Courting Gossip. Kimberly Dean

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СКАЧАТЬ pushed away from the desk. ‘It’s time to get moving.’

      The assistants scattered to collect their things. Brody sized up the senator to make sure he looked victimised yet strong and stately. Gunderson’s silver hair looked perfect as always, but there were dark circles beneath his blue eyes. His late night showed, but that could play to their advantage.

      ‘Where did you take her?’ Gunderson asked as he accepted a folder from his assistant with the bowtie. It contained his schedule for the day, along with notes he would rely on heavily. Brody had already looked it over. This one interview was the only one Gunderson was doing on the day. He’d made sure his time was fully booked otherwise.

      ‘Somewhere safe,’ Brody said.

      That was all Gunderson was going to get out of him, even though his thoughts immediately went to the bed in his guest bedroom. Jenny had still been sleeping when he’d left. She hadn’t even bothered to close the bedroom door. He didn’t know if that was a sign of trust or if she just felt safe. Probably neither. She’d fallen asleep as soon as her head had hit the pillow.

      Right after she’d kissed him and revved his brain into fifth gear.

      Brody shook off the searing memory. He needed to stay on task – and so did the senator.

      That’s why he wasn’t going to tell him that his contract with the escort was over. He’d made Samuel hand over his signed copy before dawn this morning. Brody could feel it burning a hole in his pocket. He could barely stand waiting to put a lighter to it, but he hadn’t broken the news to Gunderson yet. The old man would put up a fight. He wouldn’t want to give up his cherry redhead, and it would show on camera. Better to let the victimised-couple story play for now. The longer he kept the bad news away from Gunderson, the better he’d perform.

      Brody knew some people didn’t like the way he worked, but he got results.

      And Samuel’s days with Jenny were over.

      ‘Everybody ready?’ he asked.

      Gunderson straightened his tie and lifted his chin. ‘Absolutely. These rogue reporters will not best me. We have laws. I help make them.’

      ‘Yes, you do, sir.’ Brody turned to the assistants. ‘And you two know your part in this?’

      ‘We get him out if the interview starts to turn bad,’ the male assistant said. He glanced at his boss. ‘You do have a hearing at nine thirty, Senator.’

      Brody looked at the other assistant, but she dipped her head and stared at the load of papers in her arms. He frowned. If she had a problem covering for the senator’s illicit activities, he needed to know now. ‘Maggie?’

      When she lifted her face, her cheeks were flushed. ‘It’s so embarrassing what they did.’

      ‘And wrong.’ He nodded. Feminine disgust at the invasion of privacy would only help their cause.

      He slipped on his sunglasses and gestured to the door. ‘Shall we?’

      Soon the trio was headed out of the office building and across Constitution Avenue to Capitol Hill. Brody broke away from the group and followed at a distance. He was strictly a behind-the-scenes player, despite his slip in judgement last night. He adjusted his sunglasses. It was a nice day for a walk, if a person wasn’t working on less than three hours of sleep. The sky was blue, and the setting was perfect for a camera shot of the Capitol.

      His gaze swept the crowd. It shouldn’t be long until the senator was spotted. The morning reporters had to be out looking for him. The report of an incident at the Emissary Hotel was out there. Brody had spent a good amount of time on the internet and checking his other resources over the past few hours. Fortunately, details of the confrontation were sketchy.

      It gave them time to draw up their own. The closer they could stay to the truth, the better. He didn’t trust the senator and his team with anything too elaborate.

      ‘There,’ he murmured when he saw a reporter he recognised. Perfect. The correspondent was about to interview Gunderson right on the Capitol steps.

      Moving back into the shadows of a cherry blossom tree, Brody watched and waited. He was far enough away that he couldn’t hear, but he could read body language. The reporter approached, and Samuel began talking earnestly. Whatever the senator’s failings, this was where he excelled. When that man looked into a camera, he connected with people.

      And…there was the bandage. The cameraman moved in close when Gunderson pulled back his sleeve for all to see.

      ‘Nice,’ Brody murmured. He watched the aides for any sign of nervousness. The guy in the bowtie was solid, but the woman looked concerned. That was OK. It worked.

      They just couldn’t let the discussion go on for long. They could not get too deep into the issue of Genieve.

      A jogger sprinted past, and Brody moved over to a nearby bench. He leaned against it and tapped his fingers against the wooden back. The story of those two being a couple just didn’t ring true. Even if nobody ever found out she was a paid escort, there was the age difference. The senator’s female constituents didn’t like their sexy senior senator dating someone half his age, even if the men were impressed. Genieve was too bright a flame. Anyone would question why she was with him. At best, she’d be labelled a gold-digger.

      The two just didn’t fit, contract or not.

      At least that was the conclusion Brody had come up with, some time as the sun had been coming up. The kiss had nothing to do with it.

      Nothing and everything.

      He tried to ignore the tingle in his lips, but he rubbed them together anyway. They’d been doing that on and off ever since she’d moved in and planted one on him. He remembered the feel of her, the humid air pouring out of the bathroom, and the scent of clean, beautiful woman. His lungs expanded, and he blew out a breath that was more winded than the jogger who’d just passed.

      Why had she done that? She’d been half asleep, he knew. Had she even known who he was? Or was it habit? That possibility was like an elbow to the gut, but it hadn’t stopped him kissing her back – right after his brain had kicked back into gear.

      Which it needed to do right now.

      Realising he’d become distracted, Brody reached up to adjust his sunglasses. It was a sign to the senator’s aide to get things moving along, but just then Gunderson tapped the reporter on the shoulder and shook his hand. It looked like things were winding up on their own as the senator and his troupe began marching again up the Capitol steps.

      Brody watched until they made it all the way inside without any more reporters swooping in. He rapped his knuckles against the wooden bench and moved along, too. The first phase of his plan had gone well.

      Now he just had to catch up with two novice reporters and let them know just how unwise it would be to continue spreading unfounded rumours with charges already hanging over their heads. It hadn’t taken much digging to discover one had a Peeping Tom conviction from his college days. Something about the girls’ shower…The other had a mother who worked at a bump-and-grind in a questionable area downtown. It didn’t matter if she just served drinks. He could spin that.

      Brody straightened his tie and slid his hands into his pockets as he headed to the Metro entrance. СКАЧАТЬ