Chapter 21
Gary glared at his sister as she walked into his private office in the governor’s mansion.
“I thought you’d left a few hours ago,” he snarled, downing another glass of whiskey. He didn’t bother to offer her any. He’d never liked his sister and tonight, he liked her even less than usual.
“I came back,” she replied, just as irritated. Cindy didn’t wait for an invitation. She simply walked over to the drink cart and poured herself a double of the same whiskey, then turned and sat down in the seat opposite her brother. “You’re trying to set me up with your friend again, aren’t you?”
Gary didn’t bother to reply. He filled his glass and downed half of it.
“It’s not going to work, brother dear.”
“Why not?”
“First of all, we haven’t found those videos yet. We know that Ethan has something on us, but we can’t find the videos.”
Gary considered arguing with her. He thought to claim that Ethan Howell didn’t have anything on him. But Cindy knew him too well. “The police don’t have them either.”
“That’s why I’m convinced that the woman from the barn had some evidence, and I think–”
“First of all, I don’t understand why you think that Ethan would be stupid enough to plant evidence on a woman that he’d just beaten, then send her out into the world to speak with police.” He glared at Cindy. “That just doesn’t make sense. Why would Ethan give the stupid bitch anything other than the message? You think he handed her a flash drive with salacious videos on it, then told her to hand it off to her rescuers so he would lose his leverage?”
Cindy was silent for a moment and Gary snorted with disgust. “Ethan isn’t that stupid!”
“You thought it was possible too!” Cindy snarled and downed her drink. “It’s why you hired someone to shoot at me.” She rolled her eyes. “Too bad you missed me and hit some other woman!” She snorted and turned around, her eyes hard now. “You’re an idiot, Gary. And I’m going to put you in prison after I beat you in the next election.”
Gary stared at his sister, unable to hide the snear of hatred. “You have no evidence,” he snapped.
Cindy shrugged. “You’re right. I don’t. And you should just be happy that your stupidity only grazed my arm.” She downed the last bit of scotch and poured herself another round. “But we both have the same problem.” She turned and glared at him. “I propose that we both work together in order to find that damn evidence.” She tilted her head slightly. “We both know that, whatever evidence Ethan has on us is incriminating.” She downed half of her scotch. “We can work together and figure this out.”
Gary wasn’t as quick, but he considered his sister’s offer. “Fine,” he capitulated. “We work together.”
Cindy nodded, then turned and started pacing, considering the problem from several angles. “So if the woman coming out of the barn didn’t have the videos of us, and the police haven’t found them while searching his place in that god-forsaken town, then where the hell are they?” Her fingertip tapped on the crystal glass. “I was getting close! I was talking to that…waitress bitch…and getting close. Someone didn’t want me to find out what the woman from the barn was carrying!”
Gary contemplated that for a moment, swirling his whiskey in the glass. “I know that you think the world revolves around you, Cin,” he began and glanced at her. “But what if someone wasn’t shooting at you and missed?” He spun around in his desk. “What if…” he paused for dramatic and sarcastic effect, “…the shooter was aiming for the waitress?” He let that suggestion hang in the air for a long moment. “I thought she was just a idiot, but tonight, she demonstrated she is actually pretty smart.” He pointed towards Cindy with one finger, the others maintaining their hold on the glass. “Smarter than you, at least.”
“She’s smarter than you too! Hell, she knew more about the artwork on your walls than you do, Gary. So don’t start pointing fingers, brother dear.”
He laughed, just drunk enough for a comment about his stupidity to amuse him. “Whatever. My point remains. All this time, you’ve been telling the world that someone shot at you in order to stop you from getting closer to the truth. But what if…they were trying to stop the pretty waitress from getting closer to Sheik el Butrim!”
There was a long silence, then Cindy hissed. “Damn!”
Gary nodded and leaned forward, bracing his elbows on his desk. “I tried to set you up with Tazim five years ago, then his country exploded into chaos and he had to get out of here.” He took another long sip of his whiskey. “But the waitress has a four year old son.”
“A son?” she snapped, sitting up straighter in her chair. “I didn’t know she had a kid!”
Gary rolled his eyes. “Think about the timing you twit!”
