Nothing to Lose (27 page)

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Authors: Angela Winters

BOOK: Nothing to Lose
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“We discussed this, Erica.” He eyed her sternly.
“Nothing was going on,” she repeated.
“You both looked very close,” he accused. “Is this what you're getting paid to do?”
“Sir,” Alex began, “we're working very hard. You can be assured—”
“I can't be assured of anything with you,” Jonah responded sharply.
Alex looked genuinely shocked and offended. It made Erica angry. Why was he so mad? What was going on?
“Jonah—”
“You're to blame for this too, Erica,” he said.
“We were just talking!” she yelled.
Erica noticed that Alex looked surprised at her tone. He gave her a warning glance, as if to tell her to watch it. She imagined Alex must have thought she was crazy for yelling at Jonah.
“Not that,” Jonah said, pointing to the place where they'd been standing when he entered. “I'm talking about DC Whisperings!”
“What is that?” Erica asked.
“It's a blog,” Alex said. “It's a gossip blog, mostly about national politicians and society people in D.C. What happened?”
“The campaign got a call from the editor,” Jonah said. “They posted a picture of me and my wife at a fund-raising dinner party. One of their commenters said they had undeniable proof that I've cheated on my wife—DNA proof!”
“DNA proof?”
Erica asked, knowing exactly what that meant.
“Are we talking about some kind of little blue dress?” Alex asked, referring to the President Clinton sex scandal.
“Worse than that,” Jonah said, looking at Erica.
Erica felt her stomach tighten as she realized what Terrell was planning to do. He wasn't just going to expose Jonah's relationship with Sherise. He was going to expose her own relationship with Jonah. Now that she made it clear that he was out of her life, he was going to try and hurt her as well!
“What is worse?” Alex asked, confused. He then looked at Erica, perplexed, but she only shrugged in response. Jonah was giving up way too much.
Jonah pointed accusingly at Alex. “You were supposed to pay Terrell, and he was supposed to leave town and stay out of this.”
“I did exactly what you said,” Alex said.
“You don't know it's him,” Erica stated.
“I don't?” Jonah asked. “It only took our IT guy a few minutes to track down the commenter. They haven't gotten a home address, but it's coming from Columbia Heights. Right near where your thug of an ex-boyfriend lives now.”
“Are you sure of that?” she asked. “How did they do that?”
“That's not important,” Jonah said. “What is important is that you both failed, and DC Whisperings wants to know more.”
“That's manageable,” Alex said. He walked back to his desk and grabbed his cell phone. “It's just a gossip blog. They all try to break these stories, but they're not professionals. They can be dealt with. We can put a stop—”
“Not you,” Jonah said. “You've done enough here. I've put Laura on it.”
Alex looked extremely upset that he'd been passed over for this crisis. “But, sir, I know much more than Laura about—”
“You're out of this one,” Jonah said. “Both of you!”
“If you'd just listened to me,” Erica stated.
“Enough!”
The force of his words startled her. Jonah was almost menacingly angry. “I fought in fucking wars,” he said. “I'll be damned if I let some punk hustler make me weak. He's done!” He turned and stormed out of the office.
“Jonah!” Erica called after him.
“What is he . . .” Alex rushed over to her. “Erica, you're shaking again.”
She turned to him. “You have to help me, Alex.”
“With what?”
“He's going to hurt Terrell,” she said. “I think he might do worse.”
“Jonah?” Alex was shaking his head. “He'll probably just threaten him. I know how these things go. They threaten someone with exposing their own past or—”
“No, he's not going to do that.” Erica grabbed Alex's hands in hers. “Please, you have to help me get Terrell somewhere safe before Jonah gets to him.”
“But why—”
“Alex! You have to trust me! Just trust me. Will you help me?”
He looked apprehensive, but he nodded. “What do you want me to do?”
“We have to call his job,” she said. “Tell him to get out of there now and we'll meet him.”
He shook his head. “I'll bet he quit his job after he got the payment.”
“Then his apartment,” she said. “We have to get to him.”
“If he's in Columbia Heights, my mom lives pretty close to him,” Alex said. “We'll take him there for now.”
“Let's go,” Erica said. “I just hope we aren't too late.”
16
S
herise's eyes were closed, her face looking upward to catch all of the sun on this beautiful early afternoon. She thought she was going to have to get back on the exercise wagon to control her weight gain with this pregnancy. Now that things were about to lighten her load, she'd have time to do that, like take a long walk in the sun with her husband.
“What is this shit?”
Sherise opened her eyes to the sound of Elena's fake Midwestern accent.
“Oh, hi, Elena.” Sherise pointed to the chair across the table from her. “Have a seat.”
Elena looked around. “I'm supposed to be meeting someone else here. The host must have sent me to the wrong—”
“You're at the right table,” Sherise said. “Dennis isn't coming. A friend at the firm got ahold of his phone while he was in the bathroom and sent you that text. You're here to see me.”
“No, I'm not.” Elena placed her purse over her shoulder and looked down at Sherise in a menacing way. “I don't have to talk to you. I'm about to sue—”
“No, you're not,” Sherise said impatiently. “Stop making a spectacle of yourself and sit down.”
