Janet smiled, and then leaned up and hugged Mo. And the tears returned as Mo returned her hug. She didn’t know if he spoke the truth. Maybe Richard was interested in more than what he could get from her in the bedroom, or maybe it was just the bed.
But either way, she was worried. Either way, she was taking a risk.
Then they stopped embracing, she wiped her tears away, and Mo stood up. “Get some sleep,” he said.
“And?” she asked when she realized he was lingering.
“And be careful,” he said to her. “You’re playing in the big leagues now, Baby Girl. Bigger than any league in town. I don’t want to see you get squashed like a bug.”
Janet smiled. Leave it to Mo. “Neither do I,” she said.
Mo smiled, looked as if he pitied her again, and then left her room.
She laid back down. The last thing she wanted was anybody’s pity. And sleep became as elusive as Richard’s heart.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
Richard, in Armani head to toe, arrived at his office in downtown Tulsa that next morning, to meet lawyers about those allegations at the mill, but he had only one thing on his mind: Janet. He wanted to phone her when he first got up that morning, but he didn’t want to disturb her had she still been asleep. Then he wanted to phone her on the way to work, but he couldn’t bring himself to do so. He didn’t want to come across as some desperate old man trying to be with the vibrant young woman. Because he felt that was how he came across last night when he phoned her later, and it bothered him all night. What was his problem? Was it self-sabotage?
But just thinking about her now put a smile on his face. Especially when he thought about that moment last night when he saw her as his wife. As the woman he wanted to be the mother of his children. And that was the best feeling of all. He couldn’t wipe that smile from his face.
Even Doris Wilson, his secretary, could see that he was in an uncharacteristically good mood when he entered his office suite. “You seem pleased with yourself,” she said as she followed him into his huge office.
“It’s a beautiful day,” Richard said as he walked.
“It was a beautiful day yesterday, and the day before that,” Doris said as they headed for his desk. “You couldn’t care less those days.”
“Well I care today,” Richard said as he made his way around his desk. “How’s that?”
“That’s good,” Doris said. “Now sign these.” She plopped a stack of papers onto his desk.
“And what are these?” Richard asked, sitting his briefcase down.
“Vendor contracts. All up for renewal. And mill management contracts, of course.”
Richard’s smile left, and he sat down. “Don’t mention that mill,” he said as he began reading over each contract before he would sign. “What time are the lawyers scheduled to be here?”
“By eleven. I told you we should have went with them in the first place.”
“Not to settle,” Richard said. “I’m not settling this case. I want to make it clear to them that I don’t even want settlement talks. I plan to take those assholes all the way to the Supreme Court if I have to. I gave up a mini-fortune on those other complaints by settling out of court. I’m done with that.”
“Yes, sir.” And then she handed him a pen. And he dutifully signed the contracts, and handed them back to Doris.
“Thank you, sir,” she said and was about to say more. But Richard couldn’t wait another second. He had already pulled out his cell phone and was making a call. Doris waited.
Janet was in her Honda driving along the highway. Her job interview happened to be in Tulsa, too, and she was nearing its city limits when her cell phone rang.
She answered the call without looking at the Caller ID. “Hello?”
Richard leaned back and smiled when he heard her voice again. “Hey there.”
Janet was surprised. “Hi.”
“How are you this beautiful morning?”
Janet smiled. He sounded much better than he did last night, she thought. “I’m good,” she said. “And you?”
“I’m fantastic,” said Richard.
“Where are you? Still home?”
“I’m at the office. What about you?”
“I have a job interview.”
“A job interview? Where?”
“It’s in Tulsa. I’m on my way there now.”
“What kind of job?”
“Consulting,” Janet said as she realized she was driving above the speed limit and attempted to slow it down. She pressed on her brake, but her car continued to accelerate. Baffled, she pressed on her brake again, and the brake gave way and went all the way to the floor. Now she was panicking.
“I don’t have any brakes, Richard,” she said nervously, pressing on the brakes over and over.
Richard wasn’t sure if he heard her right. “You what?” he asked her.
“Richard, I don’t have any brakes!” she screamed.
Richard jumped up from his chair so fast that the chair fell backwards. “Where are you?”
“On Route 9,” Janet said, still slamming on the brakes. “I don’t have brakes. I don’t have any brakes!”
“Call 911,” Richard yelled to Doris as he began running for the exit. “She’s on Route 9 in a black Honda Civic.”
“What’s wrong?” Doris asked anxiously.
“No brakes!” Richard said as he ran out of the office. Doris was running behind him, calling 911.
“Don’t put your feet on the gas!” he said to Janet.
“It’s not on the gas,” Janet yelled back at him. She was hysterical.
“Pump the brakes. Have you been pumping the brakes?”
She’d been slamming on them. She tried to pump them.
“Janet!” Richard yelled as he ran into the stairwell and began running down the stairs. “Pump the brakes!”
“I’m pumping them! I’m pumping them!”
“Still nothing?”
“Nothing. It won’t stop, Richard. It won’t stop!” Her car kept careening along the downward-sloped highway. She could hardly breathe she was so terrified.
