Page 1 of Bodyguard Wolf Shifter
CHAPTER 1
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SARAH
I'm going to kill you…
Those five words scared me, but I wasn't about to show it. Fixating on death threats came with the territory when I was campaigning.
The life of a politician was a never-ending balancing act.
The nights were the worst when I was alone with my thoughts. The work was tedious, but I had a good support system hovering in the background. Most of them were volunteers.
The office was deserted after 6 PM.
There was a strange stillness in the air to go with the humming of the AC unit. It rattled a few times. It didn't provide the necessary comfort from the elements. The heat was stifling, and my jacket was lying over the chair in front of me usually reserved for guests.
A long blonde hair continued to float into my peripheral vision.
The days were long, but the nights were even longer. There was nothing to go home to. No handsome husband waiting to greet me with a smile and a glass of Chardonnay.
I had a dog, but it ran away.
It was a sad state of affairs. The bed was empty and cold. The warmth of male companionship would've been preferable over the alternative. Casual sex wasn't an option when everybody was waiting to pounce on any impropriety.
The press was itchy to sink their teeth into any sort of scandal. My publicist did everything she could to make sure I was squeaky clean with a wholesome appearance at least on paper.
"You are burning the midnight oil," Jack expressed from where he stood haggard and exhausted with a deep sigh.
I stretched my arms over my head with my hands interlocked together. "I didn't think anybody was here. Go home. It's been a long day and you deserve a few hours away from this place."
"How do you do it?" he asked with his hands folded in front of him.
"You're going to have to be a little more specific," I answered with my belly rumbling in desperate need of something to eat after missing lunch.
"You're always the first one in and the last to leave. The numbers look good. The latest poll has you neck and neck with the opposition. Try to get some sleep. Don't stay all night," he said with his long and lean limber figure turning on his Gucci loafers on his way to the elevator.
"I'm just going to finish up and I should be right behind you in a few minutes. We have a lot of work to do. We are very popular with the 40 and over crowd. We have to reach the next generation if we stand a chance of beating Michael Logan." I stared at the screen at those five words until a shiver ran down my spine.
The footsteps receded until I heard the elevator open and close.
He was my right-hand man, and I didn't know what I would do without him. Jack was the one to convince me to seek a higher platform. Everybody loved me, but there was always a few that got their nose out of joint.
Some people were under the antiquated thinking that a woman couldn't do what a man could do. It was always a struggle to make them see me as a viable candidate to take over the vacant position that Sen. Watkins left in the wake of his early retirement.
I was running on ideals and morality to stick it to my opposition. He was a family man with a wife and two children.
Being single without a man could be considered a liability, especially in politics.
I absentmindedly tapped my pen on the mouse pad with the smiling face of Mickey Mouse looking back at me. It was a gift that I found a little cheesy but every so often it made me smile when I remembered my misspent childhood in front of the television.
Being pretty wasn't enough to capture their attention.
Playing the game meant that sometimes I had to step on a few toes. Security was limited to a couple of cameras outside the building.
Letting it get to me was only going to cause more problems than it was worth. Jack didn't know about the mugging. Nobody did.
I grimaced when I remembered how he had caught me off guard coming out of one of my favorite restaurants. If it had been an isolated incident, I might not have taken a second look at the letter condemning me.
