ROMANCING THE BULLDOG (23 page)

listen good. We are not joking! If Jason Rascone isn’t at this door in two minutes, this door

will be knocked down, preferably on top of you!”

Shameika took a literal step back. “Well!” she said, but she hurried to the bedroom door

just the same.

Jason, however, was still pounding Liz, his body unable to be satisfied as he plunged

deeper and deeper into her. Liz had already warned him that he was being too loud, that

Shameika was still in the apartment, but he couldn’t help himself. Not where Liz was

concerned. This woman had him craving her so many hours in the day that he often wondered

how he got any work done. And now, with her beneath him, he couldn’t let her up. He kept

pounding. Neither one of them heard Shameika’s knocks until her knocking became banging.

Jason stopped and fell on top of Liz, his strength gone. “Damn!” he yelled.

“What is it?” Liz yelled out.

“Your staff is here to see the mayor,” Shameika said from the other side of the door.

“Sorry, but they say it’s urgent that they see him and that they see him now. Stephen

Armitage has threatened bodily harm on me if Jason don’t come now.”

Liz smiled. Jason was still too angry to even try.

“Okay, Meek,” Liz said, “tell them he’ll be there in a sec.”

“Will do,” Shameika said and hurried to let their guests in.

Jason, however, wasn’t in as big a hurry. He lay on top of Liz a few moments longer.

“Come on, Jace,” Liz said, attempting to move him off of her, “we’ve got to stop.”

Jason knew it, but he didn’t want to get out of her. “They can wait.”

“No, they can’t. Come on.”

Finally Jason reluctantly moved out and then rolled off of her. When he landed on his

back, Liz began getting up. When she saw her hair in the mirror, standing on top of her head,

she frowned. “Look at what you’ve done!” she said. “It took me an hour to get that hairstyle

together.” She hit him on his ribbed stomach. “Get up, you louse!” she demanded.

It was only then that Jason smiled.

All smiles vanished, however, when he and Liz entered into the living room nearly twenty

minutes after they had gotten out of bed, both dressed but neither in any great humor. But

when Jason saw his staff, he realized neither were they, and it wasn’t the usual unusual.

“What is it?” he immediately asked them.

Carl, Stephen, and Dexter were seated side by side on the sofa. Carl stood up. “Hamp

has made you an offer,” he said.

Jason sat Liz down in the chair flanking the sofa and he sat on the chair’s arm, motioning

for Carl to sit down, too. “Tell me,” he said.

“We have information that DeeDee went to Hamp’s camp earlier this week and gave them

the heads up about the announcement of your engagement today.”

“DeeDee,” Jason said. “You sure?”

“Positive.”

“Then get rid of her ass,” Jason insisted.

“Already done,” Carl said. “I played proxy for you and fired her myself.”

“Good.”

“But that being said,” Carl went on, “her information caused Hamp to drop a small

bombshell on us.” Carl exhaled, then continued. “Hamp wants you to resign as mayor of

Jacksonville, and he wants your resignation at the presser today.”

“Why? What does he have?” Liz wanted to know, her face a mask of concern. Jason

placed his arm across her thin shoulder. When his staff wouldn’t respond, but began glancing

at each other, Liz became even more concerned.

“What is it?” she insisted.

“As if you don’t know,” Stephen couldn’t stop himself from saying.

Jason stood up. “Get out,” he said to his aide.

Stephen, stunned, stood too. “Jace, you don’t know what we’ve got on her---”

“I said get out of this house and get out now!”

“But, sir,” Stephen said, beginning to panic now, “she’s the reason--”

“Okay, that’s it,” Jason said and grabbed Stephen by the catch of his collar and all but

dragged him to the front door. He then opened the door and slung him out of it.

“But sir, I’m sorry!” Stephen said, desperate beyond measure now. But it was too late.

Jason slammed the door.

It’s about time
, Shameika wanted to say, but she said nothing. She knew that the only

reason she was ever included in this inner circle of pure power was because Liz and now Jason

trusted her. She wasn’t about to say or do anything to violate that trust.

Jason sat back on the arm of the chair, again putting his hand on Liz. Liz knew that

whatever the news was, it was bad.

“Okay, out with it,” Jason said to Carl. “What’s Hamp up to?”

Carl again looked at Dexter, then he looked at their boss. “Hamp says if you don’t resign,

and resign during your press conference today, he will go public with information on Liz.”

Liz’s heart dropped. “What kind of information?”

“If it’s about that drug dealing ex-husband of hers, you needn’t worry, Carl,” Jason said,

“she already told me all about that.”

“Oh, really now?” Dexter said. “It would have been nice if you would have shared that bit

of information with us.”

“Not relevant,” Jason said. “I’m the mayor, not my wife. Or soon-to-be wife,” Jason

corrected himself, although he felt within the deepest reaches of his soul that Liz was already

his. “Her past has nothing to do with my public office.”

“If Hamp goes public, it will. And the answer to your inquiry is no, it doesn’t have to do

with her drug dealing ex. It has to do with Liz and her own drug dealing,” Carl said.

Jason frowned. “What?” he said, still staring at Carl. “What the hell are you implying?”

Carl and Dexter, however, were staring at Liz. And Liz appeared to them to be physically

ill by the fact that they now knew her secret. When Jason realized they were staring at Liz, he

looked at Liz too. What he saw broke his heart.

“Sweetheart?” he asked, getting off of the chair’s arm and bending down to her. “Are

you all right?”

Tears began to well up in her big, bright eyes. “It’s not true,” she said.

“I know it’s not true,” Jason said. “You would never do anything like that.”

