41. Kavanaugh
I wiped the sweat from my face after another grueling workout. That seemed to be the only thing that kept me on the level these days, but that was my own damn fault. I looked back on all my mistakes over the past few months and wished I could go back, but that wasn’t the way life worked. I’d really lost her, and there was nothing I could do about it now.
“Hey,” Red nodded, stripping the wraps from his hands. “You wanna grab a beer?”
“Not tonight.”
“Got plans?”
I didn’t, but grinned. “Oh, yeah.”
He chuckled, shaking his head. “Don’t take this one around the senator.”
“I don’t plan to.”
I watched him walk away and my smile faded. The fucking senator. If it hadn’t been for him, maybe everything would have been fine. I shook my head. No, I would not go down the road of what-ifs. It didn’t really matter at this point. I couldn’t change anything that had happened by thinking about it to death.
I headed home and sat in the driveway for longer than necessary, staring at my sad, lonely house. There was no one inside waiting for me. Not a single fucking person to ask about my day or kiss as I walked through the door. I was getting too damn old to feel this lonely. Something had to fucking change.
I shoved the door open and stalked up to my house, opening the door. Inside, I dropped my bag, listening to it echo around the empty hallway. I really needed to add some fucking furniture to this place. The bare essentials were no longer cutting it. But there would be time to mull over that after a shower and dinner.
Twenty minutes later, after drowning my sorrows in a steaming shower, I stepped out and wrapped a towel around my waist just as my phone rang. If it was a job, I’d take it just to escape the boredom of sitting around by myself tonight. But it wasn’t.
Olivia.
What the fuck could she be calling about?
“Hello?”
“Bradford?”
Her voice shook, barely a whisper as she spoke. I was immediately on edge.
“Olivia, what’s going on?”
“I’m…I’m scared. I don’t know what to do.”
“Why are you scared? What’s going on?”
“He said everything would be fine, but…I don’t know what to do.”
Her voice cracked and then I heard a soft whimper over the line. My heart started racing as a million scenarios ran through my head.
“Olivia, who is he?”
“Your father,” she sobbed. “I thought I could handle it.”
“Olivia, where are you?”
“At…at the apartment.”
“Stay there. I’m coming to get you.”
She broke down in more tears and my heart tore in two. I couldn’t stand to hear a woman cry. It was shredding me apart.
“Hurry, Bradford.”
“I’ll be there as quickly as I can.”
I hung up and quickly found a flight, but it wouldn’t get me there until morning. Still, it was all I had. I booked it and sent her the flight information, then told her to stay in the apartment with the doors locked. I packed a carry-on and was out the door minutes later, headed for the airport. And I would have gotten away with no issues if it weren’t for fucking FNG landing on the fucking windshield of my truck, cracking the whole fucking thing just as I was leaving the property.
I screeched to a stop and FNG went rolling off the front of the truck, landing with a thud on the ground. Getting out, I stormed around to the front and stared at the man wrapped in a fucking parachute.
“What the fuck are you doing?”
Groaning, he rolled over. “Training exercise. Isn’t that the usual line?”
Sighing, I held out my hand for him, hauling him off the ground. “Anything broken?”
“I don’t think so.” Then he started chuckling. “Parachute didn’t open.”
“How high were you?” I questioned, narrowing my eyes at him.
“High enough that I should be dead. Well, maybe not too high. Otherwise, your truck would be a pancake, but still…”
I rolled my eyes. “Great, well, I’m off to the airport. Have fun with…whatever you were doing.”
“The airport? Where are you going?”
“New York.”
“Why?”
“Look, I really don’t have time for this. I have to catch a flight in four hours.”
He chuckled, brushing the dirt from his flight suit. “Four hours—I’d say you have plenty of time.”
Gritting my teeth, I tried not to snap at him. “Olivia called. She’s in trouble.”
“Ooh, the ex-not-so-fiancée. I’ll come with.”
“What—” But he was already getting in the passenger side. “No, I didn’t get a ticket for you,” I said, sliding into the driver’s side.
“Who needs a ticket when the company has a plane?”
“A company plane. Not a plane for my use.”
