Rook (Political Royalty Book 2) Read Free

heartbeat kicked up a notch as the door closed behind them.
    They were finally alone—more alone than they’d ever been before because unlike in the hotel, they didn’t have to worry about being seen. She had no doubt she could scream and even throw things at him and no one would report them. Running a hand through his dark hair, the senator walked to the window and spent a moment looking down on the city stretched out below them. If she squinted, she could just see the edge of the blocky white governor’s mansion. Imagining the senior Walker bringing his dewy-faced secretaries here turned her stomach. Knowing she’d let herself become just like them twisted like a knife.
    “Now,” he said, his dark eyes pinning her in place. “Can you please explain to me who showed up claiming to be the mother of my child and why you were in such a hurry to believe her?”
    There was no way in hell she’d let him turn this around and somehow make it her fault. His tone did nothing but cement her anger.
    “A very pregnant Ms. Hicks cornered Justin in the office this morning. She claims you knocked her up and have been ignoring her.”
    “Of course I ignored her. I have no idea who she is. And I didn’t get her pregnant.”
    “You seem awfully certain,” she said, unable to keep the sarcasm out of her voice. “You don’t have to know someone’s name to fuck them. Wait.” She held up her hand in front of her. “Let me guess. You did not have sexual relations with that woman, right?”
    “Right.” His expression shifted to something harder, something colder. If she cared what he thought anymore, having him look at her like that would hurt. Good thing she didn’t care. “I didn’t have sex with her or anyone else.”
    She rolled her eyes like a sullen teenager.
    “Present company excluded. Obviously,” he said.
    “You need to stop lying to me. I can’t help you if you don’t tell me the truth.” The anger made her shake—not a comfortable feeling but infinitely better than the pain of betrayal she’d been feeling.
    “And you need to stop assuming that you know things you don’t.” He clenched his jaw so tight the words came out clipped. She waited for him to make the denial she knew would follow. “I haven’t given you any reason to doubt me, and I didn’t have sex with Ms. Hicks or whoever she is, let alone father her child.”
    Her phone buzzed and she glanced down to see another text from Justin. Ignoring the lying politician in front of her, she turned her back on him and thumbed open the link. Justin must have come to exactly the same idea she had when she asked him for the photo. Never underestimate the reach of Facebook’s facial recognition software.
    A Facebook profile showing Ms. Hicks clinging to the back of a big guy wearing a too-small T-shirt with the silhouette duck on it filled the screen. The caption read “Me, Bandy, and our boy. Happy, happy, happy.” Haven could just make out the outline of Ms. Hicks’s slightly less pregnant belly. It might cast doubt on the pregnant woman’s story but none of it was conclusive and by the time the baby was born and the paternity test came back, it would be too late to save the senator’s candidacy. Even if she’d started to believe him, that didn’t mean she could convince the voters. Against a candidate like Collins, even a disproved scandal would be enough to color the whole campaign and the press wouldn’t have to scratch hard to dig up the governor’s indiscretions. Add to that the visual of a round as a beach ball pregnant belly splitting the screen with the senator for the next month and a half, and they were screwed. Their only hope was killing the story before it ever got out.
    “What is it?” he asked and she ignored him, not ready to throw him a lifeline yet.
    “You seem awfully sure of yourself.” She’d seen it dozens of times before and it always caught her off guard. Politicians seemed to think the normal rules didn’t apply