When Casey finished her meeting with the marketing team—she oversaw the advertising and brand positioning for the company—she joined him in his office, plunking herself down on the eggplant-colored couch that she’d selected when she overhauled his office a year ago, declaring it too dull.

“A little splash of color makes everything better,” she’d said as the movers lugged in the new couch, and then carried out the old beige one.

This morning, she’d been meeting with their ad agency, so this was his first chance to sit down with her and lay out the details of the Henry and Marquita issue with Eden. Last night, he’d met with one of their top retailers that boasted a storefront on the Upper East Side as well as a burgeoning online division. But the most profitable line of their business was the handful of under-the-radar BDSM clubs they ran in Manhattan. Those clubs were under threat because a rival politician had decided to play dirty.

“Here’s the problem,” Jack said as he joined her in the red chair opposite the purple couch. Yes, the red chair was her selection too. “We’ve got Marquita’s brother, Paul Denkler, running for city councilman in District Four. There’s a special election because of an unexpected vacancy.”

Casey emitted a snoring sound and let her head loll to one side, her eyelids fluttering closed.

“Yes, I feel the same way about politics,” Jack said, rolling his eyes as Casey ‘woke up.’ “But listen, his opponent is this guy, Jared Conroy, and he’s a complete prick.”

“Two of my least favorite words paired together,” Casey said.

“Me too. Trouble is, he’s a former litigator, and he fights below the belt.”

“Below the belt is a pleasure-only zone,” Casey said, gesturing to her skirt. “I don’t approve of fighting there.”

“Nor do I,” he said with a laugh.

Casey twisted her blond hair into a knot and shoved a pencil through it. “So tell me the problem.”

“The problem is, Conroy is hitting all the right notes the residents want to hear with his clean-up-the-neighborhood platform. And hey, who doesn’t want to clean up New York? Nothing wrong with that. But he’s twisted Denkler’s schools-and-safe-streets campaign into a condemnation of Denkler’s sister’s business.”

“How are the two even connected?” she asked, scrunching her brow.

Jack shook his head. “They aren’t, of course. That’s the issue. Conroy plays hard ball, and he’s decided to make the campaign about the BDSM clubs. Conroy has deep pockets. With that money lining his pockets, he’s promising to do a Times Square-style sweep of the—” Jack stopped to sketch air quotes “—tawdry elements. As if the BDSM clubs are causing problems in the area that necessitate a clean up. They’re not, but he’s making it seem like they are, and since the Times Square revamp was so popular, his message is resonating.”

Casey bared her teeth and crinkled her nose. “Bastard. I hate him already. Nobody fucks with Henry and Marquita, especially after all that Marquita has been through.”