Replacing Gentry (10 page)

Iphiclesians?
I repeated in my head. Never heard of them.
Wonder if it’s forbidden to Google them as well?

“I know,” Daniel said. “I’m just sick and tired of—”

“Of what? Living up to your commitments? Saving your father’s company? Becoming a US senator and then the most powerful man in the world?” Paul asked; then there was a pause. “Daniel?”

“You’re right,” Daniel agreed though his tone sounded spent. “I’m sorry. It’s just with the weddin’ and this vote . . . I’m a little on edge. I wasn’t thinkin’.”

“All right then,” Paul said evenly. “You
do
know that delaying the vote does nothing to change the stipulations already laid out by the proposal. Look, I know Tommy’s a pain in the ass but he’s still our biggest contributor,” he added. “We’re gonna need his funding, his connections and support for your US senate campaign next year, and then for the presidency,
and
he needs the revenue from the construction of the ballpark in order to have the funding to contribute.”

“I’m well aware of what’s at stake here, Paul,” Daniel said in a clipped tone. “And that’s why I’m sendin’ the bill to the floor first thing Monday mornin’.”

“You . . . are?” Cooper sounded doubtful. “What changed your mind?”

“Let’s just say that I’ve finally been able to put my concerns to rest,” Daniel said.

“Really?” Cooper asked, suspicious. “And this new understanding wouldn’t have anythin’ to do with where you’ve been today, would it?”

Daniel heaved a sigh. “Please tell me you didn’t hang around here all day waitin’ for me?” A pause. “I bet Marlie just
loved
that.”

“Danny, stop screwing around,” Paul insisted. “Where were you?”

“Meetin’ with the education chairman, if y’all must know.”

“What?” Paul asked. “Why wasn’t I told about this . . .
meeting
?”

“Because I knew you’d talk me out of it,” Daniel said without elaborating, to which varying degrees of objections spewed from both Paul and Cooper.

“Hold on,” Daniel said. “Hold on! It’s no big thing. I was just securin’ a few guarantees, a compromise of sorts, assurances for the schools before sendin’ the measure to the floor.”

“Oh, Daniel. You didn’t!” Cooper said.

Uh-oh!
I thought as my mind rolled back to that brief, unfortunate discussion we’d had at our wedding table. I’d only been trying to defend my husband; how could I have known he would take my spur of the moment suggestion to heart?

“I did. And don’t worry. The education secretary is eager to take all the credit for this; there’s no chance
anyone
will ever find out I had a hand in it.”

“Really?” Paul’s voice was coarse. “And so what, you’re looking to that bohemian, liberal wife of yours for council now?”

Daniel didn’t answer.

“You’ve got to be kidding me?” Paul said. “You’ve been married a week and she’s already calling the shots. It’s like Gentry all over again!”

“Leave Gentry out of this,” Daniel hissed.

Paul scoffed out a laugh. “Look, Miss California-liberal is fine if you need a surf lesson, or a hot-body to snuggle up to at night, but she’s a
social worker
. What does she know about politics?” he said pointedly. “This could blow up in our faces Danny, in more ways than one. How could you be so reckless?”

A silence filled the quiet with so much tension that I could feel its nip one story up and through the vent.

“All right, that’s enough. Both y’all need to take a breath.” Cooper stepped in. “Layin’ the merits of this
compromise
aside. What makes you think you can trust Marlie’s advice? She’s your wife and all, but honestly Daniel, we hardly know her—
you
hardly know her.”

Daniel let out a loud sigh. “I can’t explain it, but I just know I can. Y’all are goin’ to have to trust me on this one—”

“She’s keepin’ secrets from you,” Cooper cautiously slipped in.

My heart iced over. What secrets was she alluding to?

Cooper continued. “Secrets that could be damagin’ to your future political career not to mention our family’s reputation—”

“Stop right there.” Daniel cut her off. “Does she have a criminal record? Has she engaged in an illicit affair with a married man of questionable moral character? Has she murdered someone?” He waited a beat. “Had an abortion? Is a lesbian? Muslim? Mormon?”

“Not exactly,” Cooper conceded.

“I didn’t think so,” Daniel said in an impatient tone. “Everyone has secrets, Cooper. Lord knows we have our fair share.”

