CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
Brooke
It turned out to be quite easy to find dirt on Cameron Brice.
All it took was what I’d lacked from the very beginning. Now, I had the desire.
During the three-hour car trip back to the city, I found the number of the person who’d texted me anonymously. Luckily, I hadn’t deleted it from my phone. I typed in a text to that person. Who is this and what have you got?
I arranged to meet the person named Jack at a bar in the Northeast on Tuesday evening. He said he’d bring all the documents, and that they’d definitely bring him down. After that, I shoved my phone into my expensive overnight bag and started to think about everything that had happened that weekend.
All of those new experiences, the trip across that monster bridge, the lobster, the champagne, the swim in the bay… as thrilling as they’d been, they’d all been tainted now. It was hard to look back at the way he’d held me, made love to me, looked at me, and spoken to me so sweetly and with a care no one had ever shown me, and think it had all meant nothing. He was fucking marrying Bernadette. He wasn’t just casually dating her. He’d invited me out to his getaway knowing that he was going to propose to another woman… in the same week! What kind of utter snake did something like that?
The only answer I could think of was the kind who shouldn’t be holding public office. Besides, it didn’t matter that he’d obviously become pro-life because of a little girl named Kelsey. It didn’t matter that he’d treated me like a gentleman, like I was a queen. It didn’t matter that he felt like heaven inside me.
Like I’d always said… it didn’t matter.
And I was about to show him just how little it mattered to me.
I decided to meet this Jack at a public place because I wasn’t an idiot, but even as I squeezed into a booth across from the bar and ordered a beer from the waitress, I felt nervous. When a man came up to me and introduced himself, though, I relaxed and settled into the seat. The man was older and bald, and rather grandfatherly. He slid into the booth and said, “I’ll buy you that drink if you haven’t paid.”
I smiled. “Nonsense. I should be thanking you.”
He shook his head. “Nah. Just get Brice out of commission, and you’ll be doing us all a favor.”
I nodded, even though I felt sick at the prospect. A part of me hated him, but he wasn’t completely terrible. Even now, I couldn’t bring myself to think that he had no redeeming qualities. Did I hate him enough to destroy his career?
No. The truth was, he could show up at my doorstep and tell me he was sorry, and I’d take him back in an instant. Sometimes, I missed his touch so much, I thought that he could’ve still married that plastic Barbie, and I’d consent to stay his “other woman.”
I was entirely, wholly, completely whipped.
And I hated myself for it. I needed to cut out the disease.
Steeling myself, I said, “What have you got?”
He reached into a beaten leather satchel and pulled out a few manila files, which he slid over to me. “His campaign has been accepting illegal donations for months.”
I studied the papers, doubtful. Cameron had lied to me. I could only surmise that he’d also lied to Bernadette. But still, he didn’t strike me as someone who’d lie about this. “Isn’t his campaign manager in charge of all this?” I asked, thinking of Bob. After all, Cameron had nothing to do with the campaign finances. He left that to the people he trusted.
“Doesn’t matter. You tie this to his campaign, and it’ll bring him right down too.” He grinned and whistled. “Pop goes the weasel.”
“And if I don’t.”
His eyes narrowed. “Then I find someone else.”
I gnawed on my lip. At that moment, I was sure that Cameron knew nothing about this. “Okay,” I said, looking around. I pulled the papers together and pocketed them in my backpack. “Thank you. Um. Where did you get this?”
“That’s a secret.” He looked around. “And if you want to know why I didn’t bring it in myself, it’s because I need to distance myself from the spotlight, if you know what I mean.”
I shook my head. I had no clue how any of this worked. “How did you know to contact me?”
He lifted a shoulder, clearly refusing to answer the question and goose bumps raised on my arms. “Just... be prepared,” he said, sliding out of the booth. Before I could ask him more, he disappeared.
Be prepared for what?
Worrying my lower lip, I finished my beer and headed downtown to meet Kiera and Lorenzo at The Blue Duck, my choice for dinner. Lorenzo was, as usual, his typical prick self, draped over Kiera, sampling her mac ‘n cheese before she’d even had a bite of it. I thought he’d had one too many beers. Meanwhile, all he could do was prattle on and on loudly about stupid Republicans and how they were ruining the country. I tried to listen politely, but people in tables surrounding us were scowling at him.
I leaned forward, making a slicing motion across my neck. “You might want to—”
He leaned closer to me. “Hey, girl. You think I care what those GOP assholes think?”
I rolled my eyes as Kiera grabbed him. “Hey. Chill,” she said, looking around nervously. “My dad wouldn’t want you making a scene like this.”
“Making a scene? I’m not making a scene!” He looked at me. “You spending all your time in that office, I think you’re starting to bleed red.”
I turned to Kiera, my eyes widening. “You told him?”
She shrugged, her face pinking. Then she shoved him so hard he nearly fell out of the booth.
He scowled at her. “I gotta take a leak, anyway.”
He stumbled to his feet, knocking over chairs as he made his way to the bathroom. She sighed. “I know how to pick winners, don’t I?”
