Nothing to Lose (6 page)

“What about . . . What's his name, again?”

“McGarry has already said that he will only serve out the rest of this term because of his respect for the president and his lifelong friendship with Shaplin. He will not be on the ticket.”

Erica shrugged as she said, “Um . . . congratulations?”

“This is a great thing,” he said. “If we win . . . When we win, I'll be poised for the presidency four years from now.”

“I thought you . . . I mean, what about your privacy?” she asked.

“I'll protect everything that needs to be protected.”

“What about Sherise and—”

“No one will ever know about that,” he said forcefully. “No one will ever know anything I don't want them to. I'm not stupid, Erica. I didn't get this far by just hoping things worked out.”

“What does that mean?” she asked, feeling an ominous tone.

“Speaking of Sherise,” he said, ignoring her question, “you can't tell her. Do you understand? I know you're still close to her, but until this announcement is made, no one can know.”

This was the last thing Erica wanted to tell Sherise. She would be livid. She would feel exposed. No matter what Jonah said, if he ran, the press would turn over every stone. They'd be looking to find any skeletons in his closet. Sherise was pregnant and her marriage was still in a sensitive state. She could lose everything.

“I don't know if this is such good news,” Erica said, noticing his disappointment. “I'm sorry, but that's my opinion. It exposes me, you know.”

“I won't let anything happen to you,” Jonah said. “No one will know about you. I've hired people to make sure that no one looks into anything that could lead to you . . . to us.”

“Why would you want me to come work with you?” she asked. “Wouldn't that just increase the risk, us being close like that?”

Jonah smiled and his usually stern face softened considerably. “You've worked for me before, so it won't seem weird that I've brought you on. Other former staffers of mine will be offered the chance to join me. I will pay you just as much as I pay others doing the same job, so no red flags. I won't treat you differently. It will be fine.”

“But—”

“Most important,” he said, “this is the most amazing thing. I have a chance to be vice president of the United States. I want you near me.”

Erica couldn't help but feel touched by the sincere tone in his voice and the compassionate look on his face. He could be so convincing, but she had to remember who he was, what he'd done, and what he could do.

“Alex,” she said. “He's working on your campaign? That's why he said he'd be seeing me.”

“Yes. Alex is an amazing legislative aide on the Hill and he's going to be your boss. You'll like him. He's a great kid.”

“You're assuming that I'm coming to work for you,” she said. “But, Jonah, I just don't think that's a good idea.”

He didn't hide his disappointment. “It's an exciting opportunity to be part of something incredible—something that people dream about. It will open endless doors for you and it pays well. You would be stupid not to take it.”

“Insults aren't really a motivator,” she said in a sarcastically observant tone.

“You shouldn't need motivation, Erica,” Jonah stated. “This is something on a national scale. Hell, it's a global scale. You're meant for greater things than making copies of press releases. It's time you start realizing it.”

B
eing the wife of one of the most important people at Justin's firm had its benefits. Sherise didn't have to go through all the hoops that most people did in the highly secured building. The security guard Alvin was basically in love with her. All she had to do was smile and she was let in the elevator that went to the twelfth floor, the top of the building.

She bypassed the receptionist, a new one she didn't know and who was easily intimidated by her refusal to “check in” before going ahead. Down the hall, to the left, was the corner office belonging to her husband who was a principal on the lobbying side of one of the largest law firms in the country.

She'd been prepared to bypass his administrative assistant, Candy, as well, but she wasn't there. All the better for the element of surprise. Sherise wanted to catch Justin off guard so he couldn't dismiss her so easily. She wanted to talk to him, needed to talk to him.

However, she was the one caught off guard when she entered the office and saw Justin sitting at his desk, with a beautiful young woman leaning over him from behind. Both of them looked up immediately as she entered. Sherise tried to hide how much this scene irked her. Who in the hell was this woman?

She was a strikingly beautiful woman, who looked to be in her midtwenties. She had a classical type of beauty, and she looked to be of Italian or Spanish descent, with warm olive skin, dark hair, and large brown eyes. She was on the thin side, but she had enough curves to make her the kind of woman you wouldn't want to find hanging over your husband's shoulders, with her cleavage in full view.

“Sherise.” Justin said her name as if he had just remembered it that second. “What are . . . Um, what are you doing here?”

“Nice to see you too,” she answered, closing the door behind her.

She approached the desk as the young woman stood up. At least she no longer had her breasts all up in her husband's face.

“You're supposed to be in bed.” Justin quickly got up from his chair and came around his desk.

He opened his arms to her and she hugged him. She reached up, grabbing his face gently, and brought it down to her. She kissed him passionately and he hugged her a little tighter. It was important to set the stage.

