Page 47 of Treason's Temptation
“No major media outlets have followedyet, mainly low-level blogs and publications trying to be relevant. The pictures aren’t explicit. You were smiling in one of them, looks like a date, maybe. If you give us a quote, we may be able to shut it down before it gets bigger.”
“No.” Her voice was low, calmer than I’d heard since we met.
Fallon blinked. “No, what?”
Navie slowly uncrossed her legs and sat upright. “No quote. Can I go now?” she asked, shifting to me.
Fallon read between the lines, asking. “Is there something we need to know?”
“I’m not talking about this. Not now, and not on camera, and not with you. I’m ready to go.”
I could spot lies and rehearsed deflections in my sleep, but what I saw in Navie wasn’t either.
It waspain. The kind that could silence a woman who always had something to say.
“Find another way,” I replied, staring at the relief forming behind her big brown eyes.
Navie stood abruptly. “I need air.” The door snapped shut behind her like punctuation.
“Great. She’s hiding something, and we don’t know what it is.”
“I’ll handle it.”
“You can’thandleher,” Jaleb chuckled, entering the room and conversation, “She’s been on the job for two weeks and already keeping secrets. If you don’t cut ties now, this will be a shit show.”
“No risk. No reward.”
“So I’m supposed to keep funneling money into a failing campaign?” Jaleb questioned, wearing a sharp expression.
“Do what you want to do. Ornotdo but like I said,” I reclined, stretching my arms wide along the sofa, “we’re not done until I say so.”
There was mutual love and respect between Jaleb and me, but sometimes his last name got the best of him. It worked with other people, but this was my campaign, no matter how much money he donated.
Navie waltzed back, reclaiming her seat at my desk like nothing happened. A pattern I noticed whenever shit got hard. She’d return, trying to appear stronger than she probably felt while listening to Fallon explain the next steps.
“We’ll soft launch Navie by adding a photo of you two in a random dump of photos,” Fallon explained. “Too much silence breeds speculation, and speculation isn’t on our side.”
“Put the picture in the middle or at the end. The beginning screamslook at us. That’syourstyle, but it won’t work like you think. People want a love story,” Navie added.
“I know what I’m doing,” Fallon snipped.
“I can’t tell. I’m trying to win so that I can go back to my life.”
“By life, you mean scamming?” Fallon scoffed.
Navie sat up, “Yeah, and not being a miserable bitch!”
“Chill out!” I raised my voice, tired of listening to them bicker. “Both of y’all.”
“You need to focus on not looking like you’re being human trafficked every time he touches you in public. Since you’re so eager to get back to your life.”
“I am being held in this lie against my will, so close enough,” Navie said in a jesting tone.
“A man is supposed to touch you when he likes you. It’s called affection.”
“Only a man would say something like that. You touch me because you want to fuck me. That has nothing to do with feelings, Tre.”
“You must have some for me because I’mTreagain.”
