Conspiracy in the Capitol

by B Ivy Woods

  Her first thought was to run out of the room, screaming for help, but before her mind could process what she needed to do next, the man turned around.

  “Flint?” Rae’s shock quickly switched to anger. “What the hell are you doing here? A better question is, how the hell did you get here? Where are Liv, Jules, and Eve?”

  “I’ll answer your last two questions first as they’re probably the easiest to start with. I took a plane to get here, and your friends are in the main lounge in the resort, probably enjoying a few cocktails and dinner on me.”

  “Is that how you bribed them to let you in here? Traitors.” Her eyes were fixed on him while she paced the room to let some of her anger out. But she wasn’t just angry at him. She would have to have a word with her so-called friends when she got done with Flint.

  “I didn’t bribe them.”

  “What did you do?”

  “Begged and pleaded with them to give me a chance to explain myself to you. I found some new things out about what went down back home with us, my parents, and Cassandra. I also had to wrap some things up before I came here.”

  Rae’s eyes never left Flint’s as she tried to connect the dots. Yet she continued walking back and forth. “I think I also found some new information too.”

  Flint nodded. “That’s great, I hope. But there are some things I want to say before we do a deep dive into that.” Before he could continue, there was a knock on the front door of the suite. Flint checked his watch before heading to the door. “Right on time.”

  “Didn’t know we were having a party,” snapped Rae as she waited for him to reveal his latest surprise.

  With his back to her, Rae took the time to admire him. She could tell that the white button-down shirt he was sporting was made of a linen material because she could make out almost every muscle that she assumed he was attempting to conceal under that shirt. And what a lousy job that shirt was doing of hiding anything. His light khakis and brown flip-flops made him look at home at this beach locale. Before he walked past her to the door, she noticed that his hair had a windswept look about it like he might have tried to style it, but gave up caring once he realized that the wind would have its way with it. Although she was pissed at him, she couldn’t lie to herself and say that he didn’t look great, especially given how he looked the last time she saw him.

  Flint opened the door, and a man with a food cart entered the suite. He set up the food at the dining room table and a few minutes later was talking to Flint again before Flint walked him to the door. The suite’s dining room table was now a dinner for two that included a beautiful Bermudan sunset.

  “You seemed awfully sure that I would want to have dinner with you, huh?”

  “I figured at the very least you would probably eat the dinner even if you didn’t want to speak to me ever again. Food is life, as you would say.”

  Rae chuckled sarcastically but sat down at the dining room table. She saw Flint make a motion as if he would push her chair in, but she assumed he thought better of it. He quickly sat down in his seat. “I would ask if we could have a server in the room during dinner but figured it was a better idea for us to be alone while we talked.”

  Rae nodded. “So, let’s talk.” She told herself this would be over quick.

  “Right.” Flint cleared his throat and took a deep breath. “I want to start by saying that I love you. No matter what comes out of our conversation at dinner tonight. Also, whatever questions you have, I’ll answer. I’m not holding anything back.”

  “I think I’ve heard that from you before.” Rae didn’t stop that snappy reply from leaving her lips, but instantly regretted it when she saw the look on Flint’s face. “I’m sorry. I’ll try to keep my snark to a minimum.”

  “I deserved it.”

  Rae shook her head and motioned him to continue as she ate a piece of the salad sitting in front of her.

  “I’m sorry for everything that happened over the last couple of weeks. It shouldn’t have even crossed my mind that acting like Cassandra and I were together was a viable option given that it would mean losing you and the relationship we had together. It was asinine, and I wasn’t thinking straight.”

  Rae nodded her head, but her eyes never left her plate.

  “So, I guess I should explain how I got here.” He took another deep breath before continuing. “I vaguely remember you were talking about going to Bermuda with your friends, but I didn’t make the connection when I knocked on your door a couple of days ago, and you didn’t answer. I panicked and reached out to Jules because I didn’t know who else to contact besides Danielle, which might have been weird.”