“But you’re forgettin’ that she’s a social worker,” Paul said in a deliberate brutish tone. “She’s trained to ask questions, to dig until the answers surface. What happens if she finds out about—”

“She can’t find what’s not there to be found,” Daniel dismissed. “Y’all are overreactin’.”

“Are we?” Cooper persisted. “She snuck out today and took the boys to the cemetery to visit Gentry’s grave.”

“What?” Daniel said, bemused. “Why would she do that?”

It sounded like I had done something
wrong
.

“What does it matter?” Cooper persisted. “I have a really bad feelin’ about her. How can we assume that she’ll behave herself when we know nothin’ about her motives? She’s too unpredictable. You should have married someone more . . . well, easier to control.”

Daniel laughed. “Come on, Cooper. Where’s the fun in marryin’ a woman I can control?”

Paul piped up. “And what if she’s one of them?” he said, and Daniel’s laughter came to an abrupt stop.

The conversation lapsed into another awkward moment.

Them? Who’s them? The Iphiclesians?

“That’s just plain crazy,” Daniel asserted. “Marlie’s the most genuine person I know. She speaks her mind honestly, which quite frankly, I find refreshin’.”

Paul chuckled ironically. “Exactly! She’s
too
perfect. She’s playing you. Being what you want her to be. She could be a spy sent to keep an eye on you, or worse, to sabotage you, which I have to admit, seems more likely,” he suggested, and the room got quiet again.

I held my breath waiting for Daniel’s answer. I still wasn’t sure what they were talking about, but there was one thing I knew for sure. I wasn’t “playin
’
” anybody. Marriage wasn’t a game. Not to me.

“Don’t go crazy, but you should know that, prior to the wedding, I put a call into Johnny,” Paul continued. “You know we need him on this one.”

“I don’t want Johnny anywhere near my wife.” Daniel was insistent. “Not again!”

Cooper spoke next. “Daniel, you need to simmer down,” she said in a leveling voice. “I think we’re in agreement that the more eyes we have watchin’ the better. Like Paul already said, if we’re not careful, this could be disastrous for us.”

Silence fell over the room.

“Fine. Maybe y’all are right,” Daniel agreed. “But he needs to keep his distance—”

“Miss Marlie?” a voice erupted from
inside
my room.

Startled, my head slammed against the underneath of the vanity with a hollow smack. Pain radiated from the crown of my head as a very unladylike curse word slipped from my lips. Pressing my hand to the source of the pain, I slid the grate closed with my free hand and looked over the shoulder of the other to see Electra in my doorway. She had a tray in her hands and a sharp look pinching her face.

Busted!

On all fours, I crawled out, my dignity a distant memory. “I—
I thought I saw a spider, or some such . . . other creature, in need of killing,” I said like it was perfectly natural for me to be hunkered down beneath my vanity.

Electra cocked an A-shaped eyebrow and set the tray on the ottoman in front of the fire. “I thought you might need more tea.”

As I got to my feet my head was buzzing, my over-stimulated brain working to make sense of the conversation I’d just overheard while refocusing on my original dilemma—whatever it was Electra was supposed to have told me. And given that I couldn’t ask Daniel about the Gentry-like woman, Electra was my last hope for answers. I barely had time to formulate a question when she straightened and gave me a censured look.

“You drink then,” she said, turning for the door. “Maybe you feel better in morning.”

Chapter Eleven

I
awoke to the sound of a sharp inhale. My inhale. Like I’d been startled, only I couldn’t remember hearing anything, or if I’d been dreaming.

I could just make out the bedroom furniture in the silvery pre-dawn light. I listened but the house was still as if holding its breath, waiting for day to break. So what had awoken me? Dislodging myself from the arm Daniel had wrapped around my waist, and then the other beneath my neck, I lowered my feet to the floor. Daniel’s shirt lay crumpled at my toes, discarded last night in his haste to get out of his clothes, to get me out of mine. Slipping my arms into the sleeves to cover my bare skin, I buttoned it most of the way down and padded out of the room. My mouth was dry, so I took the back stairs down to the kitchen to get a drink.

The light from the refrigerator stung my eyes as the cool fog floated out to nip at my face. My eyes felt heavy and swollen. After what had happened in the cemetery, and then the conversations I’d overheard the evening before, and the mounting questions all three incidents had left gnawing at my brain, it was no surprise that I hadn’t slept well.