“You know where your emergency brakes are?” Richard asked her.
She nodded her head. “Yes.”
“Apply them now,” Richard said, his heart hammering as he flew down stair after stair, skipping two-to-three as he ran. “Oh, God! Oh, God! Oh, God!”
Janet applied her emergency brake, but the car continued to drive full speed ahead. “That’s not working, either, Richard! That’s not working! I’m gonna put it in neutral.”
“Do it,” Richard said, although he knew that wouldn’t do much either.
Janet put it in neutral. But it did little to stop the acceleration. And she saw an intersection ahead of her, and cars were going through that intersection. “I’m approaching an intersection,” she declared. “Cars are in that intersection, Richard. I see cars driving through that intersection!”
“Start blowing your horn,” Richard yelled. “Turn on your hazard lights and start blowing your horn!”
She did as he said, leaning her whole body onto her horn as she drove. But as she blew through the stop sign and was about to enter the intersection, a car that was entering it at the same time slammed on brakes, just barely avoiding a collision, and she was able to fly on through.
“I got through it,” Janet said, unable to regulate her pounding heart. “Praise God I got through it. But it’s not slowing down, Richard. Somebody did something to it. It won’t slow down!”
Richard felt as if he was going to die where he stood, but he knew he couldn’t give up. He continued to run downstairs.
“Is she still on Route 9?” Doris anxiously asked him.
“You’re still on Route 9?” he asked her.
“I’m still here, yes.”
He could hear Doris tell 911 that the Honda was still on Route 9. But his focus was on getting that car stopped. “Do you see those guardrails?” he asked her.
“Th
ey’re pass the railroad tracks, but I see them.”
“When you get near them you’ve got to force your car off the road and ram into those guardrails, you hear me?”
“Okay.”
“But sideswipe them,” he said, “or you could lose traction.”
“Oh, no,” Janet said, looking ahead.
“Oh no what?”
“Dear Lord.”
“What is it, Janet?” He had flown through the lobby and was outside running for his car. “What is it?”
“A train’s coming, Richard. There’s a train on that track and I’m heading straight for it!”
Richard’s heart almost exploded. “Turn it!” he yelled at her in a voice beyond panic. “Turn it around! Turn that motherfucker around!”
And just as Janet was about to fly across those tracks for what would be a certain collision with that fast-moving Amtrak train, she clutched her steering wheel and turned it as fast and as far as she could turn it. She knew she was risking it all, but she also knew she had no choice.
And when she slung that steering wheel into a turning motion at that high rate of speed, her car couldn’t take it. She avoided the train, alright, as it sped on by, but her car tilted sideways on two wheels, and then flew up, and slammed down flipping and flipping. It couldn’t stop flipping.
Richard heard the sound of the train, and then the sound of a car crashing violently. He thought he was going to die. Janet?” he was yelling as he jumped in his car. “Janet! Janet! Janet!”
And then, suddenly, he heard no sound whatsoever. And that terrified him most of all.
He sped so fast out of that parking lot that his Porsche nearly swerved out of control.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
The ambulance and police cars clogged the highway that caused a massive backup of impatient drivers. At the back of the line, Richard jumped out of his Porsche, leaving the door wide open, and ran as fast as he could to where Janet’s Honda ended up. Expecting to see her car wrapped around a train, he instead saw her car upside down and police frantically applying the jaws of life to break open the door.
But he couldn’t see Janet from where he stood. And he had to see Janet.
He knelt beneath the police tape and tried to hurry toward the wreckage, but he kept getting thwarted as policemen kept attempting to hold him back, insisting that no civilians were allowed. But he pushed one aside and tackled another one, determined to see for himself what had become of Janet.
Two other officers tried to pull him back, too, until they realized who he was. “That’s Richard Shetfield,” one of them said, and just hearing that name caused the rest of the officers to back off.
And Richard stood alongside the men trying to pry open that car door.
But he was near the back of the car and couldn’t see up front. He hurried around the other side, to see if he could see on the end, but that was when the cops pried the door open. And they quickly pulled Janet from the rubble.
Richard ran back around to the other side and stopped all movement when he saw her. To his amazement and joy beyond measure, she wasn’t harmed. She was standing on her own two feet and appeared not to have a scratch on her body. He was so astounded, and so overwhelmed with relief that he dropped to his knees.
When Janet saw that Richard was on the scene, she broke free from her rescuers and ran to him. She knelt down, too, where he was, and fell into his arms.
“You’re okay,” he kept telling her as he held her and rubbed her hair. “You’re okay. You’re going to be okay!” It was as if he was convincing himself.
But even he could feel them both trembling with fear. It had been that close!
When they stopped embracing, the paramedics hurried over and were asking Janet all kinds of questions. Then one said, “let’s get you to the hospital so they can run some tests,” but Janet was already shaking her head.
“I’m fine,” she said.
“They need to run tests to be certain,” said Richard.
“But I don’t want to go to any hospital.”
