ROMANCING THE BULLDOG (21 page)

the emotions of the day were exhausting her.

“I knew,” he said, “but that was after we hooked back up, Liz. That was after I realized

how much I wanted to be with you.”

“Was it after you went on television and said I was your girlfriend? Was it after you went

public with our relationship?” When again Jason didn’t respond, Liz nodded. “Thought so,”

she said and was able to wiggle her arms free.

“But I’m not using you, you’ve got to believe that!”

“I don’t want to talk right now, Jason.”

“You can’t leave me.”

“Don’t tell me what I can’t do!” Then she sighed. This was too much. “Just leave.

Please! I need time to think!”

“I won’t run,” Jason said so spur of the moment that even he was surprised. But he

meant every word. “I won’t seek reelection, Liz. Then you’ll know I’m not using you.

Please don’t leave me, Liz. Marry me.”

Liz looked at Jason unable to shield her confusion. Marry him? Was he nuts? Then she

shook her head. “Just leave. I can’t deal with this right now.”

“But your father is lying!”

“Don’t call him that!” Liz said, showing unbridled anger for the first time. Then she

calmed back down. “He’s not my father,” she said softly.

Jason frowned. “You mean you don’t want him to be your father?”

“He’s not my father. He told me so himself. My mother had an affair or one night stand

or whatever she had and I was born. The only reason he didn’t divorce my mother and

disown me was because it wouldn’t look right. It wouldn’t look right, he said. So he raises

me, sends me to the best private schools, is willing to pay for me to go to Harvard, just for

appearance’s sake. Not for me. But for him. So he could keep up the façade of being the

epitome of success and status. Of having arrived. So excuse me, Jason, if I’m a little cynical

here. Excuse me if I’m a little slow about believing any man who once had that man’s

confidence.” Tears began to appear in her eyes. “Just leave,” she said to him.

Jason’s heart dropped. Not his daughter? How could Hamp tell her something like that

now, when he had to know she was already devastated when he claimed she was being used,

those pack of lies he told earlier today. Look at her. Jason wanted to scoop her up into his

arms and never let her go. But she was right. She needed time to think.

“If you leave here and go anywhere else to stay, you promise to let me know, Liz?”

Liz nodded. Anything, he knew, to get rid of him. But he left. His presence was only

adding to her distress.

Besides, he had somebody to see.

***

reading over papers when Jason came tearing into his orbit, with his butler hurrying behind

him.

“I informed the mayor that you were not receiving guests tonight, sir,” the butler insisted,

“but he refused to be stopped.”

“So,” Hamp said with a smile, “the bulldog cometh.”

“You’ve got some nerve, Hamp,” Jason said.

The butler again attempted to remove Jason. Jason snatched away from him.

“It’s okay, Rog,” Hamp said.

“Reinforcements, sir?”

“Nall,” Hamp said, “I think I can handle the bull dog and all of his bull. You’re excused.”

The butler left, but didn’t go far. It was obvious even to Jason that he didn’t trust his own

mayor.

“So what is it now? Upset because I check-mate your ass?”

“Why did you tell Liz that you weren’t her father?”

Hamp was thrown. Of all the issues he felt Jason would have with him, that wasn’t one of

them. “I told her because it’s true.”

“Yeah, well, DNA will solve that issue.”

Hamp laughed. “You can’t handle it, can you? The truth, I mean. You thought you had

me dead to rights. Sleep with my daughter, announce on television that she’s your lady, twist

the knife into good ol’ Hamp. But it all backfired. Because she’s not my daughter as it

happens, a fact that I will be announcing myself soon. So you see, you’ve been punked, my

brother. You picked the wrong slut this time!”

As soon as Hamp used that derogatory word to describe the woman he loved, Jason was

upon him. He hit him so hard, and so quickly, that Hamp fell back in his chair. The butler

rushed in to help, but it was already too late. Jason jumped down on top of Hamp, and both

men were fighting each other as if they were in a ring in Vegas, not on the marbled floor of an

elegant dining room.

FIFTEEN

The limo was waiting, along with a slew of reporters and clicking cameras, when Jason walked

out of the Jacksonville Police Department flanked by Carl Browning on one side, his attorney

on the other. He answered no questions, as expected, but that didn’t stop the reporters from

hurling them.

But if he thought the reporters were hostile, he was in for a rude awakening. His team,

Stephen, Dexter, and DeeDee, were all waiting inside the limo, and their hostility trumped all

others.

Even Carl, who got into the limo with Jason after saying his goodbyes to the attorney, was

visibly shaken. “We were already on the Titanic,” he said, “just beginning our voyage out to

sea. But you had the nerve, the temerity to go and pick up the iceberg, bring it all the way up

to us, and wham. We’ve got a problem now for real, and I don’t see how we can overcome

this.”

“The mayor arrested,” Stephen said. “And not just arrested for something simple, like

speeding or even a DUI dammit, but for beating up his opponent. At his opponent’s house!

You can’t make this stuff up!”

“What were you thinking, Jace?” Dexter wanted to know.

“It wasn’t as if I planned to fight him, Dex.”

“But why would you go to the man’s house? What kind of sense is that?”

Jason leaned his head back. “I plead stupidity, guys, okay? Satisfied?”

“Why did you do it?” Carl still wanted to know. “We were coming up with a plan. We

were going to answer every one of Hamp’s lies. But now we can’t answer a damn thing.

We’ll be too busy answering charges for trespassing, for assault and battery!”

Jason closed his eyes. He knew he blew it. He knew it. But he couldn’t let Hamp hurt

Liz and do nothing about it. He hadn’t planned to jump on the man, but when he called her a

slut he lost all restraint. Now he was screwed, royally, and he knew it.

