The Darkhorse_A Powerplay Novella Read online

  “There’s nothing up with me,” he muttered.

  "Ah, I see the problem,” Kamal sympathized.

  “Stop it!” Jeff interjected. “It doesn’t have anything to do with sex, and things there are working just fine, thank you.”

  “So, what’s got your panties in a twist then?” Derek asked with a smirk as he took a sip from his tumbler of scotch.

  “I’m not going to get the promotion to Brigadier General unless I’m married.”

  Everyone glanced around the circle.

  “For real,” Jeff added, sounding like a teenage girl even to his own ears.

  “You do realize they can’t deny your promotion because of that, right?” Teague said.

  “They sure as hell can’t if the President hears about it,” Kamal muttered.

  “Let me draft a letter for you,” Teague said, pulling his phone out of his pocket and starting to tap out a note. “We’ll hit them with military personnel regulation—”

  “No,” Jeff warned. Teague stopped, his expression confused. “I appreciate it, but I haven’t worked all these years only to get a promotion because I lawyered up.” He turned to Kamal. “Nor because I’m friends with the President’s husband. I’m a career soldier. Everything I’ve achieved has been on my own merits, this will be too.”

  “Forgive me for pointing out the obvious,” Derek added. “But they aren’t looking at your merits if they’re judging you based on marital status.”

  Jeff sighed. “Look. I’m military. We do things our way. We don’t operate like the outside world. I’ve been a part of that for fifteen years. I follow orders, I follow procedure, I follow tradition. If they want the position of second-in-command at the Pentagon to be a married soldier, then that’s what I’ll give them.”

  Scott blinked at Jeff in surprise. “You’re just going to get married? For a promotion?”

  “Yes,” Jeff answered. “I think I am.”

  “To who?” Derek asked, a look of shock on his face.

  “Whom,” Kamal corrected before Derek flipped him the bird.

  “That part I don’t know,” Jeff answered, checking his watch before he continued. “But I only have thirty days left to figure it out.

  Lisa watched as the soldier leaned down to talk to the group of six-year-olds. His hair was regulation short, not quite a buzz cut but nearly. The short strands looked like they’d be soft to the touch, but everything else about him was hard, from his jawline to his cut glass green eyes, to the muscles that bulged beneath the sleeves of his uniform jacket.

  “He’s really hot,” Nell, the second grade teacher from across the hall, whispered as she leaned toward Lisa.

  Lisa sighed in irritation. When would the world ever realize that simply putting on a uniform did not a special human being make. No, uniforms only served to hide the real person underneath. They tricked you into thinking the guy was a gem, rather than the cheating, lying deadbeat he actually was.

  “He’s okay,” she conceded grudgingly.

  “Okay?” Nell raised an eyebrow at her friend. “Did you get a look at that ass?” she whispered, glancing around to make sure no kids were nearby. “The Army should pin a medal on it.”

  Lisa struggled not to laugh. Nell was outrageous on a good day, and today was obviously a good one.

  “The most important word you just said? Army.”

  Nell’s lips tightened. “You know not all soldiers are assholes like he was.”

  Lisa snorted as the soldier stood and saluted a little boy who saluted him back. Jesus, it was really cute.

  “Oh, good God,” Nell gasped. “How did your ovaries not just explode?”

  Lisa shrugged, trying to maintain her careless demeanor. It’s possible they had, but she’d never admit it. Damn those uniforms.

  “Oh thank you, sweet baby Jesus.” Nell rolled her eyes skyward in prayer. “He’s headed this way.”

  “Yes, because I was in charge of the assembly, and he wants to know if he’s allowed to leave now.”

  “Killjoy,” Nell muttered as the tall soldier reached them and gave a brisk nod.

  “You’re Ms. Scotch?” he asked.

  “Yes. Thank you so much for coming to speak to the kids today, Colonel Thibedeux.”

  He watched her for a moment, those green eyes probing, making her feel like she was being stripped even though his gaze never left her face. Finally, he gave her a small smile. “It was my pleasure. Did you organize all this?”

