouses and a barn, but they’re considered three of the finest distilleries in the world.”
“Let me guess. That’s where you’re from and that’s what you drink,” she said.
He shook his head. “No. I was going to tell you that the truth is, we keep the good stuff for ourselves.”
“Is that right? Is that what you came over here to tell me?”
“Isn’t it obvious?” he asked. He looked into her eyes as he spoke and let his gaze trail downward before reestablishing eye contact. “I came over here because the bartender hasn’t taken his eyes off of you since I got in here, and I figure the only way I’ll get a drink is by your side. So that’s what I’m doing here.”
Sure enough, the bartender acknowledged him immediately and apologized for the delay. Nolan told the bartender his order and looked back to Abby. “But what are you doing here?”
“Isn’t it obvious?” she asked. “Business.”
“What business is that?” he asked. There was something about the way he spoke that drove her wild. He had a way of drawing out his words, like he knew exactly how to hold her interest. She’d like nothing more than to sit and listen to him talk. Well, she had a few ideas of other things she'd like him to do as well, but she wasn't going to get ahead of herself. She met his glances with an unimpressed stare. Guys like him hated being challenged like that. They wanted everything to come easy.
"I put out fires," she said.
He gave her a doubting look.
"Metaphorical fires," she said.
He laughed and smiled as he shook his head. "You look like the kind who lights them," he said. "Metaphorical fires, I mean."
“In a few minutes, a man will come through that door with a woman who isn’t his wife. My job is to make sure he doesn’t leave with her and he doesn’t figure out why.”
“So you’re a chaperone,” he said.
“Something like that.”
“A shame,” he said. “I thought you were a troublemaker. Why do you need to ruin a poor guy’s night?”
“His wife is running for reelection,” Abby said. Why am I telling him this? she wondered.
“I meant me,” he said. His eyes lit up as he looked at her. Abby couldn’t help but wonder what it would be like to lean in and kiss him. She pushed the thought from her mind as quickly as it had popped in.
“Very funny,” she replied.
“I’ll leave you to it,” Nolan said. “What happens once you’ve finished your job for the night?”
“Maybe I’ll let you lecture me on Scotch,” she said.
“It’s a date,” he said. He took his drink and headed away. Abby couldn’t help but smile. He was a player. There was no doubt about that. Judging from the confidence, the suit, and the forty something dollar glass of Scotch he just bought, he was well off. That, plus his good looks, and she knew exactly the kind of guy he was: the kind she always fell for. Fast-talking, fast-moving, and good in bed, he was exactly her type. Not anymore, she told herself. And definitely not tonight.
“So we’re supposed to flirt with handsome men?” one of the twins asked. Abby was relatively sure it was Sam who had asked the question, but sometimes it was hard to tell the two of them apart.
Abby bit her lower lip and sighed. “No,” she said.
“That’s a shame,” the other one said. “Looked like fun.”
“That’s enough out of the two of you.”
Abby watched the senator’s husband walk into the room with the blonde on his arm. She was easily twenty years his younger and was wearing a dress that looked to be at least one size too small. Despite the form-fitting dress, she looked respectable enough. It made Abby wonder what she was doing running around with a senator’s husband. He had been a governor once, so he wasn’t without his charm. He had baby blue eyes and a thick head of graying hair, and he was in good shape for his age.
Out of the corner of her eye, Abby caught a glimpse of Nolan making eyes towards the senator’s husband and back towards her as if to say, them? Abby shot him a look and gave a little shake of her head. Whether he was handsome or not, the last thing she needed was some guy screwing everything up.
“So,” she said to the twins, “We’re going to practice watching someone without watching them. Tell me what you see without letting on that you’re looking over there. In a bit, you’ll watch me make sure nothing happens between them.” That was always the fun part. There was a thrill to this kind of work that couldn’t be matched by press releases and brand management.
Abby watched the twins go wide-eyed in unison. “That wasn’t very subtle,” she said.
“He’s talking to them,” Sam said.
“The senator’s husband.”
“The guy from earlier.”
Abby carefully turned around and looked across the room. The blonde was getting up from the table and heading for the door. Nolan sat in her seat across from the senator’s husband. Abby felt like someone had reached two hands inside her chest and squeezed her heart as hard as possible. This can’t be happening, she told herself. But it was. Nolan was smiling and laughing. The senator’s husband looked like he had just swallowed hot coals.
“Training’s over,” Abby said. “I need the two of you to go right now. Follow the date. Keep an eye on her. Make sure she leaves by herself. Do you understand?” The twins nodded in unison. “Go,” Abby told them. Now she had to figure out a way to clean up this mess.
***
To Abby’s surprise, a minute after he sat down across from the Senator’s husband, Nolan reached out, shook his hand, and got up. The husband immediately pulled out his phone and started tapping away. He didn’t look back up at Nolan once. Abby had no clue what he was doing. But it was clear that Nolan was headed her way.
“So can I buy you that drink?” he asked as he approached again.
“What did you just do?” Abby asked.
“You told me you couldn’t have a drink until you were done chaperoning for the evening. I decided to free up your schedule.”
“Care to share how you did that?”
“I told him I recognized his face and that I was a big fan of his wife.”
“Did you mention me?”
“I might have told him I was on my way to a date and that by the time I made it to the bar he better be on his way home to his wife.”
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“You don’t even know his wife’s name.”
“I didn’t know your name until a few moments ago,” he said.
“That’s all you said?” she asked.
“I might have implied that I was meeting with a reporter in a minute and if he didn’t want her to see him with his mistress he should probably leave immediately.”
“Was that the truth?”
He shrugged. “Does it matter?”
Abby’s phone buzzed. Separate cabs, was all the text said. That was good enough for her. “I guess not.”
“So since I’m already imposing myself, let me ask, how would you have handled that situation?”
She couldn’t help but smile. She bit her lower lip and shook her head. “I’d have gotten someone to tell her she had a call at the desk in order to get them apart, and then I’d probably have done what you did. Minus the veiled threat, of course.”
“So I did well,” he said. “I think I’ve earned a drink, and you’ve earned a lecture on the finest drink on the planet.”
“Do I have a choice?”
“You always have a choice,” he replied. “I on the other hand, am doomed to walk this world, teaching beautiful women about the dangers of strong alcohol.” There was a timbre to his voice that just made her want to hear more. It was exotic and thrilling and comforting all at once. Given a chance, she’d have listened to him read the phone book.
“One drink,” she said. “No lecture.” She still didn’t have a good beat on him. If there was one thing Abby enjoyed, in a man, it was mystery. That and confidence. Her new acquaintance seemed to have plenty of both. She looked at his suit. Old money? New? She couldn't tell. Her powers of perception were useless with him. That was alright. She had other powers, too.
"So what is it you do?" she asked as she leaned towards him.
"Besides annoy beautiful women in stuffy bars?" he asked. “Not much, really.” His eyes lit up as he spoke, and she could tell he was enjoying their back and forth. “What if we get out of here?” he asked as casually as if they were two old friends who had just finished a long night of catching up. He waited a beat and added, “This is my first time in this city, and I’m hoping there’s more to it than this hotel.”
