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“My date from last night.”

I rolled my eyes, knowing the two stooges routine was to ease the tension I was feeling. God, I loved these two.

“Okay, okay. Neither of you has the inside scoop on this. Especially since I only thought of it a few minutes before you arrived.”

“Well, don’t keep us waiting.” Tyler tapped his watch. “We have reporters circling for comments on your relationships with Veer and Kevin.”

“You and everyone else around us will say nothing. I am not going to respond to anything that has to do with my personal life.”

I began to write two lists and then handed a paper to each of them. “Here are the people I want you to call. I know they owe you favors. I hate to do this, but we have to play dirty.”

Samina cocked her head to the side and watched me. “Jaci, everyone on this list is someone who is teetering on the president’s ‘Budget of the Century.’” She air-quoted the last part.

“Yes, they are. He needs votes, and I want to make it very difficult for him to get them. I’m going to use the same methods Edgar used against me. A hands-off approach where someone else does the work.”

“Hey, are you putting us in the same category as Decker?” Tyler sounded offended.

“No. I’m just making sure I’m squeaky clean while the budget I want to fail more than anything goes up in flames.”

“He’ll know it was you.” Sam tucked the paper into her briefcase.

“That’s the point. Edgar will see I’m not a weak peon who will hide from a scandal. And if he fucks with me, we can close bipartisan ranks again and tank anything he sends to Congress. The shit he likes to pull is coming to an end.”

“Don’t take this the wrong way, Jaci.” Tyler leaned forward. “It’s about fucking time you figured out you don’t need fuckheads like Edgar to win.”

I stared at him for a second and realized he hated the fact I’d focused on Edgar to garner support for a future presidential bid.

“I won’t make that mistake again. We all make alliances. It’s the only way any of us get anything done in DC. But never again will I pretend to follow the pack when I was destined to change it.”

Tyler gave me his big, beautiful smile, one that made so many a debutante flush and fan themselves. “Good, that makes it easier for me to resign from the Advisory Committee. Edgar is about to learn what happens when you mess with the Camdens.”

“Now that we got one issue managed, what about Decker?” Sam asked.

“Let’s leave that up to Kimberly. Her connections are about to come in handy.”

Chapter Nineteen

“Senator Camden.May I speak to you a moment?” I heard after I had passed through the security terminals in the United States Capitol Building. The Senate was about to vote on the president’s revised spending bill.

Two weeks ago, after Tyler, Sam, and I had met in my office, we began to implement our plan. It started with my father and Tyler resigning from all presidential advisory committees, which had caused a stir with their colleagues and made it obvious the Camdens had closed ranks around me and against Edgar. This in turn had caused the president to demand an investigation into my relationship with Veer, but it was quickly squashed as a ploy to use taxpayer dollars for a personal vendetta, when a tabloid journalist released a recording of the president and Grey Decker Senior plotting the use of any means necessary to ruin my career.

And then our plan continued when Kimberly had contacted her old college roommate, Cara Decker, a big advocate for helping children and women in crisis, and garnered her support for No Bride. She was another beloved member of the Republican Party and had a lot of influence in Southern politics.

What had come as an unexpected surprise was how vehemently she had distanced herself from her father, Grey Decker Senior. Cara had told Kimberly that she couldn’t ignore the actions of the men in her family anymore. There were too many incidences to believe her father and brother were victims of a liberal conspiracy, especially when all of the accusers were members of the GOP.

The final step in our plot had gone into action a few days earlier, when every undecided congressman or woman had been contacted and swayed to vote against the president’s bill. Which forced Edgar, the self-proclaimed “president who wouldn’t compromise” to adjust his spending allocations to something that would satisfy not only the GOP, but Independents and Democrats as well.

Today’s vote would help avoid a government shutdown and show Edgar that I did not need to humiliate him or try to ruin his reputation to make a point. Unlike what he’d done to me. All I needed was the contacts I’d fostered across party lines to tank anything and everything he wanted passed.

I hated playing dirty. It wasn’t the way I operated, but when someone backed me into a corner, they’d learn I wasn’t the genteel Southern debutante they hoped I was. They would learn that if they fucked with me I would meet their challenge head-on.

No more treading carefully. It had caused me more pain than it was worth.

I picked up my briefcase from the baggage scanner and turned to find Christopher Robinson walking toward me. “Hi, Chris. What can I do for you?”

He wore a gray pinstriped suit that accentuated the body many designers had fought to clothe. He was the image of a well-tailored businessman.

He glanced at my ring, an antique five-carat diamond surrounded by sapphires that had belonged to Kevin’s grandmother, and clenched his jaw. The look in his eyes made me feel self-conscious.

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