Page 31 of Last First Time
“Naked pictures. Sexy pictures. Naughty sex pictures.” He chortles. “If you don’t drop out now, I’ll make sure everyone in town sees you in flagrante delicto before the weekend.”
“You can’t seriously think you’re going to force me into quitting because of some supposed racy pictures of me. I’m an adult, sir. Nobody wants what you’re trying to sell, and I think we’ve effectively proven that here.”
“I said sit,” he thunders. This man is clearly off his rocker. So, he supposedly has some pictures of me with my pants down. Big deal. I’m not scared of him, not with Kar by my side, the good girl next to me that I never knew my campaign needed.
“Sit,” he hisses. “It’s not only pictures of you. It’s you and that girl, Ms. Troudeau.”
I stop, letting the feeling of anger rush over me like a giant wave. My heart is pounding with it, but I keep my voice as calm as possible. “What exactly are you suggesting here, sir?”
“Sit. I’ll show you.” He waves me back toward the chair again, this time impatiently, like I’m a naughty child who isn’t listening.
But I sit. He turns his laptop toward me, and I can see clearly Kar’s beautiful face, thrown back in obvious ecstasy. It’s one of my favorite looks on her, but why does he have a picture of her looking like this?
“Where did you get this?” My hands tighten into fists, but I keep my voice carefully bland.
“They get better. Did you want to see the one of her sucking your dick?” He laughs roughly, then lets out an appreciative sounding whistle as he changes to another photo. “No wonder you’ve been hooking up with that girl.”
“You watch your mouth. Don’t you dare talk about her that way.”
“Look, I appreciate the decision to have her be your regular girl, Reed. It has given you a good boost in the numbers, but let’s both cut the crap. You and I are men of action. We know the mayor’s office is mine. And I’ll ruin both her and you if you don’t drop out right now.”
“Fuck you. You can’t blackmail me, old man. We don’t do dirty politics in Valentine.” I stand again, shaking with the desire to knock the dirty leer off his round, oily-looking face.
“Well, well. Look at this one. Seems like you two couldn’t keep your clothes on in the mayor’s office either. I wonder what the good people of Valentine will think of you banging your tramp of the week all over that desk that they paid for?”
I give him a sharp look. “I already told you, old man. You can’t force me to do a damn thing. I’m going to beat you fair and square, and unlike you, I don’t have to get my hands dirty to do it.”
He laughs, a dry and brittle sound. “Boy, I will put these out all over the state, and push for it to hit national news too. You’ll be finished, and your little dancing girl there will have to go into a different profession altogether.”
I tense again. I honestly don’t give two craps what he has to say about me, but he can see that when he talks about Kar, it’s pushing all of my buttons at once.
He leans back in his chair, giving me a narrow-eyed glare. “Maybe she can take her clothes off while she dances this time, get some real men like me to shove some dollars right into her little tiny panties.” He wheezes out another laugh, showing all of his too-white teeth.
My fist flies into his face so quickly that it’s happening before I even realize what I’m doing. I keep hitting him until finally my hands are sore, blood everywhere, and some ugly goon is pulling me off the man. It isn’t one of my goons, so I can only assume this one works for the dirty, conniving asshole whose face I am trying to rearrange.
“You’re finished, Harrington.” His face is a mess, and I’m pretty sure that’s a tooth on the floor, but I can tell he’s still smiling. I strain against the arms holding me, ready to hit this asshole again.
“I’ll kill you, you fucking worthless scumbag. Don’t you ever,evertalk about Karisma that way again.”
He laughs, blood streaming from his nose and mouth. “It’s too late for you, Harrington. The police are coming right now. If the photographs don’t finish you off, then the criminal charges will.”
I hear the sirens approaching, and the lights are flashing blue and red along the walls. The thing is, he’s definitely right. I can see the whole pattern now, as we wait there for the cops, me pulling uselessly against the goon and the bad guy laughing right in my face. It was a set up. I should have been on my guard after the way he acted at the elementary school, but I got distracted by the happiness of having Karisma by my side, and this man made a play for me.
The goon is still restraining me as Aaron enters the campaign offices. He looks from me to the senator, then back at me.
“We got a call about an attack.”
I seethe. How have I been so stupid as to play right into this man’s hands?
“We have the whole thing on video, Officer. We’ll bring the surveillance footage down to the station once I get cleaned up.”
I spit on the floor. “There’s no way for you to get cleaned up, you dirty, rotten scumbag.”
Aaron’s eyebrows shoot up. He’s used to me being the bland, polite politician I’ve always trained to be. I have only been angry like this once before, and it involved a lot of shots and Kar’s dickbag ex, Jeffrey. That was an entire lifetime ago.
“Please Officer, I need you to handcuff this crazed man immediately. For my own safety, and the safety of all of Valentine.”
Such petty theatrics. I want to roll my eyes at the melodrama unfolding before me, but unfortunately, Aaron’s walking toward me with handcuffs.