  “Yeah, I wouldn’t have wanted to come back home to explain that.”

  Flint chuckled before continuing, “Yeah, wouldn’t have wanted to do that on top of everything else that happened. So anyway, that’s when I set my plan in motion to come to Bermuda to talk to you.”

  “How long have you been here?”

  “Just a few hours. You don’t want to know how much I paid to make sure that I could get here. Not that it mattered to me anyway.”

  “Did Jules tell you where we were staying?”

  Flint nodded his head.

  “I should be mad at her, but I assume you told her something that convinced her it would be a good idea to tell you where we were on the island.”

  “Actually, I had to have a conference call with all of your friends together for them to reveal the location. Liv gave me the hardest time.”

  That caused Rae to smirk. That answer wasn’t a surprise to her in the slightest.

  “So, what did you tell them?” Rae pushed her salad aside and started on the steak dinner that was sitting to her right. She noticed that Flint had barely touched any of the food in front of him. “Are you not hungry?”

  “I’ve been so distracted by trying to explain myself,” he said before he took a bite of the salad before also pushing it to the side. Rae saw him practically salivating at the sight of the steak, so she hoped he would dig in. It would be a sin for any of this delicious food to go to waste.

  “I explained to them that I thought this mess might involve my parents. Including back then and now.” Rae could feel his eyes on her, but she didn’t react.

  “That makes sense, given how your mother was trying to throw Cassandra at you. How did you find that out?”

  “My mom made a mistake and included me in an email that talked about how Operation Get Flint and Cassandra Together was going. The only issue was that everyone was bcc’d on the email, so I don’t know who else she sent it to.”

  “What if I told you I think I know who was sending me those text messages?” Flint’s response was to cough. Rae realized she should have probably waited to drop that truth bomb until after he stopped drinking his wine.

  “I think it was Cassandra’s father.”

  “What made you think that?”

  “Hold on.” Rae jumped up out of her seat and hurried into her bedroom. She was back in record time, with the pen and notepad she had been using early this morning. “I hadn’t had a chance to tell the girls about this today, but I was digging around on social media this morning and came across Cassandra’s dad’s social media information. Here is the cell phone number listed on one of his profiles, and here are the numbers that texted me.”

  “They’re only a digit off.”

  “Exactly. Now, it’s circumstantial, but I would almost bet my 401(k) that Cassandra’s father is the one who has been doing all the weird things that have happened over the course of our dating.”

  “And I assume he would benefit if I were dating Cassandra.”

  “That’s on top of them getting something out of the deal if you ran for Congress and won.”

  Rae looked at Flint after he didn’t respond for a bit.

  “This is all insane. Do you even want to run for Congress anymore?”

  “I’m not sure. I want to continue to help the community the best I can, and I thought one of
the best ways to do it was through running to represent the people I love. But I want to do it on my terms, and with the people I know will support me no matter what.” Flint’s stare into her eyes fixed her in place. “I love you, and I can’t do this without you.”

  The air left Rae’s lungs as she tried to catch her breath. “What are you trying to say?”

  “I don’t want to do this without you in my corner. My focus is on repairing things with you. And even if we get back together, if you don’t want me to run, I won’t. You mean too much to me for me to jeopardize this again.”

  “But isn’t this your dream?”

  “My dream is to be happy with you as long as you’ll have me. That’s what shook me to my core after you left. That’s what also led me to snap out of even entertaining dating Cassandra for campaign funds. If this is something you want to do together, then we will do it. If you absolutely can’t stand the intrusion it will have on our lives; then we won’t. And if you want to send me packing and on my merry way, that’s understandable too.”

  “You’ve given me a lot to think about, and I love you too.”

  Flint beamed. “I know. But I’m happy that you’re at least thinking about it versus shoving me out the door on my ass.”

  Rae giggled as Flint grabbed her hand to play with it. “I missed that sound.”

  “What sound?”

