His Climb to Power Read online

  His Climb to Power

  Tasha Fawkes

  Safira Press

  Contents

  Free Book

  Reading Order

  1. Jack

  2. Blythe

  3. Jack

  4. Blythe

  5. Jack

  6. Blythe

  7. Jack

  8. Blythe

  9. Jack

  10. Blythe

  11. Jack

  12. Blythe

  13. Jack

  14. Blythe

  15. Jack

  16. Blythe

  17. Jack

  18. Blythe

  19. Jack

  20. Blythe

  21. Jack

  22. Blythe

  23. Jack

  24. Blythe

  Other books from Safira Publishing

  About Tasha Fawkes

  Copyright © 2019 by Tasha Fawkes

  All rights reserved.

  No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

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  Reading Order

  Thank you so much for reading the second book in the His Power series. All the books in the series can be read standalone, but if you’d like to read the entire series, I recommend reading them in the following order:

  His Rise to Power

  His Fall From Power (this book)

  Book 3 Coming June 2019

  Book 4 Coming July 2019

  Book 5 Coming August 2019

  1 Jack

  Dawn filtered through the blinds and illuminated Blythe’s soft skin in a sunrise glow. Still curled around my body, she stirred and sighed in her sleep, and I took those precious few minutes to just watch her. Before too long, I would have to wake her up and shuffle her quietly out of the penthouse.

  She’d mentioned last night that our taboo relationship might be exciting, but this morning, it broke my heart to know that I couldn’t spend a leisurely breakfast with her or kiss her openly when I walked her to her apartment.

  The woman astounded me. Since we’d met, she’d taken hit after hit because of me. First, there was the embarrassing moment that turned into a slanderous public sex scandal, and then she had to keep her head held high while her boyfriend was a murder suspect. Not to mention watching the man she’d once respected die right before her very eyes.

  I’d tried to break it off with her. I really did.

  Whoever was hoping to control me could hurt her to get to me, and I couldn’t let that happen. Now that my mother had come clean about working for them, we had a chance to pretend to play by their rules and ferret out the players, but my primary priority was to keep Blythe safe. I loved her too much to let anything happen to her.

  But my woman wasn’t going down without a fight.

  I smiled at the memory of walking in on her holding the diamond ring I’d bought for her, and she told me that if I was going to do this, I’d be doing it with her.

  She was strong and stubborn, and I was head over heels in love with her. I couldn’t lose her, but I couldn’t let anything happen to her either. I’d already publicly announced that our relationship was over, but she wasn’t about to leave my bed.

  God, I loved having her there.

  Her brunette strands spread over the pillow as she turned in my arms, and her lashes began to flutter. Stirring a little more and wiggling her lithe body over my hard cock, she stretched and finally opened her gorgeous crystal blue eyes. In a certain light, they were a pale gray that always seemed to hypnotize me.

  “Jack,” she chuckled sleepily, “are you watching me?”

  “Maybe.” I curved a finger down her cheek and lowered my head to kiss her softly. “We have to get up soon.”

  Blinking, she lifted her head to stare at the clock behind me. Immediately, her expression shuttered, and she dropped her head and closed her eyes. I knew what she was thinking. There, in this place and in my arms, we could forget about the rest of my problems, but once she was gone, we were back to facing our supposed failed relationship and the fallout that went along with it. At least my family knew the truth, but Blythe wasn’t allowed to tell anyone. We had no idea who was being watched.

  “I want to send Carl with you.”

  Wrinkling her nose, she rolled over on her back and pulled the sheets up to cover her gorgeous naked body. As much as she liked Carl, she hated the idea of a bodyguard. “How are we going to explain that? Everyone knows that Carl works for you.”

  “I’ve given it some thought. Carl and I are going to get in an argument about you, and when he points out that you still need protecting, I’m going to fire him. Loudly. He’ll still look after you, but he won’t technically be on my payroll anymore.”

  “But—”

  I held up a hand, knowing exactly what she was going to say. “Don’t worry. His severance package will more than make up for the loss of a paycheck.”

  “You’ve got it all figured out, don’t you?” Pushing the sheets back, she sat up and swung her feet over the edge. Knowing that she was a little annoyed with me, I stayed quiet and simply stroked a finger up and down her spine while she gathered her thoughts. Finally, she looked over her shoulder at me and gave me a sheepish smile. “I’m sorry. I guess I need to be patient with you, don’t I? After all, it was my idea to hang in there.”

  “I love you, Blythe, but I won’t think any less of you if you want to walk away. I think you should. I think it would be safer. Just know that when all this shit is over, I’m coming back for you.”

  I hadn’t meant the last part to sound like a threat, but it came out as a low growl, and she laughed and leaned back to rest her head on my chest.

