Page 39 of The Senator

My phone buzzed again, reminding me of why I was awake so early. I picked it up, swiping the screen to see a message from Denver.

I’m coming to get you, Little Brother. I heard you’ve cut ties with the Senator, so I’m guessing you’re in a rough way. Come spend Christmas with the club. You always have a home with The Volunteers, you know.

I felt my eyes sting at Denver’s kind words, but I wasn’t his problem. I wasn’t anyone’s problem but my own.

Denny, thanks man. I appreciate your offer, but I’ve got a full book until after Christmas. Maybe I’ll come down for New Year’s? Wish all the guys a Merry Christmas for me.

I tossed the phone on the nightstand and lay back against the shitty pillows, glad I had stopped at the superstore for a set of clean sheets and pillowcases as I walked back to the motel after the cab let me off six blocks away. The driver refused to go into the neighborhood, which was definitely a sign it wasn’t on the social register. Unfortunately, I had to stretch my cash on hand, and the Four Seasons wasn’t in the budget.

There was a banging on the door that wasn’t appreciated, but the motel manager was a drug-slinging son of a bitch, and he liked to try to hit up the residents for extra cash if they were in the mood for some pharmaceutical recreation. I wasn’t, and I was about to beat his ass for bothering me, yet again.

I pulled on my shorts and stalked to the door, pitying the fucking asshole on the other side. I slid the chain off and ripped the cheap thing open, seeing Vani Brady standing there in all her glory—stiletto-covered foot tapping a mile a minute, and an angry scowl in place.

“What are you doing here? No, wait—how the hell did you find me?” I snapped as I walked away, leaving the door open because I was damn sure she wasn’t going to leave without a fight.

“Bullshit! You don’t get to be the aggrieved party in this situation, Nashville Lincoln. You don’t leave a ‘Dear Vani’ note on the counter and just disappear. Spencer is beside himself. You deleted your contact information from his phone, and he’s pissed at me because I won’t give him the number I have in mine. If you weren’t so damn tall, I’d turn you over my knee and spank some sense into you,” she ranted.

I was fighting to keep from laughing. She looked like a pissed-off chihuahua, bouncing from foot to foot in the run-down room I was now calling home.

“Vani, it’s for the best. You and Spence are getting ready to divorce, and if he’s going to have a chance at salvaging his reputation, he needs to steer clear of the likes of me and my fucked-up life.”

Hell, my life was in the shitter as much as Spencer’s. The difference between us—nobody gave a tinker’s damn about me, and the former Senator’s fuckups made front page of every newspaper across the country.

I heard a noise on the walkway outside my room and rushed to the open door, seeing a homeless guy checking the knobs to the rooms, likely in hopes of finding one that was open and empty. I pulled Vani further into the room and slammed the door, engaging the chain just to be safe.

“How did you find me?” My phone buzzed again on the bed, but I ignored it.

“I have people. Now, what are you doing here?” Vani didn’t remove her leather gloves before sitting on a plastic chair in the corner. Hell, remembering their home in Great Falls, I couldn’t blame her. The place where I was staying was worse than the Bates Motel.

“Well, I decided I don’t wanna sell my ass to make money for someone else, so I had to move out of Caroline Turner’s place into something cheaper. Welcome to my winter villa.” My response was sarcastic. I went so far as to extend my arm in spokesmodel fashion.

Vani scoffed and glared at me, her irritation evident. “Why did you leave the other night? Spencer said he asked you to stay, and you agreed.”

As if I could forget that night. It played behind my eyeballs every time I closed my eyes. I had resorted to using body wash as lube in my shower because I couldn’t help but jack off to the memories of giving Spencer pleasure. I was a lovesick fool for the man.

“I never agreed to stay because I know you two have a rule against it, even if he forgot it that night. I left because I’m no good for him, and we both know it, even if he won’t acknowledge it.”

Hell, she was an adult. Surely, she could see it for herself.

Suddenly, something dawned on me. “Do you want me there to nurse him through his heartbreak when you leave, is that it?”

It came out as an accusation, but I couldn’t understand why she was pushing us together. It made no sense.

Vani sat up on the edge of her seat, her face pinched in anger as she studied me. “I want Spencer to have as much happiness as he can, Nash. I love him like a brother, and he’s sacrificed too much for me as it is. I could tell the morning after Sean Fitzpatrick’s birthday party that Spence was drawn to you a hell of a lot more than he was ever drawn to Blaire Conner.”

I was flattered, but I couldn’t let her sway me. I was no good for Spence, and she had to see it.

Vani’s expression was thoughtful. “I still think Blaire wasn’t completely innocent in that whole Antigua debacle. I know Denver Wallace said Mitch Flora is the leak in the office, but I wonder if there’s more to it? Spence mentioned he’d never given anyone the exact number of the villa where they were staying. Someone knew their precise location to get those pictures.”

“Do you think Blaire set it up and implicated himself in this shit? He lost his job, right? Wasn’t he just transferred to the NBS network? What was he getting out of it that was better than the job he’d just scored?”

Vani’s reasoning had merit, but I wondered if there was something nobody knew happening behind the scenes. None of it made sense to me, and based on her gaze into nothingness, the senator’s wife was having a hard time reasoning it out as well.

Vani reached into the pocket of her cashmere coat and retrieved her phone, swiping over the screen before she handed the device to me. I glanced at what she’d pulled up, seeing a story from a news website.

FORMER NBS RISING STAR REPORTER, BLAIRE CONNER, NAMED AS PRESS SECRETARY FOR VIRGINIA GOVERNOR BENNETT’S PRESS SECRETARY AS EXPLORATORY TEAM IS FORMED FOR FUTURE PRESIDENTIAL RUN

I glanced up to see Vani’s cocked eyebrow. “I’m not sure what this means,” I responded.

---