“We'll talk about that later,” she said as they finally separated.

Sherise knew how to deal with her husband's attractive coworkers. She took the ignore approach. They were unimportant. She would never make them think they even mattered, let alone were a threat. So, after the initial moment of seeing them together, Sherise kept her attention completely on her husband, who seemed, at the least, confused to see her.

“I came to take you to lunch,” Sherise said. “And don't protest, because I called Candy this morning and she told me your lunch was free.”

“Well, that was before,” he said. “I have a working lunch now.”

Sherise wasn't about to be turned down by her husband in front of this woman. She gently caressed her husband's cheek. “We've worked around working lunches before.”

He smiled at her and this made her confident. Justin used to be so weak to even the most simple of her flirtations, but that had gotten lost in the mix of their madness. She knew he still wanted her, so she made sure to look amazing before coming over here to make it harder on him if he considered resisting.

They hadn't talked since the brief argument they'd had the other night; she wasn't going to let things lie like that.

The woman, still standing behind Justin's desk, made a sound clearing her throat. Sherise smiled at Justin, but she still paid her no mind. It was Justin who, having forgotten about her (to Sherise's delight), remembered there was another person in the room. He swung around.

“Oh, Elena, I'm sorry.”

“It's okay,” she said, smiling. She came around the desk, preparing for her introduction.

“Honey, this is Elena Nichols, one of our new associates.”

Elena laughed flirtatiously. “I'm not that new, Justin.”

Sherise didn't like the way that woman said her husband's name. Way too familiar for her taste.

“Basically off the boat from Cleveland,” Justin said jokingly. “Just kidding. She's been here a few months, right?”

Sherise thought the girl had a little more polish than she expected from the Midwest. She was trying to impress someone. Better not be her husband.

“Six almost,” Elena corrected.

Justin slipped his arm around Sherise's waist. “Elena, this is my wife, Sherise.”

“It's nice to meet you,” Elena said with a sweet voice as she held out her petite hand.

“Yes.” Sherise kept her expression unaffected as she accepted her hand and shook it briefly—very briefly.

She could tell that Elena didn't really appreciate the fact that it seemed as if Sherise couldn't be bothered.

Sherise turned and headed to the plush leather sofa against the wall. “Justin, I'm not leaving until you give me what I want, so let's make this as short and painless as possible.”

Justin smiled down at her as she sat on the sofa and winked at him. He turned to Elena and asked, “We'll pick this up later, okay?”

Elena looked annoyed for a second, but she smiled and excused herself from the room. She didn't say another word to Sherise, and Sherise understood that. She'd made the girl feel invisible; and for a beautiful girl like Elena, that was upsetting.

“You need to be in bed,” he said as he joined her on the sofa.

“So she works for you?” Sherise asked, placing her hands gently on his lap.

Justin rolled his eyes as if he knew what was coming. “Don't try and control this situation. Yes, she works under me. Yes, she is attractive. No, she doesn't flirt with me. You should be nicer to her. She's a bright young woman.”

“She doesn't flirt with you?” Sherise responded. “When I walked in, she had her breasts in your face and you weren't protesting at all.”

“You need to go home and get in bed,” he said, ignoring her complaints. “We can discuss Elena at a different time.”

“I don't want to discuss her anymore, Justin. I want to discuss this baby.”

He sighed, looking away. It bothered her that he was so reluctant.

“We can't leave things like they were the other night,” she pleaded. “If anything, therapy has taught us that. We have to deal with our problems immediately. Letting them fester is what tears us apart.”

“I told you I need time,” he said.

“And I told you, we both do, but we need to take that time together. Neither of us expected this, and—”

“Is that really the truth?” he asked.

He blinked, his expression showing that he immediately regretted what he had said.

It took Sherise a second, but his words, coupled with the look on his face, made it clear to her what he was thinking. It was clear why he was behaving so strangely. The truth horrified her.

“Oh, my God!” she exclaimed. “You think . . . I did this on purpose? You think I got pregnant on purpose!”

“Sherise, just let it go.” He held up his hand to gesture that he wanted this to end. “I didn't say that, so just don't get all upset.”

It tore at her that he'd think she'd be so underhanded. There was a lot she would do, but even she knew some things went too far.

“Why would I do that, Justin? I'm focused on my new job. We agreed that we weren't going to try at having another baby until later.”

He sighed as if resigned to this conversation. “You aren't sure you tried to speed that timeline along?”

“Why?” she asked. “To trap you? To make sure you feel obligated? Have I ever seemed that desperate to you, Justin?”

“I know you'd do anything to get what you want,” he said.

