Kat finished off the rest of her vodka and ice and then looked back at the dance floor at the same moment a familiar voice yelled out from the entrance area.
“There you are! Colin, we’re coming your way!”
It was Frank Bennington with a much younger, darker skinned woman following close behind him. Colin knew it had to be Silia, the woman Frank had mentioned a few times before in recent weeks.
Frank wore a crisp white dress shirt, and dark blue tie with matching suspenders. At the bottom of his tan dress slacks were his always present, off white running shoes that he wore to help alleviate the diabetic nerve pain in his feet. His face was already red, sweat wetting the hair above his ears.
Silia wore a dark red dress and matching pumps. Her body, unlike Kat’s, was much more voluptuous, with ample curves moving from top to bottom. Though nearly ten years older than Kat, Silia’s dark, smooth, Brazilian skin lent her the ability to look nearly as young as the nineteen year old Russian. Silia’s thick, dark hair hung over her shoulders and upper portion of her breasts, half of which were exposed from the low neckline of the dress she wore.
“Colin, this beautiful woman with me is Silia. Silia, this is my young political protégé, Colin O’Shea and his friend…Kat.”
Silia smiled and nodded to Colin and then found herself being hugged tightly by Kat.
“I love your accent! Is that Mexican?”
Silia shook her head as she stepped back from Kat’s embrace.
“No – Brazilian.”
Frank Bennington was looking around the club, his eyes holding an oddly manic light to them.
“I had to pony up a c-note just to get past the big dude working the door. And where does a guy get a damn drink in this place?”
Colin pointed toward the bar, which could barely be seen from behind the mass of moving bodies.
“Over there.”
Bennington’s eyes locked onto the bar.
“Ok, you come with me O’Shea and we’ll bring back some drinks for the girls. Ladies, I’m leaving you in charge of keeping our table here, ok?”
Kat didn’t appear to hear Frank as her attention was focused back onto the dance floor. Silia smiled and nodded.
“I’ll take a White Russian, Frank.”
Kat turned and giggled at Silia’s request.
“You can have me, Silia! I’m a white Russian!”
Silia laughed at Kat’s humor, as Frank glanced at Colin, his eyebrows rising happily into his forehead.
“Be right back with those drinks, ladies!”
Colin tried not to laugh as he watched Frank Bennington attempting to navigate himself through the throngs of young people, his hands pushing out in front of him. By the time they reached the bar, the fabric of Frank’s shirt under his armpits was soaked.
Bennington ordered a whiskey and White Russian while Colin ordered an ice water for himself and another vodka for Kat.
“What’s with the ice water, O’Shea? You one of those rare breeds they call a sober Irishman?”
Colin tried to locate the table where Kat and Silia were to be sitting, but was unable to find them.
“I’m on the job, Mr. Bennington, and I take that job seriously.”
Frank Bennington shook his head.
“That’s the main reason why I wanted to talk to you tonight. This thing the congressman has for Kat…it’s getting out of control. I’ve got Russian thugs kicking my ass for his obsession. It could ruin his chances to be-----.”
Frank’s words were cut off as a body slammed into him from behind. It was one of the two Russian men who had been trying to speak with Kat at her table earlier.
“Hey – sorry old man! Didn’t see you there.”
Frank whirled around and looked up at the much younger and certainly more physically imposing Russian.
“You can take your apology and shove it up your commie goony ass!”
The Russian broke out laughing, his hand slapping down several times atop the bar.
“Oh, you’re one of those funny old men! I get it! Funny! Hey, I got your drinks, ok? On me old man, enjoy!”
Bennington appeared ready to say something more but then closed his mouth and shrugged.
A moment later, both Frank and Colin stood next to their table that was now empty. Both men looked out at the dance floor hoping to see either Kat or Silia.
“Oh, now that’s just a beautiful sight to behold.”
Frank’s words were swallowed up by the music, which now seemed even louder than before. His face held a trace of a smile as he watched Silia and Kat dancing together, their arms held up over their heads as their bodies moved up against one another.
“I’m starting to understand why the congressman is crazy for that girl. Wow. Just…wow.”
Colin ignored Bennington’s comments, instead noting once again the same two Russians from earlier were now making their way onto the dance floor toward Kat and Silia. Bennington’s hand came up to grasp Colin’s forearm.
“Leave it be, Colin. Let the ladies have their fun. They both seem more than capable of handling two over muscled Russian assholes.”
Colin O’Shea stood silently as the two men surrounded Kat and Silia, who in turn attempted to ignore the men as they continued to dance with themselves. The throng of other dancers, perhaps sensing trouble, moved outward from the four, leaving an empty bubble of space surrounding them.
One of the two Russians, the one that had bumped into Bennington, reached out and put his hand on Silia’s shoulder. She brushed it off with her own hand and continued dancing up against Kat.
