MMF BISEXUAL ROMANCE: Phoenix Running Page 16

  That’s where that speech had come from.

  Phoenix punched the pillow and repositioned. He could step down. He didn’t have to be mayor. With his law degree, he could settle into a different career field where he wouldn’t be under such intense, constant scrutiny. There was something dangerously seductive about the idea, being free of the constant worry about what other people thought. Letting himself be who he was. However, to take that route would mean to let Buddy take the lead, and he couldn’t have a man like Buddy running his town. The bastard would run it right into the ground. He was corrupt as they come and not afraid to be a jackass to get what he wanted. Besides, as far back as he could remember, Phoenix had always wanted to follow in his father’s footsteps.

  In his prime, Wallace Briton had seemed the epitome of a good politician. It had taken Phoenix maturing to realize that was an oxymoron. He had lost faith in his old man, but he had kept his dream alive, and here he was. He was a good man. He had good ideas that would help people, and he knew how to get things done. He had the brains, the charm, the network, the positioning. He didn’t like to think of himself as a politician—but if that’s what he was, he did it damn well.

  Chapter 19

  “What is it this time?” Phoenix asked when he opened his door and saw his father standing there.

  Wallace Briton’s joker-like smile spread across his face. “Good afternoon to you, too.” He tried to push past, but Phoenix blocked the door. He wasn’t in the mood for company. He had been practicing a speech, and he didn’t have time to beat around the bush with his dad.

  “You can’t be out of money that quickly.”

  “Oh, no, it’s not about money this time. It’s something more important. Business. May I come in?”

  Phoenix crossed his arms and didn’t budge. “Speaking of business, I’m busy.”

  “Trust me, you don’t want to have this conversation outside, where anyone else can hear what I have to say.” Wallace leaned closer and whispered, “It’s about Buddy. ‘Member him?”

  Phoenix’s eyes narrowed to slits and he stepped into the condo, opening the door wider to let his father enter. He ambled to the suede couch and grabbed his speech, folding it and sticking the papers into his back pocket. Phoenix settled on an accent chair and eyed his father quizzically. “What about Buddy?”

  Wallace Briton paced as he spoke. “You know, me and him go way back, son. Way back.”

  “He helped you when you campaigned for councilman. Yeah, I know. And?”

  “And he’s come to me asking me to return some favors.” Wallace sat down with a weary sigh and frowned at Phoenix like he had bad news. The old man shrugged and opened his hands helplessly. “I owe him this. He wants you to step out of the running.”

  “What?” Phoenix shot forward.

  “He wants you to announce you’re no longer running for reelection. The way he sees it, he’s an old family friend, and he doesn’t want things to get nasty. He doesn’t want to have to drag the Briton name through the mud. I think it’s noble of him.”

  Phoenix spat, “Noble of him? You fuckers wouldn’t know nobility if it rode up on a white horse and tapped you on the damn shoulders! This is blackmail. Your blackmail! Look, I don’t have shit to do with the money you embezzled during your term as councilman, and I’m not paying for it by stepping down so the one person who knows your dirty laundry doesn’t air it. You can tell Buddy he can kiss my ass!”

  Wallace chuckled drily. “Oh, I already told him you’d say something like that. Still, I wanted to give you a heads up. He’s coming for you, and he’s going to use me to do it. Now, if you don’t mind your dear old dad being locked up for a while in federal, then who am I to tell you to reconsider?” Wallace shrugged pitifully and looked away. “Hate to see Sally grow up without me, though.”

  “Sally will be taken care of. She sent me a text thanking me for her birthday gift. I’ll continue to be the father figure that you can’t be for her, you self-serving fuck!”

  “Says the guy who hasn’t even met her. Oh, give me a break! You’re a fine piece of work, Phoenix Briton! I made you. Literally. You come from my loins, and this is how you repay me?”

  “Tell me, Dad, what have you done for me lately?”

  “I’ve kept your secrets,” Wallace said quietly. Phoenix looked down.

  His shoulders slumped, but he came to a swift decision. “Fine. I can fix that for you. I’ll tell Mom myself. That I knew you were cheating on her. That I was with you on some of those clandestine trips to take your girlfriend of the week a piece of jewelry or candy or flowers. I’ll tell her I could’ve saved her the embarrassment, so you won’t have to tell her! Now you’ve got nothing on me.”

