When Romance Prevails (The Dark Horse Trilogy Book 3) Read online

  “No, but it’s clear that someone on staff there has access to these rumors.” Joshua handed Hunter the paper. Sure enough, the headline “GOVERNOR GAMBLING TAX MONEY” graced the top of the page. “I’m sorry, Miss Mitchell. This must be hard.”

  Kerri sniffed something and rubbed her right eye. “My mother kept saying that there was money missing from the accounts. She thought someone was stealing. I doubt she would have ever expected my father… there goes his reelection.”

  “Undoubtedly it’s a good day to be Terrence Hall.” Joshua glanced at Hunter.

  “I have to go back.” Kerri leaped up from the couch, shaking her boyfriend off her and ignoring the other people around them. “I need to be with my family right now. I’m sorry.”

  “No, I understand.”

  “I thought you may have such a wish, Miss Mitchell. My driver will be more than happy to take you back to the Governor’s Mansion when you’re ready to go.”

  “Kerri,” Hunter took her by the wrist before she could march away from him for the first time in weeks, “are you sure you want to do this?”

  Her visage could not answer him. It was both a smile of reassurance and a frown of discord. “I don’t want to do this, Hunter. But I have to do it. If not for my father, then for my mother. You saw how she looked on there. It nearly broke my heart.”

  He released her. “Stay strong. If you need me, you can reach me on my prepaid.”

  “Oh, I’m sure I’ll need you soon enough.” Kerri patted him on the cheek. “Just don’t go chasing any other tail while I’m away.”

  “I wouldn’t dream of it.” The only tail he would be chasing was his own the moment he stepped into the Hall manor. They’ll be too excited to care that I’ve been away. In a strange way, this was the perfect cover to slip back into his family’s life.

  Chapter 7

  Nothing surprised Kerri when she pulled up to the Governor’s Mansion later that day and strolled right into the foyer with her tote bag and purse.

  Her mother went ballistic, shaking her by the shoulders as she sobbed and wailed at all the misfortune to befall the family. The campaign manager was half drunk and swearing into two telephones at once, but took a second to call Kerri a certain word that garnered him a slap on the cheek from Brenda. Disillusioned interns were packing up their things and abandoning ship… yet not before giving Kerri the longest look any of them could muster.

  Raymond Mitchell bellowed for her to come into his office, where he sat on his tarnished throne that would more than likely not be his come that Tuesday.

  “Kerri,” he growled, his suit wrinkled and his fingers gripping a handkerchief. “I don’t even know what to say to you. Choosing today of all days to come crawling back in here like a… like a…” he slammed the handkerchief onto his desk. “Like a traitorous creature!”

  “Raymond!” Brenda appeared in the doorway. Kerri still had yet to sit down. “That’s no way to talk to your daughter!”

  “Daughter? What daughter?” The laugh of a madman erupted from Raymond’s diaphragm. “She goes running off with that bastard son of Hall’s and comes waltzing back in here the day I make a fool of myself in front of the entire state. The country! What? Came here to gloat about that boy’s father being the new governor? Or do you call him Dad now?”

  Somehow Kerri managed to keep her cool during her father’s blitz. He’s just upset. Not an excuse for talking to her like he did, but it made Kerri more forgiving. “I don’t know Mr. Hall. I’m not in cohorts with his campaign. I came back to make sure you’re okay.”

  “Okay? Okay?” Raymond was up, his chair flying behind him as he got ready to storm around the governor’s office. But he never got that far. Instead he sank back down into his chair and stayed in the middle of the room where it had rolled. “I’m not okay, Kerri Kitty. Between what happened today and you running off like that, I’m a damn mess.”

  “I’m sorry, Daddy. I had to do it.”

  “We’ll talk about that later.”

  “But is it true? All of it? That you…”

  “Yes, yes.” Raymond refused to turn around in his chair and look at her. “What do you want me to say? That I’m sorry? Of course I am. Sorry that I got caught and that I got in this mess in the first place. I’m sick, baby. As soon as this election’s over I’ll go… somewhere… God! They’ll never look at me again.” “They” being everyone who once supported Raymond Mitchell, now the fallen son of the party.

