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My euphoria is brutally ripped away, and left in its wake is fear. From a small corner I see Landry rip the ties of the drapes off and the thick material closes with a quietwhoosh, leaving us in deep shadows.
Boone pulls away, standing, grabbing clothes and pulling them on with a fierceness I’ve never seen in him before now. Landry reaches for me and tugs me to my feet. Austin following right behind me.
“Go.” Landry’s hulking mass is between me and the now-covered window as Austin passes me my dress. “Upstairs while we sort this out.” Austin beats Landry in the race to pull clothes on and is out the door, gun in hand.
Boone is now dressed in slacks and his shirt hanging open, hooks a finger under my chin. “Do as instructed. No questions,” he says flatly when I make no move to follow their orders.
I clutch my dress to my chest and look between the men. They no longer have heat or passion in their eyes. Murder is more like it.
A glare settles on Boone’s face when he turns to me. “I fucking knew this would happen. We should have never touched you.” He stalks toward me, but I refuse to feel the shame or embarrassment I see in his eyes. “Get the fuck out of here, Honor. Don’t you know what is good for you? Get the fuck away from us.”
I turn to see Landry’s face like stone.
Choking emotions clog my throat. It’s all I can do to stand there with my jaw hitting my chest as I stare at the man with my virgin blood on his cock. I can’t believe what I just heard. My heart crumples into a shriveled ball inside my chest.
One flash turned the best night of my life into a nightmare as I watch Boone and Landry slip from the room in silence.
Five
Honor, three years later
Ineed some fresh air. Stuffy old conversations with a different set of people for the last four nights weigh on my mind and I’m having a hard time summoning enough energy to care about yet another gala for some cause I have never heard of. I don’t even think half the people in there have either. Just another reason to dress up, flash some diamonds and be in the social limelight. My father’s cup of tea, not mine.
Since losing the presidential bid three years ago, my aging father has resigned himself to using his sterling reputation for noble causes. He hasn’t announced it yet, but I know he wants to get his name back in the game for the White House. It will take a little prep work before that can happen, though. When he’s ready I’ll be there to support him.
I figure I owe him a lifetime of favors after what I’ve put him through in the last three years. A scandal with my bodyguards sits at the top of that list. Then I put college on hold when he lost the election, much to his displeasure and disappointment. I just couldn’t focus knowing I was the cause of his loss, plus school isn’t going anywhere for when—or if—I decide to return.
That makes ruining the man’s life twice in one lifetime. A record no daughter should aim to hold. The first when my mother walked out on him, screaming she never wanted to be a mother. Geez, that sits on you for a while, let me tell you. And then with Boone, Landry, and Austin…
I still can’t think about that night without cringing. Not of what we did, but of the pictures of me being shared between three men. Media coverage turned into a circus almost instantly. It was all a nightmare, really. If you ever wanted to know how to kill a political career for someone, that will do it.
Lucky for me my father is the patient, understanding type even when royally pissed.
But I know he’s as disappointed in me as I am myself. It hangs heavy in the air every time we speak, but he never abandoned me.
They did.
I push through a metal door leading to a side alley. There’s a questionable odor hanging in the air, but that is the least of my worries. It’s a thousand times better than the stench of judgment hanging around me back in the ballroom. People say society as a whole has a short memory.
Ha. Don’t be fooled. Yeah, that’s a myth no one should buy into.
I rub at the overwhelming stab of pain in my chest.
A summer shower rolled through the city at some point this evening and suppressed the high humidity. I take a sharp intake of cool air and sigh as the pain reduces to a low hum. It never goes away completely, much to my annoyance.
A faint click sounds behind me before I hear a familiar cheery voice. “You okay, babe?”
Leaning against the still damp railing, I turn to see Alice, an old childhood friend, poke her head out of the door I just exited. She’s one of the few left that didn’t shun me when all those terrible news articles blasted me as a whore or worse. She’s a part-time journalist for a big newspaper back west and spends her free hours writing political thrillers. She’s a helluva storyteller, if not a little lonely. We bonded over that common situation last summer with the help of booze and a remote lodge in upstate.
“You bet! Just grabbing a second wind and checking email.” I hold up my arm and dangle my cinched purse from my wrist containing mandatory chocolate, my phone and car keys in case I want to bail early. Which doesn’t sound like a bad idea. “I’ll be right in.”
Alice beams a smile at me knowingly for a moment but doesn’t mention the hushed rumors circulating behind my back. There’s no need. People talk and judge. No stopping that wheel.
Her red hair forms a crown of brilliance atop her head and bobs as she gives a small nod, making me feel like the worst friend in the world. I mean, she’s here to visit with me for my birthday after all and here I am hiding in an alley.
“Good. But don’t diddle-daddle or I’ll steal the first dance of the evening with the handsome young senator that has had your father’s ear all night.”
Edward Black. Five-nine in shoes at best, lean in all areas, a geeky kind of cute if you went for that sort of thing and all brains behind those square glasses. Not judging. Every girl has her type and Alice loves a man that can challenge her mind if not her body.