  “You think it’s that easy?” Wallace chuckled. “Boy, you just don’t fucking understand this politicking business.” Wallace rose to his feet and ambled to the door. “That’s not the only secret I’ve kept for you. You can work with me or not, but if you’re not for me, then I consider you against me. And you know, son, exactly how I treat my enemies. So, I’ll let you think on it. I’m sorry your ambitions are going to have to take a back seat, but life is like that. You’re young; you have time to get back in the game. I think you’ve had a pretty easy ride so far, kid. Gimme a call when you pick a date to make that announcement, hear? Have a nice one.”

  He opened the door and reached in his pocket, dropping something on the side table before walking out and slamming the door behind him.

  Phoenix marched across the room and threw the deadbolt. He snatched up the envelope his dad had dropped and ripped it open. Into his hand fluttered three snapshots. His lungs constricted. As he stared at the photographs in horror, he stumbled back against the door, losing his legs. He felt like the walls of the condo were closing in around him.

  “How the hell…?”

  Someone had taken long distance shots of him, Cee-Cee and Ashley on his yacht out on the lake. The pictures in his hand weren’t that damning, but on the back of the final shot—the three of them grinning at each other and drinking on main deck—there was a message written in his father’s neat pen stroke. “More where these came from. Looks like someone had fun! Or should I say some three?” Wallace had drawn a crooked smiley face behind the words.

  Phoenix felt like he would pass out. But it was no time to lose his strength. He needed his wits about him to figure out how the fuck to get out of this stupid, stupid situation. He snatched up his phone and dialed Cee-Cee.

  Chapter 20

  Cee-Cee stared at her phone and saw it was Phoenix calling, but she couldn’t get to it at the moment. Her legs pumped as she thundered down the stairs to the foyer where her parents and sister were waiting for her at the front door. Josey’s distressed eyes flew to the bag in Cee-Cee’s hand. They were ready to leave now. “Hang in there, Josey!” she encouraged. She squeezed her little sister’s hand and ran with her to the car while her mom bounced Baby Joe on her hip and her dad jogged to the driver’s side.

  “I can’t have this baby tonight!” Josey wheezed. She sucked in a breath and forced it out in panting huffs while Cee-Cee coached her on breathing properly. She scowled in pain as another roll of contractions rippled across her belly. “Cee-Cee, I can’t do this without Brett.”

  “Yes, you can. I’m with you, baby. We’ll get through this together, and we’re going to tell Brett what a magnificent job you did. So, you soldier up, girl! Dad, drive!” Cee-Cee’s cellphone wouldn’t stop ringing, but she ignored it.

  The engine roared to life and they sped across town, seeming to hit every damn red light on the way to the hospital. Cee-Cee’s heart was in her throat the whole drive, but she tried not to panic. She wasn’t the one having a baby. All she had to do was keep calm and keep Josey calm. “You’re doing good, Josey. Hang in there.”

  The phone buzzed again, and Josey growled, “Answer the fucking phone! It’s driving me crazy!”

  “Shhh, that’s just hormones. Take it easy. We’ll get there soon.” Cee
-Cee swiped the screen to answer the phone and hissed, “What is it? I’m kind of in the middle of something.” Josey groaned and squeezed her hand hard enough for her to feel like every bone in it was broken, and Cee-Cee whimpered.

  “Get over here. My place. I need you.”

  “What?” She shook her hand free and flexed her fingers.

  “Cee-Cee,” he whispered her name plaintively. “I’m in trouble. Please.”

  “Phoenix, my sister is having her baby right now, and she needs me more. Whatever it is you need me for, it can wait!”

  “No, I’m not having this baby!” Josey howled.

  Phoenix muttered in consternation. “She’s having the baby? Shit! This is bad timing.”

  “Tell me about it. I feel completely out of my element, and her fiancé’s flight doesn’t come in until tomorrow, but this little bun can’t wait to get out of the oven. Josey’s not taking it so well, either,” she stated the obvious.

