Kayla
“I would like a lawyer,” I said to the investigator the second I entered the room with him.
“Mrs. Storm, you aren’t under investigation. This is not an interrogation room and you are not under arrest. We are just trying to get some facts straight in the case so we can find the person or persons involved in the president’s murder.”
I was scared and I knew there was no way of hiding it. Never had I dealt with the police or any sort of real investigation. In my heart I knew Matthew had been involved somehow, of course, there was no proof and I trusted that Matthew made sure of that, but I couldn’t risk saying something stupid.
Matthew was a smart man, much too smart to get himself mixed up in the wrongdoing of a murder. But there were still those thoughts that lingered in the back of my brain. He knew something, I wasn’t sure just how much he knew or how involved he had been; but I was pretty damn sure he knew something about the incident that happened with the President.
“I’m sorry sir. I know a lot of lawyers and I think it would be best if I conferred with one before the questioning continues,” I said as I stood up. “Am I free to leave?”
The investigator looked beyond annoyed at me but I knew if I wasn’t being arrested I had the right to leave when I wanted to. Matthew and I hadn’t had a chance to discuss our plan for questioning because the investigator had bombarded us at the White House. Certainly I didn’t want to make a scene there and refuse to come with them, but I wasn’t about to get myself in trouble.
I hadn’t done a thing wrong, but I knew how words and actions could get twisted around, I wasn’t going to risk it. When I was in college a friend of mine was charged with breaking into a home all because he was brought in for questioning and admitted he had been drunk the previous night and didn’t know how he got home from the bar. It didn’t matter that people turned up and said they dropped him off at home. My friend still had to go through a lengthy court case to prove his innocence. I was going to do everything possible to make sure I didn’t say or do something stupid and that meant I wasn’t talking until I had a lawyer.
“Where is Matthew?” I asked as I was leaving the room.
“He’s in there cooperating with questions.”
“Fine, tell him I went home when he gets done,” I said and then walked straight out of the building with one of the Secret Service agents who was assigned to me.
I felt my body shaking from the adrenaline and I could hardly keep myself in control as I got to the SUV we had parked out back. My vision was blurry and I felt my heart pounding nearly out of my chest as I tried to calm myself down. It was almost impossible as my blood continued to thrust harshly through my body.
“You’ll have to send someone back here to pick up the President, I want to leave,” I said as I got into the vehicle.
“It is fine. There are three agents inside with him, I’ll just have another SUV come over,” the agent said as he called someone and then drove us away.
My hands were shaking with adrenaline and I really had no idea why. I hadn’t done anything wrong. I hadn’t hired anyone to kill people. I didn’t even know what was going on, but my gut told me that Matthew did and I couldn’t understand why he would sit in that room and agree to be questioned without a lawyer. He was the President of the United States now and people were going to go after him. Didn’t he understand that?
Of course, he understood, but Matthew had a plan that I wasn’t part of, again. I was getting sick and tired of not being included in his life plans. It was about time he and I had a good talk about our future. I had my own life plan; I couldn’t be sitting around always trying to figure out his life plan. My life wasn’t going to be determined by what he wanted; I was going to make some of my own dreams come true.
“Are we just going home?” my agent asked.
“Yes please.”
I did my best to appear calm and not rattled as we made it back to the house and I went straight up to the bedroom. As soon as the door was closed I slid down against the wall and tears just started flowing out of me. I felt so out of control. Nothing in my life was going the way I wanted it to go. But I knew I shouldn’t complain. Women around the world would kill to be married to Matthew. I was the First Lady now. I was one of the most powerful and influential women in the world.
I felt like I had no control over my life at all. I wasn’t in charge of my life anymore. Matthew made the decisions. The secret service made the decisions. My press secretary made the decisions. Nothing was my own anymore. It was like I was just some puppet that others were bossing around. Life had been one hundred times happier when I was just a wide-eyed college student hoping to become a Senator some day. Never had I even thought about the White House, it wasn’t something I had wanted or even dreamed about.