  Gambling away taxpayer money. It wasn’t something Kerri ever expected, yet she put two and two together after the fact. All those held credit cards… all the missing money… Kerri glanced at her mother and saw a weariness she never before witnessed. “You’re home now, right?” Brenda asked. There was a hopeful tone to her voice.

  “Yes.” Kerri didn’t give any stipulations. Now was not the time.

  Nor was it the time for Raymond’s campaign manager to come stumbling through the office door, empty glass in his hand. “Raymond!” he bellowed, shoving aside both Kerri and Brenda. He reeks of alcohol. Bad day for everyone. “Get your gambling ass up, man! We have a campaign to salvage!”

  “What are you talking about?” Raymond waved him off. “Tonight’s not the night.”

  “Tonight is the most important night! Do you want to still be governor or not?”

  “What’s the point? It’s hopeless.”

  The campaign manager slammed both hands on the desk, making Raymond jump out of his seat. “It’s not hopeless. Not with what the birdies are singing in my ear about Terrence Hall. Let’s get that hippie bastard where it hurts most – in his balls.”

  Raymond slowly turned in his chair, skepticism marking his round face. “What have you heard? From whom?”

  “It doesn’t matter who I heard it from. All that matters is that we take Terrence Hall even farther down than you.”

  Chills scrambled down Kerri’s spine. This was the part she hated the most – the down and dirty discrediting mudslinging. Things could only get worse from here.

  The champagne flowed in the Hall manor when Hunter showed up early in the evening. The mood was so high that nobody chastised him for disappearing for so long, nor did they suggest that he was somehow less of a Hall for being with the governor’s daughter. If anything, they slapped him on the shoulder and thanked him for “taking one for the team,” since Kerri’s absence had thrown her parents so off balance that they couldn’t shake the gambling rumors.

  “You’re a twisted little bastard,” Terrence said the moment he greeted his son in the living room. Interns and other volunteers swarmed the area, laughing and cajoling one another over Raymond’s misfortune. “When we noticed you were missing the day the Mitchell girl disappeared, we knew you were up to something. You should have told me what the plan was!”

  Hunter turned down a glass of champagne. “That’s not why I was... I love her, Father.”

  Terrence wasn’t listening – he was too busy gathering his cohorts for a toast to the festivities. “Tonight, we welcome the election coming this Tuesday!” he cried, his champagne glass high up in the air. A chorus of affirmation blew up around them like fireworks. “Smile, Hunter. Your old man is gonna be governor this time in January.”

  Congratulations. When to bring up he intended to have Kerri keep her things in her old room and just let him move in with her? Of course we can’t really do that. Well… he would try.

  “It’s everything you ever wanted,” Hunter said.

  The only person to express relief that he was home was Ronnie, but she did not ask for details of his impromptu sabbatical. Nor did she talk about the developments with the governor… or the election for that matter. Ronnie was content to check her son over before fleeing to an isolated corner, where nobody bothered her and she could be left in peace. Hunter wished he could say something to her, but he didn’t know what.

  Turned out there was no point saying anything at all. Not when someone called
the team to the front window to point out a commotion happening on the street.

  News crews pulled up behind parked cars, their cameramen and reporters filing out as if they were jumping out of a plane over a warzone. A black car that did not belong to Joshua Payne swerved around the corner of the street and dumped someone off. It was Raymond Mitchell’s campaign manager.

  He had Holly with him.

  “Ah, the news is here to celebrate with us.” Terrence didn’t hear the murmurs about the manager or the little girl. “Let ‘em in! We have plenty to talk about!”

  The news people were behind the little girl and older, obviously intoxicated man. What in the world is going on? Hunter pushed his way to the front of the gathering in the foyer and kept a close eye on his father as lights and mics filled the Hall manor.

