Poisonous Kiss: Chapter 28

“Hey! Fumi! It’s me!”

I look up from the files I’ve been going over at the kitchen counter at the sound of Maeve’s voice.

“Hi!” I smile at her. Then my eyes turn cold when Amber walks into the kitchen behind her. At this point, any attitude I give her is less because I’m still mad at her for trying to flash Gabriel, and more because it’s just so much fun to watch her squirm when I give her this look.

“Amber,” I say icily.

She smiles awkwardly at me before turning to Maeve, who clearly doesn’t have a clue that her friend tried to show Gabriel her tits.

“I’ll go upstairs.”

“Cool, be right there.”

Maeve walks over to the fridge and pulls out a couple of seltzers. “We’re going over some of the prerequisite reading for this fall.”

She and Amber are both going to be freshman at NYU come September.

“Sorry, I’ll be out of your hair in a few. I need to head to the office anyway.”

She snorts. “Dude, it’s your house.”

For some reason, that makes me pause. Slowly, a smile creeps over my face. It’s not just that she’s technically right: this is “my” house because I live here, and I happen to be married to Gabriel.

It’s that it really does feel like I belong here now. It’s not just a technicality anymore.

Something’s changed in the last two weeks, ever since the night Maeve and her friends stayed over and I slept in Gabriel’s room. He and I never talked about it, but after that night, I just…never moved back into the guest room.

The next night, I slept in his bed. And the night after that. The third day, I came home from work to find all my things removed from the guest room and sorted neatly into his master bedroom and walk-in closet.

No words exchanged. No big talks. Just our new reality.

And I like that. A lot.

There’s a knock at the front door.

“I’ll get it,” Maeve chirps, skipping out of the room. I hear her open the front door, then a cheery, familiar greeting. A second later, she walks back into the kitchen with Taylor and Meredith in tow.

“Hey—I was just about to head into…”

I trail off, my stomach dropping when I see the grim expressions on their faces.

“Um… What’s going on?”

Maeve is filled with the righteous indignation only attainable by an outraged eighteen-year-old. “He can’t just…just…hold him there!” she spits, after Taylor and Meredith fill us in on what’s going on with Gabriel.

I blink, my throat dry. It was incredibly reckless of Gabriel to barge into Preston Hall’s office like that. But what really has my pulse thudding in my chest is that I know why he did it.

Me.

That’s why Gabriel stormed into the Governor’s office, fists up and swinging. And it’s also why he’s sitting in a holding cell with building security for the next twenty-four hours.

“They can, actually,” I mutter, glancing at Maeve. “They’ve got until tomorrow to either charge him or let him go.”

Maeve glowers. “Will they just let him go?”

Taylor purses her lips. “Would you, if your primary political opponent walked into your office and decked you?”

Maeve angrily shakes her head. “But why… Why the hell would he do that?!”

“That’s what I’m trying to figure out,” Meredith groans, tapping furiously at her tablet.

I look past her, catching Taylor’s eye. “Can I…talk to you for a second?”

Taylor follows me out the kitchen door and into the back garden of Gabriel’s townhouse so we’re alone.

I tell her everything. The campaign I worked on. Staying at the office late with Hall, and all his special attention on me. When I get to the night he drugged and assaulted me, her face goes downright livid. Then she’s blinking back tears as she grabs me and hugs me fiercely.

“I’m so, so fucking sorry, Fumi,” she says quietly as I hug her back.

“It’s…” I shake my head, squeezing my eyes shut. “It’s in the past. I’m…fine.”

A small, private smile twists my lips.

Because I am fine, actually. I mean, it’s a scar that’ll always be there. And I’ve told myself I’m “fine” for years now.

But for the first time, finally, I know I’m not lying to myself when I say it.

It’s Gabriel who’s pulled me out of that place and allowed me to heal. He and “his monster”, as he calls it. His darkness. He’s allowed me to explore that part of myself, and those needs, while knowing there is always a way out.

Knowing that even when I am on my knees, utterly submitting to him, I am always in control, with a safe word I’ve never once had to or wanted to use with him.

“So I can assume that’s why he went in there with guns blazing?”

I nod. Taylor’s mouth twists into a wry smile.

“Interesting.”

My brows knit. “What?”

“It’s just…” She looks at me curiously. “You know he wouldn’t do that for just anyone, right?”

I roll my eyes. “I don’t know if that’s true. He’s like Mr. Hero⁠—”

“Fumi,” she says softly. “While I doubt I know Gabriel as well as you do, I do know him quite well, and have for a while.” She smiles. “We both know the Mr. Hero routine is armor. And for the record, there really aren’t many people he’d do that for. Tempest and Alistair, sure. Maybe for me.” She arches a brow quizzically. “You know, your fake husband might actually love you.”