  “The sound of you laughing. The smiles you used to give me. I keep wanting to go back in time and change the past, but I can’t. I’m so sorry, Rae.”

  Rae gently reached across the table and grabbed his hand. “It will be okay, no matter what happens. I promise.”

  27

  “Brooke, could you let my father know I’m here?” Flint said as he walked up to the front desk of his father’s office. Rae was trailing behind him, a little nervous about the stunt that Flint was about to pull. The couple had been back from Bermuda for about a week and had been laying low until this moment.

  “He’s in a meeting with your mother and the Hopkins’. Would you like to wait in the lobby until they’re done?”

  “Oh, what are the chances?” Flint shared a look with Rae. “I wanted to surprise them too. I’ll just go in.”

  “I’m not sure if that’s a good idea, Mr.—”

  “Brooke, I’m Flint, remember. My dad is Mr. West.” Flint gave her a charming smile before he walked around her desk and strolled down the hall to his father’s office. He knocked on the door before entering. Rae decided that it might be best to hang back for the time being.

  “The gang’s all here. Hi, Dad, Mom. Mr. and Mrs. Hopkins.”

  “Flint? What are you doing here?” She wished she could have seen the looks on their faces when Flint burst into the room.

  “I’m here to stop whatever plans you’re trying to cook up that involve me and Cassandra dating.”

  “I do not understand what you’re talking about.” Rae couldn’t see Mr. West’s face from where she was standing, but he sounded surprised.

  “Wait, are you out of the loop? ’Cause I know for sure that Mom was involved in these shenanigans.”

  “Flint, we don’t need to talk about this here.” The worry in Gladys’s voice was evident.

  “But I think we do. Did you or didn’t you tell me at a fundraiser a couple of weeks ago that I needed to date Cassandra to gain more financial support from potential future donors if I ran for Congress?”

  “Fl—”

  “Mom, please answer the question.” Holding on to her purse strap a little too tightly, Rae took this moment to step into the doorway to watch everything unfold.

  “Yes.”

  “Gladys, what? What’s going on?”

  “Oh, Terry, don’t act so obtuse. You might not have been completely in on it, but you knew the deal. If Flint and Cassandra were to date seriously and get engaged to be married, we could have sold them as the new power couple. Could have been a hit locally or even nationally.”

  “But he’s with Rae.”

  “And? The whole point of this was to make Flint see where his political and personal aspirations should be.”

  “Gladys, what the hell did you do?”

  That led to Mr. and Mrs. West sniping at each other in front of the rest of the room. If Rae had to guess, this didn’t happen often. Rae turned her attention to Flint and noticed that his face was slightly red as he clenched and unclenched his fists. She closed her eyes as she knew he would probably snap at any second.

  “Enough!” Flint shouted. Rae somewhat hoped that Brooke had signed a nondisclosure agreement because she could probably make a lot of money selling this story to the press.

  Flint looked at Calvin and Marie Hopkins before asking, “Were you both involved in this too?”

  “What? Don’t be preposterous. Marie and I would never—”

  A shrill ringing of a phone stopped Calvin’s speech in its tracks.

  Rae approached from behind Flint with her head up high. “Whoever has been sending me text messages and stalking me is standing in this room right now. Why don’t you answer the phone? I’m happy to redial the number if it goes to the automated voice mail.” Although Rae was using general terms, her eyes were looking directly at Calvin. He finally dug into his pocket and clicked the ringer off.

  “By the way, it’s wonderful to see you again. We had only seen each other in passing on the metro, so it’s lovely to see you up close and in person.” The bitterness dripped from Rae’s words, and her eyes were fixated on Calvin.

  “What did you do, Calvin?” Gladys’s high-pitched shout was aggravating to Rae’s ears, but she refused to show that it affected her.

  “You were taking too long to convince Flint that Cassandra was who he should date, so I took matters into my own hands.”

  “Then why did the text messages start years ago?”

