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He steepled his fingers and tapped them against each other. Kat found herself getting distracted by the way his fingers moved. “It’ll be faster to take the attention off you if you give a statement to the media. They hound people who avoid them.”
She shook her head. “I won’t do it. That’s nonnegotiable. Posed photos only.”
He looked down before meeting her gaze, and Kat had the distinct impression she was making a deal with the devil. “I think I can manage that. What’s the other condition?”
“I want full access to the senator and to campaign decisions.”
He opened his mouth to protest but she held up her hand.
“I will sign a limited confidentiality clause and allow you to review my final manuscript before it goes to the publisher. Review it for factual accuracy, not to change my analysis.”
His eyes locked onto hers. She didn’t blink.
“That’s the only way I’ll do it.”
“I guess there’s no way the book can be published before the November elections.”
She bit her lip. Under normal circumstances, he’d be right. It took at least nine to twelve months to bring a book to publication, but she wasn’t writing a commercial book. She should tell him about the inside track Dean Gladstone had.
“You’ve got yourself a deal.” He held out his hand.
She hesitated before taking it. Was she doing the right thing? Reluctantly, she grasped his hand, surprised at the roughness in his firm grip. He smiled, and she found herself staring at the way his lips moved, the way they curved, the contrast of their pinkness against his golden skin. Her body warmed from her hair to her toes.
This is going to be disastrous.
CHAPTER FOUR (#uba8ced3c-2b44-5659-8f4b-997917a83fb0)
KAT KNEW WHAT to expect from campaign headquarters, but no intellectual knowledge could have prepared her for the in-your-face chaos that greeted her. Flashbulbs exploded in her face as she stepped from her car onto the sidewalk. Alex was there in a flash, shielding her and passing reporters with a firm “Wait for the press briefing.”
Alex thought it best to come to headquarters right from the house to draw the media away from her mother. They walked through a set of glass doors and staffers from every corner of the warehouse-like space came rushing toward her. She instinctively stepped back...and bumped right into the solid mass that was Alex. His hands went around her shoulders, steadying her. He lifted one arm and extended it, palm out. The rush of people stopped barely a foot from her. Questions and introductions were hurled at breakneck speed. Alex shooed them away and steered her over to a glass-walled office in one corner. She sank into a guest chair as Alex waved to someone.
Kat turned to see a petite redhead with black-framed glasses walk in.
“Kat, this is Crista Jordyn. She’s—”
Crista held out her hand. “I do all the real work around here while Alex runs around looking good.”
Alex rolled his eyes good-naturedly. “Crista will introduce you around the office and find you a computer station. I have to go to DC.”
Kat stomped on the flare of disappointment. It was a good thing he wouldn’t be around, as she had enough to worry about between meeting her father and researching a book. The last thing she needed was to get distracted by Alex.
“When is the senator expected back?”
Alex tapped on his BlackBerry. “He’s on the ground in Cairo. He’ll video call with you at eight tonight. Crista will get you set up.”
Kat glanced at her watch. “I can only stay for two hours. I need to get home to take care of something.”
Alex looked up. “Kat, most everyone here works well into the evening. You want full access, you can’t expect to work nine-to-five...let alone just popping in when it suits you.” He began to study a sheaf of papers.
Crista took her elbow. “Let’s leave Mr. Crankypants to deal with his work.”
He didn’t acknowledge them as they walked out, and something pinched in Kat’s chest. What did she expect? He was running a major campaign and a ton of staff reported to him. Why should she feel entitled to special treatment from him? She was looking for the man she’d gotten to know back at her house, the one who rescued her mother from the talons of the reporters. Maybe what she thought had been a glimpse of the real Alex was really an aberration. After all, she had plenty of experience with men who could turn on the charm when needed.
Once out of earshot, Crista whispered to her, “He’ll be leaving soon and I’ll get you the senator’s call information. You can take it from home.”
From home? Where her mother was?
She shook her head. “I want to do my share. I’ll go home, then come back for the call.” Kat had to make sure her mother took her evening pills, but she didn’t want to upset her when she spoke with the senator.
Crista leaned forward. “I think it’s great you take care of your mom like that.”
Kat gave her a thin smile. Does everyone here know about Mom?
Crista led Kat around tables overflowing with campaign signs and papers, introducing her to the staff. To their credit, they kept the gawking to a minimum and welcomed her warmly. The place was packed with people bustling about. There were only two offices, one for Alex and one for her father. Cubicles covered most of the floor. In the center of the large space was a long conference table littered with signs. She stole several glances at Alex. He was almost always surrounded by people. The place was buzzing with energy.
He led her into a cube. “And this is Nathan Callahan. He works on defense stuff.”
Nathan swiveled in his chair, pinning her with bright blue eyes. “I hear you’ll be observing.”
