by Ivy Nelson
She looked at her phone as she sipped a cup of coffee. There were two missed calls from Michael and a text from Bradley. She responded to Bradley’s message, telling him she would meet him at the office and explain things then. Part of her wanted to ignore Michael’s calls altogether, but she wasn’t that much of an asshole so she sent him a text promising a phone call later.
Bradley was waiting at her new office for her along with a group of volunteers. Mostly young people which made her happy.
“Meet your first group of eager volunteers,” he said. “James from Leslie Hanover’s office sent most of them our way.”
With a grin, she went down the line and shook hands with each volunteer, thanking them for their time.
“They’ll be canvassing today to get the word out about your run and try to drum up an audience for your speech later this afternoon.”
“I’m excited to have all of you on board. I hope I don’t let you down.”
A half hour later, Peter showed up. “What’s he doing here?” Adara asked as she reviewed a campaign poster design someone had given her.
“Security Adara. Please don’t be stubborn about it like my wife was.”
“No. It makes sense. I just don’t want to be underhanded or shady about hiring him when we don’t have a budget.”
“He’s a volunteer for now. Leave those details for me. You just worry about getting voters to like you. We don’t know if you’re still in danger or not. Let’s not take chances. If Michael weren’t working, you know he would be here.”
“I’m not so sure about that,” she muttered. “This poster looks good. Let’s get them printed.”
“Hey. Talk to me Adara. What happened with you two last night? He looked like a lost puppy after you left.”
Glancing around the small office space, she whispered, “Not here boss. We just had a misunderstanding. I’ll fix it later.”
“Stop calling me boss. Let me know if you need to talk outside the office.”
“Old habits. Besides, you are the boss. You’re the one that knows how to run this campaign. I’m following your lead. I appreciate the concern but I’m not sure how I feel talking with you about… that.”
“We’re family. Nothing to be ashamed of. But I get the hesitance. Talk to Peter and Carrie if you need to. They can probably help you more than I could anyway. Or talk to Darci. She knows Michael better than any of us do.”
She nodded. “I’ll think about it. Can we get back to work please? How quickly can we get tshirts?”
Bradley pointed to a stack of boxes. “I kind of figured you would sign off on the design so I may or may not have had a batch printed already. I didn’t do a ton but the printer already has the design and can get us as many as we need in a matter of days.”
“See. There’s a reason you’re the boss.”
Peter spent the next hour of the morning going over how he wanted to handle events with crowds and outdoor canvassing. Adara tried not to roll her eyes at the overprotective procedures. Carrie showed up at noon with sandwiches for everyone and before she knew it, it was time to head to her first campaign event.
When the nerves threatened to overtake her, she gave herself a pep-talk. She was ready for this, had been ready for this eight years ago. Leslie Hanover had worked fast and pulled together a large crowd of base party supporters. It was going to be an easy crowd to please. Honestly, with this crowd she could promise free cocaine to everyone and they would vote for her as long as she had the right party letter behind her name. She didn’t care for that kind of voter, but knew she had to start there and work her way to the voters who would actually vote for her policies and not just her party affiliation. Since she was running as an independent with a democratic platform, it might be easier to find the voters voting for her policies.
When they pulled up to the venue, she squared her shoulders and after one last pep talk from Bradley, stepped out of the car.
Backstage, Leslie was waiting along with a handful of higher profile party members who would be some of her biggest donors. She did the appropriate glad-handing and thanked them for coming. Leslie introduced the first speaker and Adara paced. By the time it was her turn to speak, the nerves were back. But she stepped out, waved to the audience and stepped to the podium. After adjusting the mic, she took one last deep breath and jumped in.
And just like that, her political campaign was launched.
She managed to make it through her first speech with no major blunders and even got raucous applause. When it was over, she stepped backstage and took a deep breath. Bradley was waiting with a huge embrace.
“I’m so proud of you. Thanks for letting me be a part of this.”
Adara grinned. “Thanks boss. I can’t think of anyone else I would rather have by my side. I’d like to do a quick meet and greet,” she said.
“Sure, Peter will want to control the crowd but it’s a good idea.”
When the event wrapped up, Adara went into the lobby with her team, where Peter enlisted the help of her volunteers to manage the line. She smiled, posed for selfies, and answered questions of anyone who waited in line for the chance. She had numerous people asking for outrageous favors in exchange for a generous donation. To that, she gave a stock response. One that let them know she appreciated the offer, but she wasn’t interested in looking to exchange favors for donations. Her favorites were the young people who actually seemed interested in what she had to say. She loved it when young people got involved in politics.
When the last person had come through the line, they went backstage again. Adara wanted to take a minute to talk to the volunteers and thank them again for their hard work. It was always a good idea to keep your volunteers energized. They were the heart of a small campaign like hers.
After she held a closing circle and sent people on their way, James from Leslie Hanover’s office approached her.
“Miss Kent, can I talk with you a moment?” he asked.
“Of course James. Thank you so much for your hard work today.
