Page 69 of The Illusion of Power (Passion and Politics #1)

BECK

M y sigh of frustration pierces the quiet of Cal’s living room, and he closes the file in his hand, peering at me over the rim of his glasses.

“Spit it out, Beckham.”

I shift in my seat, angling my body so my legs are stretched out and tangled with his while my back rests against the arm of the couch. “I don’t have anything new to say, Drake. It’s just the same shit rolling through my mind over and over again.”

“Do I look like I care?”

He doesn’t. He’d happily sit here and let me talk about the same situation, listening intently the entire time, never interrupting or complaining.

“I care, though. I’m sick of hearing myself talk. I’m sick of asking the same questions and reading through the same files and finding nothing new.”

To demonstrate my point, I shove the files in my lap to the floor, watching as they land in a useless heap. Cal doesn’t say anything, just watches me like he knows it’s inevitable that the words I’m sick of saying will end up coming out of my mouth.

I hate that he’s right.

“I just don’t understand—” I start, grimacing when he smirks and puts his file on the coffee table.

“Go on,” he says, crossing his arms over his chest and nodding encouragingly.

My need to express my frustration outweighs the need to prove him wrong, so I do, in fact, continue, diving into a monologue he’s heard a thousand times before.

It always starts with questions about how Anderson got by us, how no one knew he was trading information with Jacob Marsh, how we still don’t know where they met or what they were planning for Selene.

Then, it shifts, focusing on Charlie and why she never told us the assignment that kept her from getting back to us actually involved the person we were asking her to provide information on.

I asked her after the briefing where we brought in Agent Lennon, but she was vague and defensive.

Everything pretty much boiled down to her not having to tell us anything because there was no confirmed threat against Selene, and, according to the report she gave over the phone today, there still isn’t.

After leaving Detroit, Charlie returned to the Brothers, taking the risk of calling in at least once a day.

So far, she’s only been able to confirm that Jacob has gone to ground and that no one trusts her enough to tell her why or where he is.

“Honestly,” I tell Cal, wrapping things up before I get too up in arms. “Having someone on the inside should mean more information flowing our way, not less. I feel like we had a better understanding of the situation when Charlie wasn’t involved. Now we’re more in the dark than ever.”

“I don’t disagree.”

“Then what the fuck are we going to do about it?”

“Focus on what’s in front of us.”

I frown at him. “I hate when you get all reasonable and shit.”

“I know, but someone has to be able to talk you down, love. I can’t do that if I’m losing my shit right beside you.”

“I like when you lose your shit right beside me. Everyone gets all scared and cooperative.”

He laughs like I’m being ridiculous, but we both know it’s true. When a calm, reserved person like Cal starts to raise hell, people tend to pay attention in a way that they don’t when someone like me—who’s known for wreaking havoc—does.

“Yeah, but that doesn’t really work on Charlie. If she gets pushed too hard, she shuts down. That’s why you two don’t get along now.”

“No, we don’t get along because she’s a liar.”

“You didn’t like her before you knew she was a liar.”

“So you agree that she’s a liar?”

He rolls his eyes. “She’s kept some things from us for reasons I don’t completely understand or agree with.”

“Right. Because you’re an honest person, and she’s not.”

A small chuckle escapes him just as a ping on both of our phones sounds off.

We both scramble to grab them, Cal reaching over his shoulder to pluck his off the end table, me hopping up to rush to the kitchen and pull mine off the charger.

The notification has a distinct chime, and it continues to play even after I unlock my screen and open the app connected to Selene’s bracelet.

We set it to notify us anytime she is on the move, which isn’t often these days because she’s too anxious to leave the house. But she is on the move now, and I watch with avid interest as the small dot with her face on it moves closer and closer to where we are.

“Is she—” Cal says, his nose damn near touching the screen of his phone.

“She’s coming here,” I confirm, my heart doing a flip because I’m so desperate to see her.

“How?” he whispers in awe.

I smile. “I may have told her about the blind spots around the house, specifically the gaps in the camera coverage between the patio doors of the in-law suite and the garage.”

We fall quiet then, tracking her drive the way we did her footsteps at the house in Houston: with devotion and without distraction. We don’t breathe or speak or move until she’s on Cal’s street. Then we rush to the garage and open the door, so she can pull in.

The lights on her luxury SUV are bright, and I squint against the beams until she cuts them and the engine.

With the car off, the only sounds in the air are our pants of anticipation and the clicking slide of the garage door closing.

Cal makes it to her door before I can, so I stand back, watching as she steps out and immediately sinks into his embrace.

His hands bracket her waist, fingers digging into the soft fabric of her favorite hoodie before sliding down to grip her ass through the sweats she’s wearing.

All the while, they’re kissing, trading happy laughs that warm my heart and draw me closer to them without even needing an invitation.

Selene turns in Cal’s arms when I approach, reaching for me with open arms. I take her face in my hands, holding her gingerly.

“Hello, gorgeous.”

She beams. “Hi.”

“I’ve missed you,” I tell her, watching Cal lean in to kiss her neck.

“I’ve missed you,” she says through a shaky breath that caresses my lips just before they touch her.

She sighs into my mouth, injecting that familiar feeling of belonging to someone who belongs to you into my lungs.

Cal lifts her up, and she wraps her arms around my waist, allowing me to carry her out of the garage and into the house.

“I can’t believe I’m in your house, Cal,” she gasps, breaking the kiss to look around. I stop in the kitchen, letting her slide down my body until she’s back on her feet. “It’s so beautiful.”

He’s standing with his hands in his pockets, watching as Selene runs her fingers over the tiled backsplash. “Thank you. How’d you know where to find us?”

“Aubrey had copies of all of your personnel files in his office. I came across them when I was in there snooping.”