“I don’t care what you want,” Richard said firmly, still holding her. “You need to go and let them check you out. And guess what? You’re going. And I’m going with you.”
It was a relief that he’d be by her side, but it still felt unnecessary to Janet. She didn’t want to go to any hospital! But she also knew how close she came to becoming that squashed bug Mo always loved to talk about. She knew she was in no emotional state to make any decisions. How could she decide anything when she couldn’t even stop herself from shaking? She let Richard decide. And he already had.
She went to the hospital.
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
Later that evening, after the hospital visit and all tests had been completed, they were back at Richard’s house. She sat on his sofa sipping tea while he paced the floor making phone call after phone call. And his command was the same to everybody he spoke to: he wanted to know who tampered with those brakes, and he wanted to know now!
The police already determined that it was no mechanical failure and that the brakes and other car components had been tampered with. They said it was a miracle she survived it. Janet and Richard thanked God.
And Richard, Janet noticed, couldn’t keep still. He was so upset that it kept her on edge too. Who would tamper with her brakes? Nothing that crazy had ever happened to her before, until after she slept with Richard.
Richard seemed to realize it, too, and felt guilty about it, because he was on that phone letting his people have it, as if they were somehow responsible for allowing it to happen when there was no way they could have saw this coming. But that was Richard, Janet was beginning to understand. He could be difficult. He wasn’t an easy man to work for any day of the week.
His intercom buzzed just as he was ending another one of those shouting match phone calls, and he hurried over to the side table next to Janet and pressed a button. Janet hadn’t even realized a button was on that table.
“Yes?” Richard’s voice dripped with impatience.
“Spencer Shetfield, and Miss Fiona, are here to see you, sir.”
It was the guard on the gate. Normally he didn’t have one guarding the gate. But after what happened with Janet, he was taking no chances.
And he looked at her. He was still shook-up himself. He knew she had to be. Was she up for company? “That’s my kid brother, the one that lives here in Tulsa, too, and his fiancée. You feel like seeing people right now?”
Janet truly didn’t. But it was Richard’s home and Richard’s family. “Are you up to it?” she asked him.
“Not really, no. But he means well. He thinks highly of you. I’ll see to it that they don’t stay long.”
Janet nodded her head. “Okay,” she said, and Richard allowed them passage in. But Janet was surprised by what Richard had said. How would his brother know anything about her? And why would he think highly of her?
But before she could ask Richard either of those questions, she saw a nice-looking white guy who appeared to be in his early thirties, along with a white woman who was almost as small as Janet, walk in. And the guy hurried toward the sofa, with the girl lagging behind.
“I told you she was okay,” Richard said as Spencer hurried over.
“I wanted to see for myself,” Spencer said. “Your idea of okay may not be my idea of okay.” Then he reached out his hand to Janet. “Hi,” he said with the most charming smile, “I’m Spence Shetfield. I’m sure my brother has told you loads about me.”
Janet had been told next to nothing about him. “Nice to meet you, Spence,” she said. “I’m Janet Evans.”
“Yes, I know,” he said as if it was an obvious fact. And he kept staring at her with a grin on his face. So much so that his fiancée cleared her throat.
“Oh, right,” Spencer said, moving aside so that his lady could get some attention too. “This is Fiona, my fiancée. Fiona, meet Janet.”
Both women smiled as they shook hands. “Nice to
finally meet you,” Fiona said.
“You too,” Janet said, although she had never even heard that name before. But both Spence and Fiona were carrying on as if Richard had been talking about Janet for years. Which would be wonderful, Janet thought, if that were true.
“You must have been terrified,” Fiona said as she sat next to Janet. “No brakes? Oh my goodness! That had to be horrifying for you.”
“Yes, it was.”
“When Spencie told me about it, I told him to take my Lexus to the dealership right now and have it checked from top to bottom. But when he told me you were driving a Honda Civic, I told him never mind.”
Janet waited for her to explain why she would have said never mind, but she never did explain it.
Richard looked at his brother. Fiona always had a way of grating on his nerves. “I know, I know,” Spencer said low enough for only his brother to hear. “She may not be the sharpest knife in the drawer, but she’s loveable.”
But as Fiona kept going on and on about what happened and how terrible it was, Janet began to feel that surge of panic again. And she suddenly stood up.
Spencer was shocked at how quickly his brother reacted to her mere standing up. Fiona was too.
“Are you okay?” Richard asked anxiously, hurrying to her.
“Oh, I’m fine, Richard, thank you. I just think I need to lay down for a few minutes.”
“Yes, of course! I’ll walk you upstairs.”
“No, please don’t. Stay down here with your company. I’m fine,” she added, said her goodnights to Spencer and his fiancée, and then made her way upstairs.
Spencer watched Richard as Richard stared at Janet. When Janet was out of sight, Richard exhaled and rubbed his neck. Spencer could see the distress all over his face.
“She’s nothing like I thought she would be,” Fiona said with a grin on her face.
Both brothers looked at her. “How did you think she would be?” Spencer asked her.
Plain Jane Evans and the Billionaire Page 15