  Marty swerved through the emergency entrance and skidded to a halt in front of the shining glass doors to the hospital. “I have to go, Phoenix. We just made it to the hospital.”

  “Wait a minute. Which hospital? I’m coming to you.”

  Cee-Cee experienced a surge of surprise and pleasure at the offer, but this was a family affair. If Phoenix showed up, there’d be no way to convince her parents that there wasn’t something serious going on between them. “No, you don’t have to drop everything for this. I can take care of it.”

  Phoenix firmly repeated himself. “Name of the hospital, Cee-Cee. Stop trying to shoulder the world. I want to be there for you.”

  She was so used to doing things on her own that it hadn’t even occurred to her that she could use a shoulder to lean on, too. She stammered out the name of the hospital and hurriedly hung up the phone to help Josey out of the car and into the wheelchair a nurse swiftly rolled out for her.

  Beside her, Marty had a smile on his face and his blue eyes were wide with excitement. “This reminds me of the night you were born. I was so nervous I thought I would puke, and Winny kept saying the same thing. ‘I can’t have this baby tonight.’ Only, she was trying to stall because it was our honeymoon night.”

  Cee-Cee raced with him in pursuit of the nurse pushing Josey. “I know she wanted to be here. I could’ve stayed with Joe.”

  “Josey wanted you here, but your mother texted to tell me she’s on her way in just a few. As soon as the babysitter gets there.”

  It was true, Josey had specifically requested that Cee-Cee be present. As they were taken to a room to wait for a bed in the maternity ward to be made ready for her, Cee-Cee sat next to her younger sister and fed her ice chips and pushed her sandy blond hair back from her beautiful face. Josey was hooked up to monitors. Everything was looking great for a baby to be born.

  “I was hoping it was Braxton Hicks contractions,” Josey grimaced.

  Their dad was in the waiting room. It was just the two girls. “Are you scared?” Cee-Cee whispered. She couldn’t picture pushing out a baby. The sight of her sister in discomfort and everything she knew about childbirth had Cee-Cee’s heart racing in panic at the thought she might have to go into the delivery room with her.

  Josey replied, “I’m not scared about having the baby. I’m scared about doing this by myself. It’s exactly like when Baby Joe was born. I couldn’t find Josh anywhere, and I was really looking forward to this pregnancy being different. I didn’t want to be alone, Cee-Cee.”

  “Shh, shh…I’m here, honey.”

  “And that’s what you don’t understand about relationships,” Josey hiccupped. “When someone loves you, they’re there for you. They stick around for your bad days and the good. Josh never understood that, but Brett does. He’s literally waiting at an airport a few hundred miles away. He’s on American soil, and he can’t even get here on time.”

  Cee-Cee anxiously wiped the tears from Josey’s face and tried to reassure her. “He’ll be here soon enough to rock his little baby girl in his arms, and he’s going to be so proud of you for being so strong without him. You’re doing such a great job.”

  In her head, Cee-Cee heard Phoenix saying he was on his way and that he wanted to be there for her. She couldn’t completely relate to Josey’s situation of being a mother in labor alone, but she did understand that part about relationships. The unexpected simple pleasure of knowing that someone would be there just to be there, just because she needed him, without her even having to ask. It sent a giddy whirl of happiness through her. Was this love?

  A nurse came in with forms for Josey to sign. Cee-Cee helped her out as much as possible. She kept an eye on the door for her mother, but apparently the parents were taking to heart Josey’s request to have her sister at her side.

  Probably it was because Josey and Cee-Cee had been inseparable lately. It was so easy it was to confide in her little sister. She was surprisingly understanding for someone so young, and Cee-Cee knew that was as a result of having to mature quickly to handle being a mom and student, soon to be married.

  Lord, Cee-Cee had thought highly of her own accomplishments! Looking at Josey, she realized her little sis was “winning,” too. “You are such an inspiration to me,” Cee-Cee said with a grin. Josey glanced up at her in surprise, but the expression turned to another wince.

  “Thank you so much, but these contractions are getting closer together, and it’s not time for a sisterly heart to heart! Gah!”

  “Breathe, breathe!”

