Fixer: A Bad Boy Romance (7 page)

Tanner didn't open his mouth this time. He just sat, waiting. He felt a bit like a prisoner, looking up at the gallows and knowing that, sooner or later, it would be his turn to stand on that platform and feel the bite of rope around his neck.

"So," Alicia went on. "Here's my offer. You can come to work for me - but you're on my side. You tell me when whatever Republicans that hold your strings give you orders, and you come up with excuses when I tell you to evade them." She glared at him, sending icy daggers into him. "And don't even think of lying to me. You try it, just once, and I'll burn you. Every single Democrat in this town will know that you're toxic, and I'll even do my best to make sure that every journalist puts you in their crosshairs. I'll make you crash and burn so hard that there won't be anything left of you except a little streak of carbon on the road. Got it?"

She stopped, waiting for Tanner to answer.

"Got it," he finally managed to choke out, still half-stunned.

He was screwed.

After another moment, Alicia's expression softened, ever so slightly. "Oh, don't look so dejected," she said. "It's really your own fault, of course, for underestimating me, but this won't be the worst thing you've done. You stick with me, and everyone else will think that you're helping to pass some great legislation, that you've turned around and decided to help the good guys for once. That phony 'legacy' speech you gave might turn out to be real, after all. What do you say?"

"Got it," he repeated again, as his mind still reeled. The good guys? She really was naive, if she thought that Washington could be simplified down to "good guys and bad guys". She'd need to open her eyes, and quickly, if she wanted to keep her skin around here.

But then again, he reminded himself, she'd seen through him. So maybe she wasn't as naive as he thought. That consideration sent a fresh sting of humiliation through him, but he suffered through it in silence.

Alicia stood up. "You might as well go ahead and gawk at me, now that I know your secrets," she commented idly. "After all, it's not like I don't work hard to make sure that I look good. Might as well show it off."

"I don't know what you're talking about," Tanner protested, even as his eyes shot to her body, greedily drinking in her lines and curves. She really wasn't kidding. That blouse and tight pencil skirt, although professional appearing at first glance, made it clear that an absolute knockout of a body lurked beneath the garments.

And the fact that she'd seen his lust for her, that she could tell even now how she excited him, made him even angrier with himself.

"So?" Alicia asked, as she sauntered back behind the desk and resumed her original seat. She leaned forward, locking eyes with him as she intertwined her fingers in front of her. "Do we have a deal?"

It didn't take long for Tanner to weigh his options. He didn't have any bargaining power here; the few chips that he'd brought to the table were all stripped away, except for one. Alicia knew that she needed his expertise. That was the only reason why he was still in her office, why she hadn't thrown him out on his ass. She needed his insider knowledge, but he needed to get close to her. He suspected that she knew he would keep on trying to bring her down - but if he backed off now, he'd certainly never get another chance.

"It seems that I don't have much of a choice," he admitted wryly.

"Oh, you've always got a choice," she replied immediately, smiling at him. Dammit, he thought, she really even had a nice smile. The kind of smile he could get used to seeing, if it wasn't attached to such a smart and calculating mind. "But in this case, at least, I think that you made the right one."

Without waiting for him to respond to that comment, she pushed back her chair and rose to her feet, flipping closed a leather folder that lay in front of her. "Now, come along," she said, stepping out from behind the desk and heading off towards the door.

Tanner rose to his feet and moved after her, annoyed that she'd seized control of the situation so firmly, but not sure what else to do. This whole "seeing right through him" thing had really knocked his mind for a loop, and he kept feeling off balance, like he was trying to stand on one foot and not fall over.

"Where are we going?" he asked, after a minute of walking.

"I've got a meeting with some of the senior Democrats, discussing the rough draft of my education bill," she called back over her shoulder, not slowing down as they left her office and cut through her staff area. "And since I barely know any of them, I figured that I'd bring you along and see if you can help me out."

"Great. And what exactly am I supposed to do to help out?" He saw Duecent glaring at him as he passed out of the offices, following after Alicia like a dog trailing behind its owner. Great. Duecent, you don't know the half of it.

He tried to get his mind back on track. Alicia said she was meeting with some senior Democrats? This seemed like the perfect place to try and kill Alicia's bill, rather than advance it - in her own party - but Tanner gloomily suspected that the woman had already foreseen this possibility, and knew how to counter it.

Alicia turned and beamed at him. "Think of this as the real interview," she suggested, her eyes practically laughing at him, mocking him. "If you help me get through this, I'll keep you around, and not announce that you're the biggest scumbag in Washington since Joseph McCarthy left."

She really was playing with him! Tanner fought furiously to keep his face neutral, while inside he gritted his teeth and imagined himself shoving her down a flight of stairs.

Instead, he held back, trying to think as quickly as he could as he followed Alicia into a meeting room. Sure enough, Senator Harrison Reed himself was there, along with half a dozen other senior Democrats that Tanner recognized. He hadn't blackmailed or otherwise faced off against any of these men, but he knew most of them - or people on their staff teams. He took a seat slightly behind Alicia and hoped that she wouldn't call on him.

As the other politicians and their staff were filtering in, however, Alicia turned back to face him. "So, give me the details on them," she whispered.

Tanner just raised his eyebrows at her. She wanted to use him? That didn't mean that he had to put up with her demanding information from him, like he was some kind of flunky.

Observing his intentions, Alicia made a show out of rolling her blue-green eyes at him. "Oh, get off your damn high horse," she hissed at him. "This is your chance to change my mind about you, remember? Just tell me what things I really ought to know for this meeting, and prove that you're more than just a barracuda in a three thousand dollar suit."