Plucking the orange juice from the top shelf, I unscrewed the cap and gulped from the bottle. The rebel inside me scoffed a wicked cackle, wondering what Cooper would think about my manners if she could see me now. With a devious smile, I wiped my mouth with the back of my hand, replaced the bottle, and swung the door closed. The kitchen, cloaked again in the predawn light, closed around me with a chill. Less than an instant later an intrusion in the stillness alerted me that I wasn’t alone.

My lungs squeezed in a short gasp, and I spun to face the source. “Paul!” I pressed one hand to my chest, the other to my forehead, trying to reclaim my breath. “You scared me half to death.”

I turned on the light over the water dispenser and the particulars of the kitchen became apparent in the soft glow. I blinked against the light as my eyes scanned the commercial gas stove, the glass refrigerator, distressed pine table, and rustic hearth. No one else appeared to be here. “What are you doing here?”

Paul’s gaze tracked over me. “I might ask you the very same question, especially after the day you had.” He ran his tongue over his lips.

The conversation I’d overheard last night skirted across my brain. So he’d been watching me. A dismal feeling settled into the closed air between us. “You didn’t answer my question,” I said through the murk.

“And you didn’t answer mine,” he came back, eyeing me with a depraved look that spoke of acts so foul, it pulled my belly into knots. “Maybe I’m here to get my share.” He stepped so close I could feel his hot breath on my face. “Looks like Daniel got his. Now, I want mine.”

Bile burned its way up my throat. “Get away from me,” I said, pushing at his chest to gain some distance.

“Or what?” His lips curled into a barbarous smirk. “You’ll scream? And Daniel will come to your rescue only to find you seducing his closest friend and advisor?”

Something in his manner told me that panicking was exactly what he wanted me to do. I edged away from him instead. “He would never believe you,” I said, biting back on the nasty taste in my mouth.

“Oh, really?” He crossed his arms and leaned against the center island. “Who do you think he trusts more, his oldest friend or the two-bit hussy who’s trying to ruin him?” he asked, oozing that self-important air he was so proficient at giving off. “Maybe you think you’ve fooled him into believing you’re some kind of saint, but we both know different, don’t we?”

I thought again about what I’d heard last night. So, he’d come to intimidate me—to put me in my place—with idol threats? Two could play that game.

“No more than you having him fooled into thinking you’re looking out for his best interests,” I charged back. “Forcing him to support a bill he doesn’t believe in. Trying to convince him that the woman he married is a fraud in order to reaffirm his dependence on you.”

Paul’s brows rose in subdued surprise. “Initiating a deal hatched by some silly notion of social consciousness was a risky, irresponsible move on Daniel’s part. He has a habit of getting distracted from our ultimate goal. It’s up to me to keep him on track. And sometimes a little doubt is just what he needs. It’ll have him thinking twice the next time he defies me to follow some ill-fated plan, proposed by a woman whose expertise begins and ends between the sheets.”

He pushed on. “So, we all have our secrets, don’t we? I’m sure he would be interested to know some of yours, like how you were once married,” he said, throwing that little-known detail out in the form of an accusation. “How come you never told him?”

Because I
never
talked about losing Finn and had no desire to start. I angled Paul a look. “Because he doesn’t need to know,” I said, keeping my voice unaffected while, on the inside, I trembled.

His eyes rounded into questioning circles. “Oh?”

I lifted a shoulder. “It only lasted a few months and was annulled, so I didn’t and do
not
, see the point in bringing up something so insignificant.”

He straightened and began to pace with slow scuffing steps. “Yes, but then there’s that unfortunate business with your pregnancy,” he said, his gaze swinging to mine.

“Miscarriage,” I corrected.

He shook his head as if scolding me. “An ectopic pregnancy is hardly the same as a miscarriage.”

My eyes widened in spite of my bests efforts to appear unaffected. How could he be privy to details I’d never shared except with the necessary medical professionals? The floor beneath my feet seemed to shift, throwing me off balance, but I held tight to the calm I’d been fabricating.

“He knows I can’t conceive. If he wanted to know why, he would have asked.”

Paul plucked a saltshaker from the island and looked it over. “And if he did ask,” he said, shaking a few white grains into his hand and then tossing them over his right shoulder, “I wonder if you’d tell him the whole story.”

Where is he going with this?
“There were complications, there was nothing untoward about it,” I said, keeping a careful eye on his smug expression.

