Page 75 of Power Games

"The time is flying so fast. It’s November already. One year. One year and you’ll be president.”

“Or one year and I’ll lose to Tristan. Or George.”

She didn’t deign to comment.

“We need to talk.”

His heart skipped a beat, and started again almost frantically.

"Talk," he repeated.

"Yes, talk. You've avoided it until now, but we can't ignore it and pretend it will go away."

Shit. Did she want to discuss expectations, now? He wasn't ready for that. Not yet. Barrett had mentioned they needed to set up a prenup and determine the terms of their future marriage once they'd let him in on the fact that they were considering tying the knot during the run, but Charles and Vanessa had both been equally silent about the subject now.

"About Thanksgiving. I'm all for spending the day with your parents and actually relaxing, but my father is throwing a very public, very well-covered bash that Sunday. We need to show our faces. And you need to actually speak to him. Not just a hello and then getting as far away from him as you can, like you have the last few times we saw him."

Oh, that. Charles didn't relax much. It did beat speaking about the limitations and timeline of their relationship, but only just.

"Vanessa, I need to tell you something. Something that I haven't told anyone, and that can't leave this room. Can I trust that you'll keep it to yourself?"

She rolled her eyes. "How many secrets do we have, Charles? Have I ever spilled any?"

No, she hadn't.

"You might not be aware of this, but your father was one of the men Izzy had an affair with."

"I know that. Everyone knows that."

"Well, Knightley has compiled a list of the men of power whom she slept with, who could have had access to the kind of weapon that was used to shoot her and Claudia. It's not a long list. And your father is at the top of it."

31

Truth or Dare

To say that Vanessa wasn't a liar would be inaccurate. She could lie with ease; she'd been taught how by the best. It would have been easy to do just that now. Easy, and perhaps even wise.

"I can't just go talk to him as if nothing happened when he could have ordered her killed. Izzy wasn't a saint. She wasn't even a good person. But she was a human being nonetheless, and she had the right to breathe like the rest of us. I cared about her. What kind of a man would I be if I could live with a woman for so many years and not care whether she lived or died?"

Her father. He'd be her father if he was able to do that.

"You probably think I'm being ridiculous."

Lie.Just lie to him.

She didn't.

"Charles, I think you're perceptive, and I know it's dangerous." The words were out of her mouth. There, she'd said it.

The silence that followed made her blood run cold and her hands tremble. The one thing that anchored her was the fact that Charles’ arms remained around her, and then, held her tighter.

"You know."

"I don't know anything. Nothing except the fact that you weren't as discreet as you thought. You remember when you first mentioned running for president to me over the phone? My father called me the night before, asking me if I thought you might have political aspirations. By the time Izzy was killed, there were whispers, rumors, posts and blogs, talks of funds being raised in your name privately. You were a threat. You are a threat."

He'd frozen.

"Me?" His tone was utterly confused. “You think her death was about me?”

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