“And you?” Nico asked.
“A long shot,” she said. And then she rubbed her forehead. He could see the pain in her eyes. “So all of this talk about not consulting you and keeping your privacy private is just whistling in the wind at this point. The smart money is not on a victory for me. Which means, should I lose this election, it’ll be a miracle if I can get a job as a hall sweeper on Capitol Hill.”
Nico felt so tortured by his feelings that he could hardly contain them all. He felt relief that she just might lose her election. But he also felt horrible that she might lose her election. He felt relief that their relationship just might be able to continue should she lose. But what kind of relationship would it be if the only way they could be successful as a couple was for her to fail? His heart ached for her. For them. For her career. And he pulled her tighter into his arms. And in the quietness of her quiet home, he listened, he did not say another word, as she wept.
CHAPTER NINETEEN
The months came and went as Nico handled his affairs, legit and not-so-legit, and Kay worked her ass off even as pundits were giving her a zero chance of winning. But she didn’t listen to pundits. She listened to her own heart. And if she was going to be defeated, it wasn’t going to be for a lack of effort on her part. She was going full hog.
And it was working. The polls began to tighten as they neared the final stretch, and even Rog was beginning to feel better about their prospects for victory. They were still the underdog. They still had serious ground to make up against William Holmes. But at least they were on the same playing field with the Congressman’s son. At least they were in the game.
And although Nico dreaded her winning a seat in Congress, which was no secret to her how much he dreaded it, he nonetheless fully financed her campaign. He refused to let her ask for a dime from any donors. Whatever their campaign needed, Nico made clear, Rog was to call him, and he would deliver. It was music to Rog’s ears.
But three months later, as the campaign had less than three weeks to go before election day and the polls had tightened even further until it was declared a statistical dead heat, a series of events changed everything.
It started one night when Kay and Rog were working late again. Almost midnight late. This time they were trying to figure out how they could be more judicious with their events. How they could draw that clear contrast between their campaign and Holmes’ campaign when suddenly a Van and two police cars pulled up out front.
“What’s that?” Rog asked.
Kay was looking out of the large storefront window too. “I don’t know,” she said.
But when a SWAT team jumped out of the van in full riot gear, their weapons drawn, and hurried into her campaign headquarters, she and Rog both jumped to their feet.
“What the hell?” Rog asked. Was there a bomb in the building? Was there some threat to their safety and the police was called in?
But when the SWAT team leader yelled at them as if they were the problem, they both were floored. “Hands up!” the leader yelled, the scope on his rifle pointed directly at them. “Hands up now!”
“What have we done?” Kay asked as they quickly complied with the order. “What’s happening?”
But the leader nodded to his team and they began fanning out, searching in drawers and file cabinets and everything else in the small space.
“What are they looking for?” Rog asked. “What are they doing?”
“We have a warrant to search the premises,” the leader said, and then he flashed a sheet of paper.
“To search the premises for what?” Kay asked.
“For drugs,” the leader said, and Kay was stunned. She looked at Rog. Did she hear him right?
Then she looked at the leader, her face in a fixed frown. “Drugs?” she asked. “Says who?”
“Says William Holmes,” Rog said bitterly.
Kay looked at him. “William?”
“William. He used to work for Chief Granley. This is a big fat setup.”
“But why would he try to set me up?” Kay asked. “He’s the one with the advantage!”
“It’s called ensuring a victory,” Rog said. “It’s called making sure they didn’t snatch defeat out of the jaws of victory. The race has tightened. He’s running scared.”
Kay heard of dirty tricks before, but trying to implicate her in some drug scheme? She couldn’t believe it. Until camera crews showed up from the local news stations and she realized Rog knew exactly what he was talking about. It was a setup just as sure as she was standing there, a setup to ensure she didn’t get any of the last second momentum she and Rog were beginning to see in the polls.
And Kay got angry. “Put your hands down,” she ordered Rog. “We aren’t going to give them the camera shot they want.”
“Put your hands back up!” the leader insisted.
“Am I under arrest?” Kay asked because she knew they weren’t going to find a damn thing. And she knew that leader knew it too.
When he couldn’t say that she was under arrest, Kay grabbed her purse and looked at her campaign manager. “You got this, Rog?” she asked him.
Rog nodded. “I got it. You got this?” he asked her.
“Oh, I got it,” Kay said angrily as she grabbed her purse. “You stay here, to bear witness to this travesty of justice. I’ll take care of the rest.” Then she looked at the SWAT leader. “Heads will roll,” she promised, “when all is said and done.”
And she left out of the building, with the reporters who were waiting outside sticking microphones in her face and asking her for comment about the “drugs,” as if that nonsense was legitimate. She ignored them, got into her Camaro, and sped off.
CHAPTER TWENTY
Nico had just gotten bad news. His number two, Kofi LeBlanc, who had just flown in from France, was in Nico’s Chicago office telling him what he knew so far.
“The good news,” Kofi said, “is that we locked down every one of our facilities and will keep them on lockdown until after the election.”