“I thought you said he was cool?”
She pressed her fingers to her temples. “He is, when he isn’t drunk, which is most of the time. I mean, I’m going to graduate from law school in a year, and then my dad will probably expect me to — god forbid — work.” She stuck a finger down her throat and pantomimed vomiting. “I swear, wouldn’t it be nice to find a mature, respectable guy for once? I don’t think they exist.”
My mind trailed back to Cameron, where it often wound up, despite my trying to force thoughts of him away. As much as I tried to harden my heart, I’d hear a song that played in the club when I met him, and think of him. Or I’d see a fluffy dog and think of the story he told me while I was wrapped in his arms in the tub. I even saw a sign that said, “Fresh Lobster!” outside a seafood store and nearly burst into tears. I opened my mouth to say something, but nothing came out.
Kiera studied me. “What is with you? You look half dead.”
I shook my head. “Nothing.”
She leaned closer. “Is it the assignment? Daddy told me he’d pressed you for info. He’s stressing about the debate. So, you haven’t found anything?”
“Not exactly.” I reached into my bag and pulled out the files, which I shoved over to her side of the table. “His campaign has been accepting illegal contributions.”
Her face brightened. “Really?” She opened the files and studied the papers inside. “And this is the evidence? Oh my god, girl, you did it!”
I tried to smile, but I couldn’t. At that moment, my face felt the furthest away from a smile as it ever had. The room was hot and spinning, and I’d never wanted to crawl into a hole and die as much as I wanted to just then.
Kiera eyed me suspiciously. “Okay, so… what’s going on?”
“Well…” Emotion clawed its way from my stomach and up my throat, burning my face with its intensity. It felt like lava as it spread to the backs of my eyes but I somehow managed to stop it from pouring down my face. “It’s Cameron.”
She frowned. “What about him?”
“He’s actually not as big a douche as we thought,” I said, starting to shred a napkin in front of me. “In fact, I happen to think he’s the opposite of a douche.”
Her face fell. She leaned forward. “Wait. What?”
“Well, you know how I’ve been tailing him, right?” I swallowed hard. Now the napkin was a pile of messy little pieces in front of me. My shoulders tensed as I looked around the room. “A month ago, I followed him at night, to a bar, and… well…”
She narrowed her eyes. “A bar?”
“A club. Yes.” I couldn’t bring myself to tell her just what kind of club. “And we talked, and well…”
She brought her hands to her mouth and gasped. “Oh, my god. Are you telling me you fucked Cameron Brice?”
She said it loud enough that people turned. I swallowed, too embarrassed to shush her. “It wasn’t fucking,” I said softly. “Well, maybe it was the first time. But then… then…”
“There was a second time?” Her voice was now getting dangerously loud. “And what? A third? A fourth? You said the first time was over a month ago?”
She looked utterly outraged, and I couldn’t tell if it was because of Cameron or because I had withheld vital details about my sex life from her. “You see…”
Lorenzo stumbled back, and Kiera shoved the check at him. “Go find our waitress and pay,” she told him, looking intently at me. When he left, she whispered, “You’re in love with him.”
I shook my head. “No!” I shouted as tears threatened to spill out of my eyes. “I’m a foolish idiot. I just kept sleeping with him, even though he was practically engaged to marry Miss Heir to a Coffee Dynasty.”
She squinted. “And that doesn’t make him a douche?”
I sighed. “No, it doesn’t. Because I think he’s only doing it because it’s expected of him, despite how miserable it’s going to make him. I got the feeling that if he just grew a pair and told them to go to hell, he’d find that the entire world wouldn’t explode on him. That maybe, just maybe…”
I stopped. I didn’t know what the feeling was. Just that, when I said it didn’t matter, maybe, it could matter. When I said it was the end, maybe, it didn’t have to be.
“Maybe you belong together?” she said softly.
I nodded. “But it’s stupid, isn’t it?” I said, wiping the tears from my eyes and letting out a laugh. “That’s not the way the world works.”
Kiera stuck out her lower lip, and I could tell she was feeling my pain intently. She reached over to grab my hand. “Aw, honey. You know I love you, no matter what. Even if you got yourself involved with a douche.”
I couldn’t help it. I laughed. I guess I really had. What had I expected?
The truth was… I hadn’t started out looking for it, but somewhere along the line, I’d begun expecting the fairy tale. Cameron did that, with all his wealth and good looks and his silver tongue.
But I’d been so stupid. Fairy tales weren’t real, especially since, in this one, I was the dragon.
And I was supposed to breathe fire and kill the crowned prince.
I snatched my hand away and pushed the folders across to her. Then I pulled them back, clutching them to my chest. I exhaled and shoved them back across the table. “Just hold them for me until I know what I want to do,” I mumbled, swiping at my face. “I’m sorry. I’ll see you later.”
I grabbed my purse and stepped out into the night, feeling the lowest I’d ever felt. But it wasn’t until I got back to my lonely apartment and sank into my bed, that I not only allowed the tears to flow… I howled.