“My pleasure Miss Kent. I just had a quick question.” The young man looked around the room as if he were nervous to speak in front of others. There was a small room that was unoccupied off to the side so she motioned to it and they went in.
“It’s OK. Whatever you need to ask, I’m here to answer,” she said when the door was closed.
“I need your help. My father is dying and you may be able to save him.”
Perplexed, she said, “I’m sorry about your father but I’m not sure I understand how I could help him.”
He’s your father too.
Adara gasped. “You’re father is Faisal Hadawi isn’t he? How are you in this country working for a political campaign?”
“I have my ways Adara. I’m not here to hurt you. I’m here to ask for your help.”
“You nearly ruined my life with your threats. At least I assume that was you.”
“It was our family, yes. I wanted to approach you first. Appeal to your better angels. Everyone else disagreed.”
Everyone else? What did they have? Some kind of terrorist family meeting?
“I think you should leave.”
“Hear me out. We just need to do some tests. If you’re a match, you can give him a simple bone marrow transplant. It will save his life.”
“I can’t. I won’t. He kidnapped and raped my birth mother. Why would I help him?”
“He was in love with your mother despite the fact that she was American.”
That made her want to laugh and throw up at the same time. “Bullshit. He was holding her hostage. You need to leave now before I call the police. And please don’t return to my campaign or Leslie’s office.” She pulled her phone out of her pocket, intent on calling Peter or Bradley.
“Please. Put that away Adara. I have a proposition for you. My father’s men have an attack planned here in the U.S. If you can save my father’s life, I will make sure it is stopped. If you do not…” He trailed off and shru
gged. “Then many American lives will be on your hands.”
She swallowed. “I’m sorry, but the United States does not negotiate with terrorists.”
“If that is your answer then I will leave you for now. But we will speak again and you will regret it if you do not help me.” With that, he opened the door and stepped out. She was frozen in place, her phone still in her hand.
“Adara, you ready to head back to the office?” Bradley startled her. “Jesus, you’re white as a ghost. What did James want?”
“Just some volunteer stuff. Sorry. Just tired I think.” Why wasn’t she telling him? She shook her head, this wasn’t right. “Fuck. No. I’m not OK. Get Peter. We need to call the cops.”
Bradley’s eyes went wide, but he didn’t say anything to her, just hollered for Peter.
“What the fuck Adara?” Peter snapped when she outlined what happened. “Why didn’t you scream for help? You just stood there in a room alone with a terrorist and didn’t say a god damned word? What were you thinking?”
“I wasn’t thinking. Can we just call the police? Not Michael though. Please, I don’t want him knowing about this yet. I’ll tell him myself later.”
Peter scowled but pulled out his phone and dialed a number. It didn’t sound like 9 -1-1 he was talking to. Turns out, it was Homeland Security. He walked away, ordering Bradley not to let her out of his site. Bossy fucker, Adara thought.
Bradley just frowned at her.
“What?” she asked after a minute of awkward silence.
“Why were you going to lie to me Adara?”
“I don’t know. I honestly don’t. I was scared.”
“If Darci did that I would blister her ass,” he said in a tone she hadn’t heard from him before.
She held up her hand. “Stop. Please. I don’t need that image in my head. I know I’m kind of hanging out in your world now but it’s still weird for me. I know you’ve always been protective of me, but Michael’s dominance is about all I can handle right now.”
“Sorry. It’s a habit. You have to keep in mind that Peter, Michael and I are all very protective of the submissives in our lives. Granted Michael usually only has a submissive for a night so this is a first for him. But sometimes our protectiveness bleeds over into protecting each other’s girls and not just our own.”
It made sense and was sweet in a way but she still found it weird. She told him exactly that.
The backstage door burst open and Michael walked in.
“What the fuck are you doing here?”
“Peter called me and I happened to be in the area. Jesus, Adara why didn’t you scream for help?” She rolled her eyes toward the ceiling.
“First of all, Peter is a dirty rat. I asked him not to call you. Second, I was kind of shocked and not exactly sure what to do in the moment. My terrorist half brother magically appeared and asked me to save my terrorist father’s life. You’ll have to forgive me for not making the exact right decision about how to handle that.”
Bradley took a step back as Michael moved closer.
“Gonna let you two talk. I’ll be over there talking to Peter.”
“Uh Huh, where’s your protective streak now, mister? And tell Peter he’s a god damned ass hole.”
“Nope. He did the right thing.” Bradley walked away before she could respond.
“Your friends are assholes,” she said when she turned her glare on Michael.
“First of all, Bradley was your friend before he was mine and second, they made the right call. One of them should have blistered your ass and I have half a mind to do it myself.”
“Fuck. What was I supposed to do? I didn’t know if he had a weapon. He was being calm. I thought just listening to him was my best option at thetime.” She chose to ignore his comments about spanking her.
“You’re probably right, Angel. I’m just disappointed you didn’t say something the minute he left.”
