Page 63 of The Rebel King

King: She’s not wrong…

I’m still not sure if I want to slap him or hump him after that last comment, but there’s no time to reply because everyone stands and applauds as Owen leaves the stage.

“Let’s get out of here as soon as possible,” Millie says from the corner of her mouth. “O’s got his car, so we don’t have to wait.”

Owen is notoriously accessible, always taking “one last” selfie or answering one more question. Millicent and I rode here together since Owen came straight from a committee meeting and met us here.

“I was supposed to go over a few things with him on the ride home,” I say, “but he looks as tired as I am. Maybe it can wait till the morning.”

“The nanny’s been with Darcy and Elijah all day.” Millicent glances at her watch. “I’d like to send her home.”

“I’m all for a quick exit.” I glance down at my phone, at Maxim’slast text, before tucking it back into my evening bag. “The faster the better.”

Owen’s listening intently to an older woman asking about the future of Social Security when Millie approaches.

“Sorry to interrupt,” she says, smiling kindly at the woman. “But I’m going to start back home, O, for the kids.”

“Of course,” Owen says. “You still need to chat, Lennix?”

“I don’t think so,” I say. “My car’s at your place, so I’ll catch a ride with Millie and head on home. We can touch base tomorrow.”

“Good. Get some rest,” he says, looking back to Millie. “You take Kevin and I’ll keep Bob. I’m right behind you.”

She reaches up to kiss his cheek and gives the woman a parting smile, and we head toward her car.

“Now we can talk about your secret relationship with my brother-in-law,” she says.

I glance around to see who’s within earshot. “Um, yeah, and maybe we can discuss the ins and outs of what it means to besecretwhile we’re at it.”

She grins, loops her arm through mine, and starts toward the private back entrance of the country club hosting the fundraiser. A group of red-jacketed valets scramble to get the cars pulled up. Bob takes the keys from the tallest of the young men and holds open the door of Millie’s SUV.

“Thanks, Bob,” Millie says and climbs in.

I settle into the back seat, facing her. “And since when are you Maxim’s spy?”

“You mean the pic I sent him?” She grins and reaches into the little cooler between us, pulling out a Peroni and offering one to me. “That wine tonight may as well have been dishwater. Who organized that menu? Lucky for us, Owen stocks these for me.”

I never would have pegged Millie as a beer girl, but that’s where we usually mess up, thinking we have people pegged. I shake my head to refuse as the car pulls away from the curb.

“It was just a little fun,” she says mischievously. “You two have heated up a lot, huh?”

“Look, I know you guys are close, but I need to keep this discreet and separate from the campaign. I don’t want people thinking I got this job because I’m sleeping with the candidate’s little brother.”

“I think the only time anyone thinks of Maxim as the ‘little brother’ is when Owen reminds them.” She laughs and takes a swig of her beer.

“Maxim’s not anyone’s little anything.”

“Hung, is he?” Millie asks wickedly.

“Not going there with you,Mrs. Cade.” I pull an imaginary zip over twitching lips.

“I’ll just say,” Millie persists, giving me a wink, “it runs in the family.”

Our bawdy laughter is so loud I check to make sure the privacy partition is up all the way.

“Would you lookie there,” Millie says, glancing through the SUV’s back window. “Senator Cade managed to extract himself from a conversation in record time. I should’ve waited a little longer. I really wanted to ride home together.”

I look, too, and see that Owen’s SUV is already behind us.

---