“But you said danger. And danger for a lady that you know—who needs protection. And what do we do? We protect. Sounds like a job to me.”
I thought it over, then slammed the door. “Yeah, okay. But only because I need to get out there. Who’s flying?”
“Max.”
“That figures,” I muttered.
“What figures?”
“Well, Scottie wouldn’t willingly go up in a plane unless it was for a job. What were you doing, anyway?” I asked, glancing over at him.
“Testing a theory.”
“Which was?”
“I can’t tell you. If I did, it wouldn’t come true.”
I bit back the urge to roll my eyes at him. “Are theories like wishes now?”
“You never know, which is why I can’t tell you. Not until I collect more data.”
He groaned as he pulled the helmet from his head. “Man, I really dented that thing in.”
I glanced over at the helmet, seeing one side completely caved in. How his head survived was beyond me, but then again, how FNG survived anything was a mystery.
“Yeah, it’s good to have a team at last,” he sighed, leaning back in his seat. “Not that we go out on many jobs yet. We’re still getting a feel for things,” he said, looking over at me. “But we work well together.”
“Eat a lot of Funyuns and shawarma?”
“Not really. You know, Fox isn’t really good at sharing. Come to think of it, neither is Max.”
“And what do you share?”
He grinned at me. “Stories, man. I share my stories.”
“I’m sure they’re thrilled with that.”
“Fox is. He never gave up on me. I even have one of his milk containers. Did you know they’re collector’s items now? Yep, I heard a few museums were shopping around. Small ones, of course. But still, that’s pretty impressive. I’m a celebrity in a very small circle of people.”
“Small,” I huffed. “Try miniscule.”
“There’s even been talk about an interview, but…” He shook his head. “I don’t know if it’s the right move for my career.”
“And what does Honey think of all this?”
“Honey? Oh, she’s all on board with it. Yeah, she’s—” He stopped, pressing his fist to his mouth. “I’m sorry,” he said, sucking in a breath that sounded way too much like a whimper.
“What’s going on?”
“Nothing. It’s just…I promised myself I wouldn’t cry.”
I rolled my eyes. After all the shit I’d dealt with over the last few months, an emotional male was not something I wanted to deal with.
He sucked in a deep breath and blew it out. “She…I think she’s leaving me, man.”
“And why do you think that?”
“Because she’s been saying things like We need to talk. And Where is this going? And You’re never around. ”
“So, did you talk to her about it?”
“No, I ran out the door.”
I sighed heavily. “She’s not leaving you. She wants more and you’re running out the door, you idiot.”
“Really?” he asked, wiping the tears from his eyes.
“ Where is this going? Yeah, she wants more. So, fucking give it to her.”
“So…I’m not gonna lose her?”
“Oh, I didn’t say that. You’re bound to screw it up. Hell, you just jumped out of a plane. You might kill yourself before she has a chance to leave you.”
“Nah,” he laughed. “I can’t?—”
“Die,” I finished for him. “Yeah, I know.”
I was able to talk Max into staying with the plane. Actually, I said Stay with the plane. And he said I was planning on it. That was one person taken care of. However, FNG insisted on coming with me. Don’t ask me why, but he was here, being a pain in the ass as always.
As soon as we arrived at the brownstone, I was out of the taxi and hauling ass up the steps to the front door. I still had my keys from before and made my way inside, calling out to her.
“Olivia! Answer me!”
But the place was silent. She’d been around. That much was obvious by the perfume still lingering in the air and the smell of food recently cooked.
“No sign of her,” FNG said, entering the room after searching the rest of the place.
“I told her to stay here,” I said in frustration.
“Where would she go?”
I shook my head. I had no fucking clue. “She wasn’t expecting me until tomorrow.” I pulled out my phone and called, but it went straight to voicemail. “No answer. Let’s go see the senator. I have a bad feeling he knows exactly where she is.”
“Ooh,” he grinned, his eyes wide. “The senator did something bad, huh?”
“Yeah, take a little more glee in the fucked up nature of my family.”
“I’m just saying, he’s a senator. You always want to catch them in the act. Maybe this time we can.”
