Page 92 of Hurry Up And Wait

Red clapped me on the shoulder, still laughing at me. “Hey, it’s okay. We get it. She’s very nice.”

“And very beautiful,” Eli chimed in. “You’d be crazy not to be daydreaming about making little Kavanaugh’s with her.”

“That’s definitely not what I was doing.”

“Right, because you were?—”

Red cleared his throat loudly and Eli immediately stopped talking.

“Please, don’t stop on my account,” the senator said from behind me. “A word, son?”

I gritted my teeth and turned to face him. “I have a plane to catch.”

“You rush out of here a lot. I would almost think you’re not committed to the job.”

“I just have more important things to do,” I jeered.

“Like visit someone back home?”

I stiffened at his words, knowing he had done his own digging on me. I figured it would happen. I just didn’t realize he would be so pissed he would use it against me. “Don’t go there,” I said, my voice low and threatening.

He shrugged as if it were no big deal, but I knew the wheels in his head were spinning. He would use anything he could to get me to stay on the same track as him, including threatening anyone I worked with or loved.

“I always liked Isla,” he lied. “Sweet girl. I hear she has a husband. A cop. It would be a shame if he found out you were screwing his wife.”

I stepped forward, but before I could slug him, Eli was pulling me back, telling me not to do anything stupid.

“Stay away from her.”

He cocked his head, a slow smile spreading across his face. “Why would you assume I would go near her? Don’t you know I only want what’s best for you? I always have. However, it would do you good toremember that to the public, you have a fiancée, and if they were to find out you were cheating on her, it would be very bad for the campaign. And for you.”

I gritted my teeth, my fists clenching hard at my sides. I couldn’t hit him like I wanted. That would be bad publicity. But he was really asking for a car to run him down as he stepped off the curb at rush hour.

I stepped forward, shrugging off Eli’s grasp on me. When I was toe to toe with him, I spoke very calmly, though rage was boiling inside. “Let me make one thing very clear to you. If you so much as look at Isla the wrong way, if you even speak of her ever again, I will end your miserable life and make sure all your dirty secrets are aired for the world to see. Am I making myself clear?”

But the senator was used to threats and took them without so much as flinching. “I’m not the only one who’s concerned about your relationship with that woman. Just remember that.”

Red clasped me on the shoulder as the senator walked away. I wasn’t sure if the senator was threatening her or warning me about her ex. Either way, I needed to find a way to protect Isla now that the senator knew about her.

“Well, fuck,” Eli sighed. “I guess the cat’s out of the bag.”

“What do you want to do?” Red asked. “We could put someone discreet on her.”

“She would be pissed if she found out.”

“She’ll be pissed when she finds out the senator has it out for her,” Eli pointed out. “You might want to inform her that she’s unknowingly made an enemy.”

That could never happen. “No, this stays between us. We can monitor his movements and add some security around the property.”

“Like what?” Red snorted. “Should we add some laser beams and a few stormtroopers?”

I slowly turned and lifted an eyebrow in question.

“Sorry. I was watchingStar Wars.”

“You have to tell her,” Eli started.

But I was already shaking my head. “No, I don’t want this touching her. The senator was never very nice to her. The last thing Iwant is for her to worry about what the senator has planned next. If I tell her about the senator, I have to tell her about everything else. I can’t take the risk that she’ll walk away when the job is almost over.”