relieved. “
That’s
what you’re so upset about.”
“That you’re
not
upset about it worries me. A lot. But not nearly as much as Mom, Chuckie and James not being completely worried about it.”
“We were discussing how to keep our former jobs under wraps, or how to discuss them, when the bombs went off.”
“Cannot wait to hear the plan so I can laugh a really bitter laugh while Mister Joel Oliver pokes ever so many holes into said plan. However, are you really okay? You all look fine, but you’re not really, um, reading me very well right now.”
Jeff grinned. “I’m stressed out of my mind, baby, and before you point out that I’ve had a stressful job since I was twenty, this is a very different kind of stress. This is stress based on doing another thing I really don’t want to do that I’m also not sure that I
can
do well. It’s affecting my ability to read anyone clearly, even you. I can get the dominant emotions, but not the nuance. It’ll pass.”
“Good. And to reassure you again since you’re not picking up nuance, you’ll be awesome as vice president, should you get the nomination, and we all survive the campaign, and you get elected, which I in no way think is a given. The survival. I’m fairly sure that if Senator McMillan thinks you’re the right choice for VP then you’re the right choice.”
Jeff smiled, pulled me to him, and kissed me. He was the best kisser in, I figured, the entire galaxy, and as always when he kissed me, I stopped thinking about anything else other than his mouth. Well, I thought about his body, too.
He ended our kiss and chuckled. “Thanks, baby. As long as you believe in me, I can do anything.”
“Glad to be of service. I’d love to suggest that we continue this part of our discussion and go rip each other’s clothes off, but we currently can’t go home.”
Jeff laughed. “I love that, no matter what the situation, your laser focus on the priorities remains intact.”
“It’s a gift.”
CHAPTER 9
K HALID WAS WAITING for us down the hall and we rejoined the others. Everyone was eating, and I made sure Jeff got a snack, too.
While he was eating I sidled over to Reader, who was standing a little apart from everyone else. He hung up his phone as I came over. “Tim was checking in, girlfriend.”
“I wasn’t trying to see if you were calling another girl, James. But are they okay?” Looked around. “Where did Malcolm go?”
He grinned. “You’re the only girl for me, and you know it. And yes, everyone is still alive and unpoisoned. Cleanup’s going to take longer than we’d like, and Buchanan went to oversee that and to ensure all tunnels near our bases are devoid of other evil stuff. And yes, before you ask the question I see your mouth opening to ask, he’s wearing protective gear and has Field team escorts.”
“Good, good. I just like to be sure.”
“Yeah, I know. You okay?”
“Physically, yes. We were very efficiently herded here. But emotionally? Hell no. I can’t believe anyone thinks that we can have Jeff in a major campaign without a lot of nasty things we don’t want revealed to be waved at us on the six o’clock news.”
“I know. And as hard as this is to believe, everyone who’s pushing Jeff to go for the nomination knows the risks.”
“Awesome. Can’t wait for our lives to be ruined in, what, less than a month?”
He rolled his eyes “We think we can mitigate the risks, Kitty. How stupid do you think we are?”
“Not stupid at all, which is why I’m having trouble with the notion that all of you somehow don’t think that the very first thing that the paparazzi are going to uncover is that we killed Leventhal Reid.”
I could manage to say the name without shuddering, but it took effort. Reid had been, hands down, the most frightening person I’d ever dealt with in my life, and that included a lot of fugly monsters, politicians with scary delusions of grandeur, and the most cutthroat corporate
That’s
what you’re so upset about.”
“That you’re
not
upset about it worries me. A lot. But not nearly as much as Mom, Chuckie and James not being completely worried about it.”
“We were discussing how to keep our former jobs under wraps, or how to discuss them, when the bombs went off.”
“Cannot wait to hear the plan so I can laugh a really bitter laugh while Mister Joel Oliver pokes ever so many holes into said plan. However, are you really okay? You all look fine, but you’re not really, um, reading me very well right now.”
Jeff grinned. “I’m stressed out of my mind, baby, and before you point out that I’ve had a stressful job since I was twenty, this is a very different kind of stress. This is stress based on doing another thing I really don’t want to do that I’m also not sure that I
can
do well. It’s affecting my ability to read anyone clearly, even you. I can get the dominant emotions, but not the nuance. It’ll pass.”
“Good. And to reassure you again since you’re not picking up nuance, you’ll be awesome as vice president, should you get the nomination, and we all survive the campaign, and you get elected, which I in no way think is a given. The survival. I’m fairly sure that if Senator McMillan thinks you’re the right choice for VP then you’re the right choice.”
Jeff smiled, pulled me to him, and kissed me. He was the best kisser in, I figured, the entire galaxy, and as always when he kissed me, I stopped thinking about anything else other than his mouth. Well, I thought about his body, too.
He ended our kiss and chuckled. “Thanks, baby. As long as you believe in me, I can do anything.”
“Glad to be of service. I’d love to suggest that we continue this part of our discussion and go rip each other’s clothes off, but we currently can’t go home.”
Jeff laughed. “I love that, no matter what the situation, your laser focus on the priorities remains intact.”
“It’s a gift.”
CHAPTER 9
K HALID WAS WAITING for us down the hall and we rejoined the others. Everyone was eating, and I made sure Jeff got a snack, too.
While he was eating I sidled over to Reader, who was standing a little apart from everyone else. He hung up his phone as I came over. “Tim was checking in, girlfriend.”
“I wasn’t trying to see if you were calling another girl, James. But are they okay?” Looked around. “Where did Malcolm go?”
He grinned. “You’re the only girl for me, and you know it. And yes, everyone is still alive and unpoisoned. Cleanup’s going to take longer than we’d like, and Buchanan went to oversee that and to ensure all tunnels near our bases are devoid of other evil stuff. And yes, before you ask the question I see your mouth opening to ask, he’s wearing protective gear and has Field team escorts.”
“Good, good. I just like to be sure.”
“Yeah, I know. You okay?”
“Physically, yes. We were very efficiently herded here. But emotionally? Hell no. I can’t believe anyone thinks that we can have Jeff in a major campaign without a lot of nasty things we don’t want revealed to be waved at us on the six o’clock news.”
“I know. And as hard as this is to believe, everyone who’s pushing Jeff to go for the nomination knows the risks.”
“Awesome. Can’t wait for our lives to be ruined in, what, less than a month?”
He rolled his eyes “We think we can mitigate the risks, Kitty. How stupid do you think we are?”
“Not stupid at all, which is why I’m having trouble with the notion that all of you somehow don’t think that the very first thing that the paparazzi are going to uncover is that we killed Leventhal Reid.”
I could manage to say the name without shuddering, but it took effort. Reid had been, hands down, the most frightening person I’d ever dealt with in my life, and that included a lot of fugly monsters, politicians with scary delusions of grandeur, and the most cutthroat corporate
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