“Well, the city does have one of the lowest tax rates in the state!” I point out.
“And that’s because all hell will break loose if it goes up. The hotels and shit already get taxed heavily as it is.”
“Our property tax rate is incredibly low compared to the rest of the country! You just finished telling me how our former police chief wanted to ignore a string of kidnappings because it would be bad for tourism. Look, every year our crowds get larger and rowdier while our beaches get dirtier and our infrastructure continues to age. Our police are underfunded in this area, our emergency response teams are several minutes slower to respond than the national average, and don’t even get me started on our local educational needs and test scores. Yes, our local businesses are making great profits, but they are doing so at the expense of the common citizen who lives here all year round.”
“You want to expand the police department, even though under Bailey their corruption ran rampant?” Cannon asks me in disbelief.
“Especially because of Bailey’s corruption!” I snap back at him. “When we get a new chief, I’m going to ride him like my own personal little pony to clean up the ranks and reform the department. I’ll be on him from the moment he wakes up every day until I finally let him pass out at night until it’s done!”
Cannon recoils in his chair slightly, and for a moment I think he’s going to make some comment about riding him like a pony. He actually surprises me this time, however.
“I’m not trying to argue with you,” Cannon says.
“I find that hard to believe since we’ve been arguing for the past hour!”
“All I’m trying to do is suggest that you lighten up a little bit. Dress more like a twenty-something single woman and less like a sixty-year-old businesswoman.”
I gasp in outrage. “For one, I am not going to try and get votes by dressing like a slut. And two, it’s winter!”
“If you hold events inside, then you’ll be nice and warm,” he says. “That’s where you went wrong yesterday. Having an event outside this time of year when everyone is missing the summer sun isn’t going to bring crowds.”
“Shit,” I mutter.
“What?” he asks.
“I think…I think you’re right,” I reply, hating the words that come out of my mouth.
“You think I’m right? Did I hear that correctly?” He leans forward, holding his ear toward me.
“Oh, shut up,” I tell him with a roll of my eyes and a smile I can’t help.
“If I was right about that, then maybe you should consider that I’m right about other things too.”
I don’t like that thought very much, but it does make me reconsider.
“I’ve only got one shot at this,” I explain to him. “If I screw up and lose…”
“You’ll what? Be stoned to death by your opponent? Get exiled from the city? If you lose, then you run again in a few years.”
“It’s not that simple, but forget it.” There’s no way I’m going to explain to him that, if I lose, it’ll be the huge failure that will haunt me like a ghost for the rest of my life, proving that I don’t have what it takes to be a leader, that all the time I spent on a higher education was a huge waste.
“How about this, for the fundraiser event with the Savage Kings, you take some of my advice and try it out. What do you say, just to see what happens?”
“Okay,” I agree since that doesn’t seem like a big deal. How many people could the Savage Kings get to attend a political event? Fifty? Maybe a hundred at most.
“Okay?” Cannon repeats as if he doesn’t believe I’ll compromise.
“We have a deal. It’s the least I can do since you’re helping organize the event.”
“Thank you for trusting me,” he says with a smile that reaches his blue eyes, making him look so damn gorgeous it catches me off guard. My lower belly tightens with the kind of need I’m not sure I’ve ever felt so strongly before.
Cannon is a dangerous man, not just because of his association with the Savage Kings but because of the effect he has had on me in such a short amount of time. If I’m not careful, I could find myself letting my guard down and falling right into his bed like so many women before me. But I’m stronger than the barista or any of his other one-night stands, because nothing is more important to me than my career – especially not spending one night of my life with a well-known player.
Chapter Ten
Madison
While the prospects and Cannon were incredibly helpful today, I’m still not sure how I feel about them hanging around right outside my townhouse all night. For one, it’s freezing cold. That shouldn’t be my first problem with it, but it is. And it’s why I walk over to the SUV where Jake and Lucas have just slipped inside; Lucas in the front passenger seat and Jake in the back. The complex’s assigned parking spaces are all full, so they had to park along the curb.
“This is really unnecessary,” I say to Cannon when he rolls down the driver’s side window. The windows are fogging up with the heat going full blast inside.
“Would you rather us camp out in your house with you?” he asks with a knowing smirk.
“No!” I say almost too quickly, because dammit, the longer I’m around him, the more I want to touch him and have him touch me. This situation is wrong on so many levels.
“Didn’t think so,” Cannon says, his face blank and jaw tight because he thinks my refusal is because I don’t want him, personally, anywhere near me.
“You’re still not leaving, are you?” I ask.
“Nope.”
“And there’s nothing I can do to change your mind?”
“We’ve already covered the one and only other option,” Cannon responds.
“Then fine. Goodnight,” I tell them as I turn away and start walking across the parking lot to my townhouse.
There are enough lights from the street posts that, when I pull my keyring from my coat pocket, I can figure out which key to use for the lock in the darkness. I turn the knob and push it open with one last look over my shoulder at the SUV before I step inside and close the door behind me.
I’ve just slipped the keys back into my coat and taken it off to hang it in the closet when an arm grabs me around my waist, picking me up off my feet so fast my keys hit the floor. My scream of surprise echoes around us for about two short seconds as I try and lunge out of his arm toward the door. But then a hand clamps over my mouth, tasting like sweaty leather and cigarettes as he pulls me further into the entry way until I’m facing the opposite wall where a tall figure is standing in the dark. I can’t see much of him, because he’s either in all black or dark clothes with a ski mask hiding his face. My screams are muted so that no one, not even Cannon, who is right outside a few feet away, can hear them.
I try and push at the arm over my mouth and the one on my waist, but they’re so heavy and strong I can’t even move them an inch.
“Stop struggling and listen to me closely, bitch,” the man across from me says before he comes closer until the front of his body is pressed to the front of mine and I’m sandwiched between the two strange men. If I thought that was bad, it was nothing compared to what happens next when the guy in front presses something to my throat. Something cold like steel. I’m guessing it’s a knife. A very huge knife. All I can see in the darkness is a gleam in his eyes like he would slice my throat and enjoy it.