The wind picked up, rattling the bare branches above them. Rachel stepped closer, her heels clicking like metronomes of doom.
“Here’s what’s going to happen,” she said softly. “You’re going to forget you ever saw those emails. You’re going to call off your little investigation. And tomorrow, you’re going to announce your support for the energy bill. In return, I will personally shred the backup drive. No copies. No ghosts.”
Gavin was the problem. Gavin Cross—her former protégé, now a junior senator with the charisma of a revival preacher and the ethics of a hungry shark. Six months ago, she had helped him bury a story about a shadowy real estate deal tied to foreign donors. It wasn’t illegal, exactly, but it was the kind of gray-area mess that ended careers. She’d cleaned it up, burned the emails (or so she thought), and moved on.
Sometimes, the only way to beat a monster was to become the thing they’d never see coming: a man with nothing left to lose.
“Loyalty?” Gavin’s voice cracked. “You threatened to release them if I didn’t kill the offshore energy bill. I saw the memo, Rachel. Your fingerprints are all over it.”
“And if I don’t?”
“Then I release the emails myself—but edited to show you as the mastermind. You’ll be facing ethics charges, a criminal probe, and a primary challenger by Friday. Your career won’t just end. It’ll be erased.”