Sure I tried to dream big as I grew up, but big was relative to where I was. To me, I was dreaming big by coming out to Washington and working in Senator Storms office. That had been my dream and I was so excited to make it come true. The far off other dreams I had were just so far in the future that I never let them even peek out.
Matthew was someone who I had dreamed about though. A strong, powerful man who went after what he wanted. Sure, I didn’t agree with his tactics, or what I thought had been his tactics. But he was the man I loved and that I was certain of. I just wished he actually trusted me and worked with me on all these plans of his. I knew I could have come up with better solutions than murder.
Murder…was that what he had done? The thought sent chills through my body and I just couldn’t imagine that Matthew would do something like that. Sure he wanted into the White House, but was he really capable of murdering someone? I still didn’t think that was possible. Maybe I was being extremely naive, but I didn’t think Matthew had the ability to actually kill another human being.
“Kayla, open the door,” I heard Matthew say as he tried to open the bedroom door when he got home.
His voice instantly brought me out of my daydreaming and I realized I had been sitting on the floor for hours. It wasn’t like I had meant to just sit there, but there was just so much going through my mind that I couldn’t get a hold of it all.
“I just need some time alone,” I said as I stood on the other side of the door.
“Open it now,” he said firmly.
I didn’t think it would be useful to argue with him so I did as he asked. I was exhausted though and wasn’t even in the mood to argue with him. The last few weeks had been mentally and physically exhausting and I needed a break.
Basically, we had both gone from relatively unknown people to having to clear our schedule before we went to get coffee. In fact, I didn’t think I had even got my own coffee at all since Matthew had become Vice President.
“Whatever they said, just remember they are trying to get leads. They have nothing,” Matthew said as he gently grabbed my arms.
“Let go of me,” I protested as I pulled away. “I refused to answer their questions so you don’t have to worry.”
“Okay, well that’s one way to do it,” he said with a snide side glance.
“You know what…you know… I’m sick and tired of this. We are supposed to be a team. You promised me you would tell me everything and you just keep lying. I’m a big girl Matthew, I can handle the truth. Did you murder them? Just tell me. Let’s get it all out on the table and then see if we can move forward from there.”
The look of shock and surprise on his face was actually quite funny as he looked at me while I yelled at him. I hated yelling and arguing, I didn’t want that to be my marriage, but I seriously couldn’t take the secrets another moment longer. Matthew was so good at pushing me away and keeping me at a distance. I couldn’t take it, that wasn’t how I wanted things to be between us. I wanted to trust him and have him trust me. I wanted to be his partner so we could grow old together and love each other forever. Sure it was sappy and romantic, but I didn’t care.
“I love you. I’m just trying to protect you,” Matthew said calmly.
His level of calmness was noticeable compared to my loud angry yelling and I felt like I needed to bring it down a notch. He often did that when we had arguments and I knew it was a way that he controlled the situation. I had seen him do the same thing with other Senators, but it was very effective and I did take a few breaths and try to calm down a little.
“Then talk to me, Matthew. You trusted me enough to marry me. You said you loved me. Do you honestly think I would leave you at this point? Why won’t you just tell me the plan? Tell me what I’m supposed to be doing? I’ve given up my entire life and dreams of my own to be here with you and I deserve to be included.”
Matthew leaned in and grabbed my face gently and kissed me. But I pulled away this time, I wasn’t going to just sit back and be the meek quiet wife that he wanted. I deserved answers and I was going to get them that night.
He tried to kiss me again in an effort to distract me from wanting my answers, but this time I slapped him. I didn’t mean to, but my body just reacted from all the anger and frustration I was going through.
“Tell me the truth, damn it Matthew. Stop playing these games.”
“You don’t have to beat me,” Matthew said with a smile as he grabbed my hand and brought me over to the sitting area in our room. “I trust you. I want you to be involved in everything. I just don’t want you to feel like you are an accessory to anything I’ve done.”
It was the first honest statement I had felt like Matthew had made in a very long time. Accessory was a strong word and I started to believe my concerns that Matthew had been involved in the disappearance of the Vice President and President. I still didn’t think he actually murdered them, but certainly there were way too many coincidences for him not to be involved somehow.
