Capitol Threat Read Online Free Page B

Place in Tulsa: a cozy nook in which he could deal with the endless stream of memos, e-mail, phone calls, lobbyists, and constituents. He needed a place for personal privacy or private meetings. He still hadn’t been assigned one of the basement hideaways—just as well, given the unpleasant memories of Glancy’s hideaway he still retained, not to mention his inability to navigate the basement without becoming hopelessly lost. And no one seemed to use the Senate library anymore. It was dusty, musty, poorly lit—and worst of all, they didn’t carry either of the two books Ben had written. There was a rumor circulating that Christina was mounting a boycott.
    Speaking of whom…
    Ben stared up into the vivid blue eyes of his law partner, Christina McCall, currently serving as his chief of staff, who was seated on his desk, hovering over him. Her strawberry blond hair encircled her head like the flaming halo of the Angel of Retribution; her arms were akimbo, her brow was creased, and she had called him “Benjamin J. Kincaid,” a certain sign that she meant business.
    “You have to make a decision. Now.”
    “I—I don’t see the urgency.”
    “That’s why you have a chief of staff. So what’s it going to be? Decide!”
    “Look, I’m a United States senator—”
    “Which is precisely why you can’t dither about the way you usually do. Decide!”
    Ben tried to push his chair back, but the wall blocked his escape. “It’s only been a few months since the governor appointed me to fill out the remainder of Senator Glancy’s term. I don’t even know if I like it, much less whether I want to run for reelection. Well, I don’t know if it’s really reelection when you weren’t elected the first time, but I still—”
    “Stop.” Her eyebrows knitted together. “You thought I was talking about deciding whether to run for a full term?”
    “Everyone has been hounding me for a statement. The press, the governor, Senator Hammond—”
    “I don’t give a damn about that.”
    Ben blinked. “You don’t?”
    “Well, I mean, I do—but I already know what your decision will be.”
    “Is that so. Perhaps you’d like to enlighten me.”
    “Nope. Violates the Prime Directive.”
    “Excuse me?”
    “Forbids interference with the natural development of a dithering personality.”
    “Then what are we talking about?”
    She thrust the back of her left hand into his face. “This!”
    The sizeable diamond glittered in his eyes. “Oh, that. Well, gosh, we’ve only been engaged for, um…”
    “Thirteen weeks, two days, and roughly four-and-a-half hours.”
    “Yes. Exactly.” He pressed his hand against his brow. “I thought it was understood that we’d get married after this term ended and we were back in Tulsa.”
    “And that was acceptable when I thought we were talking about one abbreviated term. But I’m not waiting around another six years! I’ve been waiting for you half my life as it is!”
    They both heard the chuckles emanating from the back of Ben’s office. “Could you be kinda less subtle, Chrissy? I’m not sure Ben gets your drift.”
    Loving. Ben’s barrel-chested investigator, currently serving as Senator Kincaid’s research aide, though most of his research didn’t involve library books. “Something I can do for you?” Ben asked.
    “Just remindin’ you it’s time to take off for the Rose Garden. Don’t want to miss a chance to visit the White House.”
    “I was thinking I might skip it.”
    “Skip the White House?”
Christina and Loving both erupted at once.
    Ben shrugged. “There’s so much security. I can just stay here and watch it on C-SPAN.”
    Christina gripped him by the shoulders. “Benjamin J. Kincaid. When the leader of the free world invites the junior senator from the State of Oklahoma to the Rose Garden to hear firsthand who he’s nominating to the Supreme Court of the United States, the junior senator doesn’t go couch potato on him.”
    “He invited everyone