My face heats as my top lip retreats between my teeth.

“Does Gabriel have proof of what Hall did?”

I look away. “Well…yes and no.”

I explain to her what Gabriel has, and I watch the wheels begin to turn inside her head.

“Shit,” she mutters. “That’s hearsay at best, and if Hall has a halfway-decent attorney—and I know he does—it would never stand up in court. But it could speak to character and motive if there was other, harder evidence against him.” She frowns. “I wonder if Meredith has any ideas. That girl is a fucking Pitbull when she wants to be.”

Back in the kitchen, though, they seem to be at as much of a standstill as we are.

“So, here’s where we are,” Taylor sighs. “Gabriel has some evidence against Hall regarding”…her eyes barely meet mine before she smoothly continues…“a past instance of sexual assault. It’s not provable, and it wouldn’t hold up in court. But it could be circumstantial evidence toward character if⁠—”

“If you catch him getting handsy.”

We all turn to see Amber standing in the doorway to the kitchen. She glances at Maeve and grimaces.

“Like Mr. Porter.”

Maeve makes a face. My brows arch. “Wait, who?”

“Mr. Porter,” Maeve exhales, scowling. “He taught chemistry at our school.”

“Everyone knew he was a creep,” Amber adds. “Like, girls just knew not to be alone with him, but no one could ever get anything concrete. Until this one girl, Evelyn Carter, busted him. She set up a bunch of phones recording in his classroom while he was out, and then dropped by after school one day, alone. She got him on tape offering to bump up her grades if she ‘came over to his house’ some night. They finally fired him.”

My nose wrinkles in disgust as I glance at Maeve. “Okay, first of all, Gabriel and I need to have a serious talk with your old school’s administration about some basic fucking protocols. But second…” I turn back to Amber. “You’re suggesting someone should go into Hall’s office and deliberately bait him?”

“That’s not a crime,” Taylor murmurs quietly, eyeing me. “Unlike, say, sexual assault and battery.”

“Would it work?” Amber says.

Taylor nods. “If someone were to get Governor Hall on tape committing a crime like sexual misconduct, assault, harassment…anything like that…then yes, it could be used in conjunction with the evidence of his other crime. But who would⁠—”

“Me,” Amber says flatly. “I would.”

My eyes snap to hers. “No, Amber⁠—”

“Yes.” A pause. “Can I talk to you?” she mumbles, glancing at me. “Alone?”

When I follow her into the living room, she turns to eye me, chewing on her lip.

“I was really, really disrespectful the other day,” she says quietly. “To Gabriel, to Maeve. Definitely to you. And I want you to know that I’m sorry. It was stupid, and shitty, and I felt like such an idiot after I did it…”

I smile wryly, putting a hand on her shoulder. “Thank you. Apology accepted.” I sigh. “Believe me, I did some stupid, embarrassing shit when I was eighteen, too.”

She grins.

“But I’m still not going to let you walk into that man’s office as bait.”

“Fumi, I can do this.”

“I don’t doubt that, but you’re not. Governor Hall…” I swallow the bile in the back of my throat. “Look, the circumstantial evidence of assault they have on him?” My lips thin. “It was me he did that to.”

Amber’s mouth falls open a little.

“Holy fuck, Fumi⁠—”

“It was a long time ago,” I exhale. “The point is, he’s a dangerous man. He has a history of doing this, and I don’t want you walking in there⁠—”

“Yeah, no, now I’m definitely doing it,” she mutters, her eyes locked with mine. “Let’s bring the fucking asshole down.”

By that night, Kratos and his hacker friend have entered Amber into the Governor’s office database as a volunteer staffer. The next morning, wearing a skirt that’s maybe a touch short for a government office, a top with one more button undone than perhaps appropriate, and thick-rimmed glasses that conceal a microphone, speaker and two cameras, Amber walks into the Governor’s headquarters and makes a beeline for Preston’s private office.

In the car parked outside, I watch through the viewscreen that Kratos’ friend has set up on Meredith’s laptop. My heart pounds and my throat tightens as Amber navigates Preston’s secretary and then slips, alone, into the Governor’s private office.

I start when a hand lands on my arm.

“She’ll be fine,” Maeve says quietly. “She takes jiu-jitsu.”

Maybe so, but if Hall tries anything serious with her, I’m going in there and cracking a bat over his fucking head.

“Here we go,” Meredith mutters quietly.