“So is Bradley. Who by the way did threaten to spank me in not so many words. Which is fucked up. This whole situation is fucked up. I’m running for office and my campaign manager is telling me if his wife had lied to him he would blister her ass. You guys even use the same phrases. How is this not the most fucked up thing you’ve ever heard of?”
Michael grinned and Adara fought the urge to smack him. “I’m a cop sweetheart. I’ve heard a lot of fucked up things. This doesn’t even land in the top one hundred. Bradley just cares and now that you’re in our circle at the club, presumably as my submissive, his protective streak is going to come out. We protect each other’s girls as if they were our own at Exposure and sometimes that comes out in the form of a threat of punishment for doing something we know your Dom wouldn’t like.”
“Are you my Dom?”
“Do you really want to have this conversation here?”
She shook her head as Peter approached with a man she recognized and had hoped she would never have to see again.
“I hope you don’t mind, I called him instead of the cops. I felt like it might be better not to drag your campaign into the media with this if we can help it.”
“Agent Miller. I won’t say it’s good to see you again, but thank you for coming out,” Adara said.
The agent didn’t bother with pleasantries, simply launched into a series of questions. After the third one, Bradley interrupted him.
“Can we take this back to Miss Kent’s office? We need to vacate this building before people start asking questions.”
The agent agreed and everyone made their way back to the small office space she was calling campaign headquarters. Once there, Agent Miller asked questions for over an hour, asking her to recount every detail of what her brother had said to her.
“This is really good intel Miss Kent. We’re going to want to interview Leslie Hanover since yousay that’s where you first got introduced to James. We’ll take this info and use it to track him and your father and hopefully we can prevent a terrorist attack. I would ask that you don’t speak to the media or anyone else about this. We don’t want to cause a national panic.”
Adara agreed. Not that it was something she wanted to discuss with the media anyway. Word got out that she was the blood relative of an international terrorist, and her campaign would be toast.
When the agent left, Adara sank further into her office chair, closing her eyes. Peter had stepped out to talk with Bradley about new security protocols but Michael was still there.
“I’m sorry this put a damper on your first day of campaigning, Angel. It sounds like it went well otherwise.”
She tried to smile. “It really did. I’m glad Peter called you.” Pointing a finger at him she sat straight in her chair. “Don’t you dare tell him I said that.”
Michael laughed. “Your secret is safe with me. Where do we stand, Angel?”
“I’m not sure. I’m confused about everything and obviously we need a longer conversation. But right now, I just want to go home.”
“We can go to your place. That’s fine.”
“Not we. Me.”
He scowled. “I don’t think so. We can go to my place or yours but I’m definitely coming with you either way. You’re not staying alone right now.”
“Please don’t do this Michael I don’t need someone staying with me.”
Peter stepped in just in time to hear her say that.
“I’m afraid I agree with Michael on this one Adara. As your head of security I would feel better if you weren’t staying alone right now.”
She closed her eyes. “Michael. Can you give us the room for a minute?”
Michael stepped out though he didn’t look too happy about it. When he was gone, Peter lifted one of the folding metal chairs leaning against her office wall and placed it near her chair. Sitting, he picked up her hands.
“Adara, listen. I know you’re pissed about me calling Michael. I would say I’m sorry but I’m not. I know something happened last night at the club and that’s not my business but you have to understand s
omething.”
She withdrew one of her hands and held it up, palm out. “Stop. If you’re going to give me the ‘we’re big bad dominants and we’re protective of each other’s submissives’ speech you can save it. I’ve already heard it twice today.”
Peter grinned. “Duly noted.”
“First of all,” she continued. “I don’t even know if I am his submissive. And second, I don’t need protecting. I’m a big girl.”
“I’ll give you the first point, but your second is bullshit. They nearly got you deported when you didn’t comply with their threats. You’re dealing with a full blown terrorist organization, Adara. Big girl or not, you need protecting.”
“No need to go being all logical on me,” she muttered with a scowl. “I get that you have a protective streak and you’re right, I need protecting right now, but I swear on all that is holy, if you ever threaten me with any kind of kinky ass punishment I reserve the right to hit you. Only Michael can get away with that.”
He laughed. “Fair enough. It’s a protective habit, and the speech you’ve already heard twice today is more than just a speech. It’s a fact honey. You’ve gotten mixed up with probably the most protective group of men on the planet. You’re gonna have to learn to live with a little bit of dominance from us. Just know, we would never actually lay a finger on you without permission from you AND Michael.
Mostly, our threats are given out of care and meant to make you think. We’ll leave the actual punishment to Michael. Because believe me, if you and Michael had clear roles set up, and you had pulled a stunt like you did with Bradley and lied about what had happened, your ass would already be red right now.”
“Jesus Peter. I’m a candidate for D.C. council. This conversation is not appropriate for my office.”
He roared with laughter. “You’re right. I’m sorry. Just giving you the facts.”
“Well save it for later.”
“Yes ma’am,” he said with a salute. “We should get out of here anyway. This building isn’t as secure as I want it to be. I’ll have my people on that tomorrow. Until then, I would feel better if you stayed with Michael. His place is more secure than yours.”