“Matthew, since we first met I knew you wanted to get into the White House. I knew you were motivated and I helped you. I let that slime ball George Masson touch me because it bettered our plan. How could you not trust me after all I’ve done?”
Matthew again tried to lean in and kiss me. His charismatic smile was hard to resist, but I finally felt like we were making progress and I didn’t want to stop talking now. I wanted my answers and for the first time in a very long time I felt like I was getting close to getting those answers.
“You said I ruined your plans. What were your plans?” Matthew asked as he leaned in and whispered in my ear. “Didn’t you want to get married, have babies, live the happily ever after life?”
“No!” I said as I pushed him away. “You don’t know me at all if you actually think that’s what I wanted when I came to Washington.”
Matthew laughed at my reaction. It was like he purposely wanted to get me angry. I knew I had told him I didn’t want babies anytime soon. He was just trying to get me worked up. He smiled at me the angrier I got.
“You wanted to be a Senator,” Matthew said as he sat up straight and looked more seriously at me. “You wanted to work your way up through my office and possibly other offices until you decided to run for Senate yourself. I know you Kayla, trust me, I know you.”
“Yes, that’s what I wanted. I didn’t want to get married and have babies.”
“So let’s have you run for Senate.”
“Matthew don’t be stupid. I can’t do that as the First Lady. You took that away from me.”
“Stop. You need to focus. Don’t let your emotions get the best of you here. If being a Senator is your goal, then let’s make a plan. Nobody has taken anything away from you, darling. You’re young, you have your whole life ahead of you.”
Matthew grabbed a notebook from the table and flipped it open as he started to write. He had a serious expression on his face as he looked toward me to ask me some questions.
“Kayla’s plan to reach the Senate,” he wrote as he said it out loud. “Which state do you want to be the Senator in?”
“It’s not a joke Matthew, it’s what I wanted.”
“Oh, I’m not joking. Here, I’ll put the basic timeline together and you let me know what you think. First you have that really cool job at the charity, so maybe you could do law school part time for now. Or quit the charity when you get into Georgetown. And Yes, I know that’s the school you want to go to. I’ll assume that I will win my next election, but probably only one full term, people will be sick of me. So we have about seven years to work with. I mean, if you wanted to have a baby, it would be a good time,” Matthew paused as he flashed a smile at me. “But you have your charity work and law school. Let’s say going part time and with all the other time constraints you could be done in three years. Take one year of internship at a big firm and then start as a first year associated. You could work for another three years and my term would be up, then you could run for the Senate.”
Matthew stopped writing in a dramatic fashion and ripped the piece of paper out of the notebook and handed it to me. He looked so smug as he watched me look at the paper.
“So this is your seven-year plan for me?”
“It’s just your rough draft. You change it however you would like. But it seems like a good start.”
“You know I’m not going to be one of those women who follows you around to events all the time and plays your social butterfly role for you. You aren’t going to dictate my life.”
“Let me add that to the list,” Matthew said as he took the paper away from me. “Matthew will not dictate my life. I am a strong woman who makes her own decisions and only in the bedroom will Matthew be in charge.”
“Matthew, I’m serious. People are going to expect things from me that I just can’t do. They are going to put pressure on you to make me come to events and be part of your life. I won’t be able to do it all. It’s too much for me.”
“No. I will make sure they understand.”
“Tell me what happened with George Masson? I thought you two hated each other but it turns out you were working together?” I said as I tried to bring the conversation back to what I wanted answers for.
“Let me kiss you first.”
I slid onto his lap and straddled Matthew as I started to unbutton his shirt. It was hard to stay mad at him and I didn’t like that feeling at all. I could tease him a little, but I wasn’t giving in until I had some answers.
“One kiss,” I said as I leaned down and let my lips touch his.
The electricity between us was always so immense. It didn’t matter if we had just woken up or had been fighting for hours; I hoped it would always be so great between us. We weren’t the typical couple, and that was for sure. I felt a drive to be influential in Washington that only got worse when I met Matthew. Certainly, any woman would be lucky to be in the position I was in. But the only thing I could think of was how I could use my position as First Lady.
