Eternally Yours - Brenda Jackson [79]
“Yeah. Why?”
“I want to play something on the jukebox.”
Clayton stood and pulled out a couple of quarters and handed them to Trevor. He watched him cross the room to the jukebox, deposit the money and select a song. He then came back and sat down.
“I played this song for the both of us.”
Clayton lifted a brow when the jukebox roared to life with Trevor’s selection. He had chosen Toni Braxton’s “Unbreak My Heart.”
Senator Lansing looked up in surprise. “Braxter, you’re early. I wasn’t expecting you to come in until around nine.”
“There’s an important matter I need to discuss, sir.”
The senator nodded, noting the seriousness in Braxter’s voice. “Have a seat over there. Is something wrong?”
“That will be for you to decide.”
At the lift of the senator’s brow, Braxter continued. “The woman, the one I’ve been seeing, the one I took to Texas with me and introduced you to…”
“Yes, what about her?”
“She was using me to get information about you.”
The senator sat straight up. “What? How do you know that?”
“Last night I overheard a conversation she was having with someone, a private investigator. Somehow she must have found out about our interest in Syneda Walters and is doing her own investigating into it.”
“Who is she working for?” the senator asked calmly.
“I don’t know. But whoever it is, that person wants to make sure you’re not reelected.”
The senator frowned. He was running against Noel Frazier. He couldn’t believe the man would stoop to something so low. In fact, the two of them had vowed to run a clean campaign. “I want you to find out who’s behind it.”
“Yes, sir, and if you want me to, I’ll turn in my resignation.”
“Why?”
“Because I may have done more harm than good to you now. Because of me, the media may get ahold of something that you prefer kept private.”
The senator smiled weakly. “When you’re an elected official, Braxter, you don’t have any privacy. I would have preferred getting the information on Ms. Walters before anyone else. However, if there’s anything in the report that I need to be concerned with, I’ll deal with it.”
“But I let Celeste Rogers make a fool out of me. I can’t believe I was so stupid, so inexcusably stupid.”
“You weren’t stupid, Braxter. You’re a man who fell in love, and with love automatically comes trust. And the person you trusted betrayed you.”
“So what will you do, sir?”
“Nothing. We’ll just let the person who appears to be in control of things finish whatever game he or she is playing.”
Syneda entered her apartment. She had gotten through the day…now if she could only get through the night. Then she would concentrate on the rest of the week.
The day hadn’t been so bad with the visit from Cassie and Larry Morgan. An hour or so later, she had received notification of a date for the appeals court to hear her oral argument.
She had immediately called the Jamisons to give them the news. They had cried over the phone. Barbara and Walter Jamison had been without their little girl for almost six months. They were hoping and praying to win the appeal so little Kasey would be returned to them.
Later that night, when Syneda turned off the lamp and made herself comfortable in bed, she couldn’t help but think of the Morgans and how Clayton had helped to change their lives. The more she thought about it, the more convinced she became that somehow he had been instrumental in Larry Morgan finding employment with Remington Oil.
Then there was the Jamison case. Although she had come up with the new argument to use with the appeal, it had been Clayton’s expertise and experience as an attorney that had given her food for thought and ideas for different avenues to pursue. Numerous times during his weekend visits, he had brought a law book or two from his own personal law library. She had enjoyed spending time with him researching cases and digging for precedents she could use. A part of her knew if she won the appeal, it would be because of Clayton’s help.
As Syneda shifted in bed, she thought about something else she missed in not being with Clayton—the intimacy they shared. Although