Victoria by Laura Marie Henion

heard that the cops are making a connection between Linda and Danny. I don't want to be screwed here. You promised me everything would be fine.” Bret's palms began to sweat, and he wiped some perspiration off his brow. The man on the other line and his capabilities frightened him.
    "Don't bother me with your pansy bullshit. You wanted this—all of it. Now live with your part and trust me. Everything is going as planned, Supervisor. Don't call me again."
    Bret shook. He never should have said yes to any of this. Stealing, money laundering, and roughing someone up was one thing, but murder, that was something entirely different, never mind the fact, he had no idea who this guy was.
    Bret thought back to a year earlier when his life seemed pretty bad and all prospects of climbing up the political ladder were dismal. He was desperate and ready to do anything to achieve the position as supervisor, but he had to get his name into the race. That's when he received the phone call from Mr. Mysterious. The guy had it all planned and Bret accepted his offer of helping him achieve his political goals. He was desperate, yes, but this mystery person had a lot of information on him.
    Bret smiled when he thought about his own fixation with young women. He couldn't get enough of playing the wild, crazy sex games. He lived for it, but somehow, this guy got his hands on a video and some pictures of him with an underage girl. Bret knew something like that would destroy any chances he had for a political career. It was over, the decision made, and now, here he was on the way to achieving his goal. Still, he had an uneasy feeling inside. Maybe it was guilt or disgust for what he had done, and for what this man was capable of doing.
    Then, of course, there was Linda Delaney. He had loved her, but it was necessary to sacrifice her, to destroy Danny Mardullo's reputation.
    Mardullo's daughter, Victoria, though, was a different story. Things just kind of happened between them, well, with a little push from him. But hey, maybe she was exactly what he needed, and the bonus of extra votes didn't hurt one bit. Now he needed to win her over completely in order to make sure he had those votes come Election Day.
* * * *
    Victoria pulled her jeep into the marina parking lot. She immediately noticed the police cars, sheriff's car, her uncle's fencing company truck, unmarked police cars, and other vehicles belonging to her family. She didn't see her mom's car, however.
    She took a deep breath and prayed she could play her role, a role completely the opposite of her true self.
    "You're late by ten minutes."
    "You're lucky I even showed up, knowing there would be a lynch mob,” she said sarcastically as she joined the large group of men. The mere fact that she was the only female present would have normally alarmed her if they weren't her family.
    "First topic and reason for today's meeting is you, Victoria. We understand that you are now dating Bret Collins, enemy of your father and family.” Uncle Patrick used his most serious voice as the others stared at her as if she'd committed a felony. She didn't think she would get away with this, not by a long shot.
    "It's none of your business! What's the next subject of this family meeting?” she shot back at them and she could tell they were shocked.
    "Tory, this is serious. He's no good for you!” Peter told her.
    Then the others bombarded her, as well.
    "He's a scumbag!"
    "He's too old for you!"
    "He's using you."
    "Whoa, everybody settle down, right now. All of you have no right to tell me whom I may or may not date. My personal life is my business, not any of yours. Besides, it was all of you who have been pushing me to date. Now, Bret and I happened, plain and simple. I like him, we're dating, and it's no big deal. Get over it!"
    They tried to talk to her about it, but she wouldn't budge. Finally, Uncle Patrick brought up the next topic, which was the new information about his brother, Danny.
    "There's no