  Gladys sat down in the chair that Rae assumed she had previously occupied. She looked winded, and Rae couldn’t blame her, given the events surrounding her getting caught. “Long story short, we always imagined that Flint would run for Congress one day. It was something he always seemed interested in, and we encouraged it. When he joined the Air Force, it thrilled us he wanted to serve his country. Then he went to law school, helped start a nonprofit that he worked with on the side, and everything he was doing was fantastic with very few, if any, stumbling blocks. We were and still are proud of all of your achievements, Flint.”

  Gladys paused before continuing her side of things, “But along with that, we also knew that if the time came and you decided to further your political ambitions, this would all be good key points to reference in a campaign. Besides that, we thought you and Cassandra would get together when the time came, but we saw the way you looked at Rae even when you both first met. I knew she was more than likely going to be around for a while, and I knew that might shoot the plan we had to get you together with Cassandra in the foot. So we started trying to sabotage the relationship the first go-round. When you broke up, I knew that meant our plan was back on track, but I also understood that you were heartbroken, and I never wanted to see you in pain.

  “When you came back home, the plan was to have you see Cassandra at random events that you were attending, given that you had mentioned that you had an interest in running for public office. Those ‘random appearances’ didn’t do much because your mind and heart were focused on Rae.” That was the first time that Gladys had looked at Rae since she had arrived. She couldn’t read the feelings behind her eyes, but at least the look of disdain that she was used to wasn’t there.

  “Gladys, how could you—” Terry paused before looking at Calvin. He was leaning back on his desk; his knuckles had gone white from clutch the edge of his desk. “How could you both do this?” Terry’s question led to a slew of answers from Gladys and Calvin.

  Rae watched Flint while the other people in the group were talking. She could see a vein in his neck, pulsing much more than usual. He was pissed.

  “Hey!” Flint’s co
mmanding voice stopped the chatter in the room. Rae was convinced that she hadn’t seen him this angry before. “We’re still trying to clear things up. Was Cassandra involved in any of this?” Flint spoke up for the first time in a while.

  “Other than having a crush on you and coming to her mother and me for advice? No.”

  “I can’t believe you would go as far as to blackmail us. My own mother.”

  Gladys’s head perked up. “What are you talking about?”

  “You didn’t tell me if I didn’t break up with Rae, you would release a salacious photo of us?”

  If the confusion on Gladys’s face wasn’t genuine, she was a fantastic actress. The realization hit, and she turned to Calvin and Marie with her eyes wide open. “You tried to blackmail my son?”

  “You told me to do whatever it took to make sure that his relationship with Rae was over. The private investigator that we hired found the photo, and that was our last-ditch attempt to end their relationship. And it worked.”

  The bile in Rae’s throat rose to the surface. “But it was you that delivered those flowers to my office a few weeks ago. Not someone you hired.”

  “That’s because we couldn’t afford to hire anyone else,” Marie spoke up for the first time and sucked all of the air out of the room.

  “Marie—”

  “Calvin, we’ve caused enough trouble as it is. Enough is enough. These two deserve the full truth.” She turned her attention back to Flint and Rae. “The truth is, we’re almost broke. If you won your campaign and got into Congress with Cassandra at your side, we stood to make millions just by being associated with you. And that was the drive that made us desperate. I’m sorry that this went on for as long as it did.”

  Rae surveyed the room. Terry’s and Gladys’s mouths were agape while Calvin’s red patchy face was staring at his shoes. The only person looking at Rae was Marie, who had tears in her eyes. Flint nodded. “Well, I think that answers all the questions we had. We’re going to leave now.”

  “Flint, wait—”

  “Mom, just let us go. The fact that you went this far with your scheme is enough. You went as far as to meddle in my relationship twice and threaten the woman I love multiple times. I don’t want to say something I might regret. Just leave it alone for now, okay?” Not waiting for a response, Flint turned around and gestured for Rae to walk in front of him. As she left the room with Flint’s hand on the small of her back, she turned her head quickly to see Mrs. West wipe a tear from her face as she watched her son walk out of the room.