Rook (Political Royalty Book 2)

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Twelve

Chapter Thirteen

Chapter Fourteen

H
AVEN GRAHAM LOCKED HER KNEES and squared her shoulders, determined to maintain the image of control until she had it again. The pregnant woman, waiting in Justin’s closet of an office, gave her a smug grin and Haven’s stomach dropped. Hard. Its absence should make more room for her lungs, but she felt like her chest was caught in a vise. She couldn’t catch her breath.

The pregnant woman simply stood and watched her, rubbing her beach ball of a stomach while Haven tried to figure out how to breathe again.

“Ms. Hicks showed up in the office today, demanding to see the senator. I explained to her that he wasn’t here,” Justin said, his tone deliberately neutral. He looked at her, the question clear in his eyes.
Was she telling the truth?

She didn’t know how to answer. God, she wanted to believe the woman was lying—needed to believe it to keep her heart intact. But the voice in her head that thought Walker was too good to be true screamed
yes
.

Oh God, she was just one more notch on his fucking bedpost. How could she be so stupid? She’d actually let herself believe she was special, that the married politician never cheated on his wife before her. That what they had meant something.
What a joke.
What in the world made her think that a man willing to lie to his wife would tell the truth about anything?

She’d crossed too many lines for a lying, cheating philanderer and now not only was her heart wrecked, her career was racing toward a cliff. She had no idea how to recover from the fall she knew would come.

“And I explained to Justin here that Shep knocked me up and he’s not going to get away with ignoring me and our baby boy.” The woman pulled out the only chair in the room and collapsed into it, her pregnant belly prominent as a billboard.

She was going to fucking kill Walker herself, murder him with her bare hands. How dare he? She’d begged him to tell her the truth. Before there was anything between them, she asked him over and over again if
anything
in his past could come back to bite them in the ass. He’d repeatedly said no. He lied to her over and over again for nothing more than his pride or because like so many of the stupid fucks who went into politics, he thought he was too smart to get caught. God, the whole thing was one long bad cliché, and she couldn’t see her way out.

An allegation like this would destroy any chance he had at the nomination and the fact that she let him get caught in a paternity scandal would sink her career. No one would remember her wins. They’d be buried under the senator from South Carolina’s sex scandal. That’s all anyone would remember. Forget the meteoric rise; it was the crash that would get the press.

She blinked hard, too furious to give in to tears. She’d already broken too many rules for the bastard.
Never let them see you cry
was one she intended to keep. If she planned to survive any of this, she had to stop thinking like a woman scorned and start thinking like a campaign manager with a candidate she intended to turn into a president. He sure as hell wouldn’t be the first man to hold that office who’d gotten a piece of ass on the side. She’d try to forget for now she’d been one of the pieces.

“What do you want, Ms. Hicks?” she asked, reaching for something—anything tangible—to hold onto. If she could figure out the next step, she could figure out how to navigate her way out of this disaster.

“Just what I’m owed,” she said, with a slight whine that made her sound more like a spoiled teenager than a soon-to-be mother.

Haven relaxed a fraction of an inch. Greed was a thousand times easier to deal with than unrequited love. If all it took was money, they might still be able to buy their way out of this problem. A broken heart was a lot harder to deal with. She ignored for the time being that her heart was the one broken.

“Justin is right. The senator is out on the campaign trail, but he should be back this evening. Where are you staying?”

They had to figure out a way to keep her quiet until Haven had a chance to sort out what to do next. The last thing they needed was Ms. Hicks deciding she could get more from selling her story to the press than she could extort from the senator. The only thing working in their favor, at least for the moment, was the Walker family’s deep pockets. Despite the feeding frenzy a story like the senator’s secret baby would cause, there wasn’t a news agency around that had more resources than America’s top political dynasty. The expectant woman would be better off shaking down the Walkers; Haven just hoped she was smart enough to realize that.

“I don’t have anywhere to stay,” said the woman, slipping into poor and pathetic so fast it was as if she threw a switch. “That’s why I came here. It’s Shep’s job to take care of me. Of us.”

She rubbed her stomach for emphasis and Haven swallowed against the bile rising in her throat. She didn’t think she could stand to hear the other woman say Walker’s name again.

“Justin is going to take you and get you a room at the Ashton.” She picked one of the nicer downtown hotels. She had no doubt Ms. Hicks would balk at anything less. “He’ll take care of you, make sure you get something to eat and have a chance to rest.” Blackmailing her baby daddy must take a bit out of a woman in her condition. “As soon as the senator gets back from his events today, I’ll make sure he comes straight to you so the two of you can sort things out.”

Looking appeased, for the moment at least, the woman nodded and gazed up at Justin. She watched him like he was something tasty, and Haven wondered if she’d worked out he was gay or if she’d decided there was no reason to let the fact she was carrying another man’s child get in the way of trolling for her next conquest. It did call into question her character. Of course, sleeping with a married man did that too. As soon as she had the thought, guilt and shame settled in her stomach like a solid icy lump. It wasn’t more than she herself had done.
Fuck
.

