Power Games

Mitch and I sit there as I start to tell Adam about everything about Tash “You know how I asked about Tash? It was just that I knew her from somewhere” Adam nods clearly confused about what this is all about.

“Well, when I asked Mitch if he could help me track down who owned the car that kept sitting outside my place, he found this” I slide the piece of paper across to Adam and he reads through it. “I don’t get it” Adam puts the paper down and shakes her head “It’s related to your family and some mob named the O’Sullivan’s, there is nothing in this that relates to Tash” I sit there looking at Mitch confused.

“Read the O’Sullivan’s names out again Adam,” Mitch says as Adam looks at it “Henry O’Sullivan and Natasha O’Sullivan,” he says still not getting the connection. “That’s not Tash,” he says as he reads it “Her maiden name was Hampden” he puts the paperwork down.

I shake my head, thinking maybe I did get it all wrong before Mitch brings up a file on his laptop and turns it to show Adam who is clearly shocked by what he sees. “Wait what the fuck is this?” he says reading it “Bride Natasha O’Sullivan, Groom Daniel Connell” he looks at what is Danny and Tash’s marriage certificate that states her surname as being O’Sullivan. “That makes no sense, I swear that she was always Natasha Hampden,” he says now looking confused and upset

“That was her mother’s surname and until she moved to Grantham that is what she used before using her Father’s surname O’Sullivan” Mitch explains going through all the information. “Danny is going to be furious when he finds all this out,” he says looking at both of us. “How long have you known this, Isaac? Since you first met Tash I bet?” Adam’s tone is surprisingly accusatory.

“Calm down Adam” Mitch jumps in before I can defend myself “We’ve only known for a couple of days, Isaac came to me to get some information on the car and I gave him the information and he let me know” I feel grateful that Mitch stood up for me. Adam lets out a deep breath “Guess that’s fair” before I step back in “I didn’t want to say anything because I didn’t want to be wrong and cause more issues because having your brother’s ex out here isn’t the most expected thing”.

Adam nods and agrees, I’m glad that his raw emotion of annoyance at me has subsided a fair bit. “We think Tash and Brendan saw each other on Tuesday,” I say to Adam as he looks confused. “It was only about 10 minutes difference between him speeding off and Tash calling Danny to pick up the kids” Adam sits there thinking for a minute “No that actually makes sense with how rushed that all was and the fact that I was talking to Cassie from down the road when the boys were playing out the front” Adam explains now suspicious about the trips that Tash takes. “Cassie is the one with the German Shepherd,” Adam says to me so that I know who he is referring to.

“The problem is going to be that we want to put the pressure on Brendan, but at the same time, we want to do it with the most minimal negative effect on Danny because we can’t let Tash keep getting away with it either,” I say looking at Adam who isn’t sure about all this. “Surely there is something that won’t destroy Danny and his family,” he says as I nod but shake my head. “Do you want Danny to keep being treated like this?” Mitch asks as the tension starts to rise between everyone in the room.

I grab a drink before trying to calm the situation down; “There isn’t any need to do anything that is rash, the reason we got you here Adam is for you to help us tell Danny about all this because we can’t let Tash get away with it’ Adam nods, but his general caring and trusting nature is something that shackles him a bit when it comes to dealing with something like this.

“Alright, well… we might need to wait because he’s got the kids this weekend alone because Tash is away” I look across at Mitch raising my eyebrows about what is happening. “She’s on a girls weekend in Sapphire Ridge that’s all, nothing suspicious,” he says despite Mitch and I thinking otherwise.

“So, what are your other plans?” Adam says to me as he gets curious about what we are going to do to upset the applecart. We go through the ideas that we have and Adam looks at me “What if it backfires and they don’t let you go back to Grantham” he says as I look at him.

I just shrug “Who said anything about going back to Grantham?” I say as Mitch looks at me surprised, obviously thinking that I was going to go back straight away. I go through the plan of leaking out the information and Adam looks worried but says that I have his full support for whatever happens.

Adam goes through what we are going to send out and he is shocked at how backwards my family is and how selfish he is. I sit there and then tell them about everything Eliza said to me on the phone which takes them both by shock given how many fractures there are in the supposedly tight and connected the Keppel family are.

“So, this is all an act to make the family look good,” Adam says with sarcasm without any surprise of the act that my father is trying to play with the campaign. A few minutes later, Adam leaves and Mitch and I are sitting there together. “Do you think he suspected anything of what we did before he got here?” I say giggling about what Mitch and I did before Adam got there.

“I hope not but hey I know we said we wouldn’t do this without being somewhere else but I enjoyed it,” Mitch says playing with my foot under the table. “So did I but should we just forget about it?” I ask as he runs his foot along my leg and it tickles me. “Of course, we’re not going to and it can be our little thing,” he says as gets up and wanders around to kiss me before we get back to work.

“Work time first then play; Your father has a press interview and debate on Sunday night I know that one of the journalists that are working there and I could get him to ask questions and leak the story in Monday’s paper” I sit there for a minute thinking about it before nodding “Yep let’s do it about Brendan’s college record and about Sarah’s medical record but make sure there is nothing about Tash in it because we can’t hurt Danny”.