“I hope to do more than just observe. I’d like to participate and be helpful. I’ve analyzed a lot of the senator’s policies.”
Crista squeezed into the little cube. “Nathan is working on some policy briefs for the IED bill.” She gave Nathan a meaningful look but he avoided her gaze. “The people back in DC, they staff the Appropriations Committee, which is really interesting work. They use Nathan’s analyses to advise the senator.”
“What do you specialize in?” Nathan asked.
Pressed between the cube wall and Crista, Kat felt claustrophobic. Everyone seemed a little too comfortable with physical proximity. “I keep abreast of all issues, but I have a particular interest in military policy.”
Nathan quirked an eyebrow. “Interest, huh? Well, I have six years of experience—” Before he could say more, Crista shot him a searing look.
“Why don’t you send Kat the briefing materials you have on the IED bill.”
He frowned. “Those are internal. Have you checked with Alex?”
“The senator wants her to have full access.”
Nathan opened his mouth in obvious protest, but Crista stepped forward and put her hand on his shoulder. “Nathan, trust me—the senator wants this.”
Nathan’s face softened. Kat suppressed a smile at the puppy-dog look in his eyes. Crista stepped out of the cube and Kat was behind her in a flash.
“Have you spoken to my...the senator today?” Kat asked.
Crista shook her head. “Alex talked to him about the deal you made and the senator sent me an email.” She stopped and Kat almost ran into her. Crista pulled her to the wall as if the extra foot would give them even a modicum of privacy. “The senator has a lot of respect for Alex,” she whispered. “But when he wants something done without a lot of argument, he’ll email me and ask me to take care of it.”
What did that even mean? Kat wanted to ask more, but Alex was storming toward them. He had taken off his suit jacket and loosened his tie. She straightened and felt Crista melting into the background, her ever-present BlackBerry back in her hands.
Alex stopped mere inches away from her, and she resisted the urge to back away. She met his gaze evenly, waiting for whatever it was that had him grinding his teeth.
“Did you talk to anyone on the way here this morning?” he thundered.
Kat straightened. “You know very well I wouldn’t. What’s this about?”
“The story about you writing a book on your father got leaked.”
Kat’s stomach bottomed out. He loomed over her and she sucked in a breath, immediately regretting it. His scent assaulted her senses, a spicy deodorant and the clean smell of soap. For some unfathomable reason, her body seemed to welcome his closeness. After Colin, she’d wanted nothing more than to lash out at every man that got within touching distance, so why wasn’t she pushing Alex away?
“I didn’t even tell my mother about our deal. She thinks I’m here to take care of paperwork.” Her voice was squeakier than she wanted.
His gaze flicked behind her shoulder, and then he lowered his head and whispered, “Kat, if this is about sabotaging the senator’s campaign...”
She stepped back. “Why would I do that?”
He opened his mouth then closed it, obviously rethinking whatever he’d been about to say. She leaned in. “I’m not a seasoned politician—I don’t play games. What you see is what you get from me.”
He stared at her, his brown eyes at once expressive and shuttered, as if he was processing and then denying what he knew to be true.
“Then how did the media get hold of the story?”
“It must have been Dean Gladstone.”
He frowned and muttered something under his breath.
“What is it?”
He rubbed the back of his neck. “I don’t have time to deal with this today.” For a moment, he looked weary. “I need you to fix this.”
Without thinking, she put a hand on his arm. “How?”
His eyes softened into pools of milk chocolate. They were mesmerizing. When he spoke, his voice was warm. “Give a statement to the media that you want to get to know your father. They’re loving the fact that you’re at campaign headquarters.”
She retracted her hand. It didn’t take him long, did it? “No,” she said simply, her fury threatening to erupt like a volcano. She could sense people surreptitiously watching them while pretending to be on their phones or studying their computer screens.
“What? You wouldn’t be lying—that’s part of the reason you’re here, isn’t it?”
She flinched at his harsh tone. “Alex, I told you, no media jaunts. That was our deal,” she said quietly.
“But...”
“Right now, it’s the book story. In another hour it’ll be something else. Once I step into the limelight, I’ll never get out. If you can’t respect the deal we made just hours ago, then it’s best I leave and we don’t speak again.”
“Why are you so afraid of the media?”
She crossed her arms. She didn’t owe him anything. He tapped on his BlackBerry then turned it toward her. His voice was soft.
“Is it because of this?”
She looked down and recoiled. It was a picture of her from three years ago, talking to the police and paramedics. She was front and center, holding a compress to her cheek; Colin was in the background with a bandage on his head. A freelance photographer had come by after he heard her 911 call on the police scanners. He sold the photo to the newspapers. The story only appeared in the local daily, but it had been enough to get her fired. How had Alex found it? She’d paid a lawyer to get a court order for the newspaper to remove it from their online archives.
