Page 72 of For All My Effort
“I doubt it, unfortunately. He’s so extreme his followers almost worship him for his political views. It does mean that he might lose the votes on the permanency, though. This could be enough to spook the representatives who were on the fence. The temporary ban barely passed as it was.”
“What do we do now?” Someone had left that information on my page last night, so I figured it wasn’t public news yet. Or at least, not news that was being broadcast, most likely in an attempt to keep what happened quiet. “Is there a way we can secretly broadcast this?”
“What do you mean? Like send this to a news channel?”
I tensed. Just the thought of working with reporters bothered me. I didn’t trust them with this. Before, I’d believed because they were on TV, because they claimed roles as journalists, that they had some humanity for their audience. I’ve learned the truth. “I don’t think they’ll report on it. And even if they did, I don’t trust them to not twist it. I want the story to break out around them leaving them scrambling to report it.”
Han nodded his head, not so much like he was agreeing, more like he was thinking. “I could break into some websites and change the entire face to just be this information. That will take some time, but I can do it. Although, it will be a little harder without any links to reputable news sites.”
I scoffed. “Reputable.”
“I know, Hannah. But a lot of people still only get their information from those types of media outlets.” He went back to his desk, and I followed, hovering around him, holding my laptop in case he wanted to reference the information sent to me.
The comforting silence that usually surrounded us in Han’s office was missing as Han looked up sites, opening several tabs on each of his screens, and started breaking through their protective firewalls to post what we wanted.
I was barely able to hold still as I watched him. He typed so fast without even glancing down at the keyboard like it was as easy as talking. In a way, he sort of was communicating with the technology.
Jackson must have felt the change in my emotions because his scent was suddenly permeating through the office. “What’s going on?”
I glanced up at my mate quickly, doing a double take when I realized he was leaning against the doorframe, shirtless, covered in sweat, and slightly heaving. No wonder his scent was so strong, he’d been working out and I was amazed to see that even his bulky muscles had a pump from whatever he’d been doing.
It felt impossible to look away from Jackson even as my brain tried to remind me that I was watching something important.
Han was the one who spoke up, saying, “One of the representatives just got booted from office. We’re trying to leak the information.”
My perfume was starting to bloom just looking at Jackson. It didn’t help that my emotions were already high. The giddy excitement I felt over this information was making it even harder to not run to my mate. I wanted to celebrate, I wanted this to be the piece of information that meant the world was finally righting itself.
Even I knew that would be too premature.
Jackson came closer, stepping into the room to watch as Han continued working. His apple scent slammed into me making me groan.
I was bouncing on my toes, fighting the need to fuck my mate and be here while Han worked on this. It didn’t help that my arousal was making Han’s scent bloom as well. He didn’t slow down as he typed despite his pumpkin scent growing stronger.
There was something incredibly sexy about watching Han work, knowing he was aroused, yet not so much as looking up from his multiple screens. It was hard to keep up with what he was doing, especially as I watched his side profile, his serious features.
A chime went through the house, taking all of our attention away from the screens toward the office door, as if that’s where the random person was actually waiting.
Jackson growled, “Han, what the hell did you do?”
“That’s not about this. It has to be a coincidence. Even if I had fucked up, which I didn’t, but if I had, they wouldn’t have gotten here this fast. Also, I didn’t fuck up.”
I was reassured, although I only made it one step toward the door before Jackson grabbed me. “Nice try, rebel. You stay up here with Han.”
Looking back at my mate who was already staring at his screens, I agreed. I planned to sneak down the stairs anyway—
“Han,” Jackson demanded. “Keep Hannah up here.”
That got my mate to look up from his computers. I didn’t even have time to argue before Jackson started making his way out of the room and down the stairs. He was stomping each step, but I couldn’t follow because Han wrapped an arm around my waist, pulling me back so I was actually sitting on his lap.
“Han—” I tried to struggle out of his lap. He kept one arm bound around me as he started closing everything on the screens. “Wait, what are you doing?”
“I don’t have a good feeling about this.”
“What do you mean?”
“We rarely get visitors, especially ones that don’t reach out before coming. And someone shows up on the same day that you get a leaked message about the vote? Shit’s going down.”
The only thing I felt at his words was panic. My mate was down there. Was Jackson in danger? I needed to protect him.