AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“I told you that you should align yourself with one of New York’s finest, not your secretary.”
I felt myself getting angrier with my friend. “You sound like my mother. A snob.”
My words didn’t faze Marcel. They rarely did. I remembered how Annie told me that she felt like he was a bad person, and I was wondering if she was right. Marcel supported me candidacy because he liked to win, but I wondered if now that we weren’t winning, what he would be willing to do.
“Your mother isn’t wrong.”
I crossed my arms over myself and leveled Marcel with a stern look. “What the hell are you saying?”
He met my eyes, not even flinching. “I’m saying that you might want to pull your head out of your ass and go back to your mother.”
“I’m not doing that.”
Marcel sighed. “If I thought you weren’t doing it because you wanted to stick your finger up at your mother, I might be proud, but I knew that you don’t want to give her up because you have feelings for her.”
“I’m in love with her,” I said, plainly.
Marcel’s eyes grew large at the declaration. I wasn’t hiding my feelings about Annie. I was in love with her. I might have fallen for her when she ran into me with coffee. I smiled as I remembered how she’d blushed as she spoke to me.
“You’ve got to be kidding me,” he said, shaking his head. “What the hell has happened to you?”
“I’ve grown up,” I said. Annie had been unlike any woman I’d ever met in my life. She was kind and sweet, but also would call me on my shit. And the physical chemistry between the two of us was out of this world. A smile overcame my face as I recalled how I’d eaten her to two orgasms this morning before she rode me.
“You are making a huge mistake. What the hell do you even know about her?”
Marcel’s words made me think about all the things I didn’t know about Annie. My mind immediately thought about the gunshot scar in her chest. Whenever I brushed against the old wound or pressed a kiss against the raised skin, she stiffened and retreated into herself. She’d told me about her ex-boyfriend, but something about the story just felt off. But it didn’t matter. We all had our secrets.
“I know enough,” I snapped.
Marcel shook his head in disappointment. He gathered the files that he brought me. He’d brought me a ton of charts and projections, likely to show how bad things were.
Before Marcel could leave the apartment, his phone dinged. Not once, but twice. “A date?” I asked.
He threw me a frustrated look before glancing at his cell. His mouth dropped so quickly that I felt myself jumping out of my seat. “What is it?” I asked, immediately worried. At first, I thought maybe something had happened to Annie, as she was always on my mind these days.
“Joseph Rome just wrote you a check for a million dollars,” he said.
I nearly fell out of my chair in shock. “What?” I asked. “Why the hell would he do that?” Joseph Rome was a hugely important donor in the city, and I hadn’t even bothered asking him to support me since I knew that I’d screwed that up upon our first meeting. Plus, I didn’t trust Rome. Though he appeared to be a decent father, I remembered what Annie told me about him being connected with organized crime.
“And there’s several more donors behind him.”
“Fuck,” I muttered, running a hand through my hair. A campaign cost a great deal of money, but if I could supplement enough of the money through donors, I could cover the rest myself.
“Why the hell would he donate?” I asked. “What does he want?”
“Who cares,” Marcel said. “We’ll give it to him.”
I shook my head. “I’m not going to just take his money,” I said. “I want to make sure that I know what strings come with it.” I wasn’t naive. I knew that everything came with strings, and I wasn’t dumb enough to take anything before I knew them.
Marcel looked like he was about to blow a gasket, but I didn’t give a shit. There were things that needed to be verified before I took anything from Rome. “When can I take the money?” he asked.
“After I talk to Annie.”
Marcel rolled his eyes.
“I mean it,” I said. “Don’t make a fucking move without my go ahead, and I don’t mean just in regards to the money.” I didn’t trust Marcel when it came to Annie. He wanted to win, and I was worried that he might hurt Annie to do it. I wasn’t willing to do that. She meant more to me than becoming mayor.
“Fine,” he said. “Let me know when you get your dick back.”