She put a hand to her mouth and stepped back, staring at the incriminating caption: Scorned professor lashes out at boyfriend.
“That wasn’t my fault.”
He reached out and touched her hand. “Kat, CNN found this and they’re going to run it. You need to tell me your side of the story.”
Eyes wide, she squeezed his arm. “You have to stop them. Whatever it takes, you have to stop them.” She knew her voice was too loud because the staffers were no longer being discreet about their glances, but she didn’t care. The story couldn’t get out. It had taken her over a year to live it down enough to get her job at Hillsdale College, even after the story was scrubbed from the internet. She suspected that Colin had called around and gotten her blackballed at most of the major universities.
He nodded. “I’ll handle it, but you need to tell me what happened.”
She sighed. Even her mother didn’t know the whole story. “I had a fight with my then fiancé. He basically stole years’ worth of my work. I confronted him and told him that I planned to bring plagiarism charges against him. I had proof that the work was mine, dated emails that showed the research I did, et cetera. He didn’t take the news well and got violent. I fought back hard. He bumped his head and called 911, concocting a story about how I was mentally unstable. He said I attacked him first.”
Alex clenched his fists. “Why would anyone believe him?”
“Earlier that day, I also found out he was having an affair with the dean of the school. I vented to a fellow faculty member, a woman who I thought was my friend. You know how you say things like ‘I’ll kill him’ in anger? Well, later she said I was so angry, she was worried I would actually hurt him. The dean fired me and it took months before another school would even grant me an interview.” She touched the pendant on her neck, rolling it between her fingers. Did Alex believe her? No one else had; the media had portrayed her as the classic woman scorned.
“Where is he now?”
Kat reeled at the murderous look in Alex’s eyes. The warmth was gone, replaced by a smoldering darkness. She shrank back.
“He’s still faculty at Wellingforth University,” she said carefully. “Colin wanted so badly to be promoted, to be able to show his daddy that he had amounted to something. I think he believed I wouldn’t make a fuss about him using my research, but when I threatened him, he lost control. He was desperate not to make a fool of himself. The university said I had to drop all claims to the book if I wanted my severance pay, which I needed at the time. If it hadn’t been for that story...” Her voice cracked and she took a breath. “Every interview I went to, that article came up. With my mother’s history mentioned in there, they just thought I’d come unhinged, too. Even after I had it taken down, it took a year before people stopped asking me about it. My mother, she became so distraught, I don’t think she’s ever recovered. We had to start a whole new medication regimen.”
She blinked back tears and acid burned in her stomach. What was wrong with her? She was over it; the incident was now three years ago. She’d put it behind her. “Those reporters never bothered to get my side. I spent all my savings fighting with the courts to get the story taken off the internet.”
He shook his head. “It’s almost impossible to erase something that’s been posted on the internet. All you did was make it a little more difficult to find, but CNN dug it up.”
“Please, Alex...”
He nodded. “Whatever it takes, I’ll kill the story. I can’t promise other outlets won’t find it and harass you, but I won’t put you in front of them.”
Their eyes locked and a sense of relief washed over her. It didn’t make any sense, but somehow she knew Alex would protect her. He wouldn’t let the old story hurt her again.
She jumped when Crista grabbed her elbow. “Hey, your computer is ready. Let’s get you settled in.”
Alex took a breath, his eyes a dark brew of black and brown. He and Crista exchanged a meaningful look, and then he turned and left without a word.
Kat exhaled.
“Don’t worry about him—he’s that intense with everyone,” Crista said smoothly. Kat followed her, marveling at how she’d handled Alex. How she’d been handling him. She wondered whether there was more to Alex and Crista’s relationship than boss and assistant. Hadn’t she seen sparks between Crista and Nathan earlier? Campaigns were notorious for affairs. Long hours working together with no outside life could pull anyone together. Something flared in her chest, but she tamped it down. It was none of her business whom Alex dated. She needed to focus on writing her book.
“So, Crista, what’s your secret?”
Crista turned with a puzzled expression. “What do you mean?”
Kat gave a nervous laugh. “You know, with Alex and Nathan—how do you get your way with them?”
The moment the words were out of her mouth, Kat wanted to run and hide in her car. What’s with you? She was not a gossip, nor should she care about whatever was going on in Alex’s personal life.
Crista motioned toward a desk and Kat sheepishly took a seat. Crista pulled up a nearby stool and huddled in close.
“You’ll hear the rumors soon enough, so I’ll just give you the lowdown. Alex and I were an item, like, two years ago when I worked on the Hill for Congresswoman Burton. I broke it off. Then this job came up and Alex was man enough to hire me because I’m the best person for it.”