The second Russian, the one who had dismissed Colin earlier, put his hand on Kat’s upper right arm and spun her around with enough force she almost fell down. What happened next stunned Frank Bennington so much he found himself unable to move, his mouth hanging open as he watched the action unfold before him.
Colin’s movement onto the dance area was somehow both swift, yet calm, his feet seeming to barely touch the floor. He first approached the Russian whose hand remained clamped down over Kat’s arm and punched him twice in the face with his right fist, sending the man sprawling backwards. The second Russian unleashed a haymaker punch that Colin then ducked under as his left fist flew out to jab his attacker’s face three times in rapid succession.
The first Russian was working his way back onto his feet by the time two bouncers, one of them the same man who had allowed Kat and Colin to get inside the club, had arrived and were holding back both Russians as Colin took the hands of both Kat and Silia and led them back to the table.
Colin could feel the eyes of both women on him as they all sat down. Bennington was shaking his head and pointing a finger into Colin’s chest.
“I don’t recall seeing bad ass on your application, Mr. O’Shea! Good god almighty where in the hell did you learn to fight like that?”
Colin looked down at the table while he rubbed the soreness from his knuckles were they had struck the Russians. Several people passed by their table and stared at the recent college graduate, whispering that he was the one who had just taken on two other men.
“I used to box, started when I was about ten. There was a boxing gym about four miles from my house. Old retired pro boxer ran the place. He taught me – said I had talent. Didn’t stick with it though after I caught the political bug. Guess I still remember some of it.”
Frank Bennington’s eyes grew wide as he looked back at Colin and then slapped the younger man on his right shoulder.
“Uh, yeah – I guess you did.”
Both Kat and Silia were strangely silent. Kat in particular looked at Colin with an intensity he had not noticed before. After several minutes of sitting in silence, she placed her hand on Colin’s left knee and leaned in to whisper softly into his ear, her lips brushing up against his skin.
“Thank you for saving me, Mr. Colin O’Shea.”
The touch of Kat’s lips was electric. The desire to turn his head and kiss her grew exponentiall
y, requiring every bit of his willpower to instead move away from that touch.
“Just doing my job Kat – keeping you out of trouble.”
Katalina Brezhnev had been with many men, and knew when one attempted to lie to her, much like Colin did at that moment. He wanted her as much as she now realized she wanted him.
And what Kat wanted, Kat would have.
15.
“Hello, Congressman. Yes…we are still giving you serious consideration. I would say you are definitely, if the governor does choose to seek the nomination, among the short list of potential running mates.”
Every time he heard Stephen Sparks’ voice it made Congressman Joseph Latner cringe. Even over the phone, the man’s arrogance managed to infuriate the congressman, who was regarded by more than a few to be a man of immense arrogance himself.
“I appreciate you letting me know, Mr. Sparks, and I want to assure you, I remain very interested in the opportunity to help the governor win the White House. As you know, I’ve been meeting with my donors here in Ohio, and they are ready and willing to do whatever it takes to deliver you Ohio.”
Stephen Sparks sounded bored by the congressman’s assurances.
“I’m sure you are, Congressman and we appreciate that. I spoke with your wife Eunice recently, a lovely and remarkable woman. It would be a privilege and an honor to have her family’s support.”
Congressman Latner’s fist clenched atop his desk at his Ohio home. Down the hallway from his study he could hear the sound of Eunice walking toward the kitchen. Three decades in the United States Congress and people were still pointing to Eunice and her family as the reason he had ever amounted to anything.
He hated them all for that judgment. Hated their bowing to Eunice and her father, hated their respect and fear of her family’s money and influence, and hated their lack of fear and respect for him.
If he was able to make his way to the White House all that would change. They would have no choice but to fear him then. And well they should – he would make them all pay starting with Eunice herself, the controlling, frigid old bitch.
“Are you still there, Congressman?”
Latner shook himself from his own thoughts.
“Yeah, uh, like I said, you put me on that ticket with the governor, and Ohio is yours and its eighteen electoral votes.”
Sparks ended the call abruptly without saying goodbye, leaving Congressman Latner to stare at the family photo of himself, Eunice, and their two children that sat on the right side of his desk. The photo was nearly a decade old, symbolic perhaps of the last time the congressman might have had even a hint of physical attraction for his wife.
Not that Eunice Latner wasn’t an attractive woman by certain measures. She was tall, thin, almost regal in appearance. Her clothes were always tailored, her short blonde hair neatly fashioned in the timeless manner of her kind – those born into privilege. As a younger woman, before her once warm features were turned cold by both time and contempt, Joseph Latner had considered himself a very lucky man to have caught the eye of such a woman.