Silence ensued when Jason’s staff saw that he was probably being harder on himself than

they ever could have been, and the ride to his home took on a kind of calm desperation.

Especially for Jason, who knew he had blown it big time. Until they arrived at Jason’s home

and he saw Liz’s mustang parked in his drive. All was forgotten, and his heart soared.

“Hamp had your truck towed,” Carl said, “but don’t worry, I’ll take care of it.”

“Whose Mustang?” DeeDee asked, but Jason was too busy getting out of the limo.

“You guys go home and get some rest. We’ll deal with this tomorrow.”

“Meeting in your office at eight?” Dexter asked him.

Jason looked at the Mustang . “You’d better make that ten,” he said and closed the door.

When the limo drove off, Jason began walking, nearly running toward his front door. As he

passed the Mustang, however, and realized that Liz had not entered his home with the key he

had given her, but was sitting inside of her car, he opened the passenger door and leaned

inside. “Hey,” he said, unsure how she would respond.

“Hey,” she said without looking at him. When she did turn in his direction, his heart

pounded. “So you’re Rocky now?” she said with a smile.

Jason smiled, too, and sat inside the car, closing the door. He turned and looked at her.

“How did you find out?”

“Carl phoned my cell. Said he was on his way to the police station to get you out of jail.”

“And did he tell you why I was in jail?”

Liz nodded. “He told me.”

“I couldn’t help it, Liz. That guy is a major a-hole. I’m glad you’re no kin to him.”

“So am I,” Liz said truthfully, and then looked at Jason. The tears began to well up in her

eyes again, at the thought of all that had transpired, and she hurried over to him. He pulled her

into his arms and sat her on his lap, his entire body aching for her, angry still that he and Hamp

would put her through all of this distress.

He cradled her, and rocked her. “Oh, Liz,” he said, “I’m so sorry.”

“Just hold me,” Liz said and Jason’s heart seemed to stop. He exhaled, then urgency

came over him. He opened the car door and carried her into his home. He didn’t stop until he

had her on his bed, undressed, and underneath him. He had to have her in a way that made

him feel as if life itself was on the line. He threw his shirt, his pants, his underwear off with

the deftness of a man whose need to show his love was searing him. And when he entered

her, he let out an audible sigh. Because he thought he had lost her. He thought for sure that

Hamp Morgan and his antics had caused their fragile relationship to fray forever. Now he had

her in his arms, kissing her, pumping her, releasing every ounce of himself into her because all

he wanted now was to be with her, to experience her, to love her in ways she’d never been

loved before.

When their passion finally subsided, he rolled off of her, and pulled her onto him. Liz lay

peacefully in his strong arms. Jason had given her more than just his sex tonight. He had

given her his essence. He had taken all that was good about himself, and given it to her. And

she felt the transfer. She lay on top of him and closed her eyes. He rubbed her hair and held

her as if he had stolen her and was refusing to let her go. And she was fine with the theft.

And she didn’t want to be let go.

***

turned around to look into his face, she realized he was on an elbow wide awake and smiling at

her. He placed his finger in strands of her hair and moved them out of her face. “Good

morning,” he said.

Liz smiled too. The idea that she could have thought for a second that this man did not

love her, was using her as Hamp had said, was ludicrous to her now. “What time is it?”

“Don’t know, don’t care,” Jason said.

Liz smiled. “You think the citizens of your town are waking up right now to learn that

their mayor had been arrested?”

“Probably.” Jason was still smiling.

“And that’s funny to you?”

“Hilarious.”

“What’s hilarious about it?”

“Hamp Morgan got a beat down, and I got you. Sounds like living a dream to me.”

Liz smiled, and then laughed. When she was able to compose herself, she turned serious.

“Yes,” she said, “and no.”

Jason thought about what she had just said. “Please let the yes be that you love me,” he

said.

“I love you, but that’s not the yes.”

“Then what?”

“Yes, I’ll marry you.”

“Oh, Liz!” Jason said excitedly and pulled her into his arms. “Thank-you, baby! You

won’t regret a day with me, I promise you you won’t!” Then he thought about it and pulled

her back slightly so that he could see her face. “And what’s the no?” he asked her nervously.

“No, you will not quit the campaign. You are going to fight Hamp Morgan and his

propaganda machine the right way this time: at the ballot box. And I’m going to lend every

inch of my support to the cause. Deal?”

Jason laughed. “Deal,” he said. Then he looked at her sidelong. “You’re ruthless, you

know that? You sure you’re no kin to Hamp?”

Liz thought about this, and then hit Jason playfully on his arm. “I got your Hamp right

here!” she said and then rolled back on top of the man she now would declare to anyone was

her man. Hers.

SIXTEEN

DeeDee Ramstead was so angry she wanted to scream. But she didn’t. She, instead, left

City Hall early, drove across town, and entered Big D’s as if she were a regular. When she

told the bartender she needed to see Hamp Morgan, he told her to get in line. When she told

that same bartender that she was Jason Rascone’s assistant and she had some rather interesting

information that Hamp Morgan would be very displeased if he didn’t hear, she was, within

minutes, escorted up to Hamp’s suite of offices and eventually found herself standing in front

of Hamp’s desk. His son Malcolm and Clay Davis, who was now fully onboard his election

team, were with him.

“You didn’t press charges,” DeeDee said as soon as she walked up to the desk.

“That’s right.”

“And why not?”

“Look, lady,” Malcolm said, “we’re taking a chance having you up in here to begin with.

Now get on with what you want. Why should we be answering your questions?”