Rachel Steele Gavin Now

Sometimes, the only way to beat a monster was to become the thing they’d never see coming: a man with nothing left to lose.

She met him at dawn in a deserted corner of the National Mall, the Lincoln Memorial looming like a stone ghost. Gavin arrived in a dark overcoat, his boyish face hardened by sleepless ambition. rachel steele gavin

Rachel laughed—a dry, brittle sound. “Insurance? Gavin, I built you. When you were a nobody state rep with a DUI and a dying campaign, who gave you the playbook? Who wiped the slate clean, not once, not twice, but a dozen times? Those emails aren’t insurance. They’re proof of my loyalty.” Sometimes, the only way to beat a monster

The wind picked up, rattling the bare branches above them. Rachel stepped closer, her heels clicking like metronomes of doom. Rachel laughed—a dry, brittle sound

“Loyalty?” Gavin’s voice cracked. “You threatened to release them if I didn’t kill the offshore energy bill. I saw the memo, Rachel. Your fingerprints are all over it.”