The moment she said yes, she chose him, he knew.

This incredible woman loved him.

He wanted to touch her, hold her, take her home, get her naked, and spend all day and night adoring every inch of her. Loving her the way she deserved.

Better get someone else on board, buddy. The way she deserved was with honesty and openness, not with a manipulative charlatan who had lied to her, just to get his own way.

And that was just the tip. Every day, Eli felt his arteries clogging with despair, his veins choking up with not just plain old politicking dishonesty, but with something deeper and soul-deadening: he was more like the old man than he’d thought. Now he wanted to taint Alexandra Dempsey with her family legacy of heroism and make her as dirty as his blackened soul.

However, this grasping opportunist also knew a good thing when he saw it. A month ago, he had almost died, and now the woman who had saved him in more ways than one was defending him to her whack-job family. He would take this gift he had intercepted and run with it to the end zone, because he couldn’t very well screw himself over now, could he? Better to use all that unhealthy self-loathing and line up a more suitable target.

“I want him buried.”

“My advice,” said Madison, “is to do nothing. It’s gutter rag gossip and our response needs to be proportionate. Getting into a public feud with Sam Cochrane right now is a bad idea, especially as we have bigger problems.” She flicked a glance over the room. “It might be better to talk about this in private.”

“Is it about Alexandra?”

A reluctant “Yes.”

“Have a seat, honey.” Ignoring the hairy-eyeballed glare from Luke, he led Alexandra to the conference table and sat down beside her, his arm resting on the back of her chair. He resisted the urge to twine his fingers in her hair. “If it’s about her, then just say it.”

“Eli, I really don’t think—”

“Spit it out, Madison.”

She crossed her arms, seeming more pissed than the average Mads. “Did you threaten a CPD detective with the sack if he didn’t end a date with Firefighter Dempsey?”

“No, I did not.”

“Thank God,” Madison said.

“I threatened him with demotion to traffic cop.”

Eli was rather pleased at how the air crackled with the energy of this new information. After a couple of electrified beats, Kinsey broke the stunned silence with a laugh, then caught the eye of a fuming Madison. “Sorry, but that’s . . .” She shook her head, still smiling. “Unexpected. Nicely done, Eli.”

He returned his former assistant press secretary’s smile. He’d always liked her, and firing her for disloyalty was one of the hardest things he’d ever had to do. It’s not easy being king.

“Who did the good detective blab to?”

“NBC,” Madison said. “My usual contact called to get a comment.”

“I’m happy to give one.”

She shot him a look that would have had a lesser man clutching his balls. “You will shut your mouth, Eli Cooper, until we work out a plan. Now the police union will be all over your ass, and just when we thought we had this sewn up. What the hell were you thinking?”

He shrugged. “I wasn’t. It happened in a fury-fueled daze. The man made disrespectful comments to someone else about Alexandra. I overheard and told him it would be necessary to curtail his date or I would be forced to curtail his career.”

“Wait one second,” Luke cut in. “Who was the cop?”

“He talks like this all the time,” Alexandra said to Kinsey. “It’s like Shakespeare and Iron Man had a love child.”

“I need a name, Alex.” Luke again.

“Michael Martinez,” Alexandra muttered. “Gage set us up. They play hockey together.”

“Right wing,” Wyatt said. “A bit slow on the breakaway.”

Luke’s brow knitted furiously. “Martinez from the Fifth District? That guy’s an asshole! What the hell were you doing on a date with him?”

“Luke,” Kinsey said. “Not really the time.”

“Well, it’s a damn good thing someone was around to put this guy straight. Jesus, Alex, you really know how to pick ’em.”

Alexandra stood and placed her hands on the table. “A minute ago, Eli was the anti-Christ, but now you’re okay with him because he acted like a caveman and protected your poor, clueless sister from a guy you don’t approve of? What the fuck, Luke? Do you suddenly recognize him as one of your Cro-Mag tribe?”

“ ‘Okay with him’ might be pushin’ it, but, Alex, sometimes you need someone to reel you in.”

“Why? Because you can’t be there twenty-four-seven—”

“After what happened last summer with Cochrane and that car, yes. You never think of the consequences. Kinsey lost her job and I almost lost her!”

Alexandra blanched, and the room followed suit with the awkwardness of Luke’s declaration. For the first time, Eli saw how hard she had it. He’d thought it was limited to institutional misogyny, but she was getting it from every angle. The press, her coworkers, and even the brother who was like a father figure to her. He also saw why she had refused to confide in her family about the renewed threat of Cochrane. The threat Eli had invented to manipulate her into his campaign—and his bed.

She loved them all so much. The thought of putting them through any pain, setting a test of their loyalty to her, which he knew they would pass with flying colors, killed her. She was protecting everyone by bottling it up.

“I think we’re getting off topic here,” Eli said, reaching for Alexandra’s hand. “I’ll deal with any blowback about Martinez from CPD in due course.”

Luke’s eyes gravitated to Alexandra, who had retaken her seat and refused to meet her brother’s gaze. Evidently hurt by his sister’s reaction, he turned to Eli, his face as hard as the table between them. “If you had a chance to do it over with Martinez, would you play it differently?”

“No.”

Alexandra cursed under her breath.

Eli and Luke squared off, a silent conversation running between them.

You might not like me, Luke, but I am her choice. You need to respect that. Respect her.

You’re a fucking dick, Cooper.

I’ll stipulate to that, but it doesn’t change what’s happening here.

If you hurt her in any way . . .

Understood. Good talk.

“Now,” Eli said, turning back to Madison. Do nothing? No way in hell was he going to let this attack on his woman go unanswered. “I have an idea on how to hit Sam Cochrane where he’ll hurt.”

 CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

As a girl, Alex had spent a lot of time sitting outside the principal’s office at St. Jude’s for any number of infractions, smoking in the bathrooms and setting off minor explosive devices, to name a few. But she’d never felt so full of dread as she did right this minute, waiting in the reception area of the penthouse office suite of the tallest building in Chicago (forget Willis, it would always be the Sears Tower to her).

That Luke harbored ill will over how close he came to losing Kinsey had sliced through her. But she didn’t blame him. Her poor choices had set in motion a chain of events that almost put the kibosh on his happy-ever-after. All this time she had been blaming Sam Cochrane, Eli, anyone but the real culprit—Alex Dempsey and her blazing temper.

She refused to be the one who took from everyone else any longer. Those self-help books and lifestyle sites were always saying that a woman should be the heroine of her own life. Well, screw that. She was going to be the hero, even if it meant doing the one thing she thought she would never be forced to do.