  “Then I guess there’s no sense in walking away, is there?” Taking a deep breath, she pulled up her knees and rested her ankles on the edge of the bed. From here, I had an excellent view of her body, from the slopes of her large breasts down to the flat of her belly and the wide flare of her hips. “How much time do we have before you kick me out?”

  Grinning, I ran my hand down her chest and lazily stroked a few fingers over her nipples until they were hard and pointed. “I think it would be ungentlemanly of me to kick you out without a parting gift.”

  “And what might that be?”

  Instead of answering her question, I simply slipped my hand between her legs. By now, I knew exactly where to touch her to tease her and make her moan. While I didn’t have time to sink myself into her and fuck her until we were both breathless and sweaty, I couldn’t let her leave until she clenched around my fingers and moaned my name.

  That sweet sound would carry me through what would no doubt be a hellish day.

  * * *

  Before I went to the office, I stopped by my father’s estate. It surprised me to see my mother inside with him. It did not surprise me to see them arguing.

  “If you do that, you’re going to get him killed!” My mother’s angry voice, a far cry from the soft sniveling that she’d graced us with last night when she’d admitted that she’d been lying and trying to wedge the two of us apart, bounced off the walls.

  “My son,” my father growled. “You lost the right to call him that a long time ago!”

  Crossing the large, open foyer, I followed their sniping into the kitchen. My mother had managed to pull herself together. She was back in her designer clothes, sporting some odd mix of pink and peach pants with a white shirt. Her large sunglasses were perched in her white curls, and her make-up was impeccable.
She looked more ready to attend a cocktail lunch rather than do battle with Hale Drayson.

  That took battle armor.

  “The kids don’t like it when Mommy and Daddy fight,” I said sarcastically as I headed to the coffee machine. I’d need a whole pot to get me through the day. “I’d ask if you spent the night, but if you had, I’d probably be looking at your dead body.”

  “Strung up to the top of the ceiling,” Hale muttered.

  Donna narrowed her eyes. “Do you think you can stow your bitterness long enough for us to get through this?”

  Yep. Gone was the woman who’d all but dropped to her knees to beg our forgiveness. On the other hand, I never remembered my mother having much of a spine, so this was a nice change.

  “Enough.” I was too tired to listen to this. “There are important things riding on this, like my life and the life of the woman I love, so I’m not going to deal with your arguing. Once this is over, you can take each other’s heads off, for all I care.”

  There was a pause, and Hale frowned. “I thought you broke up with Blythe.”

  “I did. Things changed. Publicly, we’re not together, but privately…she’s refusing to walk away, and I’m done pushing her away. So, I need you two to focus because, if she’s harmed in any way, I will burn this city to the ground to find who’s responsible. Do we understand each other?”

  My father looked upset by the change in plans, but they both nodded. I poured my coffee and rummaged around in the freezer until I found my hidden stash of frozen waffles. Normally, my father had a chef who worked for him, but he rarely ate breakfast. I kept the waffles in there for occasions just like this. Before he could wrinkle his nose and object, I shot him a warning look, and he quickly sulked but looked away.

  “Klaus is coming to the office today, so Donna, I need to know what you know and fast.” She was a stranger to me, and I wasn’t comfortable calling her mom. This helped me try and keep things more professional. I knew why she lied to me, but that still didn’t make it easier for me to forgive her.

  “We know that Sherry Carin is a whore,” Hale said without preamble.

  I winced. We may never have been in love, but there was a time when I cared for my ex-lover. “Let’s not call her that, okay? Focus on the facts. After her family turned their backs on her, she started targeting high-profile men in the Florida government, and it looks like she was gathering sensitive information, which she turned over for cash. She worked for someone. When she couldn’t lure me back in bed, she was shot and killed.”

  “Then there’s Hirsh,” my father prompted next.

  “Right. After going along with a plan to ruin Blythe’s reputation and her charity, he, what…felt guilty? He had some information and decided to share it but was killed before that happened. Hirsh isn’t into politics though. He’s a straight-up businessman. What would he know?”

  Hale sipped on his coffee and shrugged. “Business and politics are often two sides of the same coin. You know that. Politics paves the way for businesses to make a profit. Maybe Hirsh was part of the group. He’s got close ties with international trade. New laws about taxis and levies could really ease the way for him.”

  “Yeah, but why Hirsh?” I looked my father directly in the eye. “If you need a powerful businessman to join some shadow group that turns politicians into puppets, you’d be the man I’d pick.”

  He scowled. “Thanks, son. It means so much that you think that of me.”

  “Still, I have a point, and you know it.”

  Donna tapped her manicured nails on the marbled countertops. “Maybe they thought it was too tricky with you as Hale’s son.”

  I shook my head. “No, I’ve only been in office for two years. This group has pocketed some high-profile individuals. That takes years of work and practice and information.” I narrowed my eyes and studied my father. “Maybe they already reached out to you, and you turned them down.”