That feeling of luck devolved into resentment and an always present sense of not being good enough. Eunice sensed the congressman’s lack of self worth, using it against him like a weapon, jabbing it into him until he had no choice but to retreat to his home in Washington D.C. to hide behind his title of Congressman.
“Was that Mr. Sparks?”
Eunice stood in the doorway of Joseph’s study, her arms crossed over her chest as her soft blue-grey eyes regarding him coldly.
“Yeah, I was just updating him. Letting him know he has my support as long as I’m on the ticket.”
Eunice’s mouth curled into a half smile.
“I think he’s far more concerned about having my family’s support than anything to do with you, Joseph.”
The congressman stood up and leaned forward, his fists resting on top of his desk.
“I’m the damn congressman in this family Eunice, not you, not your father, not your family. Don’t you forget it.”
Eunice Latner rolled her eyes and shook her head.
“There you go with the profanity again, Joseph. You sound like such a weak little child when you do that. I do hope you’ve managed to keep yourself out of those whores you run around with. The governor’s campaign won’t tolerate that kind of behavior.”
The congressman’s eyes flared a fire of seething discontent that had been burning for years.
“You’re no innocent either, Eunice. I know all about that city councilman from Dayton. What is he, a hundred years old?”
It was now Eunice’s eyes that lit up.
“You started it, Joseph! I’m a woman, I have needs, and there are still gentlemen in this world who understand what that means. God gave you that big stick that hangs between your legs, but he sure didn’t give you the brains to know how to use it. You’ve always been a pathetic lover because you have no understanding of what a woman really wants, or needs. You never have and you never will.”
The congressman’s discontent exploded into outright rage as he snarled back at the mother of his two children, his fists rising and then slamming back down onto his desk.
“Get out before I kill you with my own hands, Eunice! NOW!”
Eunice Latner had witnessed her husband’s temper many times before, but even she was shocked at the volatility that jumped from him at that moment. She sensed her husband’s threat had the tone of truth to it. She had pushed him too far this time.
Congressman Latner collapsed back into his chair, grateful to hear Eunice’s departing footsteps. He rested his face in both of his hands, his eyes shut tight, wanting so badly to leave his home in Ohio and return to Washington D.C.
To return to Kat.
16.
Colin O’Shea wanted the taxi cab ride back to Kat’s home inside of Ivanka’s building to last the remainder of the night. She was cuddled up against his body, her face moving gently over the top of his chest.
Before getting into the cab, Frank Bennington had taken Colin aside and reminded him that Kat was off limits.
“Do your job Colin – not her. Don’t blow this deal with the congressman. We could all end up working inside the White House.”
Colin assured the older man he had no interest in getting between the congressman and Kat. The look Bennington gave him in return spoke volumes regarding his uncertainty over Colin’s assurances.
Now just a few minutes inside of the cab with Kat, and Colin himself found that promise crumbling under the intensity of his desire to have her. As Kat’s hand brushed past Colin’s groin, she too became quite aware of his desire.
The Russian sat up and leaned over the front seat to tell the cab driver something. She spoke low enough Colin was unable to hear what she said.
“What did you tell him?”
Kat ran her hand along the back of Colin’s head with her right hand while her left hand caressed his upper left thigh.
“I told him we weren’t in any hurry to get home, which means he will make more money for the drive back.”
Colin tensed, as he tried to gently push Kat away from him.
“We can’t be messing around, Kat. My job is to keep you out of trouble…to keep you…to keep you for the congressman.”
Kat pushed her face into Colin’s, her mouth brushing up against his cheek.
“Nobody owns me, Colin O’Shea, not even the congressman. Besides, you’ve already proven you’re more of a man than he will ever be.”
Again Colin pushed himself back from Kat’s advances, though the part of him that wanted her was steadily increasing in its demands he give in to her.
“I can’t do this. I’d be violating the congressman’s trust. I promised Bennington nothing would happen.”
Kat shifted over to the other side of the back seat, her lips forming a seductive pout. She inhaled deeply and then sighed very slowly as her right hand moved along her leg, pushing the bottom of her tight fitting black dress ov
er her upper thighs.
Colin could hear his heartbeat pounding in his ears as he realized she wasn’t wearing any underwear.
Oh my god I want her so bad.
Kat’s hand disappeared under her dress, as her eyes closed and her head pushed back into the seat. A soft moan escaped her lips, the sound sending Colin’s desire to levels he had never experienced before.
His mind blocked out the presence of the driver in the front seat of the cab. So too did he forget about the congressman, or Bennington, or anything else. There was only Kat and her hips that were now moving in a subtle upward motion as she let out another, slightly louder, moan.
Private Detective: BENNINGTON P.I.: A thrilling four-novel political murder mystery private detective series... Page 9