NO
RULES
A gut-gripping political thriller
A St. Clair Thriller - Book 4
Ridge King
Elsinore Press
Miami Beach
© Copyright 2021
Ridge King
Series Reading Order
https://www.ridgeking.com/
FREE STORY
“Storm Over Bimini”
This free short story is available only from Ridge personally. Send him an email and he’ll send it to you right away. It involves the backstory of Jack’s dad Sam when he was younger and was embroiled in a torrid love affair with Bedelia Vaughan, wife of his business partner, Toth Vaughan, and the ramifications when Toth discovers their secret on a fishing trip to Bimini.
ridge@ridgeking.com
NO RULES
Table of Contents
Chapter 1
APPLES AND ORANGES
Chapter 2
RIPPED OFF
Chapter 3
DO NOTHING?
Chapter 4
THE MONEY TRAIL
Chapter 5
ALLIGATOR ALLEY
Chapter 6
THE TRANSITION
Chapter 7
THE GRAND SCHEME
Chapter 8
ROLLING DICE
Chapter 9
CAMP DAVID
Chapter 10
PERRYMAN’S PLAN
Chapter 11
THE CALL
Chapter 12
CONFLICTED
Chapter 1
APPLES AND ORANGES
Matt and Sue Hawkins overslept the next morning and had to rush to the airport to catch her flight back to Wyoming. They just had time for a cup of coffee before she boarded.
“I wish we’d had time for sex before we left the hotel.”
“I know,” he said, offering up a weak smile. That had been the last thing on his mind.
“There was no time with the party and everything last night.”
“I know.”
“But it was exciting. That big house, Horizon. All the glamorous people. Imagine living like that Patricia Vaughan.”
If only she knew, he thought with a rueful smile.
“You look worried, Matt,” she said.
He looked up at her. He couldn’t exactly tell her he was blackmailed last night at the party, much less why he was blackmailed. All he wanted right now was for her to get on that plane and get the hell out of Washington so he could focus on what he had to do.
“Oh, just sad to see you go, I guess,” he said. He looked at her objectively. “Do you think you’ll like it in Washington?”
“I think so. You’re here. I’d like it anywhere you were, Matt, you know that.” He smiled, not wanting to talk anymore. Her flight was announced.
“Let’s go, honey, that’s the second time they’ve called it.” They rose and went towards security.
“I’ll miss you,” she said.
“I have to leave you here,” Matt said.
She hugged him and then kissed him on the mouth.
“When will you call me?”
“Tonight. Run along now, and take care of your mother.”
She left him and he waved to her as she went down the concourse to her gate.
“Just two more weeks,” she yelled back to him, waving and smiling.
He waved back until he lost sight of her. Then he walked away in a sullen mood. He passed an information booth that had a banner over it: VISIT FLORIDA. He wandered over and looked at some of the brochures, thinking of the upcoming trip to Miami on the Republican candidate’s private plane. Was it unethical to accept a trip on the private plane of the Presidential candidate you weren’t voting for?
He wasn’t sure. He reminded himself to ask Bill Crampton.
* * *
Phil Slanetti actually paced in his office. He was furious with Hawkins’s impertinence, and yet he was trying to maintain a detached attitude in the whole matter. He knew he wasn’t trying to be President. He was helping Sam Houston St. Clair. If he won or lost it was all the same to Slanetti personally. He only had to fulfill his obligation to President Norwalk. After that, Slanetti was through. His intercom buzzed. He touched it.
“Yes,” he snapped.
“Speaker Perryman is on line three.”
“Right,” he said, his tone changing. He lifted his receiver. “This is Phil Slanetti.”
“The Keystone fits the arch.”
He replaced the phone. Neil Scott was safe and would vote for St. Clair. Things were getting too hectic even for him to follow, he thought. Last night when he and Perryman had met in the disused telephone room at Patricia Vaughan’s Thanksgiving party at Horizon to talk about Stathis’s discovery, Scott hadn’t even been mentioned.
And now with Eric Stathis, the President’s chief of staff, knowing about the Keystone File, Slanetti wasn’t sure precisely where he stood. He had an early scheduled appointment with President Norwalk. He knew he’d have to tell the President. Norwalk and Stathis had always been close friends, but Slanetti couldn’t decide if Stathis would tell Norwalk what he knew. He doubted it. He didn’t think Stathis would leak it to the press, either. He wouldn’t have bothered to inform Senator Thurston directly and so secretly if that had been his plan. Stathis was (luckily for the Republican effort) letting Thurston decide how to use the incendiary information that the Keystone File had become.
Well, at least, Neil Scott was safe, thought Slanetti. But Illinois, Oklahoma, Wyoming—there were still problems—and the Republicans were still a good several laps from touching home base in the Keystone affair.
He was glad he’d spoken to Jack Houston St. Clair about putting pressure on Matt Hawkins. As one of Hawkins’s only friends in Washington, Jack was in a perfect position to use his influence to bring Hawkins’s vote into Jack’s father’s column, even if Hawkins had sworn to vote for Thurston.
His intercom buzzed again.
“Yes?”
“The President wants you immediately, sir.”
“Thank you,” he said, blinking his eyes.
He swallowed hard. He half expected Norwalk to call the whole thing off when he told him. He knew Stathis had a strong moral influence over Norwalk. Only one way to find out what he’ll do, he thought as he picked up a folder and headed out to the corridor that led to the Oval Office.
*