We all hold our collective breath as Governor Hall grins salaciously at Amber. As he makes a comment about her legs. As she giggles and laughingly protests that he “would never be interested in a girl her age”.

It takes a lot for me not to puke. Taylor has to physically grab my hand and hold tight when Hall offers Amber a drink. When she shyly says no, she shouldn’t, he suggests waiting until after work, when she could come see his penthouse in Soho.

Then comes the bullet.

“Or, how about this? You’re the prettiest girl I’ve ever seen in this office, Amber,” Hall grins, one of Amber’s cameras catching it all. “And you know, this office locks from the inside. It’s soundproof, too.”

“Oh, Governor, I…”

“How about you show me what’s under that pretty little skirt, and I show you how fast you can turn this internship into a serious career?”

I inhale sharply, my hand tightening in Taylor’s.

“Governor Hall!” Amber giggles. Christ, she’ll be a fantastic actress if that’s what she wants to do with her life. “I’m… I’m too shy.”

He chuckles. “Really? You’re too shy for this?”

Suddenly, he’s undoing his pants. Instantly, I grab the headset attached to Meredith’s laptop, which has a direct connection to the tiny speaker in Amber’s glasses.

“Get the fuck out of there, now.”

“Maybe next time, Governor!” she blurts, turning and bolting from the room.

My face is grim as I turn to lock eyes with Taylor. “Yeah?”

“Yeah,” she mutters. “Yeah. That’ll do it.”

Ten minutes later, after giving myself a pep talk in the ladies’ room and thinking of Gabriel, I blast straight past Hall’s secretary and into his office.

His brows shoot up a little when he sees me. But then, his mouth twists into a salacious, evil smile.

“Well, well, well,” he murmurs, undressing me with his eyes. “I was wondering if it’d be you who waltzed in here trying to save⁠—”

“You gonna show me how fast you can turn my internship into a serious career, Governor?”

His smirk shatters.

Hall knows he’s fucked the second I say. And It. Is. Fucking. Sweet to watch his whole world crumble in front of my eyes.

The Governor goes pale as I walk over to him, my gaze eviscerating him as I plant my knuckles on the edge of his desk.

“Look, Ms. Yamaguchi⁠—”

“Shut the fuck up.”

His skin turns gray as I snarl the words, and his eyes widen in terror.

“You raped me,” I hiss.

“Now, Ms. Yamaguchi, we don’t want to get into a he-said, she-said⁠—”

“Yes, well, the she in this scenario said NO, and the he said I DON’T CARE and went ahead and did it anyway!!”

His bottom lip quivers. “Ms. Yama⁠—”

“In case my husband wasn’t clear enough when he tried to have this discussion with you the first time, let me make myself crystal clear now,” I snarl at him. “You are done, you disgusting fuck. Finished. You resign today, you leave the race, and you dis-a-fucking-pear. Permanently. You let Gabriel out of that holding cell, and obviously, you do not press charges against him.”

Hall’s mouth flapping open and shut like a toad is deeply satisfying to see.

“I—you—I mean…”

“Do it. Now. Or I release the recording my young friend just made in here.” I smile coldly. “You know, the pretty girl you just tried to expose yourself to. You and your minions managed to bury what you did to me under so much shit that it’s hearsay. But taken in conjunction with this? I don’t think there’s a judge in the city who wouldn’t reopen those files and take a closer look.”

I turn and march for the door.

“And what exactly is stopping me from bringing you down with me?” Hall snaps at my back. “I can make sure the press tears you limb from fucking limb. Do you know how easily I can spin what happened in my favor? Do you know how many girls walk into this office dying to get on their knees and⁠—”

“And do you, Governor,” I say thinly, turning to face him. “But before you do, do you know how old I am?”

He frowns.

“More to the point, do you recall how old I was when you assaulted me?”

I was nineteen. But from the sheer terror on his face, I’m guessing he’s suddenly realizing he has no idea how young I was.

“You have one hour to announce your resignation and get my husband out of that cell, you piece of shit,” I growl. “Oh, and it’s not Ms. Yamaguchi. It’s Mrs. Black, fuck-wad.”

Without another word, I turn and march out the door. Hall is still standing there looking like he’s about to piss himself.

Taylor answers the second I call her. “He’s got one hour to make good,” I mutter. “If he doesn’t resign and release Gabriel by then, leak Amber’s footage to the press.”

“With pleasure,” Taylor mutters. “And if he does do as he should?”

My lips curl dangerously.

“Leak it anyway.”

Taylor laughs. “That’s my girl!”