Kimberly Dean - Courting Gossip

‘Are you OK, ma’am? Can I get you anything?’ the officer asked.

A magic carpet ride out of here?

‘Could you bring me a glass of water?’ she asked, her voice throaty.

She ended up with three of them. Every cop and hotel associate in earshot moved to get her a cup. She smiled gratefully as she evaluated the scene. The young cop seemed to be the one trying to wrangle everything. He had a notepad out and was writing everything down.

‘Ma’am, I’m Officer Simons. Would you mind answering a few questions?’

‘She’s not a ma’am, she’s a call girl,’ someone in the next room called.

Genieve winced.

‘What are they still doing here?’ Samuel bellowed. ‘Why haven’t those two been arrested yet? Do you know who I am?’

Genieve rubbed her temple. Where was Brody?

‘They just barged in,’ she told the policeman. ‘I was so scared. I thought they were going to hurt us. I started screaming. Thank goodness someone heard.’

She let tears well up in her eyes and let out a sniffle. She whipped a Kleenex out of the box on the table beside her and blotted her cheeks. ‘I really…Can we talk about this later?’

Simons patted the air. ‘Of course, ma’am. If you could just sit right there, I’ll get this sorted out as quickly as possible.’

The cop headed back into the front room. The wait was excruciating, but Genieve tried to contain her nerves. The senator wasn’t having much luck with his. He was in a huff. The police and hotel staff were trying to calm him down, but nothing worked until a change suddenly swept through the air. The cops in the room stood up straighter, and the hotel manager started wringing his hands.

‘Hey, you. Are you in charge here?’ she heard someone ask in the front room of the suite.

She sat a bit straighter in her chair. Brody?

Her heart started beating faster. She was actually glad to see him. He was grumpy and bossy, but he’d know better how to handle this mess.

But would he protect her? Or let her take the fall?

Her fingers wrapped tightly around the arms of the uncomfortable chair as the noise out in the front room increased. She heard the reporters – she didn’t think she’d ever forget their voices – but then she heard sighs and moans that made her blush.

‘I want that video burned,’ Samuel yelled. ‘They broke in here. That’s private.’

Genieve felt ill, but then someone was in the doorway. Her anticipation rose, but then recognition hit and her stomach dropped to somewhere down near her feet. The tall, well-built man who’d entered the room wasn’t Brody Haynes.

It was Detective Morgan, Nina’s detective.

Genieve tried to make herself disappear, but the detective’s gaze locked onto her. She was the centre of attention in the room, red hair or not. He recognised her, too, and the gears in his head started turning. He was a handsome devil, and sharp. The man had been poking around Luxxor for months. He had a serious thing for her boss, and he was more than a little curious about what her company did. Genieve watched him, frozen and unable to stop him as he connected the dots.

Oh, God. Even if she made it out of this room without being arrested, Nina was going to kill her.

Fight-or-flight kicked in, and Genieve judged the distance to the door. Yet movement in the doorway pushed her right back into her chair. Another man had arrived at the worst possible moment. Her heart that was already beating too fast kicked into overdrive. It was the no-nonsense fixer – and also the sexy man from her fantasies.

Brody was finally here.

* * *

Brody’s blood was pumping and his jaw was set when he arrived at the Emissary Hotel. He’d nearly flown through DC’s empty late-night streets and the tyres of his car had left skidmarks in the parking spot he’d found outside on the curb. He’d known this arrangement would cause problems. He’d tried to stop the senator’s ‘relationship’, but Gunderson was infatuated with the shapely redhead he paid to keep in his bed.

Genieve Hart played with a lot of men’s heads, but Gunderson was an elected public official. He should have better self-control, no matter how mesmerising the woman was.

Brody’s focus was laser-like as he strode through the lobby to the elevators, but he picked up on everything going on around him. Word was already getting around to the hotel staff. He heard the cleaning crew whispering at the bell stand as a maid stood with her vacuum turned off. Two squad cars were parked outside and a harried hotel security man was punching at the keyboard of a computer at the check-in desk. The only good thing so far was that the network news teams hadn’t picked up the scent yet.

Only one rogue crew had crashed into the senator’s private party. TMI was an internet news site, from what he’d been able to pull up on the WiFi connection in his car. He’d never heard of them, but, if this story got out, they were going to go viral.

At the thought, his vision went a little red. It was never good when he got a call in the middle of the night, but this one was a special kind of hell. The so-called reporters’ careers would be the first casualty of this burgeoning scandal, he’d make sure of that. From what Genieve had told him, they’d crossed every line there was for the press. They’d broken into a private hotel room. They’d invaded a couple’s privacy, and they’d taped…they’d taped something he didn’t even want to think about.

He blew out a breath as he stepped into the elevator and jabbed the button for the seventh floor. She’d better still be locked safe, sound and hidden away in that bathroom.

A muscle in his jaw popped.

The elevator was slow, but it gave him time to rein himself in. By the time the door opened on the seventh floor, he was ready for whatever he had to face. He evaluated the situation as he strode down the hallway. He ticked off the security cameras, the number of cops on the scene and the number of doors that were opened for people to look out and gawk. The scene wasn’t good. It was way too loud for the middle of the night and only drawing more attention. The crowd gathered near Room 740 was too big, and he’d already heard the term ‘Senator’ being thrown around.

Damn it. Either somebody had recognised Gunderson or he’d volunteered his identity. Did the man ever listen to a word he said? How many times had he extricated him from uncomfortable situations like this? Brody scowled. His hourly rate was about to go up, that was for sure.

A cop stopped him when he tried to pass. ‘Sir, I’m sorry, but I can’t let you by right now.’

‘My client called me. I’m here to represent him.’

The statement had shades of the truth. He had a law degree, and he was licensed to practice in DC. He just put his legal mind to use in different ways. Trials and lawsuits weren’t his thing. His specialty was more in the area of…advice.

And Senator Gunderson hadn’t followed it.

With a nod, the cop let him pass. Brody continued on his way, but his steps slowed. His gut inclination was to get in there as fast as he could, but he heard voices. He stopped to listen. In his game, information was ammunition, and right now he was nearly out.

When a cop in the hallway gave him the stink eye, he pulled out his phone to call for a car for the senator, but his ear was on the conversation inside the hotel room. He needed to find out what had led to this. How had the reporters known that the senator would be here? Who had told them about his…special friend? Had the video already gotten out?

His teeth ground at the thought. Just how much work was it going to take to clean up this mess? Was there still time to get out in front of it?

As he was eavesdropping, a new alertness ran through the cops on duty. With his ear to his phone, Brody watched as a new cop arrived on the scene. Definitely higher level. Detective, maybe? He looked grizzled, tired and capable in the hardcore, old-school way.