AllFreeNovel
Share Us
His hand covers mine where I’m mangling the fabric.
“Go back to the hotel,” he finally says. The rage is gone from his voice. Only resignation and a quiet sadness remain. He pulls his wallet and thumbs out his room key. “Go to my room and stay there. No one will bother you. Take a shower, get some sleep, eat something.” He presses his keycard into my hand.
Both of our radios spit static. “Sheridan to Theriot, Ellis. What’s your location, over?”
Henry pulls my earpiece out and turns the radio off on my belt. “We’ll talk later.”
I nod. He fixes me with one last look before he turns. He says something back to Sheridan, but my radio is off and Henry is walking away from me. His footfalls fade, and then…
I’m alone.
My back slides down the wall until my ass hits the floor, and I hang my head between my splayed knees. Brennan—
No. Don’t even think it.
You are bad for Brennan Walker.
I take one of our SUVs back to the hotel and head to Henry’s room. The world has no sound, no texture, no color. I shower in scalding water until my skin is raw, and I use two bars of soap to scrub until I can’t catch a whiff of Brennan anymore. My suit smells like him, so I ball it up and dig around in Henry’s suitcase for a pair of his boxers and an undershirt.
My stomach rumbles. I haven’t eaten since scarfing half a slice of pizza yesterday, and I can’t remember what I ate before that. Room service isn’t covered by the government, but I’ll settle this at the front when we check out. I order a sandwich, chips, and a Coke, and, since this is New York, it comes to over fifty dollars.
I haven’t gotten a full night’s sleep all week, and as soon as I climb into Henry’s bed, the exhaustion hits. I’ve been going a thousand miles an hour for months now, juggling my duties and this slide into depravity as I compromised both myself and Brennan. Spent time I never should have chasing him and the witchcraft between us. Black lightning. Dark love spells. Destiny and fate.
The best man I’ve ever met.
The man I love.
The man I can never love.
* * *
Hours later,the sounds of Manhattan wake me: horns blaring, truck brakes screaming, police sirens going off up and down the streets and avenues. Sunlight is splattered on the pillow, leaking through the blinds pulled across the room’s window.
My first reaction is panic. Where is the detail? Where is Brennan? I check my watch and mentally pull up his schedule. He’s left the UN and is on the way to the airport, and then back to Washington. Marine One will ferry him from Andrews back to the White House. He’ll have a hero’s welcome when he returns.
I stay in Henry’s room until New York starts breaking down the command center and my Washington teams have all packed up and are either already on Air Force One or en route to LaGuardia with Brennan. In my room, I change into jeans and a long-sleeved T-shirt that covers my gear, and shove my suit into a hotel laundry bag before pushing it to the bottom of my suitcase.
Downstairs, I settle the bill for the room service I ordered, and I’m about to walk the four blocks to where our vehicles are stored when the lobby doors spit out a harried and rumpled Henry.Outside, a cab is pulling away.
“Fucking traffic in this city. You’d think the president was here or something.”
“What are you doing here?”
"I’m driving back with you.”
I do not deserve his kindness. He should be fleeing from me, running as far and as fast as he can—if not actually turning me in to the director. My jaw clenches, and I have to look away as my eyes burn and the world starts to waver.
“No, don’t do that. C’mon.” He slings his arm around my neck and steers me to the exit. “I’m starving. Let’s grab some pizza before we hit the road. There’s an Original Ray’s a few blocks from here.”
Henry distracts me for hours, from grabbing pizza to getting to the car and then all down the Jersey Turnpike while he bitches about his favorite baseball team and the Washington Commanders’ season. The radio is loud, but his voice is louder, and both are enough to drown out my self-castigating thoughts.
He falls asleep around the Maryland state line. For an hour, I’m alone in my mind.
Brennan is waiting for me in Washington.
I can feel the pull of him, the magnetic attraction from his soul to mine. I could close my eyes and navigate by heart, and this SUV would go right to the White House. Every part of me is tied to every part of him, so much more intimately after last night.
Henry must sense my anguish, because as we enter Washington, he reaches across the center console and rests his fist on my knee. When we park in the basement, he gets out of the SUV and waits as I wipe my eyes and scrub my face.