  She glanced at Nell, wondering where this was leading. “Yes—”

  “Lisa is in charge of all our events,” Nell interrupted. “She’s known for it. We have some of the best assemblies and fundraisers in the district.”

  The Colonel nodded his head, seeming deep in thought. Finally, he asked, “Is there anything else I can do for you?”

  Lisa heard Nell make a choking sound and had to grit her teeth to keep from elbowing the other woman.

  “No, Colonel. Your presentation was wonderful, and you’ve been so kind to stay after for recess. I know the kids loved the chance to talk to you in a less formal setting.”

  The Colonel glanced at Nell, looking awkward for a moment. “Ms. Scotch, I’m wondering if I could speak to you alone for a moment—”

  “Oh, will you look at the time!” Nell interrupted at top volume. “I need to make sure the recess bell gets rung. You’ll have to excuse me!” She turned and practically ran toward the building, leaving Lisa alone with the Colonel.

  The Colonel raised his eyebrows and tried to suppress a smile.

  “She’s a little high strung,” Lisa offered in explanation.

  He cleared his throat. “As I was saying, I don’t know how to do this diplomatically, so I’m just going to throw it out there. Are you married? Or seeing anyone? I didn’t notice a ring, but I realize that doesn’t mean much…” His voice faded and he looked at her expectantly.

  Lisa’s heart beat double time. Why was he asking this? There’s only one reason a man asks a woman something like that, her subconscious shot back, danger, danger. Warning signs flashed behind her eyes.

  “Um…”

  “See. I knew that was too blunt.” He scratched the back of his neck, his skin flushing slightly under the tan he was sporting even in late November in Virginia.

  “I’m not seeing anyone,” she answered, silently cursing her inability to just lie. “But I don’t date soldiers. I mean, I don’t date, um, anyone. Well, not for a long time, and my ex, well, he was a soldier, and I decided that—”

  “No soldiers, huh?” he asked, his head cocked to one side as he examined her with those sharp eyes again.

  She swallowed uncomfortably and nodded.

  “Well.” He reached out and took her hand in his. She nearly stopped breathing at the contact. He lifted it as if he was going to kiss it, but then simply gave it a gentle squeeze and a slight bow. “Thank you for having me to school today, Ms. Scotch. It was a pleasure.”

  Lisa blinked at him and he gave her a smile before releasing her hand and turning on his heel, striding away, his spine erect as only a seasoned soldier’s was.

  Lisa watched the spot where he’d stood, her breathing ragged and her heart thrumming like she’d run a race.

  “Wow,” Nell said behind her. Lisa startled and turned to look at her friend who seemed to have appeared out of nowhere. “Did I say he was sexy? What I meant was he’s sizzling, steaming, hot.”

  “He was going to ask me out—I think,” Lisa added quietly.

  “But you turned him down.” Nell didn’t ask, merely stated the fact.

  “He’s a soldier.”

  Nell simply shook her head and sighed. “Come on, let’s go finish up the day before I take you out for a drink. You’re going to need it once you realize what you just let walk away.”

  Chapter 3

  He wasn’t sure why he thought it should be her. He’d spent the previous week going through his contacts list, the Pentagon staff directories, and even memories
of old girlfriends. None of them were right. Some he knew too well—they’d be horrified at the mere suggestion of a marriage of convenience. Others he didn’t know well enough—what possible incentive would they have for helping him gain his promotion? He also had to admit that while he knew a lot of bright and attractive women, none of them inspired him to consider marriage. Granted, it could be a marriage in name only, but all the same, he preferred the idea of marrying someone he felt something for other than run-of-the-mill admiration.