His glee over catching the senator didn’t bother me that much. I just hoped it wasn’t at the expense of Olivia’s life. She had sounded terrified on the phone. With any luck, she hadn’t gone running to the senator.
After flagging down a cab, we hauled ass over to the senator’s campaign site and rushed inside. The only form of security at the late hour was the single guard currently snoozing at the front desk. We slipped right past him and headed up to the senator’s office. I could hear their voices from all the way down the hall and drew my gun immediately.
“—told you I could get him on board. I just needed a little time!”
I stopped, pausing outside the door at Olivia’s words.
“He’s on his way here now. All I have to do is get him to believe I’m truly in trouble and he’s mine. I’ll have him eating out of my hand like putty.”
“And why would he work for me if he thinks I’m smacking you around?” the senator asked.
“It’s a threat! Say you have something else on me. Say this is just the beginning. You’re good at making things up.”
“Olivia, I know my son. It’s over.”
“We had a deal. When I signed up for this, I was promised so much more than you’re delivering.”
“That’s politics, sweetheart. Sometimes, things don’t work out the way you want them to.”
I couldn’t believe my ears. Olivia—the woman I thought had been so sweet and naive the whole time—was not only working with the senator, but seemed to be fully complicit in the whole thing.
“If you’re too spineless to do what needs to be done, I’ll take care of it myself.”
“What are you doing?” the senator snapped.
“Either you hit me or I’ll make sure it’s done.”
I could feel the shift in the senator from out here. Part of me wanted to intervene, but the other part of me needed to know how he would handle this.
“I have never laid a hand on a woman in my entire life, and I won’t start with you all in some feeble attempt to win back my son that won’t even work.”
I glanced back at FNG, who shrugged in disbelief. Then we heard a thwack and a cry of pain. I’d heard enough and shoved the door open, glancing first at my father, who stepped away from Olivia in shock, his eyes darting to her and then me.
Olivia was holding her face, her eyes filled with tears. “Bradford,” she whispered. She pretended she was about to crumble.
“Well, I have to say, I’m a little shocked.”
“Son—”
“Don’t bother to explain. I heard it all.” My eyes shifted to Olivia. “I never pegged you as a manipulative bitch. I had you all wrong. I guess that’s what you get when you choose to believe the best in people.”
Olivia straightened, no longer playing the victim. Her hand dropped to her side as she cocked her head at me. “I wasn’t ready to give up just yet. So sue me.”
I smirked at her. “I wouldn’t waste the time or the energy on you.”
“I guess this means the ruse is over.”
“You’d be right about that. If you so much as mention my name again, I’ll come after you, but it won’t be in the court system, and you won’t like what I do to you,” I said, my tone lethal, striking fear exactly as I wanted.
She glanced at the senator for only a second before fleeing the room. Good riddance.
Sighing, the senator sat down. “Well, I guess that was a wasted trip for you.”
“It doesn’t have to be. There are things we could discuss. Things?—”
He held up his hand, his eyes moving around the room. He was worried the place had been bugged. I snatched a piece of paper off his desk and scribbled the corner bar.
I wasn’t sure if he would show, but it was the last chance he would ever get to speak to me again. I was done with this shit.
“That’s it?” FNG scoffed. “We’re leaving?”
“Not yet.”
We took the elevator to the first floor and headed out to the street. I glanced around, checking for any threats, but found none. “I need you to be my eyes inside the bar,” I said, nodding to the corner.
“And if anyone comes close, I’ll take ‘em out.”
“Just stop them.”
“Right. I’ll smash a chair over their heads.”
I looked at him strangely. “Not everything has to end in violence.”
And for some reason, FNG looked really fucking disappointed in that. “But…If I don’t stop them, what exactly am I supposed to do? Whistle to signal their arrival? Or maybe you want me to be like Fox and sing a show tune. No, I’ve got it. I should offer them a drink at the bar and make friends,” he sneered.
“Or,” I said, really fucking dragging out the word. “You could just stop them from coming over and buy me some fucking time. You know, text me and let me know someone’s there.”
He frowned. “Well, I guess I could do that.”
I slapped him on the shoulder and walked past him, crossing the street to the bar. Ten minutes later, I was in a booth, waiting for the senator. I was beginning to think he wasn’t going to show when he finally slid into the booth across from me.
