Walker (Bowen Boys, #1)(53)

“No. If you pull me back to you then we’ll make love again and I’ll be late. Not that I give two shits if I’m late, but he’s done a few things for me and I want to help him with this.” She took a deep breath. “I have some money. A lot of it. And I’ve had it put into your account.”

He frowned at her. “Why would you do that? I mean, I have plenty of my own, and if you think that—“

“I don’t think anything. Shut up and listen.” She flushed when he raised a brow at her. “Please let me finish. I was born to a wealthy family. My parents were rich, as were theirs. But they died when I was a kid and…none of that matters right now. I inherited all of it and because I’ve never had to touch it, the money I make working for the government has been just sitting there too. Now it has some use.”

She started to pace and felt stupid doing it naked and sat on a nearby log. It wasn’t any more comfortable and she asked him if they could go back to his house.

They walked back holding hands and she continued telling him about what she’d done. She could tell that each step that got them closer to his home, the more if felt as if he was moving away from her.

“The land deal with the city is finished. They won’t be bothering you or your family about it again. The mayor said that he had someone banking on the deal, and his plan was to buy cheap or take it from you guys then sell it to a developer that was slated to come to town in the coming months.” Walker nodded, but didn’t comment as they went into the house and up the stairs to the bedroom. “He’s been arrested, as have a few members of his little group of *s. They are in the jail and your brother said he’d make sure that he stayed put. I believe him. If I had to bring someone in to help me, it would be your brother Marc.”

Walker still hadn’t said anything. She’d hoped that he’d be okay with this, or at the very least, that he’d be pissed. Some emotion over what he was doing now would be better. She moved around the room and pulled one of his large shirts over her head. She’d have to bring more clothes from Washington. If he wanted her to return, that is.

“I’m going to go to DC with the president. He and Marshall are supposed to leave within the hour. I don’t know when I’ll be returning, but we can talk more if you want when I get back.”

“No.”

She looked at him, hurt that he didn’t want to at least discuss this, and pulled her shirt over her head.

“I’ve said this to you before. Where you go, I go. I don’t care if it’s only for a week or ten years. If you go to DC, then I’m going as well.”

“I don’t think you understand. The president wants me to run—”

“I understood you. I heard every word out of your pretty little mouth. But I also remembered you saying that he had a job for me as well if we decided to live in DC through the week and come back here on weekends.”

She moved to the bathroom, trying to not snap at him.

“Look at me, Caitlynne. Please?”

Without turning from the door, she poured her heart out to him. “I’ve already come between you and Khan. I won’t come between you and your patients. They need you more than I do.”

He came to her then, wrapped his arms around her, and held her. “But I need you more than they need me. I can’t live without you, baby. I don’t want to, not any longer. I love you very much and I can tell that you want this job. I want you to have it. And can you imagine how great it will be on my resume that I was the president’s own personal doctor? Damn, I’ll be able to write my own ticket.”

She laughed and turned in his arms. “Are you going with me now? I have to do something that I’ve been looking forward to for a long time. I get to tell Jerry that he’s f*cked and I’m going to take him down.”

“Oh yeah, I’m going. And you’re going to take me to your house there so I can tell you what we need to do to make it livable.” She started to protest when he kissed her. “I might not have been in the house you had here but once, but you have the decorating skills of no one I’ve ever met. Have you ever heard of a house plant or even a photo? You had the most naked walls I’d ever seen.”

She looked around his bedroom and could see what he meant. This room, like the rest of the house, was warm, inviting. There was family here in the pictures and things all about the rooms. Shells from a walk on the beach, pine cones from somewhere in the woods they’d just been in. There were pictures of all the men when they’d been boys. Pictures of the elder Bowens at their wedding. She nodded at him.

“Okay, I could use a picture or two there as well.”

He snorted.

“Okay, then you are on your own. But the house in DC…it’s not what you might be used to. I don’t know when the last time it was decorated, but it had to have been at least fifteen years ago.”

“Good. While you’re kicking some ass I’ll look around and see what we need. I don’t suppose it’s been dusted in awhile, has it?”

She stuck her tongue out at him before answering. “As a matter of fact, there is live-in help. The house was my parents’. And for the record, there are a few things there that the staff cleans daily. Not a great deal, but a little. I got rid of most of it after I got into the Bureau. I was always afraid of becoming…becoming someone I’m not.”