Of course I was going to do well, I would work my ass off with Charity Water and make a name for myself that way. But I wanted more. I wanted the political high that Matthew had and I was willing to work hard to get it. I needed to run my own campaign someday and make my own political decisions based on what I thought was right.
“Now, what happened with George Masson?” I asked as I pulled my lips away from Matthew.
“Nothing elicit like I’m sure your wild imagination has going on. I simply didn’t want him coming after me anymore. I knew the best way to get him to back down was to bring him closer to me.”
“Matthew, did you and George murder the President?”
Matthew started to laugh as his hands grabbed my shirt and pulled it up over my head exposing my black lace bra. His hands quickly had the bra off of me and he threw it toward the bed as his lips made a straight line for my nipples.
“No, no, no. The game is that you have to answer my questions.”
“No, we didn’t kill him,” Matthew said as his lips pulled one of my nipples tightly in his mouth.
Matthew liked to play by his own rules and I knew for a fact it was going to be hard to get him to answer the questions I wanted to ask him. But I was perfectly comfortable throwing a little make out session into the mix if it would help Matthew answer my questions.
“Then tell me what happened. Why all the secrecy with the reporter you paid off? Why did you seem to know everything before it happened? Tell me.”
“My father…” Mathew started to say as he pulled away from sucking on my body for a moment. “He has friends who wanted me to do well in Washington.”
“Matthew, your father is dead. Who are these friends?”
“No, no, no. The game is that I get to play with you when I answer questions,” Matthew teased me with his boyish smile.
His hand moved to the button on my pants and he motioned for me to stand in front of him as he pulled on them. With one swift motion he had everything off of me and on the ground. I stood there naked for him to admire.
Matthew’s eyes lit up as he searched every inch of my bare skin. I could see his body bulging in his pants and I wanted to pull him out and play with him. I resisted though, I was getting so much good information from Matthew that I didn’t want to give in too quickly.
“I’ll come back and sit on your lap if you tell me who these friends of your fathers are,” I said sweetly as I looked down at him.
Matthew unzipped his pants and pressed them down to the ground. His body exploded from them and stood at attention as his gaze begged for me to slide on top of him. But I wasn’t giving in. I wanted to know everything. For me to move forward with our life together I needed to know it all.
“After my father died, they came to me and said they would help me get elected. I trusted them. That reporter is the son of one of my father’s friends. I do business with him when I need dirt published etc.”
“Matthew you and I both know that the President was murdered so you could take his spot. Tell me the truth.”
His smile turned much more mischievous as he looked up at him. There was a recognition in his eyes that I was telling the truth, but I knew he wasn’t going to admit to it.
“They are very over jealous about wanting me in the white house. I suspected they had a plan a long time ago, but after the accident with the Vice President, I didn’t think they would go through with it.”
“What accident?”
“Get on,” Matthew said as he grabbed me by the hips and pulled me onto his lap.
I slid him inside of me as my body adjusted to his large size, but I did not move my hips. It took ever last bit of self-control I had inside of me not to let my body enjoy the pleasure of moving on top of Matthew.
“The Vice President, that was an accident. Everything started to happen much quicker than I even knew what was going on. I tried to meet with the reporter friend of mine, you saw him leaving the apartment I believe. But he didn’t know what his father and the others were doing. Everything was out of control.”
“Matthew the investigation, what are they going to find out? What will come back on us?”
“Nothing, there is no evidence. I wasn’t there. I didn’t have any control over the events. It wasn’t me, it was my father’s pack that controlled everything.”
His hands grabbed my hips tightly and started to thrust my body against him as he finished admitting to what had been going on. My mind spun with all the details of the last few months and I struggled to get the timeline straight in my mind. But one thing I knew for sure, Matthew had some really powerful people that wanted him in office.
“Who are these friends of your fathers?” I said as I tried to catch my breath.
“Shhh, we can talk later.”
“Now Matthew, tell me now.”