Haven could still read the questions on Justin’s face, but he’d already slipped into problem-solving mode. He’d take his cue from her after they sorted through the mess. Offering his hand to Ms. Hicks, he helped haul the other woman out of the chair and put a hand on her back. To anyone who saw them, it would look reassuring, but it was more for control than comfort. Haven didn’t have to tell him to make sure the other woman didn’t talk to anyone. She knew without saying it; he wouldn’t let her out if his sight until Haven showed up with Walker.

“I’ll text you with a room number as soon as I have one,” he said, steering the pregnant woman toward the door.

“And then you’ll bring Shep to see us,” said Ms. Hicks, glancing back over her shoulder at Haven. “I’ve missed him so much.”

Her words cut through Haven, and all she could do was nod. Justin led the woman away and Haven watched for a minute until they were across the room. By the time they hit the elevator, she had her phone in her hand and had punched in Walker’s direct line. She needed him to tell her it was a lie, that what they had together meant something. But she hadn’t been that naïve in a long time. Better to face the truth staring at and move on with things. She waited another moment before she touched Send, not sure she could push enough air through her too-tight throat to make any words come out.

“Where are you?” she asked, ignoring his greeting.

“Getting on the bus to head to the town hall in Butler. What’s wrong?”

He sounded worried and she decided not to give a fuck. From this moment on, her priority was damage control, not making sure William Shepherd Walker was comfortable.

“Is Mrs. Walker with you?” Haven had deliberately tried to ignore Sandra’s schedule. If she didn’t know, she wouldn’t have to picture Walker and his wife sitting together on the bus. Holding hands. Standing together in front of the crowds.
God, she was so screwed.

“Yes and the girls too. Haven, what’s wrong?”

“Your son’s mother showed up at the office today. Finish the last event. Drop off the family you’re with and meet me at my office so we can figure out how to fix this mess. Oh and Walker,” she said, talking over his protests. “If you ever fucking lie to me again, I’ll make it my life’s work to make sure you never get elected to any office ever again.”

He was still talking when she hung up.

––––––––

T
HE THREE AND a half hours it took for the senator to get back to the office were the longest of Haven’s life. She called Walker’s attorneys and gave them a heads-up in case things went that far. If she was very careful and very lucky, the threat of legal action would be enough to bury the scandal. If it actually came time to release the lawyers, it would be because she’d failed.

There wasn’t anything else to do until Walker showed up. The less people who knew about Ms. Hicks, the better. If it went to the next step, she’d get the senior staff involved and come up with a workable plan, but for now all she could do was wait. She tried to work on the water rights platform, but she couldn’t think past the giant pregnant belly that had driven her organized life off the road and into a ditch. In the end, she’d given up and left the office to actually sit down and have an early dinner in a real restaurant instead of eating out of a carton at her desk.

She’d been halfway through her crab soup when Justin texted her with a room number at the Ashton. He’d also asked if she was okay. She sent back a quick
yes
, but honestly, she had no idea how long it would be before her answer was the truth instead of a lie. She couldn’t let herself think about it. Not yet. It was much better to shove her stupidity aside and focus on damage control. That at least felt like familiar territory. If she didn’t know exactly what she intended to do, she at least had a cursory plan to go by and she could
do
something about it, which was a hell of a lot more than she could say about her feelings.

She rolled the situation over in her head for a moment, trying to look at it as an outsider. Her first inclination had been to assume Walker lied. But how much of that had to do with her feeling like men and especially politicians were never as good as she needed them to be and how much of it had to do with Walker? Campaigns were crazy and celebrity was even worse. Walker had both. It wasn’t crazy to think someone would try to take advantage of that.

The fact that she’d let her feelings completely cloud her judgment bothered her almost as much as if he’d lied. Her feelings for the senator were taking her further away from who she was and what she’d spent her adult life trying to achieve. Running a winning political campaign was the apex of her career goals. Sleeping with a married politician didn’t have any place in that picture. At all.

Determined to find a way out of this mess, she sent Justin a quick text asking him to take a photo of Ms. Hicks. Ignoring the string of texts from the senator, she finished her soup and a dinner that might have been spectacular. She’d never know. Moving on autopilot, she barely tasted her food, paid the check and made the short drive back to the office. She’d abandoned the water rights in favor of union jobs, glancing at the briefs from her people on the ground in Nevada before finally setting them aside to play with the Super Tuesday map. When she reached in her desk drawer for a fresh notepad, her fingers skimmed the envelope holding the felt apples and her throat slammed shut. She. Would. Not. Cry.

Tears pricked her eyes and she blinked them away, ignoring the pain that sliced through her heart. She slammed the drawer shut and looked up in time to see the senator standing in her doorway, looking stricken.

“Haven, what’s going on?” he asked, closing the door behind him. “What do you mean the mother of my son? I don’t have a son.”