My brows rise. “Snooping?”

“Yes,” she says, matter-of-factly. “The only thing I found of interest to me was those files. They included your addresses. I knew you’d be together at whichever one was closest to me, so that’s where I came.”

Like always, her thoughtful reasoning makes me smile, especially because it follows our line of thought so effortlessly.

Cal’s house isn’t all that close to Selene’s, but it is closer than my apartment by just a few minutes.

Since we gave her the bracelet, I’ve been spending every night we’re not working here, knowing that if she ever needed to press that button, those few minutes could be the difference between life and certain death.

“And what did you come here for, gorgeous?”

My voice is low, dripping with carnal decadence that Selene reacts to immediately. She is back in front of me in an instant with Cal closing in on her back, all thoughts of exploring his or complimenting his home forgotten as I pick her up again.

Cal’s fingertips brush against my hand as he slaps her ass, making her yelp. “I think she came to get fucked, Beckham.”

She moans loudly, eyes low and hazy with growing lust. “I did.”

“Say it louder, pet,” he commands, peeling her out of her hoodie, setting those perfect breasts free to bounce in my face.

“I came to get fucked.”

Her declaration ends on a broken moan as my lips close around her nipple, but I’m satisfied and so is Cal.

She’s given us what we want, so the only thing left to do is return the favor.

Which is what we do over the course of hours, using every stolen minute she’s gifted us with to wrap her in love, to worship her body and feed her soul, to remind her that regardless of what finds her out there in the world the only thing she’ll ever find here with us, is love, peace and protection.

We fall asleep in a tangle of boneless, sated limbs.

I’m on my side with an arm around Selene’s middle while her head rests on Cal’s chest, and the most perfect, soul-soothing quiet surrounds us.

I don’t know how long we get to stay like that before Cal’s phone starts ringing, vibrating loudly against the hardwood floors from somewhere inside his pants.

He rises with a groan, rolling onto the floor to find and silence the disruption. Knowing that he’s taking care of it, I try to find rest again. Selene tries to do the same, turning over to snuggle into my chest now that Cal has left the bed.

Neither of us is successful because as soon as we hear Cal say Charlie’s name, all thoughts of sleep are gone.

I sit up first, swinging my legs over the side of the bed and then rounding it to sort through the clothes on the floor.

I hand Selene her items first, then get dressed with my eyes on the grim set of Cal’s jaw.

“What’s going on?” Selene whispers, slipping into her sweats.

“I don’t know.”

Cal holds a finger to his lips, signaling us to be quiet before he puts the phone on speaker.

“Charlie, can you say that again?”

“Jacob is back. Anderson’s arrest had him spooked, so he went to ground with the handful of people he still trusts.”

“Do you know where they’ve been?” Cal asks, sliding into his clothes now that his hands are free.

“Negative. I don’t think their hideout is important, Drake. Today, I saw them bringing in servers’ uniforms. You know, like the kind caterers wear at galas?”

“So they’re trying to blend in with catering staff at an event,” I say, not even bothering to announce myself before I speak because at this point, Charlie’s used to hearing my voice whenever she speaks with Cal.

“Not just any event, though, Beck, Aubrey’s Election Day party. They’re going to wait until the results are in, until she’s standing on the stage beside him while he gives his acceptance speech, and then they’re going to…” She trails off, like she doesn’t have the stomach to finish the sentence.

Cal finishes for her. “And then they’re going to kill her while the entire nation is watching.”

Selene is so still beside me. The shallow rise and fall of her chest the only thing indicating that she hasn’t died of shock.

I slip my hand into hers, squeezing hard to get her attention.

She looks at me, but I can tell she’s not seeing me, not feeling the calm and reassurance I’m trying to press into her skin.

Maybe she can’t feel it because of how badly I’m shaking.

“We won’t let that happen.”

I don’t know who the words are for, but they don’t seem to do anything for the two people in this room with me.

We are caught up in this storm of fear, of anxiety that refuses to fade even though we finally have the answer to the questions that have been plaguing us for days.

The knowing almost makes it worse because it forces you to acknowledge how much more time the other person has had to plan and how little time you have to cover all the ground you need to make up for.

Suddenly, I’m back chasing Valinsky. Following a series of clues that led me to my own home, to my wife’s mutilated body, and my son’s tiny, lifeless form. I’m running up the stairs and knowing by the silence that it’s too late. I’m racing down the hall, rushing headfirst into tragedy. I’m…

Selene squeezes my hand, and I’m back, returning to reality where nothing bad has happened yet. Where nothing bad will happen, if I have anything to say about it.

“Where are you now, Monroe?”

It’s only then that I hear the tell-tale clicking of a signal light. The quiet hum of a running engine. “ I told them the Election Day plan was too much for me and bowed out as quickly as possible. I’m on my way to the Taylor residence now,” she says. “They need to be briefed immediately.”

“We’re on the way,” Cal barks, hanging up the phone.

The energy in the room turns frantic, and we rush Selene to the garage in hopes that she’ll make it home before Charlie’s arrival brings her absence to everyone’s attention.

Everything feels urgent and rushed, including our goodbye kisses, which happen in the driveway because Selene forgot to get them when we were still in the garage.

Once she’s gone, I stand in the driveway next to Cal and close my eyes, whispering a prayer for her, for us. He indulges me for just a second, then turns to head back inside.

“Come on. We need to get ready to go.”

I’m about to follow him when I feel it.

The eerie sensation of eyes on me.

I tense, scanning the quiet street for any sign of movement, but come up empty. I do one more visual sweep, straining my ears to see if I hear anything other than the gentle quiet of the early morning and the desperate, stuttering beats of my heart.