  Then he’d walked into that second grade classroom in a Virginia elementary school and seen her. She wasn’t exceptionally beautiful although she was certainly pretty enough—medium height, long wavy brunette hair, slender build, and big gray eyes. But there was something about the way she wore her skin—something that said she’d seen more, had more cares than the average thirty-ish school teacher. Something that called to his own old soul. A quiet determination that looked very familiar to a man who’d been raised in a crumbling excuse of a family in the very poor, rural south amidst racism, neglect, and a million reasons why he could never be a Brigadier General in the United States Army, a million reasons why he’d never have a wife who loved him and a family he could be proud of.

  But he had seen her, and in that moment his mind had latched on to the idea she was what he was looking for. Then he’d discovered she was the one who’d organized the event, she was known for those skills in fact, the very skills the Army wanted him to have a wife for. It sealed something in his mind, and he’d known what he wanted. He’d decided right then and there that he could make a business proposal to her—one that involved a marriage of convenience—and it would solve all his problems. He had no idea why or how, but Jeff had spent much of his adult life following his gut. It had kept him alive through Iraq and Afghanistan, kept him moving up the ranks of the military, kept him away from his destructive family. He trusted his gut, and yesterday it had told him Lisa Scotch was the woman who was going to get him his promotion.

  So now Jeff sat in the small office in his Virginia townhouse and stared at the computer screen. He’d done a lot of questionable things in his life—all of them in the name of friendship or national security. And frankly, he’d never had any guilt about it. He was sort of an expert in covert dealings—finding information, settling delicate negotiations, eliminating threats of all sorts. It was what made him an asset to his commander, and to his friends in the Powerplay Club.

  But now he’d used it for personal gain, and while he wasn’t quite sure how he felt about that, the deed was done, so he sat in his study and looked at what he’d uncovered.

  Lisa Scotch, recently Lisa Mason, newly divorced, living less than two miles from him in the Virginia suburbs outside DC, and in debt up to her eyeballs. That last item was the type of leverage he’d been hoping to find when he’d started his highly unethical examination of the woman and her life.

  He clicked from one tab to another, peering at the personnel records of her deadbeat of an ex-husband. The bastard had married her one year, left her the next, and proceeded to run up a few hundred thousand dollars in debt under her name before she finally divorced him a few weeks ago. It explained the tense set to her face, the haunted look in her eyes, and the antipathy she had towards military men.

  But he could work with it. While she might hate soldiers, he was willing to bet she’d hate losing her home, car, and every other worldly possession more. And his research showed that scenario was exactly what would happen if she didn’t get bailed out, and fast. Conveniently, he’d been investing the majority of his earnings since his first posting right out of ROTC. Jeff didn’t have much time, he didn’t have many options, but he had plenty of money, and he could use it to pay off her debts if she agreed to marry him.

  He leaned back in the big leather chair. It was one of the few luxuries he’d allowed himself. He didn’t spend a lot of time sitting at a desk, but when he did he wanted to be comfortable—something about all those years in standard-issue military metal chairs. Yes, he thought, he was going to proposition a sweet school teacher he’d only spoken to once for five minutes, and use her greatest failure to pressure her into helping him become a General in the United States Army.

  He ought to feel bad about that.

  He didn’t.

  Jeff Thibedeux didn’t generally have a lot of time to spare for feeling bad. He did what needed to be done. He was a man of action. There’d be time for guilt and a conscience after he was dead. For now, it was time to pay another visit to Arlington Elementary School, the students would be leaving soon, and he needed to have a chat with their teacher.

  Lisa stared at the man in front of her and felt her face flush.

  “You’re kidding,” she said, her voice semi-hysterical even to her own ears.

  “I realize it’s unorthodox, but—”

  “Unorthodox?!” she said far too loudly. “I know exactly three things about you, Colonel—your rank, your first name, and your last. I’ve spoken to you a grand total of ten minutes, and seen you twice in my life. I think you asking me to marry you is beyond unorthodox.”

