Page 30 of A Man of Power

“No problem,” she says as she sets her phone down. She launches into questions about my campaign. Our conversation eventually flows to talk of my transportation bill. Natalie is easy to talk to, but our desires in life couldn’t be more different.

As our talk fades, she looks over at me. “Nightcap?” she asks.

I grin at her old-school lingo. “Not tonight. I have some things I should take care of,” I state, one being sorting out Alexis and then talking with Conner and Aiden.

She gives me a fake smile. “Another time, then.”

“It was good to see you,” I say as I stand and lean in to kiss her cheek. “Let me call you a car.”

She waves a hand at me. “My hotel is a block away. The walk will do me good.”

“Then let me walk you there.”

She nods and we walk the short distance. It’s my goodbye to her. Whatever was between us is over. I have zero desire to fuck Natalie again. I’m not ready to explore why that is, but I’m one hundred percent sure that Alexis is the root of my reasoning.

“Safe travels tomorrow,” I state when we reach her hotel.

Natalie nods and turns to head inside but stops and looks over her shoulder. “Whoever she is, she must be something special.” She gives me a small smile and disappears through the doors. Leaving me a bit stunned, and I’m never fucking stunned.

I begin walking back to get my car, my head swirling with the events of the day. I pull my phone out and call Aiden.

“What’s up?” he asks. I can tell by his breathing and the stomping sound in the background that he’s on his treadmill.

“I need you to find me all the information on this drug,” I start as I launch into a quick explanation. As I explain what Alexis found, I hear the treadmill stop.

“What?” I ask.

“Hold on,” he replies. There’s a long moment of silence. “That’s a really unique combination. It’s certainly not the norm,” he finally says.

“Can you send me info on what is the norm?” I ask.

“Yeah, sure. I can get that for you, but I thought you had Alexis getting info from CRS?”

“I do, but now it’s a race on who works faster.”

“You’re a fucking dick, you know that?” he asks, most definitely rhetorically.

“Takes one to know one.”

I know he’s shaking his head at me; I don’t need to see him to know this.

“Does this mean you aren’t going to take their money?”

“Well, technically as long as they are before my committee, I can’t ethically take their money, now, can I?” I say.

“But?”

Sighing, I run my hand over my face. They can still give money to my political action committee. It’s just, do I want it? I’ll give it to Alexis, she had an intuition that something shady was going on, and now I feel it too. It’s like there are all these puzzle pieces but I don’t know how they fit together.

“It’s a lot of money,” I admit. Yes, my family has a shit ton of money. Yes, I could probably bankroll most of my Senate race myself. But this money they are offering could be a game-changer for me. Yet, the research Alexis has done is concerning since they don’t have much coming down the pipeline as far as new drugs. Where are they getting this windfall of cash? And as many concerns as I have at the moment, there are positive aspects to Confervo on its face. They do a lot of charity work and programs to push out much-needed pain medicines to low-income people and children who can’t afford it but need it post-op or when dealing with long-term illnesses, and that I like.

“More than others?” he asks.

“I won’t need others.”

“Shit.”

“Yeah, shit.”

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