His obvious distaste for the place was clear as soon as he looked at the table, refusing to put his hands anywhere near it. I took the second beer I ordered and slid it across to him, though I was pretty sure he wouldn’t drink it.
“Why did you ask me to meet you here?”
“Why didn’t you want to discuss things in your office?” I shot back. “Who do you think is spying on you?”
His eyes wandered around the bar nervously before returning to me. “I told you it wasn’t safe to pursue the people behind The Syndicate,” he hissed, leaning forward, forgetting about his disgust for the table. “I told you I needed protection.”
“Worried already?” I smirked. “Who did you piss off now?”
He leaned back, wiping a hand over his mouth nervously. He was serious. I’d never seen him so riled up before.
“Who are they?”
“You don’t get it,” he shook his head. “I’ve suspected since you walked out the door that they were onto me. And then—things started happening. Things I couldn’t explain. Stories ended up in the news that could only come from inside my campaign. From my most trusted advisors.”
“Maybe they leaked?—”
“No,” he snapped. “They had nothing to gain and everything to lose by leaking that intel. This was someone else.”
“Okay, so someone running against you. Someone who wants to discredit you. That’s not uncommon.”
He huffed out a laugh. “You don’t get it, son. It’s too early in the campaign. Hardly anyone’s in the race yet. This isn’t someone trying to take me out politically. This is a threat of something more.”
I could tell he really believed that. The fear in his eyes was unmistakable. But then why hadn’t he kicked up security? Why was he wandering around at night without any protection? What about Mom?
“If you really believe that, then you need to tell me.”
“They’ll kill me,” he said vehemently. “Your mother?—”
“Will be protected.”
“No one is safe when it comes to them. There is nowhere you can run. Nowhere you can hide.”
“If you won’t do it for yourself, then do it for Spencer.”
His gaze snapped to mine and something like betrayal slashed across his face. “How dare you bring him up.”
“Really? How dare I? He’s your son. Don’t you think he would want to know you did something right? That not everything about our lives was a fucking lie? That’s what this is,” I said, waving my hand around. “This whole world you’ve created is one gigantic lie. The only thing that has ever been real is when I’m at OPS working with my real family. Those are the people who truly care about me. And I know it’s real because bullets fly past my head and people die. There’s no changing the headlines to make things better or burying the truth. Whatever happens, I have to live with that. So, I’m asking you for once in your goddamn life to live in that with me. Take a fucking stand and be the man I thought you were when I was a kid. Show me something that resembles anything other than the dirtbag I see in the campaign ads. Otherwise, we’re done. It’s over. Because I can’t live one more fucking minute as the son of a slimy, two-faced senator.”
He flinched slightly at my words. It was the first time in my life I had ever seen any reaction from him in which my words affected him. I stared at him, hoping he would open his mouth and say something. Anything. But then he looked down and I knew the illusion was broken.
“Son—”
“Don’t.”
I started to get up, but he grabbed my hand and held tight. His eyes bore into mine with an intensity I had never seen before. “Shadow?—”
He never got to finish what he was saying. A sharp noise cut through the air and then his eyes went dead. The grip on my hand slowly loosened and then he was falling sideways, slipping out of the booth. I watched it happen in slow motion, not even sure what was happening until I saw the blood spray on the floor.
I leapt out of the booth, falling to my knees, just barely catching him before he hit the ground. “Down! Everybody down!” I shouted. “Shooter outside!”
Screaming erupted around us, chaos unfolded and I heard FNG working in the background to control the situation. I finally looked down at the senator’s face—or what was left of it. The right side of his head was missing—blown off from the sniper shot. I looked up at the window, seeing the small hole piercing the window. Whoever was out there was long gone.
I pulled out my phone and dialed Lock.
“Yeah.”
“I need you to get a protection team to my mother immediately.”
“What happened?”
I slowly lowered the senator to the floor and slid my fingers over his eyelids, closing them for the last time.
“Kavanaugh, what happened?” he asked urgently.
I swallowed down the bile, squeezing my eyes closed. “It’s my father. He’s dead.”