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Anger tackles my chest.I bolt to my feet, my eyes darting around quickly for an impromptu weapon should I need one.
But then again, that’s exactly what he’d want, isn’t it? For me to react impulsively, make an even bigger mess for myself?
Out of nowhere, Meghan strolls merrily into my office. At the threshold, she stops so abruptly, I almost hear tires squealing. “Mayor Thompson!” she says.
Trying to hide his surprise, he turns over his back and speaks in that smarmy campaign trail voice that all the most successful politicians have perfected. “Ms. Hutchins. Isn’t it nice to see you?” he says graciously.
Meghan is not buying it. Her eyes dart between the mayor and me. “Alana? Everything okay?” she asks me from just over the man’s shoulder.
I clear my throat and smile tightly.
But the mayor responds quickly. “I just came in to book a checkup for Fluffy with Dr. Stevens.” The cat purrs in his arms.
Meghan doesn’t take her eyes off of me. “Our computer systems are shut down for the day,” my bestie’s smile matches my own, fake and forced as she speaks to the mayor. “But you can give us a call in the morning and we’d be happy to pencil you in.”
“Are you ready to go?” I ask Meghan, trying to keep my voice steady.
“Yes. Whenever you are.”
“I’ll be ready in a second,” I tell her, grabbing my purse from my bottom drawer and slinging it over my shoulder, basically indicating to Thompson that this little discussion is over.
Meghan observes the man again before her eyes return reassuringly to me. “I’ll be right outside, waiting for you.”
“Thanks, Megs.” When she’s gone, I return my eyes to the mayor, my voice low. “You, stay the fuck away from me. And from Davis.”
He approaches, leaning over my desk, so close his garlic parmesan breath wafts over my face. “Or what, Haywood? What the fuck are you gonna do about it?I’mthe one pulling the strings here.”
It takes everything in me not to rear my arm back and clock this man in the nose. Just like my ex-husband taught me.
“You’ve been making waves recently, Alana,” the smelly-breathed villain goes on. “But one word of advice—before you go making any stupid decisions, be sure Westbrook is worth it. Because the next time I kick you into that gutter, you might not be so lucky to claw your way back out.”
He turns and I don’t breathe until he disappears out the door.
I hear Meghan run down the hallway as soon as he leaves, arming the security system and flipping all the locks on the clinic’s front door. I hunch over, hands braced on my desk as I struggle to catch my bearings.
In a flash, my best friend is back in front of my desk. “Alana, I don’t know what the fuck is going on. But I have a feeling you’re in over your head. I’m worried.”
My stomach is upset. My knees feel weak. I don’t know how much more of these secrets I can take.
This man has had his boot on my neck for the last four years. But I’m at my breaking point.
I’m done letting everyone push me around.
37
DAVIS
“And this is the last one. Sign here. And then here.”
I do as I’m told, and the notary does his thing, stamping his approval while everyone crowds around the city clerk’s desk.
I’m here with Candace at city hall, where we’re filing the endless paperwork to set my mayoral run into motion. There’s campaign finance paperwork, candidate declaration forms and disclosure packets.
I cap my ballpoint pen and rub my right wrist, trying to shake out the stiff cramp. I feel like I’ve just signed my life away. I guess in a way, I did.
But in a good way.
After putting in a lot of thought, I’ve decided that I’m running for mayor, dammit.