“No names, but I’ll tell you that they run some really big money businesses. They have special interests in what goes on in Washington and want someone in power that they can control.”
My body was giving in to the pleasure that was going on between the two of us and I could hardly concentrate as I tried to think about who these men might be.
“Oil?” I said through a moan.
“Yes.”
“Cigarettes?”
“Yes.”
“Who else?”
“The securities industry. Now that’s enough. Let me have you now.”
“You are having me,” I whispered as I wrapped my arms around his neck.
Matthew stood up and carried me over to the bed where he laid me down and climbed on top of me. I spread my legs and pulled his body next to mine as this thrusts started harder and harder.
“Is that it? So these guys own you now. You’re their bitch and you’re going to vote however they want you to?”
I couldn’t help my language. Matthew didn’t seem like the kind of guy who would go along with some bullies who wanted their own way in Washington. He didn’t promise things to other Senators when he was whipping votes, I didn’t understand why he would let these special interest bullies push him around.
“Oh, I’m still going to do whatever the fuck I want to. It’s going to piss them off like all holy hell.”
His voice was low and demanding as he spoke while he thrust inside of me. It was all starting to make sense to me. Matthew knew those special interest guys were crazy to get someone into office that they could control. He probably started off going with their plan without thinking they would go through with it, but when things started to happen and people started to die; Matthew was in too deep.
“So will they kill you when you don’t go along with things?” I said with genuine concern.
“No, I know how to play my cards darling. Don’t you worry about me or you. I will have them eating out of the palm of my hand in no time. This office is mine now and I can do so much harm to them if I wanted to, but I can also make promises to drag things out. I’ll keep them right where we need them.”
His pelvis moved firmly into me and I closed my eyes as my body finally gave into him and I released in total orgasm. Oh how my body and his worked so well together. It was a perfect combination of chemistry, lust and love.
“Matthew, I’m afraid the investigators are going to find something out. This could all be a disaster,” I said as he moved to lay next to me.
“Kayla, look at me right now,” Matthew said as he leaned up on his elbow and looked me right in the eyes. “I will always keep you safe. You can one hundred percent trust that. We are a team. You know it all now and we are going to make it through this just fine.”
His lips kissed me gently as I tried to believe what he was saying. It was hard though, there had been so many lies, so many things I hadn’t known. How could I trust him? Would I ever be able to trust him?
“Matthew I want to trust you, I really do,” I said as I looked away.
“What will it take?”
I thought about it for a minute as I tried to think about what it would really take for me to believe everything that Matthew was saying. Then I knew the answer. I knew the one person who I really did trust and I knew that he would tell me the truth no matter what.
“I want to talk to Raymond,” I said firmly.
“My driver?” Matthew sounded amused by my request.
“Yes, I want to talk to him right now. No calling him and warning him what I’m going to ask. I want us to go meet with him right now.”
“Should we get dressed first? Or just invite him to share the bed,” Matthew teased.
“We can go to him,” I laughed.
Matthew grabbed his phone and right in front of me he text Raymond that we would meet him at the bar around the corner. It was the perfect place to meet him because our secret service detail wouldn’t be able to hear our conversation over the noise in the bar.
We both got up and got dressed quickly as I kept my eye on Matthew to see if he was going to send any secret messages to Raymond. I wanted to talk to him without Matthew prepping him for what I was going to ask.
When we arrived at the bar the two secret service officers quickly found their places so they were close enough to watch us yet far enough that we were sure they couldn’t hear us. Raymond walked it with a look of trepidation on his face as he shook hands with Matthew.
“Hey guys, what’s going on?” Raymond said.
“Not much. Kayla and I were just talking about trust issues and she had some questions that she wanted to talk to you about.”
The look of fear that flashed across Raymond’s face was so obvious that even Matthew had to laugh. Certainly Raymond had been sworn to secrecy over the years and had done a very good job of keeping that promise to Matthew. I doubted I was going to get to hear too many dirty details but I was impressed that Matthew had agreed to let me meet with Raymond.