Nico was seated at the head of his conference table, leaned back in his swivel chair, and Kofi was seated in the chair to the right of him. “And the bad news?” Nico asked.
“We received a tip this morning,” Kofi said.
“From whom?”
“Our man at ATF.”
Nico didn’t respond. He watched his number two and waited for him to tell him what their man at the Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms agency had told him.
“He recommends you get out of the country,” Kofi said.
“Why? Because of the election?”
“No. It has nothing to do with the election. The Feds are looking into several unsolved cases. Cases involving victims known to have mob connections. They’ll be searching for any dirt they can find. It’s called Operation Clean House.”
“And this operation has to do with me how?”
“According to our source,” Kofi continued, “one of those cases involves the disappearance of Ralph Sturgis and Patrice Langer. You remember them? The two people who tried to blackmail Senator Drake with those compromising photos?”
Nico nodded. He remembered.
“It’s best that you go home to France when they start snooping. And what with Miss Laine running for office, and the polls showing she could actually pull it off, it will be absolutely essential that you get out of the country.”
Nico let out a harsh exhale. It was exactly the kind of scenario he feared. “When is this operation supposed to commence?”
“Just after election day, according to our source. At which time, you need to be on your way out of here. Unless,” Kofi added, “you want to call in a favor at the highest levels.”
But Nico was already shaking his head. “No way,” he said. “The fact that they’re going to be snooping around means they don’t have shit on me. They may have suspicions, but they don’t have shit on me. And they won’t find anything, either, especially not on that case. If I call in a favor now, the fact that t
hey were scared off of my scent would put them on it even harder. I’ll have to be convinced they have something on me before I take an action that drastic.”
Kofi agreed. “That puts us back where we started,” he said. “After the election, you’ve got to leave the country.”
Nico sat there without saying a word. And Kofi, who knew when his boss was in deep contemplation, kept his mouth shut too.
And then Nico seemed to make up his mind. And what Kofi saw in the boss’s eyes, meant the decision he made was a painful one. “Okay,” Nico said like a man resigned to his fate. “I want you to see if you can handle that situation in Santa Monica for me. If you can resolve it, let me know. If you can’t, let me know.”
Kofi smiled. Nico was one boss who kept a tight rein on his enterprises, which made their syndicate one of the best-run syndicates in the world. Kofi loved that about him. “Yes, sir,” he said.
“And then you can head on back to Europe.”
Kofi stood on his feet. “And Boss?” he said.
Nico looked at him.
“Timing is everything. And if the universe is telling you that now is not a good time to be in a relationship with a politician, I’d heed that warning. For your sake, and hers. If I were you,” Kofi added, and then left the office.
Half an hour later, Kay was walking through his board room door. Unlike the first time she visited his office, she now had carte-blanche. She could go and come as she pleased.
“Hey, babe,” Nico said when she walked in. “Didn’t I tell you about working this late?”
When she didn’t respond, but headed straight to his conference table and took a seat, he knew something had happened. “What’s wrong?” he asked her.
“I’ve got a problem.”
“What kind of problem?”
“My opponent is friends with the Chief of Police Granley. The Chief has just sent a SWAT team to my office, complete with news cameras, to search for drugs.”
Nico was shocked. “What? Drugs?”
“Bullshit, in other words,” Kay clarified. “Just because I was gaining some momentum.”
“You think that was the reason? That William Holmes think you might win the election?”
“That has to be it,” Kay said. “That’s why they’re pulling this stunt.”
“But I thought you were trailing in the polls. I mean, I know the race has tightened, but he still has a four point lead, doesn’t he?”
“Yes. But with a margin of error of plus or minus five points, it’s considered a statistical dead heat. And Holmes knows it.”
“They didn’t arrest you or anything like that?”
“Hell no! It’s just a stunt. Even that SWAT team leader knew it. It’s just a last second dirty trick.” A worried look came across Kay’s face. “But it’s sure to stop my momentum in its tracks, Nico. That I am certain of.”
Nico exhaled. “Are you okay?”
Kay frowned. “No. I’m damn mad, and yes I said mad! But there’s nothing I can do about it now.”
“But you want me to do something about it?” Nico asked.
Kay let out what sounded to him like a sigh of frustration. “No. Yes. I don’t know, Nico! I just hate that they always get away with this shit. There’s always something that comes up near the end of the election cycle. Always. I’ve been around politics long enough to be used to it. But I never thought William Holmes would stoop this low. Drugs? In my office? I hate that shit, and he knows it!”
Nico continued to stare at her. I’m just tired,” she said. “I just needed to hear a friendly voice and see a friendly face.” She stood up. “Can you contact your lawyers and see if they can do something about this? It’s already going to hit the papers tomorrow. That damage has been done. I just want to mitigate it somehow.”
Nico nodded. “I’ll contact them,” he said.
“Thanks, Nico,” Kay said, and leaned over and kissed him.
But Nico stood up, and pulled her into his arms. And then he kissed her harder, with tongue action, and their passion immediately rose. He loved this woman. Every time he saw her, he realized just how much he loved her. That was why he had to have her.