He replaced the shaker with enough force that the ceramic cracked against the wood. “Except that you knew something was wrong. But you concealed your complications from your husband until it almost killed you.” He started to pace again, rolling his hand in the air as he spoke. “Headache and nausea can only be written off as the flu for so long when one is bleeding profusely,” he said, stopping abruptly to shoot me a look.

My skin turned clammy.

“So much blood,” he said, and my head spun as memories whirled up. “But then, one would have to wonder, why lie and risk your own life? Could it be that you’d gotten pregnant simply to trap this man because you thought a baby was your best chance of holding onto someone who was too good for you in the first place? A man who never would have stayed without a compelling reason? So, I wonder, how far will you go to hold onto Daniel?”

The orange juice in my stomach turned into an acidy froth. “What do you want?” I asked, the words seething up with an unnatural harshness.

The shadow of a smile passed over his lips. “I want you to stay out of my way,” he said, his eyes pulling into black slits.

“Out of
your
way?”

“Yes. That means keeping your mouth shut and your nose out of matters that don’t concern you. When Daniel comes to you for advice, you defer to me. When you have an opinion that contradicts, well, basically anyone, especially in a public setting, you keep it to yourself. No exceptions.”

I closed my eyes to hide from his gaze, hoping to quiet the chaos thrashing my insides. When I opened them again, he was square in front of me.

“You simply become Mrs. Daniel Cannon—loving wife, devoted step mother, and leave the politics to me. I’ve worked too hard, for too long, to get Daniel to where he is today.” He paused, his lips parting as if he thought to press them to mine.

I dropped my eyes to the floor, stepped away, and found myself backed against the cold steel of the refrigerator.

“So no one,” he continued, “not the mother of his children, and
especially
not some social worker who crawled out from under a surfboard, is going to get in my way.”

The cold from the refrigerator permeated the fabric of Daniel’s shirt, burning an icy sting across the skin of my back. Like a pinch to stave off drowsiness, the sensation of cold brought clarity to my riddled mind.

Channeling the pain, the anguish he so craftily forced me to relive, I directed it back to him with a measured gaze. “So are you ‘handling’
me
now?” And when he simply continued to eyeball me without an answer, I asked again, “Well, are you? Paul?”

Sliding out from between Paul and the refrigerator, I stepped a safe distance away and rested my hands on my hips. “Because where I come from, you know, from under that surfboard, we never back down,
especially
from quibbling, beady-eyed jerks. You want to get somewhere in politics, why don’t you try getting there on your own?” I said, aiming my words at his arrogant face. “Daniel is twice the man you’ll ever be. He doesn’t need you bossing him around any more than I do.”

Nostrils flaring, Paul took in a deep, closed-lip breath. “Bold words for a gold-digging whore. I look forward to ramming them into that self-righteous heart of yours,” he said, gesturing in my direction. “Look at you. You’re just a common tramp, living every white-trash woman’s fantasy. The problem with fantasies, though, is that they aren’t real. Just like how
you’re
not a real wife. And we both know you’ll never be a real mother. ”

Like a cluster of warring super balls, his attempts at intimidating me bounced off the thick shell of indifference I’d reformed around myself. “You can tell Daniel whatever you want about me, but it won’t be me you’ll be hurting, it’ll be him. How much use will he be to you when he’s broken-hearted from the loss of another wife?” I challenged. “So here’s the thing,
Paul.
I call the shots in my own life, but if you insist on attempting to control me, go right ahead. We’ll see who’s still at Daniel’s side when the dust settles.”

The malice was palpable as we stared each other down. The stalemate held, the seconds ticking down to the first rays of light now inching up over the horizon beyond the window. BB-sized drops of sweat rolled down my back and over my hips. But I held strong to my stance by keeping my hands resting casually at my waist, my jaw slack, while my eyes threatened.

Paul was the first to breach the impasse. “You’re in over your head here but too stubborn, and too blind, to see that you’re already drowning. You think you can take me on, Marlie Evans?” he asked, giving a swift look to the bright flecks of light splitting through the plantation shutters.

“Open your eyes. You’re in the middle of something much bigger than that simple mind of yours could ever imagine.” He started toward me, heading for the back door and stopped just past my shoulder. “Go right ahead and defy me. But in the end I’ll take everything and leave you with nothing.”

Leaning close, he hissed in my ear. “And then you’ll
be
nothing.”