“This was your last commitment for the day,” she says, her dark eyes concerned. “You hit the ground running.”
“I’m used to it. I’ll be fine.”
The hotel’s penthouse is marble floors, a wall of windows, and the height of modern minimalism. The elaborate arrangement of orchids on the foyer table is the only thing alive in the place. Everything else feels lifeless, impersonal and outrageously luxurious.
“It’s perfect,” I say.
In the office, a plasma wall displays multiple screens—CNN, CNBC, Market Watch, and news from international markets. I widen the feed so the entire wall displays the show I recorded.
“It was that political show Beltway you wanted the recording of, right?” Jin Lei asks.
“Uh, yeah,” I say distractedly, watching the show’s title package. “I’m expecting my brother. Tell them downstairs the senator and his detail can come up as soon as they arrive.”
The door closes behind Jin Lei, and I watch this Bryce asshole interview Kimba and Lennix, who is impossibly more than she even was before. More beautiful. More confident. More passionate. Everything about her appeals to me on a level few things ever touch. She views Bryce through knowing eyes, remaining composed when he tries to fluster her. Undaunted when he tries to intimidate. Dignified when he patronizes. She is exactly who the last ten years have made her, and I regret missing the journey.
I tried. I had hoped the months I was away in the Amazon would soften her position—give her room to cool off and reconsider. The unanswered correspondence didn’t deter me, but when I returned to the States, Wallace Murrow did. A few well-placed inquiries revealed Lennix was dating Vivienne’s brother. Nix had been very loud and clear about not wanting me in her life. There is a fine line between going all out for a woman you believe wants you as much as you want her, and stalking, harassing. I couldn’t land on the wrong side of that line, not with Nix of all people. Controlling her own destiny means everything to her.
There always seemed to be something. If it wasn’t another man in her life, it was a hill to climb in mine. Those first few years, many of the things I did were with my father in mind—to show him how wrong he was about me, but eventually it became about who I wanted to be and what I wanted to do.
Once it was buying a company with little hope of surviving, but with endless potential. Pulling that company out of the ditch consumed every waking moment for three years, but it became the foundation for the CadeCo conglomerate.
Another time it was fending off a hostile takeover. They regretted crossing me. I performed a backflip takeover, turning the tables on them and acquiring that company for my holdings instead of being gobbled up. Every challenge seemed to take me closer to my goals and farther away from Lennix, the girl I could never forget.
But I’m here now, Nix. And you will deal with me.
“Getting to the good part, I see,” my brother says from the door.
I turn and smile, glad to see him for the first time in months.
“Can you please leave your guard dogs outside?” I ask, nodding to the two dour-faced men who look on high alert. “And tell them this place is basically Fort Knox. They can relax.”
He grins and says a few words to them before closing the door.
“You’ve got a guard dog of your own.” He removes his suit jacket, undoes his tie, and flops onto the leather couch facing the plasma wall.
“Jin Lei’s growl is worse than her bite,” I say, taking a seat across from him. “But her growl is pretty bad.”
“So what’d you think about the interview? Was it worth the favors we had to call in to get them on?”
“That Bryce guy is an asshole. He should be glad Lennix agreed to come on his sorry show.”
“It has great ratings.”
“So did Jersey Shore. You asked her?”
He kicks his Italian boots up onto my coffee table. “I asked them, yeah.”
“And?” He’s doing this on purpose, drawing it out.
“Kimba’s interested.”
“And Lennix?”
“She said she doesn’t help rich white boys.” He grimaces and I laugh.
“That sounds like Nix.”
“You better be glad I agree they’d be the best ones to run my campaign.” He picks up a glass of water Jin Lei left in easy reach. “Or I wouldn’t be doing this.”
“You want to be president? Hire them. They’re the best. You’ll already get moderates and progressive white voters. You need black women, Latinas. Those voters will have choices and be looking for very specific things in the candidate they support. And no one knows marginalized groups like these ladies do. So does it really matter that I suggested it?”
“But why? You’ve barely shown any interest in my political career before.” His smile widens. “But then it’s her you’re interested in. Am I right, brother? You know Ms. Hunter?”
Intimately and not at all.
“We’ve met.”
“Don’t bullshit me. This is my future, possibly the future of this country we’re talking about. I’m not your matchmaker. I need to win and I need to know everything about your history with Lennix Hunter.”
I knock back a swallow of the bourbon Jin Lei knows I like and stocks in every residence.
“Want some?” I proffer the decanter.
“No, thanks. Tell me about you and Lennix.”
“What do you want to know?” I walk over to the wall of windows, taking in the view of the city. Glittering lights overlay the grime of politics. It’s a city where ideals climb in a corrupted bed with compromise to get things done. One of my least favorite cities in the world, and I need to be here to get what I want.
“Did you fuck her?” he asks.
“That is not the important part of this story.” I chuckle and shake my head. “I’ve fucked a lot of women. You should be asking why this one. What makes her so special that I’d go to the trouble of finally involving myself in your political career? Of dealing with that greaseball Bryce to arrange your meeting with her? And setting up shop in DC, of all places, when my business is everywhere but here?”
“So why?”
I take a long swallow of the sense-numbing liquor before answering. “I have to know if she’s as good as I remember. Did I convince myself we were perfect together before I screwed it all to hell?”
“Give me a minute to digest this.” Owen leans forward and props his elbows on his knees. “So you have a history with Lennix Hunter.”
“Right.” I roll my eyes. “That’s what I just said.”
“You’ve never talked this seriously about a girl, except for once.” He turns wide eyes to me. “Amsterdam. Lennix is the girl from Amsterdam.”
“So.” Brilliant response, but it’s all I can come up with on such short notice. I didn’t expect him to make that connection this quickly.
“So you’re still hung up on her? How’d you screw it up before?”
I slam my glass down on the desk and rub my eyes. “I kind of left out the fact that I was a Cade. And that my father is, for all intents and purposes, the man she hates maybe most in the world.”