“What I'm going to do,” Elena said, with a pointing finger, “is call my lawyer and file a harassment claim against you now.”
“I'd think twice before doing that,” a deep voice said.
Elena's mouth fell open at the sight of Justin as he came around the curtain and approached their table.
“What are you . . .” She was getting suddenly nervous. “You're not allowed to come near me.”
“You don't have a restraining order against him,” Sherise said. “There's no law that says he can't be near you.”
“This won't look good for the case,” she said, smirking.
“There's not gonna be a case.” Justin sat down. “Your lies have caught up with you, Elena.”
Elena gave a haughty huff. “Is that what you think?”
“It's what we know.” Sherise placed the file, which was in her purse, on the table. “Now sit down, Ms. Brown.”
The smirk on Elena's face disappeared as she looked from Sherise to Justin and then to the file on the table.
“What's that?” she asked.
“It's a copy of everything,” Sherise said. “Yours to keep.”
“Everything?”
she asked, finally taking a seat.
“Is this really all about revenge?” Justin asked.
“I don't have to justify myself to you,” Elena said. “I have a witness and—”
“Dennis isn't going to be able to help you after this,” Sherise said. “We know that your dad worked for Okun Industries for, what, thirty-five years?”
Elena swallowed hard, not saying a word.
“When the executives at Okun realized they had mismanaged the company, they knew they were going down.” Sherise watched with a smile as Elena's expression changed. “They had run out of money and the debtors were pounding on their door. They'd already laid off half the workers.”
“It's not uncommon for companies to use pension funds to pay debts,” Justin stressed.
Elena's expression hardened. “But they didn't use it to pay off their debt. They used it to pay themselves bonuses before declaring bankruptcy and shutting down the company.”
“What they did was wrong,” Justin agreed. “It's not supposed to be used like that, but it's not a crime.”
“It was a crime,” she said, “until you made it legal.”
Justin shook his head. “This is sick, Elena.”
Sherise continued her summary. “So your daddy lost his pension when Okun raided it, and you blame Justin?”
“I was doing my job,” Justin explained.
“Your firm's aggressive lobbying changed that law,” Elena said. “What you did, made it possible for them to get away with it.”
“You could have sued them,” Justin said. “There are recourses for employees who—”
Elena laughed and Sherise heard something in that laugh. Elena was an angry woman full of pain. She was bordering on the edge of sanity. Sherise wanted to feel sorry for her, but she couldn't. If she'd targeted anyone else, Sherise would try and find sympathy, but Elena hadn't.
“Do you know how you sound?” Elena asked. “You push for these laws, knowing the consequences can destroy lives, take away everything that decent people have worked for, and console yourself by saying that they have legal recourse. It all works out, right?”
“So you plot revenge,” Sherise said. “You change your name. You get an internship on Capitol Hill. You did well, considering all the lying you had on your résumé.”
“Dennis helped you,” Justin said. “I know he did. How else would you get to the firm with such a shady background?”
“Men are stupid,” Elena said flatly, as if not caring anymore.
“You wanted a big payday,” Sherise said. “Justin was collateral damage.”
“No!” Elena slammed her fist on the table.
“Take it easy,” Justin warned, looking around.
“He wasn't collateral damage,” Elena said. “He was the head of that lobbying effort. Justin and the firm made tons and tons of money making it possible for Okun to destroy my family's life. Dennis told me everything.”
“You know that Dennis was supposed to head that up,” Justin said.
“He was taken off that case,” Elena argued, “because he told the heads at the firm that he didn't agree with it anymore.”
Sherise laughed. “He played you, bitch.”
“Dennis was taken off the case because he was showing up for meetings drunk,” Justin explained. “The client almost fired us. He went to AA after that.”
Elena's indignation slipped away as she looked from Justin to Sherise.
“I guess he used you too,” Sherise said. “He wanted to get in your panties and get back at Justin for taking over his account. Did you promise to share the money with him?”
Sherise realized that Elena was still holding on to hope, and it was a waste of time.
“Look, honey,” Sherise said, “it's over. We have all the evidence we need. Look in the folder. There's even a picture of you and Dennis making out in Bartholdi Park last week.”
“Between that and his vendetta against me over Okun,” Justin said, “he's not going to be any use to you.”
“So stop holding out,” Sherise advised.
“No,” Elena finally said. “He was going to get ten percent. He was really just in it to ruin Justin's career and . . . be with me.”
Sherise smiled slyly. “You were going to get rid of him after you got your money, weren't you?”
“So you wanted to get rich?” Justin asked.
“You don't understand at all,” Elena said, with a disgusted expression on her face.
“There was one thing,” Sherise said, “one thing I didn't have time to figure out, but I think I know now.”
Elena turned to her; her eyes were beginning to well up with tears.
“Your sister, Rose.” Sherise paused to gauge the effect of the name on Elena; it was massive. “Not long after everyone found out that the pension was raided and they'd lost their entire retirement savings, Rose committed suicide.”
“Doesn't make sense,” Justin said. “She was a twenty-six-year-old woman. She wasn't dependent on that pension. Your father was the one who lost all the money.”