But not only that, he thought, as he lifted her on the table and pulled off her panties. He needed her! The idea that he would have to leave her if she won that race was made clearer to him when Kofi told him about Operation Clean House. He was not going to taint her brand with his brand. He was not going to be the man that brought his woman down.
But right now, he needed his woman. She was on the conference table. He was between her legs letting his tongue show her how much he needed her. And they both were enjoying the relief.
Until he needed more and stood up.
Kay watched his smoldering eyes as he unbuckled and unzipped his pants. When he dropped them, along with his briefs, and entered her, she sat straight up and wrapped her arms around his neck.
And for the longest time he did her. He pumped his ass off. For the longest time they made love with an urgency they both felt. Because it meant they were going hard. Because it meant Nico had lifted one of Kay’s legs, to get that maximum thrust, and he was putting it on her the way she needed it. The way he needed to give it. Until they came together.
Kay was crying out as she came. Nico was grunting hard as he came. And he continued to push his penis deeper into her until he was just hitting her spot with his every thrust. And Kay was loving it. She was holding onto Nico and loving every second of his expert skill.
They continued until there was nothing left in the tank. They both were on empty.
He leaned against her, and she leaned against him, as they both tried to regulate their breathing.
But if Nico thought making love to Kay was going to ease the pain that he knew he would someday have to face, he had deluded himself. Because the pain was still there and, in a way, was even more devastating. Because he was looking into her beautiful eyes. Because he was feeling her tender skin. Because he was still deep inside of her, where that warmth always welcomed him in, and he knew it would all disappear someday soon.
He pulled out of her, and they quietly pulled themselves, and their clothes, back together again.
“Let me pee,” Nico said, “and I’ll follow you home.”
He didn’t have any great need to use the bathroom as much as he just needed to get away. Even if it was just for a moment, he needed to get away.
And as he stood at that commode inside his board room bathroom, the options could not have been starker. If he did nothing to lift a finger to delegitimize that SWAT raid, Kay would lose. No doubt about that in his mind. And if she lost, it would be the best case scenario for him. He wouldn’t have to deal with a spotlight he wouldn’t be able to bear, and they could go on with their lives as if she’d never dreamed of seeking any political office.
But he knew Kay. They’d been dating for over six months. She wouldn’t just walk away and forget her defeat. She’d be devastated. She was a fighter, and fighters didn’t know how to accept defeat that easily. He knew her.
If he did nothing, who could blame him? He loved Kay.
But he loved her too much to be that selfish.
That was why, as much as it hurt him to his core, he pulled out his cell phone and called in a favor. Not to the Chief of Police. Not to that bastard who Kay felt had a hand in the scheme. Nico, instead, phoned the Chief’s boss: the Mayor of Chicago.
And that next morning, after Nico had long left her bed and went to his office, and just as Kay was getting ready to leave for her office too, the Chief of Police held a press conference. Kay was in the bathroom, brushing her teeth, when she heard him say her name. She walked into her bedroom and looked at the TV that she had turned on when she first woke up.
“I repeat,” the Chief said, “the incident last evening at the campaign headquarters of Katherine Laine was a callous smear tactic by associates of her opponent, William Holmes, to manipulate the public into believing that Miss Laine, or her
campaign, was somehow involved with drug trafficking. Nothing could be further from the truth,” the Chief made clear. “Rogue cops connected to Mr. Holmes lied on a warrant application and conducted an illegal search of Miss Laine’s headquarters. They found nothing because there was nothing to be found. It was all a scam to help Mr. Holmes’ campaign. Those officers involved, including the team leader, have all been fired, and the Chicago PD offers Miss Laine our deepest apologies.”
Kay was stunned. The Chief was no doubt involved in the scheme himself, but the top people always got the pass, and the little guys got the shaft. But those “little guys” should have refused to participate. They didn’t, and now they were the scapegoats. Kay had no sympathy for people like that.
Besides, she was too elated. She could not have imagined a better outcome. And her cell phone began ringing off the hook, one call after another call, as the news spread just that fast. But she didn’t answer any calls just yet. Because none of them were from Nico, who now had a special ringtone on her phone too. Because somehow she knew, even before confirming it, that the apology from Chief Granley, despite his own involvement, had Nico written all over it.
She grabbed her phone, not to return any calls from Rog or her supporters, but to call, and thank, Nico herself.
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
And then, three weeks later, after the public raked her opponent over the coals for attempting to cheat his way to victory, Kay won the primary outright, with no need for any runoff. And since she had no Republican opponent in the General, her victory was assured.
Her campaign headquarters was filled with supporters and volunteers and news media alike. It was a festive place. But Nico, true to his word to stay in the background, was nowhere to be found. Which was fine by Kay. She knew she would be with him, after the parties, after all the congratulatory hugs and kisses, later that night.
But when her cellphone rang, and it was the ringtone that let her know it was Nico, she went into her office and closed her door. “Hey, sweetheart,” she said over the phone. “Calling to congratulate me?”
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