Cindy opened her mouth to reciprocate on the insult, but stopped when she registered his words. The woman had a four year old son. Tazim had been in town five years ago.
“No way!” Cindy snapped, sitting up straighter in the chair. “He has a kid!”
“Exactly!”
She stared at her brother for a minute, confused. “Why does that bother you so much?”
“Because I helped a…friend out five years ago.” He drained his glass again, then poured more whiskey into the bottle.
“So? Isn’t that what friends are for?”
Gary took a long sip of his whiskey. When his glass landed on the desk, his eyes were a bit blurry. “Tazim and I went to university together.”
“I know. Dad got you into Yale and left me to fend for myself.”
He snorted as if dismissing her claim. “Whatever. Dad sent me off to Yale because that was his alma matter. He wanted me to make the same kinds of connections that he did.”
Cindy rolled her eyes. “And look at you now, big brother! Governor and all. Looks like dad’s plan worked out. You’ve made the all-important connections that got you into office.”
Gary shook his head. “You aren’t getting it. I was friends with Tazim. He and I hung out. We were on the soccer team together. I was the keeper.”
Cindy had just lifted her glass of scotch to her lips, but the glass froze, hovering at her lips. “What the hell is a keeper? I thought you played goalie.”
He sighed, rubbing his face with frustration. “A keeper is a goalie!”
She downed the rest of her scotch and stood to pour some more. “Why not just call the position a goalie then?”
“Cin! You’re missing the point!”
Cindy lifted an eyebrow and waited. “So, what is your point?”
He sighed, pushed away from his desk and leaned back in the leather chair. “Five years ago, Tazim and I were working on a plan. I was going to get him to invest in a big project, but then…stuff happened in Androna and he had to leave. Anyway, he was rushing home to his country, but he handed me a note, and asked me to deliver it and bring back a response.”
Cindy took her refilled glass of scotch back to her chair and sat down again. “So you did your friend a favor.”
Gary shook his head. “Cin, shut up and let me finish!”
She rolled her eyes. “You’re drunk, big brother. Finish quickly so that I can get back to figuring out where Ethan hid the videos!”
Gary sighed, his whole body moving back to sink into his huge, leather chair. “I didn’t know that the bitch was pregnant five years ago.”
Cindy was starting to grasp the problem. “What did you do?” she whispered, holding her happiness until she heard how badly her brother had messed up.
“I changed the note,” he explained. He looked over at her with blurry eyes. “I wanted you to get the hell out of my hair. I wanted my friend to marry you. If you were married to Tazim, then he’d take you over to his palace and keep you locked in a room where you couldn’t bother me anymore.”
Cindy chuckled at the imagery. “ What did you do ?” she asked again.
Gary’s mouth twisted into a grimace before he sighed, slouching lower in his chair. “I changed the note so that the bitch would hate my friend.” He sighed. “It worked. But now they’re back together and Tazim is going to realize I changed the message.”
It took a moment, but Cindy finally understood what her brother was telling her. “And he’s going to hate you because you messed up with his love life and denied him his son.” Cindy finally understood. She took another sip of the whiskey and sat back. Her brother didn’t confirm her conclusions because he’d fallen into a drunken sleep.
Smiling, she contemplated how she could use this information. Unfortunately, she couldn’t see any upside to this news. She didn’t want to marry some sheik, even if he was ridiculously wealthy. She couldn’t bring that to the newsroom because…well, hell, the guy was ruler of some country way off in another part of the world! Her viewers were more interested in local news. Besides, the big story right now are all of the revelations coming out of Todras. Ethan and his torture chamber was much more salacious than a governor messing up another man’s relationship.
Gary was right about something else. Cindy would hate being married to Tazim. She wasn’t the kind of woman who would be satisfied as the wife of a powerful man. And that was exactly why she’d become a reporter. The dirt she held on so many of the powerful people in this state gave her a great deal of leverage. And that leverage was going to translate into campaign donations.
In other words, the story about what her big brother did to another man was…maybe interesting, but not world shattering. At least, not shattering to her personal goals.
Knowledge was all about power. Or more specifically, controlling that power. If she could just find those damn videos, then she’d have even more! But if those videos fell into the wrong hands, someone would have power over her, and that simply wasn’t something she could allow!