Page 43 of Love Her

“Not for you to know just yet,” I said. “But—can you do whatever you did for Zane, to him, for me?”

She groaned dramatically. “Only if you ask menicely.And tell me what you’replanning.”

“You don’t have family money, Sable. Who’s supposed to keep you out of jail, if not me?” I countered. “Where’s Lia?”

“Ugh!” she complained, but then answered. “Looks like she’s on her way home.”

“Finally,” I said. “If you get me another bug—I’ll tell you everything.”

“You’d better!” she said, right before I hung up on her and put out my cigarette to make my way back to my office.

Lia called justas I got the door closed behind me. “Rhaim?” she asked, and just hearing her voice was more potent than my morning’s first cigarette.

“You okay?”

She sighed. “Yes, and no.”

“Get on camera. Inspection time.” She walked into her bedroom and gave me a shy wave. “Did he touch you?”Because if he had…

Lia sat cross-legged on her bed with her phone in her lap, and shook her head. “No. Actually. And—he kind of can’t, because Trevia’s a genius.”

“How so?” I already knew Nero’s lawyer was one of the best in the biz.

“She put a no-premarital-hanky-panky clause in the pre-nup.”

I rocked back in my chair. “Fuck. I’m sending her keys to a Lexus in her Christmas basket this year—how’d the Senator take it?”

“Surprisingly well?” she said, in that up-talk way women did sometimes, giving the camera a confused look. “I mean, I definitely don’t want to be in a room alone with him, ever, but he mostly wants me to be free publicity and a figurehead. I’m supposed to bring in the youth votes, horny undecided men—and people who don’t like blondes.”

“Who the fuck are they?”

“Don’t ask.” She ran her hands through her own hair, and letting it fall in a veil around her as she bowed her head. “I spent all afternoon with my new handler, being tested on his political positions, and being told I had to change my wardrobe and while being scared my wrists would show,” she said, looking up nervously. “I’m going on TV tomorrow morning.”

“You’ll do fine,” I said instantly—because I knew she would.

“And they’ve got me booked out until the election, Rhaim—he wants me for himself—to be his walking billboard—and according to the pre-nup, I have to be.”

The way she was drawing out the words as she spoke then, I knew she was worried. “And?” I pressed.

“He wants the wedding the weekend after my father’s birthday.”

Which was slightly less than two weeks away. “Is that why you’re anxious?”

She looked up at the camera and nodded.

“You worried that’s not enough time for me?” I caught myself before I made it sarcastic. Even though I was slightly offendedshe didn’t think I could successfully plan a hit sometime in the next thirteen days, I knew she’d been through a lot since I’d left her. No doubt she and her father had fought, and ifI’dbeen in the same room as St. Clair, I would’vehadto stab him, pre-nup or not. “Believe me, that’s long enough for me to handleanything,” I promised, and watched some small portion of her fears disappear. “How long have you had to be strong today?” I went on.

“Today?” She looked off to one side and gave a rueful shake of her head. “More like ever since you left me the other morning.”

“I bet,” I said, rocking back in my chair. “You want to stop for a little while?” The look she gave the camera then was complicated. “What’re you thinking?”

“I’m worried that if I stop, I won’t be able to start again.”

“A reasonable fear. Do you trust me?”

That earned me a shy smile. “Always.”

“Then take off your clothes.”

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