  “Welcome to my home! Although not for much longer, right buddy?” Terrence lightly punched Mitchell’s manager in the shoulder. The man glared at him and pushed the girl in front of him. Paul appeared from the back of the room, his feet squeaking on the hallway tile as both he and Terrence gaped at Holly’s presence.

  “Go on, honey!” Mitchell’s manager barked, sweat pouring from his brow as Holly jerked where she stood. “Tell them what you told me. Don’t be shy!”

  Silence filled the foyer. Cameras clicked and flashed as every reporter attempted to capture this moment in its strange infamy. Paul broke the silence by whispering into Terrence’s ear and taking Holly by the hand. “Where is your mother?” he asked with a hollowed out voice. “You shouldn’t be wandering in places you don’t belong, little girl.”

  “Don’t belong?” Holly shook his hand off her. “I belong here! I belong here just as much as that man does!” She pointed to Hunter, and suddenly the camera flashes were in his face. “Why does he get to live here and I don’t?”

  Murmuring increased as Ronnie stood beside her son. “Because he’s the representative’s son,” someone said. Paul tried to take her again, but she grunted and dashed into Terrence’s arms.

  “I’m yours too!” she cried, and a disturbing silence pervaded the foyer as Terrence rocked where he stood. “Please, Papa! Please let me live with you!”

  The first sound to break the silence was Ronnie’s champagne glass hitting the foyer floor.

  Chapter 8

  When Raymond’s campaign manager returned late that night, the aftermath of his actions over at the Hall manor was already broadcast to infinity on the news channels.

  Kerri could only sit aghast on the couch as the reporters dug into their meat and tore it apart without a care for whom they did it to. It both fascinated and disgusted her as she watched the world’s attention turn from her father to the deeds of some other man running for governor.

  Everyone wanted to talk to the girl named Holly, who claimed to be the illegitimate daughter of Terrence Hall. Twelve. Well-behaved. A model student at the local middle school – the prestigious middle school that Kerri went to when she was the same age. No one gets in there for free. Holly’s mother, when she appeared an hour later, did not look the type of “rich single mother.” When pressed about her daughter’s accusations, she could only say, “No comment.”

  So the frenzy began.

  The Hall house was sealed shut once the last of the reporters and the opposing party were run out. Even Holly was cast out, left to sob at the cameras that, “I only wanted him to be a bigger part of my life.” Brenda sat next to her daughter on the couch and drank her share of whiskey. “This is a mess even for them,” she mumbled.

  Due diligence was done on the part of the media, who dug up the juiciest things they could once Raymond’s campaign manager sent them on the trail. “Our latest reports show that Terrence Hall has been seeing this woman, named Madeline McCall, for quite some time. We’ve discovered video footage of him coming on and off her property in secret.” They showed some grainy footage of a man who may or may not have been Terrence roaming around this woman’s property. “We’re sure a DNA test will be forthcoming.”

  It didn’t look good. There was no way that Holly could be Terrence’s daughter and not have it kill his career. She was a good twelve years younger than Hunter, meaning Ronnie and Terrence were married while this affair went on. “It appears that Madeline McCall is a former assistant to the representative,” another reporter said. “Sources indicate that she was on his staff for about six months back in 2001.” Enough time to get pregnant and find out about it.

  No one said anything when Kerri pulled out Hunter’s cell phone and contacted him via his prepaid. Not even Brenda, whose eyes were fixated on the television as she became drunk.

  “You okay?” Kerri asked her boyfriend.

  “Okay? What do you think? I just found out my father has been having an affair with a woman for half my life. My mother is beside herself. It’s a terrible mess.”

  “So it’s true?”

  “As far as I can tell.”

  “The deed is done, Raymond,” the campaign manager called as he entered the room, slightly more sober than from before. “Consider your reputation, well, obscured!”

  Raymond stumbled in from his office but did not approach the man. “How in the hell did you find out about something like that and not tell me? Damnit, man, we could have taken Hall down months ago!”

  “I didn’t know about it myself until earlier today. Little birdie told me. I didn’t believe it at first, but after what happened with you… I figured, what the hell did we have to lose?”