"Fine," Tanner gave in. "Senator Reed has a lot of power to call the shots, but he almost never does. He doesn't like getting caught in anything that ruins his image as a bipartisan leader. Not that he's actually useful for bipartisan negotiations, since he folds like a cheap suit whenever his precious integrity is threatened."

He saw Alicia nod, and kept on moving his eyes around the room. "Okay, coming in now is Nick Durlin, from Illinois. He's basically Reed's opposite - he's a firebrand, loves to jump on to the latest causes. Really loves getting on national television, always wants to be one of those talking heads on CNN or Fox. Massive ego."

Alicia nodded. "Okay, this is good. I can use this."

At least she didn't ask Tanner if he was sure. He appreciated that confidence, at least. "And the guy sitting in the corner over there is Tom Carp. He doesn't get out much, not super active. Tends to just go with the flow; convince him that the rest of the Party is on board with whatever you propose, and he'll fall in line."

Another nod. Unlike some Senators, who were great at giving the impression that they were listening without actually absorbing a single word, Alicia really did seem to have committed all this information to memory. "Anything else?"

"Yes, one more thing." He paused for a second, waiting for her full attention. "You haven't seen me in a three thousand dollar suit - and when you do, trust me, it will make an impression." He grinned at her, and for just a second, he thought he saw a little glint of that previous sultry fire in her eyes before she quenched it.

The other senators were now taking their places at the table, and Tanner stopped talking so that Alicia could turn back to the meeting. Sitting back, he tried to ignore the curious eyes from several of the other senators' staff members, resting on him. They recognized him, and were undoubtedly wondering what he was doing here.

"Well, it looks like everyone's here," Alicia began, leaning forward and clapping her hands together. The sound had its intended effect of turning the heads of the other senators, and they listened as she began talking, outlining the broad strokes of her education bill. Tanner settled back, letting the words wash over him, giving every outward appearance of listening closely.

Inside his head, however, he fumed, turning over the last few minutes over and over as he tried to work out where he'd gone wrong. How had his situation, his plans, gone so far astray, so quickly? He'd worked out everything, had a perfect plan.

And then Alicia somehow, inexplicably, saw right through him.

Well, no matter, he tried to tell himself. He could still turn this around. After all, he, Keegan Tanner, was known for his skill. He wasn't going to let some minor setback bring him down. There were a million different ways to kill a bill, and he only needed to find one. He might not have won the first round, but he was a long way from getting knocked out.

He narrowed his eyes slightly at Alicia Stone's back as she talked. He'd find a way to bring her down. One way or another, he'd make sure that she got her comeuppance for leading him on, flirting with him and teasing him.

Alicia Stone would be a worthy opponent, but Keegan Tanner would triumph in the end. He'd focus every waking moment on her, learn every detail about her, come to know her utterly and intimately.

And then, when she least expected it, he would destroy her.

Chapter Eight

*

"So," Freddie asked as he gazed over the lip of his pint glass at Tanner, "how's the new assignment going? Haven't talked to you for a few days, and your phone keeps going to voicemail. You and that new senator getting into it, huh?"

He waited, but Tanner didn't respond, didn't even look up. He just sat there, gazing down vacantly into his scotch glass, until Freddie reached over and physically twiddled his fingers in front of his eyes. "Yo, man, wake up. What's going on with you? You've been zoned out all evening."

"Oh, have I? Sorry." Tanner blinked, looking up and shaking his head a little. "Yeah, Alicia. She's driving me crazy, that's what."

"Yeah, I can see that you're off your game." Freddie gave Tanner another chance to respond, but the man had already zoned out again. "Come on, dude, talk to me. I've never seen you hung up this much before. What's the matter, you've developed feelings or something?"

Freddie meant these words as a light-hearted joke, but Tanner suddenly slammed his fist down on the bar, making him jump a little in surprise. "Hell no!" he burst out. "She's a bitch, too smart by half! I most definitely don't have feelings for her!"

"Whoa, easy!" Freddie held up his hands, as if surrendering. "I was just kidding! But this is the first time all week that I've been able to get ahold of you, much less get you out for a drink. What have you been doing with all this time?"

Before answering, Tanner tossed back the rest of his scotch, grimacing as he swallowed. "She's been running me ragged, that's what I've been doing," he complained. "Setting up meetings, giving her briefs on all the other people she meets with - and then, even though I've briefed her, she still drags me along to half the meetings anyway, where I usually just sit behind her and daydream about how her ass looks out of those damn pencil skirts that she always wears. And on top of that, her so-called Chief of Staff, Duecent? Totally incompetent. So now I'm stuck trying to basically single-handedly whip her damn office into shape and hire some people who can tell their heads from their asses." He sighed. "And now I need another drink, because I don't know when the next time I'll even be able to get out of there on time will be."

"Sounds rough," Freddie said sympathetically.

Tanner groaned. "You have no idea. But that damn woman is the worst problem of all. She's in my head now."

"In your head?" Freddie watched, concerned, as Tanner proceeded to lay that very head down on the bar, as if he was about to fall asleep. The man was going to get his suit lapels dirty with the stale beer that constantly coated the railing of the bar, if he wasn't careful. Freddie had never seen Tanner show such a lack of care for his overpriced clothing.

Tanner didn't appear to notice the sticky residue dangerously close to his expensive clothes. "How did she see right through me?" he asked rhetorically. "I totally thought that I had her charmed, eating out of the palm of my hand, ready to snap me up - and instead, she turns the tables on me, like a magician doing that damn trick where he pulls the tablecloth out from underneath all the wine glasses."

Freddie took another pull of his beer as he tried to think of how to respond. He had much less experience with women than Tanner, and he considered the irony of the situation; normally, he would be the one feeling hopeless and asking for advice from Tanner, instead of the other way around.