“I thought I had what I wanted.” She stared at him, feeling very shaken by this turn. “I thought things were working out so great between us.”

“So how did this baby get here?” he asked.

“It was an accident!” she yelled.

“How do we get pregnant by accident?” he asked. “We tried for six months and nothing, but you're on the Pill and, all of a sudden—
bam
—baby is here.”

“We weren't trying when I got pregnant with Cady,” Sherise argued. “This is just like that time. When we don't try, it happens.”

He shrugged and got up from the sofa, walking over to his desk. “I don't want to talk about this.”

Sherise followed right behind him. “I don't give a shit what you want, Justin. This is our baby. We're talking about this. You can't just—”

“Isn't that the point?” he asked, turning to look at her. “You don't give a shit about what I want. You never have. I said I wanted a baby and you miraculously couldn't get pregnant. I say I don't want a baby and now you're pregnant.”

“So now this is all me?” she asked. “Not just this time, but since the beginning?”

“You were the one who said that another baby would be good, remember?”

“Yes,” she agreed forcefully, “and then you said that you didn't want that, so I went back on the pill.”

Sherise couldn't believe this was happening. The one time she didn't try something underhanded, this is what she got accused of.

“You're stressing yourself out unnecessarily,” he said. “We can deal with this later, when you're better.”

“Don't you get it?” Sherise asked. “The only way the stress will go away is if we work this out, Justin. Delaying it only makes it worse.”

“I have to work, Sherise!” Standing behind it, he pushed his chair toward his desk. “And you need to go.”

“Of course,” she said sarcastically. “Fuck your wife and your new baby. Must make those billable hours with your new, slutty associate.”

“Now you're just being ridiculous,” he said.

“I must be,” she said. “It's the only excuse for me thinking that we were doing great. I would have no reason to get pregnant to trap you. Clearly, I was wrong, because we're in a lot more trouble than I thought. But, by all means, you have to keep your priorities straight.”

She ignored his calling her name, satisfied that his voice seemed weighed down in regret. Her stomach was tied in knots and she felt like she wanted to cry. This was all made worse by what she saw the second she left his office.

Elena had been standing right outside the office all along. She met Sherise's stare with a blank smile, one that told nothing but everything. How much had she heard? Sherise had been so upset that she'd forgotten where she was. She wasn't so sure how loud either of them had been.

“What are you doing out here?” Sherise asked, even though she would have been better off acting as if she didn't care.

“I'm waiting for Candy to come back,” Elena said innocently. “You wouldn't happen to know where she is?”

“You work here,” Sherise said. “Not me.”

Sherise brushed past her quickly, dismissing the coyness of Elena's attitude. She didn't have time to worry about little peons right now.

Where had she been living, in a wonderland? She knew things weren't perfect, but she couldn't have even thought they were so bad that Justin would accuse her of this. She had to figure out a way to fix this, but she couldn't do it alone. Justin wasn't going to help her out. Sherise needed her girls to shed some light on this situation. The future of her family depended on it.

 

Billie's first day at work started early and fast. She went straight to her new office, which had a nice wooden desk already beginning to get covered in folders. The bookcases on the wall had several law books in it, and there was even an empty frame, sitting on the spare chair against the wall, waiting for her diploma.

The paralegal named Evelyn, a twenty-two-year-old cute redhead with freckles, kept her busy until around nine in the morning, when Lane showed up to take over. Billie had been happy to see him; but the second he walked into her office, he looked a little stressed to be there.

“What's wrong?” she asked, right off.

“Um . . . nothing.” He tried to play it off. “By the way, love the way you handled Michael last week. Usually, people don't talk to him like that.”

“You guys talk to him a lot?” she asked. “He doesn't work here.”

Billie had gone over that conversation more than once in her head. Part of her was proud of how she handled herself, but she was regretting that she might have been a bit of a bitch. She'd let herself get defensive. It didn't feel great to have someone doubt your skills before you've even started a job.

“For someone who doesn't work here,” Lane said, “he sure as hell is here a lot.”

That wasn't what she wanted to hear. She figured it would be best if she never ran into him again. It would likely be just as awkward as the last time.

“But enough about him,” Lane said. “Check your e-mail. I've sent you a copy of the Federal Trade Commission subpoena we received.”

“I was reading it when you walked in.”

The Federal Trade Commission, FTC for short, was the government agency that oversaw consumer products and competitive business practices. One of the issues it oversaw were vertical restraints, agreements that businesses made with each other, in order to make sure they didn't stifle competition.

In the case of Agencis, as a financial commercial buyer, an agreement made with a supplier, a financial software company, was being investigated after some competitors said it gave Agencis an unfair business advantage and excluded them from like software.