“She did it,” Carl said definitively and Jason looked at him. “Hamp’s people showed us

the evidence. They have affidavit after affidavit from cops, community leaders, drug addicts

and former drug dealers in Philadelphia, all attesting to the fact that Liz Morgan did sell drugs.”

“Her ex-husband sold drugs. And when she found out she left him.”

“She was arrested, Jace,” Dexter said.

“She was arrested, Dex,” Jason said, “so the cops could squeeze her for information on

her then husband. Information, by the way, that she did not have.”

“She was arrested because her then husband swore that she was selling right along with

him, that she, with her Harvard-caliber brain, was the mastermind behind the whole scheme.”

“That’s not true,” Liz said, tears flowing freely.

“That wasn’t the official charge, that’s right,” Carl said, “but it was the fact of the matter,

and Hamp has affidavits to prove it.”

“What the hell are you talking about?” Jason said, standing again. “An affidavit doesn’t

prove a damn thing. People lie under oath every day of the week.”

“Not this many people,” Carl insisted.

“It’s not true!” Liz said angrily, but Jason grabbed her by the arms.

“Don’t you dare say that again,” he assured her. “Of course it’s not true, and you don’t

have to prove it to anybody. Especially not my own staff!” He said this and looked at Carl

and Dex.

Dex ran his hand over his head. “This is a problem, Jace,” he said, “no matter how you

slice it, it’s a bad slice.”

“Dex is right,” Carl said. “Because even if what she says is true, and she is innocent, the

public can’t forgive this. Not this. There’s too much
there
there.

“And in the black community here in J-ville,” Dex said, “they will not tolerate it. Hamp

will paint her as a crackhead who sold drugs to get her groove on and there’s no manner of

‘no, it’s not true,’ that’s going to change that fact. Especially when Hamp bust out with the

affi’s. All signed and sealed straight out of Philly. That’ll legitimize what he’s claiming, true or

not. And if our campaign was already on life support yesterday, today, if Hamp goes public

with what he has, we may as well pull the plug. ‘Cause it’s over. Put a fork in it, we’re

done.”

Liz dropped her face in her hands. Jason stood erect. And Hamp, they knew, wherever

he was, was shouting hallelujah.

***

and Liz spent the balance of the day holed up in the penthouse. Liz didn’t speak about it, and

Jason didn’t ask her any questions. She, instead, went out onto the balcony and stayed there,

relaxing in the lounger although, as Jason watched her from the vantage point of their bedroom,

she was hardly relaxed. He didn’t know what he was going to do, but he knew he had to make

a decision. Liz would not be put through the meat grinder, no matter how ridiculous Hamp’s

lies.

The idea that Liz would sell drugs, crack no less, was ludicrous to Jason. That was why

he asked her for no explanations. None was required. What she told him before, that she was

arrested because the cops wanted to squeeze her for information, was the truth. In politics it

looked bad, anytime you had to explain something in politics it was bad. And if it had been

anybody else on the face of this earth except Liz and his now-deceased parents, it would give

him pause. But it was Liz. And the only pause that bit of news was giving him was the

anguish in knowing that if he were to resign, Liz would blame herself.

He went into the study and closed the door. For he had decisions to make. And just as

Dex had said, no matter how he sliced it, it was going to be a bad slice.

EIGHTEEN

The press room at City Hall was so packed that there was not even standing room left. Hamp

had already sent word around the press corps that the mayor would probably resign to avoid a

scandal, and Hamp would make himself available to answer any questions the press may have

afterwards. The excitement in the room, then, was palpable enough. When Jason finally

emerged from out of the back into the briefing room, hand in hand with Liz, and with Carl and

Dexter behind them, bulbs flashed, hands were being raised and questions being thrown by

reporters eager to be the first, and Jason would have been lucky to get a word in edgewise.

Until he announced he had a prepared statement, and the room went silent.

“I know you expect news this afternoon. I know Hamilton Morgan has suggested all sorts

of rumors about me and my future as your mayor. I have called this press conference to put

all of those questions to rest. I’ll be brief. I will not answer any questions, and this will be the

last I have to say about this.” He squeezed Liz’s hand as he spoke. Liz looked at him and him

alone.

“I have asked Elizabeth Morgan to be my wife, and she has graciously accepted.” The

press room erupted, with so many questions that only one of them was clear: “When?” more

than a few reporters asked.

“We will be married on a date and at a time of our choosing,” Jason said to the

dissatisfaction of the press. “But that’s not why I’m here,” he went on. “That’s my business.

I’m here because on yesterday I received a beforehand notice that Hamp Morgan has plans to

go public with what he says is damning evidence about my wife.”

The reporters again went ballistic. “Wife? Did you say wife? Did you marry her

already? Are you guys already married? I thought you said you just asked her to marry you.

Does Hamp know?”

Jason had to quickly hold up his hand. “Excuse me,” he said, “no, we’re not married yet.

I misspoke. What I was saying was that Hamp claims to have evidence that he thinks would

ruin Liz Morgan, and thereby destroy me. Well, it’s a pack of lies like everything else Hamp

has presented to you guys, that’s first. Secondly, I don’t give a damn. He can present

evidence that declares my wife to be an alien from another planet and I still wouldn’t give a

damn. I am marrying her and I don’t care what Hamp’s evidence, and I use that term

advisedly, shows. Hamp’s request to me, according to these same sources, is that I resign as

mayor so that it will clear the field for his own ascension as leader of our beloved city. That’s

the kind of man we’re dealing with here. Well, it goes without saying that I think the last

person on earth who should be mayor of this city is Hamp Morgan. But that’s not my call.

That’s for the good citizens of Jacksonville to decide.

But one thing I will say,” Jason said, and then looked squarely in the camera: “If it was all