“You're right,” Elena said in a shaky voice. “It doesn't make sense. It wasn't a suicide.”
“So, what happened?” Sherise asked.
“I guess you could say she took Justin's advice.” Elena wiped a single tear that trailed her left cheek. “She filed a lawsuit against the company right away. She was going to fight for Dad. She was just a teacher, but she knew the law and . . .”
Elena paused, looking down as she swallowed hard to maintain her resolve. “She started getting threats,” she continued. “At school and at work. People would drive by her house and leave her untraceable notes.”
“My firm didn't do that,” Justin said. “We'd have no reason to.”
“No, it was Okun,” Elena said. “She was so scared that she bought a gun. Then one night, I showed up at her place and used my key to get in her house. Just like usual, but she was such a mess by then, she thought—”
Sherise gasped. “She shot herself.”
“She just got the gun,” Elena said. “She'd only taken a couple of classes. She didn't know how to use it and she was scared to death. She must have been fumbling with it in the dark and . . . I heard a shot.”
“It was an accident,” Justin said.
“It wasn't!” Elena directed her grief at him. “It was a result of what you and your firm did. Everything has consequences. None of this would have happened if you hadn't fought to find a way to help a company cheat its workers.”
“Your sister is dead because of Okun,” Sherise said. “Not Justin's firm.”
“She's dead and my father has nothing because of both of you.” Elena looked at Justin. “I couldn't touch Okun executives. They're superrich and they've all lawyered up. But you were free and clear, and I felt it was time that someone other than my family started suffering the consequences of what you did.”
“Well, you failed,” Sherise said. “And now you're going to suffer. You see how that works? If you live just to cause pain, you only get pain in return.”
“I don't have to listen to your threats,” Elena snapped.
“But we've had to listen to yours,” Sherise answered. “We've had to listen to your lies, which could ruin our lives.”
“He deserves it.” Elena stood up and looked down at Justin. “I think you know you do.”
Sherise looked over to Justin, who looked to be suffering inner turmoil, before turning back to Elena.
“By the way”—Sherise pointed to her smartphone, which had been sitting on the table the entire time—“I've been taping this whole conversation. Didn't really need to, but just in case.”
“Go to hell” was all Elena could muster before snatching her purse and walking off.
Sherise sat back in her chair, a victorious smile spreading across her face. “That went easier than I expected.”
“What did you expect?” Justin asked, sounding annoyed. “It wasn't as if she could deny any of the evidence. What was she going to fight?”
“She's a bitch,” Sherise said, turning to him. “Bitches fight, whether or not they have a chance. It's what we do.”
Justin shrugged, looking down at his lap. He brushed away lint that wasn't on his pants. Sherise was worried. She watched him avoid eye contact with her, and it bothered her.
Sherise reached over and placed her hand over his on his lap.
“This isn't your fault,” she said. “You did your job. You didn't cause any of this. You would never want any of that to happen.”
He looked at her with a solemn expression. “I know, I just—”
“You just what?” she asked. “You're a good man, Justin. You have a good heart. You would never do something that would hurt innocent people on purpose.”
He smiled, but she could tell he wasn't really feeling it.
“You can't doubt yourself because some crazy bitch comes along and decides to blame you for something you could've never expected to happen.” She took his hand in hers and placed it on her belly. “This is who you are. A father, a husband, and someone who—I thank God every day—loves me.”
“I do love you,” he said. “I love our family.”
“And we just saved it,” she said. “Together.”
 
Billie waited anxiously outside his front door, waiting for him to open it. Her stomach was in knots because she knew this would start out ugly. But there was also a sense of calm because she knew what she wanted out of it.
But would he even give her a chance? She heard a commotion at the door, on the other side. He could see her through the peephole. She smiled and held up the white tissue she'd taken out of her purse, hoping that he would at least give her a chance and open the door.
She heard an annoyed sigh and a few more seconds of waiting before the opening of locks.
“What do you want?” he asked as he opened the door.
Porter stood in the crack of the door, his demeanor making it clear that there was no way she was coming into his condo.
Billie felt bad when she saw the defeated look on his face. He wasn't really angry as much as just unhappy. This was supposed to be what she wanted, what would make her happy. She got it, and she was more miserable than ever.
“I need to talk to you,” she said softly.
“Tara is gone,” Porter said. “She's back in Detroit and she's not coming back. I don't care what you do to my career, Billie. There's nothing left to say.”
“I hope you'll give me a chance to apologize to her too,” Billie said.
“No, I . . .” Porter paused for a second, thinking about her words. “ ‘Too'? Are you trying to say that you're here to apologize to me?”
“I am.” She offered a smile. “And it's sincere, Porter. I promise.”
“I don't believe anything you say, Billie! You're not the Billie I was married to.”
“You're not the Porter I was married to either,” she said. “So I think we're even on that, don't you?”
He shrugged. “Why? I'm not going to change my mind about Tara.”
“That's your right,” she said. “Tara is your daughter. Even though I love her like a daughter, I know I have no right to her. It would break my heart if I couldn't speak to her again, but I'll respect that, if that's your wish.”

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