  “Birdie, eh?”

  “I’ll tell you my sources once we get you reelected.”

  Kerri looked back at the TV. Who would win this damnable election now?

  As it turned out, nobody won.

  Well, that’s a lie. Of course somebody won the election. Somebody always won an election, whether they expected to or not. In Raymond Mitchell’s case, he conceded the election at 11PM that following Tuesday. Kerri was there to watch her father’s position of power fall into textbook footnote disgrace.

  “It’s with a heavy heart that I must part with you,” Raymond said at his podium in front of his few remaining supporters. Cameras rolled, but they were strictly for formality. Nobody expected him to win after the gambling thing. Nobody expected Terrence Hall to win either, and yet… “Your new governor is sure to do his best to bring you the care you need. My only hope is that he does as well of a job as I have.” Raymond smiled, but few people applauded.

  “You did well,” Brenda told him as they went backstage. To Kerri she said, “You’ll have to start packing your things, of course. But I don’t recommend doing it until at least next week. Your father is going to take this hard.”

  Kerri nodded. “I understand.” Not really. She didn’t understand a damn thing about this election. Especially not who won.

  “Friends,” Terrence Hall said on a TV backstage. Kerri stood in front of it just to see Hunter flanking his father’s side. Ronnie Hall was notably absent. “She left,” Hunter had told his girlfriend two days ago. “Just left in the night. I know where she is, but I haven’t told Father. She wants to be alone. She’s not taking any of this well.” “Thank you for your support. I’m sorry we couldn’t get to the next stage.”

  Without his wife to be his rock, Terrence had floundered in the last few days of his campaign. The media both chastised and applauded Ronnie for refusing to “stand by her man” when he finally admitted to his affair and other family. For years Terrence Hall had been supporting Madeline and Holly McCall. It was even insinuated that the cheater still kept up a relationship with the girl’s mother. The girl called him Papa. Hunter admitted that he had no idea how to take the news that he had a little sister, especially when it was revealed like this.

  Only one man celebrated that night, and it was to the shock of every bipartisan supporter in the state – no, the region. National news took a break from talking about more important states to comment on the dark horse sweeping the election with a
ten point lead over Raymond Mitchell. Now Joshua Payne stood with his smiling family in front of his house, the very place Kerri learned that her father was a gambling man.

  “Thank you once again everyone for the outpouring of support tonight.” Dressed in his finest suit, Joshua smiled the biggest grin of his life while his two boys hopped up and down in jubilation behind him. His wife, a tall, quiet woman of modest dress, also smiled in admiration. “We didn’t believe it was possible. But we did believe in miracles, and today I stand before you as your first third-party governor in over one-hundred years.”

  The applause was thunderous. No doubt many of the people on Joshua’s front lawn were detractors from both the Mitchell and Hall camps. “Traitors,” Raymond grumbled as he drank soda and wiped his brow with a handkerchief. “The whole lot of them. Traitors!”

  “That’s politics,” Kerri mumbled. Her mother looked at her but said nothing.

  “I bet you’re real happy, Kerri Kitty.” Raymond took another swig of soda.

  “Why would I be happy?”

  Raymond snorted. “That boyfriend of yours damn near tried to ruin everything. But now look at him. Standing next to his fallen father. Bah. What a pair that Hall and I make this year.”

  Kerri wasn’t sure how that was supposed to make her happy. But she was happy, yes. Happy that this was over, and the love of her life still found something to smile about on TV. When he looked up at the camera, it was as if he stared right into Kerri’s eyes and gave her a kiss for luck. Neither of them needed it anymore.

  TWO MONTHS LATER

  One week remained before the Mitchells were required to vacate the Governor’s Mansion. By that time Kerri’s room was completely gutted: her clothing was in trunks and suitcases, her linens packed neatly into boxes, and her items carefully wrapped in even more boxes. We’re going home. Of course it had been years since Kerri was last “home,” an old Victorian in the southern part of the state where they sometimes spent holidays. Raymond never sold it because even he knew that one day his reign as governor would come to an end.