  He nodded, his hard body displaying perfect posture while somehow still being relaxed. He’d made no movement to approach her from where he stood just inside the door to her classroom. The students had all left fifteen minutes earlier, and she could still hear the sounds of other staff outside in the halls. Thank God too, because she was beginning to think Colonel Thibedeux might be unhinged, and she very much didn’t want to be alone with him if he snapped. She didn’t see a weapon on the man, but he was military, he probably had some secret gun holster somewhere. What if he turned into a school shooter? Lisa edged closer to her desk where her cell phone lay in a drawer.

  He gave her a condescending smile as if he could read her every thought. “If you’d feel better having this conversation in public that’s fine. We could meet at a coffee shop or go sit outside at one of the picnic tables? Also, feel free to get your cell phone. I want you to be comfortable.”

  She felt her face flush with an unexplainable humiliation that he’d known what she was planning. And she shouldn’t be embarrassed—the man was crazy.

  “I don’t need to meet you anywhere, Colonel. The answer is no—hell no. Even if I was interested in getting married, which I am definitely not, it wouldn’t be to a man who I don’t know and is only using me to get a promotion.”

  He scratched the back of his neck like he had the other day when he’d been about to ask her on a date. It was a tell when he was uncomfortable. Good, bastard deserved to be uncomfortable. He’d made her exceedingly so.

  “If you’d let me finish, I think I can explain why this arrangement could be beneficial to both of us,” he said calmly.

  Oh yeah, this ought to be good.

  “Let me guess, you’ll be rescuing me from certain spinsterhood and I can benefit from your magical male—” she waved her hand in front of her, “thing, which all women must surely be dying to get into bed with.”

  He raised an eyebrow and chuckled. “I really couldn’t say. I’ve never had any complaints, but there aren’t women approaching me on the street about it or anything. As for the spinsterhood, if that’s what you prefer, then I won’t keep you from it. A year should suit my purposes and then you’re free to go back to whatever marital status you’d like.”

  “You’re disgusting,” she shot back. It didn’t seem to deter him.

  “Honestly, the more you protest the more I’m convinced you’re the perfect person for this. If you’ll indulge me for two more minutes I’ll explain how this will benefit you as well.”

  She had no idea why she indulged him but she did, crossing her arms in front of her chest protectively and nodding once, sharp and fast. “Two minutes.”

  He returned the nod, then took a step further into the room, propping a foot with a well-polished shoe on a nearby chair, resting his arm casually on his raised knee. She had a moment of anger at how relaxed he was about all this when
she was ready to explode from tension and something else she couldn’t quite put a name to.

  “I have…” he paused, as if searching for the right word, “resources. And I used them to find out your background. I know that your ex left you holding the bag to the tune of about three hundred thousand dollars.”

  She gasped, her lungs forgetting how to take a new breath for a brief moment. “How—”

  “I’m sorry for that, by the way. And you can rest assured that I’ll make sure his remaining time in the military is as unpleasant as possible. That means it’ll be pretty damn unpleasant.” He shifted a touch, taking his foot off the desk and beginning to pace slowly back and forth in front of the door. “You’re in debt. It’s not right, and it’s not fair, but it’s still the truth. Your mother is a widow with a small life insurance policy, a retirement fund that she won’t be eligible to collect for five more years, and a job that pays hardly more than minimum wage.”

  He glanced up at her and for just a moment Lisa thought she saw a softness, a sympathy in his eyes, but it was gone as fast as it appeared.

  “Your only sibling lives a few hundred miles away and has two kids of her own to take care of. You’ve sold your one asset—the house in Alexandria—the proceeds barely put a dent in what you owe, and you’ve signed a year lease on your townhouse. Your salary covers the rent and your car insurance, but there’s not much left over for paying off high interest credit cards.”

  She snapped then, losing patience with his litany of her shame. “I’m working with a credit agency to set up payments, Colonel. I’m not sure what your purpose in all this is—you’re only pissing me off—hardly conducive to your proposal.”

  He stopped pacing and turned to face her fully, his crystalline eyes boring into her, his entire body set in determination. “I can make your debts go away. I have more than enough money. I can buy you a house and anything else you need, and you can keep all of it when the year is up.”

  She blinked at him, stunned speechless.