“Bullshit,” Blane spat. “Everything you’ve done has been for you, not me.”
Keaston rubbed a hand across his forehead and sighed. “We could argue semantics all day, Blane, but frankly I don’t have the time. You’re here, Kade’s here. Why? What do you want? Or are we done?”
“We’re not done,” Kade replied, “but you are.”
“Haven’t we already had this conversation about threats, Kade?” Keaston retorted. “I was very clear, was I not?”
“You were very clear that, should I not make Kathleen go back to Blane, you would kill her, yes,” Kade said matter-of-factly.
I gulped. To hear it spelled out so plainly, my life or death dependent entirely on my relationship with Blane, was sobering. I’d known Keaston was crazy—he had to be to have done some of the things he had—but the reality of it was still sad and unnerving.
“Is that what you told Kade?” Blane asked.
“She’s carrying your child,” Keaston said in a reasonable tone. “Don’t you think you ought to marry her? You go on and on about Kade and his childhood. Are you going to let your child grow up fatherless as well?”
Kade stood, approaching Keaston until he mirrored Blane, flanking the other side of the senator’s desk. “Kathleen is pregnant with my baby, Uncle Robert, not Blane’s.” His lips twisted. “Bet you didn’t see that one coming.”
“Is that what she told you?” Keaston asked, his eyes swiveling to meet mine. He leaned forward, his arms crossed and flat on the desk. “She slept with both of you and you believe her? She’s a white-trash whore, gentlemen.”
I didn’t flinch from his gaze. I’d been called worse.
“She’ll tell you whatever she thinks will get her the best deal,” he continued. “I should know. I’ve dealt with women like her before.” He glanced at Kade and I sucked in a breath, realizing he meant Kade’s mother.
“That’s rich, accusing her of lying,” Kade said. “Coming from you.”
“We know about Lazaroff,” Blane said, “and the money he was funneling to you.”
Keaston went still at those words.
“I hear it’s real hard to get a fracking permit through the Department of Energy,” Kade said. “What with all the environmental groups so opposed to it. Those groups do seem so well funded, don’t they? Getting the word out, staging protests, making movies about how dangerous it is.”
“Of course the primary export of Russia is natural gas,” Blane said. “They stand to lose a lot of revenue if the US started expanding our own production, reducing the need to buy foreign natural gas. If I were them, I’d be doing everything I could to scare people away from fracking, right, Robert?”
“You wouldn’t happen to know anything about that?” Kade asked. “Except, we know you do, because we have every record of every transaction Lazaroff made to you.”
“Your career is over,” Blane said. “Ties to Russia and China? Not even your buddies in the media can whitewash that for you.”
Keaston sat back in his chair. Tense silence reigned. I held my breath, wondering if even this would be enough to take him down. Then he smiled.
“Well, you two think you’ve got it all figured out, don’t you,” he said, looking from Blane to Kade and back.
Kade shrugged. “I think we’ve got all the bases covered, yeah.”
“Resign,” Blane said. “Say it’s your health, say it’s Vivian’s health—I don’t care. I’ll let you ‘retire’ with dignity.”
“And if I don’t?”
“If you don’t, then you leave us no choice,” Blane replied. “We’ll release it all and you’ll lose everything.”
“I would think Lazaroff would have something to say about your plans to out our arrangement to the public.”
“Lazaroff’s dead,” Kade retorted. His smile was cold. “I saw to it myself.”
Keaston calmly opened the drawer in his desk . . . and pulled out a gun.
My breath caught on a gasp, my fingers digging into the arms of the chair where I sat. I knew neither Blane nor Kade were armed. They wouldn’t have gotten through security if they’d brought their guns with them.
It seemed the same thoughts went through Blane and Kade’s heads, because they both stiffened.
“I always knew it was a careful balance,” Keaston said, “having two men such as yourselves close to me. Blane, you may not believe me, but I have only ever wanted the best for you, for your career, and have worked tirelessly to achieve those ends.” He turned to Kade, pointing the gun in his direction. “You, however, have been nothing but a grave disappointment.”
“I’m all broken up about that,” Kade sneered, but his hands were clenched in fists at his sides.
Keaston ignored him, straightening to face me instead. “But you,” he said, leveling the gun at me. “You’ve been a pain in my side since you screwed up the TecSol project. Then you wrapped those legs around Blane, got inside his head, and he hasn’t been the same since. In actuality, I can blame all of this”—he gestured to encompass all four of us—“on you.”
“What are you doing?” Blane asked, his tone calm and reasonable. “You can’t fire a gun in here, kill Kathleen. Security would be on you in minutes. You want to go to prison for killing a pregnant woman? They’ll call you a monster.”
“You say I have to retire or you’ll destroy my reputation anyway, probably sending me to prison as well,” Keaston said. “Why not hurt both of you with one shot and have my revenge? It appears I have nothing to lose anymore.”
Blane took a step to his left, trying to block me, I thought, and Kade mirrored him, moving to his right, but Keaston stopped them.
“Make another move, either of you, and she’s dead,” he threatened.
I couldn’t breathe as I stared down the barrel of the gun. He was going to shoot me. I could see it in his eyes. After everything, all I’d been through, I was going to die right there in Keaston’s office, by his own hand.
Well, I guess I had said he’d have to kill me himself if he wanted me dead. I just hadn’t expected that to come true. How ironic.
And I was suddenly incredibly furious.
I stood, my body no longer trembling, and took a step toward the senator.
“The only thing that I can be blamed for? Is wasting even one thought for the things you’ve said to me,” I bit out. “There was a time when I wanted your approval, wanted you to be happy for what Blane and I had. I didn’t see until too late how warped you are. Your love for Blane is twisted and perverted. You’ve done all this to help him? You’ve hurt him more than anyone else.” I was seething now, moving closer to the desk, my entire focus on Keaston.
“Kat—” Blane said, a note of warning in his voice, but I ignored him. This was between me and Keaston.
“Blane and Kade have more honor, integrity, and love for each other than you can possibly comprehend,” I continued. “You could’ve been a part of that. Instead, your own greed and ambition has poisoned you, turning you into someone to be despised.”
Keaston’s face was flushed with rage as he stared at me. I was almost at the desk now. I could sense the tension in Kade’s and Blane’s bodies as they watched me, but I knew neither of them dared move.
“You presume to take me to task?” Keaston hissed. “You know nothing.”
“I know that you are a lying hypocrite,” I spat. “You’ve lied to everyone, including Blane, and destroyed the family you’d been given. You think Blane or Kade will let you live if you kill me? I’m a part of their family now, not you.” I paused, taking a deep breath. “You pull that trigger and the only question will be which one gets to you first.”
“You make the mistake of thinking you’re not replaceable,” Keaston said. “I assure you, you are.”