“Don’t worry Raymond. I’m confident that Kayla can handle any of the answers you give her,” Matthew said as he stood up. “Be truthful with her. I mean one hundred percent. She’s my new partner and we are about to take over the world together,” Matthew said as he kissed me and then started to walk away.
“You’re leaving?” I asked.
“Yes. I want you to feel free to ask him anything.”
Raymond and I both sat in shock as Matthew walked away and left the two of us there to talk. I knew Raymond was wondering the same thing I was; did Matthew really just leave the two of us together with his permission to talk about things.
“I’m kind of surprised he left us alone,” I said as I leaned in to talk to Raymond.
“So what would you like to ask?”
I had to think about it. I really hadn’t expected to be left alone with Raymond so the questions I had originally wanted to ask were a little sugar coated. For a moment I thought about what was really important to me and what I really wanted to know.
“Did Matthew have you follow me?” I asked.
“When?”
“I don’t know. Anytime.”
“Yes. Right after he met you he started wanted more information on you. I think you fascinated him when you arrived in Washington.”
“Did you break into my apartment?”
“Yes.”
“Why? Matthew wanted to see where you lived before he came over. He was looking at getting you an apartment of your own almost from the first moment he met you.”
“Does Matthew have sex with other women?”
I couldn’t stop my questions from being personal. If Raymond was going to answer everything I asked him, I had so many questions that had haunted me throughout the time that Matthew and I had dated.
“No.”
“Never?” I asked in surprise.
“Not that I know of. It’s my understanding since he and you met in Chicago he hasn’t been with another woman. Nor do I think he wanted to. He’s been enthralled with you Michaela.”
“What do you mean?”
“He asked me if I thought you were too young for him. If he should steer clear of you,” Raymond said with a serious look on his face.
“What did you say?”
“Yes. I didn’t think it was a good idea for him to be with you at first. You were stubborn as hell and way too young for him.”
Raymond’s words hit me like a punch to the gut. It was weird because Raymond wasn’t saying anything that I didn’t know already, but there was just something different about someone else pointing those things out to you.
“Ouch.”
“I changed my mind, if that makes you feel any better. I think you have made him a better person.”
“Did Matthew murder that intern that worked for him? What happened with her?”
There was a long pause and I felt Raymond trying to decide how he should answer. This was a big question that I had thought about constantly since I had first heard the rumor. It had always sat in the back of my mind and nagged at me. I didn’t want to think it was possible and maybe the friends of his father’s had been involved and not Matthew. All I knew was I wanted to know the truth.
“The truth is I do think that Matthew being in her life caused her death, but not in the way that you are thinking. She was depressed and Matthew flirted with her. I think he liked all the attention she gave him and didn’t realize the depth of her admiration. If she had never started to work for him I do believe she would still be alive. But no, Matthew didn’t have anything to do with that. She was just a sad lost girl who took her own life.”
“That’s horrible.”
“But Matthew learned from it. That is why he worried so much about you at first. He didn’t want to break your heart. It wasn’t until you almost slept with Senator Masson that Matthew realized you were strong enough to be his equal.”
The words came out of Raymond’s mouth like he knew absolutely everything about my life and what had happened since I had arrived in Washington. The fact that he knew what went on between George Masson and I was a little unsettling to me.
“What else should I know?” I asked as I searched his eyes for answers.
“Matthew loves you. No matter what is going on with politics and the chaos of his new position. I’ve known him for years and I know he would do anything for you.”
“Thanks Raymond,” I said as I hugged him.
“Matthew will do anything he has to in order to reach his political goals, but he’s loyal to those he loves. You will never have to worry, anything you want that man will make it happen for you.”
“Thanks again Raymond. I’m sorry for dragging you out here.”
Matthew stood in the distance and I motioned for him to come back over. I didn’t have anymore questions. Between what Matthew had admitted to and what Raymond had told me I felt like I knew the true Matthew Storm. Sure he wasn’t perfect, but who the hell is. I knew enough that we could move forward with our life together.
“Well I told her all about that threesome between you, JLo and Madeline Albright; sorry you said I could tell her everything,” Raymond joked as he and Matthew shook hands.