  “I think I would remember that.”

  An idea formed in my head. “I don’t know that you would,” I said slowly. A group like that would have to work covertly and subtly. “I may not think very highly of you, but you have good intuition. If you were offered a deal that seemed even remotely illicit, you’d turn them down. You’re already wealthy and powerful, so you don’t need to roll around in the mud.”

  “Son, I get enough illicit offers to turn Florida into a garbage heap on a monthly basis. Most never even reach my ears. They’re filtered through lawyers and analysts and consultants.” He looked at me sharply. “Some of them are trained to analyze each bill that gets presented that might affect how my business runs. That’s a lot of bills, and since you went into office…” He raised an eyebrow.

  “They started analyzing me,” I finished sourly. “Dammit, Dad, you could have someone dirty in your office feeding them information. You could have a whole sector of people working for them. We have no idea how big this thing is.”

  “It has to be big,” Donna admitted before my father could start spewing out cuss words. “I spent most of the night trying to piece it together. Jack, they’ve been watching your career closely. They see you as ambitious and power hungry. Someone willing to do whatever it takes to reach DC. You’re the kind of man they’ll promote all the way to the top corridors of power, if you’re willing to play by their rules. And be someone who won’t rock the boat.”

  “Jack has never been power-hungry,” Hale said with a tinge of pride. “If you knew anything about him, then you would know that.”

  “No,” Donna snapped. “But you are. I’m sure they’re thinking, like father like son. If I had succeeded in turning your support for him, Jack would be left alone. His first priority would be to find other supporters.”

  “And they’d be right there pounding on my door.” I smiled slowly as I stared at my father. “Well, Dad? You ready to take some of your personal frustrations with me public?”

  “Jack, wait,” Donna said suddenly. “This is dangerous, and I don’t want anything to happen to you. You can walk away from this. Walk away from politics. Marry Blythe. Open your own law firm. Raise a family. If they can’t use you, they won’t touch you.”

  “Tempting, but I don’t walk away. You should know that about me,” I reminded her grimly. She recoiled just a little. “And it’s already too late for me because I can’t let this group run Florida. I won’t.”

  My father sat his coffee down and grinned. “It’s all right, son. I’ve got a long list of grievances against you that I can air.”

  “Christ.” My head pounded. It was going to be a shitty week.

  2 Blythe

  My parents had already left me five messages. If I didn’t call them back, they were going to hunt me down. Just like everyone else, they had learned of my breakup with Jack through the media, and they weren’t happy about it. I’d ignored them while I tried to figure things out with Jack, but I couldn’t ignore them forever.

  Despite sleeping soundly in Jack’s arms last night, we’d gone to bed late and gotten up early. I dragged myself up the steps to my office. Rachel had the morning off, and Carl couldn’t join me until Jack fired him.

  Despite his misgivings, I was grateful that I had at least one day of peace and quiet. Not that the bodyguard was loud. His conversations were usually reduced to monosyllabic words, but his presence alone was distracting. The giant took up too much room and always looked a little uncomfortable.

  Humane Miami’s official office was a small space above some shops in downtown Miami. There was a Sunglass Hut beneath them, but we had a private entrance outside. I knew that it wasn’t what most people expected when they came to visit us, but I wasn’t in the business of making money hand over fist. I didn’t spend donations on luxuries, so I wasn’t going to rent out an office in one of the swanky skyscraper buildings in the heart of Miami. Sometimes, I met with donors here. Most times, it was just a quiet place for me to do paperwork and plan.

  Once I settled at my office, I gave my parents a
quick phone call. I’d hoped that it was still a little too early for them to be up. Retired people slept in, right?

  Not my parents.

  “Blythe!” Dawn’s relieved voice made me wince. It was a mother’s mysterious talent to inject so much guilt into just one word. “Honey, I was getting so worried!”

  As if I didn’t feel bad enough, now I was going to have to lie. “I’m so sorry that I didn’t call you guys back earlier. I’ve just been sorting through some things.”

  “I’m sure, honey. Do you want to talk about it? Your father is furious. He’s so sure that Jack did something to you. Did he cheat on you? Did he hit you? Is he into one of those kinky sexual fetishes that we sometimes read about?”

  “Oh god. Mom.” Sitting up sharply in alarm, I shook my head vigorously before I remembered that she couldn’t see me. Kinky sexual fetishes? Just what was my mother reading these days? “Oh, no. Please don’t think that. Jack didn’t do anything. Really. This whole investigation has been such a strain on us, and we just realized that things might not be going smoothly for us for a reason. I don’t think I can handle the constant pressure of the media, and he’s afraid that his political career will take over. It was nothing that either one of us did. It’s just the reality of the situation. Really. Our breakup was mutual.” My voice broke just a little as a lump formed in my throat.