  There was a tap on the door, and Josey weakly called for whomever it was to come in. A doctor stepped into the small room with a benevolent smile on his face. There was a tech right behind him with a tray of instruments. “Hi, I’m Dr. Vermont, the anesthesiologist, and I’ll be doing your epidural.”

  “Oh, thank god,” Josey said with a laugh. “I need drugs.”

  “That’s what they all say.” Chuckling, the anesthesiologist murmured to Cee-Cee, “I’ll have to ask you to step out for a moment, ma’am. This’ll only take a moment, and you can come back in as soon as we’re done.”

  “No problem.” Cee-Cee nodded and squeezed Josey’s hands before scurrying from the room. She made her way to the waiting room, thinking of what was going on with her sister. In a little while, the pain would be gone, but the real work would be just beginning. Likely within a few hours, she’d be meeting her new niece. When she stepped out of the hallway and entered the small waiting area, she found her mom and dad sitting together near a rack of magazines.

  Cee-Cee eased down on the sofa next to Winny and flashed her a look of appreciation. “You women are amazing. There is no way I could’ve survived those contractions. I was watching the monitors and saw the spikes every time. It looked like a dang mountain range.”

  “How’s she doing?” asked Marty.

  “She’s holding up. She just wishes Brett were here, which is understandable. I’m sorry he’s missing the birth, but I’m so glad he’ll be home soon. Hey, have you guys seen Phoenix? He told me he was on his way.” Cee-Cee tried not to sound as excited about the prospect of the mayor showing up as she really felt. But when her parents murmured that they hadn’t seen him, she deflated. “Oh. Well, I guess he got tied up with something. He’s a pretty busy guy.”

  “I’m sure he’ll get here when he can. My girls and their boys. Just be patient with them. Sometimes it takes fellas a little longer to come around,” Winny said with a smile. She patted Cee-Cee’s knee lovingly.

  * * *

  Phoenix briskly strolled into the hospital and headed straight for the information desk. He glanced at his phone where Ashley had finally texted him back:

  I can’t make it. Show’s not over and I’m too far out. Is Cee-Cee alright?

  He answered quickly that he hadn’t seen her yet. Then Phoenix stepped up to the desk, only to be pushed aside by another man in a hurry. They said at the same time, “I’m here for Josey Carson.” Phoenix pulled back in surprise, and the other guy stared at him suspiciously as the
clerk gave the information.

  “I’m sorry. Who’d you say you’re here for?”

  Phoenix smoothed a hand down the front of his blazer. “Josey Carson. She’s in labor.”

  “And exactly what reason would you have for being here for my fiancé?” The wiry soldier crossed his arms and glared at Phoenix in inquiry, but Phoenix chuckled and lifted his hands in submission.

  “You must be Brett. I’ve heard much about you. Pleasure to finally make your acquaintance.”

  “Can’t say I’ve heard of you,” the soldier replied warily.

  Phoenix stuck out a hand for a handshake. “That’s because you likely don’t talk to Cee-Cee much. I’m Phoenix Briton…Cee-Cee’s boyfriend.” Phoenix didn’t know why he said it. The words fell out of his mouth, and he couldn’t take them back, but it felt right to say. At least Brett looked much more comfortable as he clasped his hand in a firm shake.

  “Get out of here! Cee-Cee finally got off the Internet long enough to join the land of the living. You’re shitting me,” Brett teased. “Just kidding. She’s a really driven girl. Just surprised she’s dating. Nice to meet you, Phoenix.”

  “Nice to meet you, too. Now, we’ve got some women waiting on us upstairs. We better hurry.” Phoenix patted him on the back and they both rushed to the elevators.

  When Phoenix stepped into the waiting room, Cee-Cee’s eyes turned to him and her face lit up. She let out a stunned shout when she saw Brett. “Where did you find him?” She hurried to Phoenix, and he half-hugged her as she pulled him over to where her parents were waiting.

  “Oh my goodness!” Winny gushed. “Hurry, Brett! They’re about to wheel her to the delivery room now. Come with me. Phoenix Briton, how you managed to pull this off, I don’t know, but I greatly appreciate it.” She nodded at Cee-Cee and gestured with her head back to him.