Mitch gets his phone and dials a number “Richie it’s Mitch, I want you to run with that stuff I sent you on Monday and use it at the debate” Mitch says to his journalist contact down the line. “Yeah no worries man, anything to crack open a political story and maybe make the election a two horse-race with my father apparently holding an almost unassailable lead.

“One thing though, I probably need to know who your source is because I can’t just write the story without a source, I won’t name them but I need to work out whether it’s a reliable source,” Frankie says which is understandable. Mitch looks at me “I can’t do that man, I don’t want to cause any problems for the person who is trying to make a change from all that”.

I pull Mitch away from the phone for a minute and whisper “Tell him if it means that I get found out then that’s all that needs to happen”. Looking worried, Mitch sighs not thinking this is a good idea with the potential attention that comes out of it “Promise me Frankie that no names are used and any sources are kept confidential”.

Frankie reassures Mitch “Of course, I’ll never mention it to anyone and I’m at home now so it won’t leave this phone call…”. Mitch sits there for a moment and relents “It’s Isaac Keppel”. An audible gasp from Frankie “Look I don’t know about that man; it just seems odd that he would come to you” he says not convinced now by Mitch’s source.

“I am 100% Isaac Keppel and if you want to turn this into a video chat I’ll prove it” chirping in to make sure that Frankie believes it. “Alright alright, I’ll pursue the story for Monday’s paper and at the debate but just make sure there is no blowback on you,” Frankie says with a sense of reluctancy about the story but agrees with it. “Where are you based Isaac, just in case anything happens and they want to find you?” he says down the phone as I look at Mitch “That would be a breach of confidentiality wouldn’t Frankie”. Mitch knows his stuff as a lawyer and Frankie agrees “Just trying to protect him though that’s all”.

“I’m spending time in Reddington at the moment,” I say trying to cover where I am so Frankie doesn’t know. “Yep alright, I’m not going to write that down but at least I know where to find you if shit goes down” Frankie hangs up the phone and the plan is now starting to roll in motion.

Mitch and I hang up the phone call as he gets up “What are you feeling like for dinner?” he says to me as I get up getting ready to go. “I’ll just pick something up on my way home” that answer doesn’t go down well with Mitch “I’m buying you dinner now what do you want,” he says with a tone “Pizza, Chicken, Chinese, Indian?”.

“Chinese would be awesome but I didn’t think there was a Chinese place in Yellow Peak,” I say knowing I probably would have had it by now if I knew that it was about. Mitch laughs “Yeah, Dragon Palace over the road, it’s only new so not many people use it yet,” I tell him what I want and he tells me he will go over and order it. I offer to go with him but he says it’s fine and that we both don’t need to go.

After Mitch leaves, I can’t help myself but have a snoop around his apartment. Naturally, I start with the bedroom, where I go through his drawers and find a wide range of underwear both normal and surprisingly raunchy. There’s briefs, boxers and jocks in there which doesn’t surprise me considering I’ve seen him in just about everything really.

Going through his bedroom is pretty boring, there’s a varied collection of porn videos and Coffee table books featuring nude men in his bookshelf in his room. I don’t find anything that is that exciting and I end up going back to the living room and put the TV on and sit there watching the game that’s on even though it’s not that exciting.

Mitch comes back about twenty minutes later with the food which smells amazing “So did you have a look around my apartment?” he says as he comes in. I sit there and shake my head “Nah I didn’t” he laughs and sees through my lies. “I know you did and I wouldn’t have left you alone here if it wasn’t ok” to go through my place” I sit there feeling a bit awkward by the fact that I did.

Eating dinner, I feel Mitch curling up to me as we sit there and just talk about things for a little bit “Do you think Adam will be ok with helping us with Danny, I don’t think he was entirely convinced still?” I ask Mitch who has known him forever. “I think so, he cares about Danny which is why I think he doesn’t want to hurt him but he can’t live like this and be happy with that going on behind his back”.

The rest of the night, I just sit talking to Mitch curled into him even though this is like what we did in Sapphire Ridge, this feels different and much nicer feeling him interested in me.  It gets late as we finish watching the end of the game. “Do you want to stay the night?” Mitch says to me as I start to get up and pick up my keys and wallet and head towards the door.

I look across at him “You sure, I mean I thought we would prefer to do things in secret and have you got the room?”. Mitch just looks at me “I didn’t say anything about having sex just staying the night so that you don’t have to drive home this late and you’ve seen my bed there’s room for the two of us” he says starting to get undressed again.

Looking at him stripping down, I agree to stay the night and strip down to my briefs before he yanks them off me “We might not be having sex tonight, but I still sleep naked with my boy” he says laughing as we climb into bed together.

We don’t have sex but just sleep together naked, cuddled up like we did in Sapphire Ridge, this time feeling more connected than the fake relationship that we had at the resort. The next morning I wake up after Mitch who has his arm around me still as I feel his hard cock pressing up against my whole. I kiss him “Morning sexy,” I say instinctively before realising what I said. Mitch with his hand running through my hair “Morning to you too sexy’ he says smiling moving in to kiss me as we don’t move even though we’re awake.

Our kisses continue before we start making out properly, the kissing passionate as our tongues wrestle each other as our naked bodies now face each other as we grind against each other we look at each other leaking but decide not to rush into doing anything because we want to focus on getting the victory before celebrating.