Tasia, however, had more pressing matters on her mind.
“Are you going to tell me?” she asked.
“Tell you what?”
“How did it go with the gorgeous Mr. Driscoll?”
Memories of how it went were now embedded in Shay’s mind. “It went fine.”
“It did?” Tasia was getting excited. “So he said yes?”
“Yes?” Shay asked, confused. “No, we didn’t . . . I mean, no.”
“So he said no?”
“He didn’t say anything. It didn’t get that far.”
A puzzled look came over Tasia’s expressive face. “That makes no sense, Shay. Then what was fine about it? What happened?”
She wanted to say the truth. She wanted to say that they made wonderful love and then fell lovingly asleep in each other’s arms. “Nothing happened,” she said, instead. When Tasia kept staring at her, she was about to reveal more, she didn’t know how much more, but something. But her desk intercom buzzed.
“Miss Cooper,” her secretary buzzed, “Mr. Driscoll is here to see you.” Tasia’s already big eyes became bigger. Shay’s heart dropped. “Ask him to come in, please,” she said.
“What’s up with this?” Tasia wanted to know. The idea that the head of DSI would be coming once again to their office was stupefying to Tasia. But by the sudden worried look on Shay’s face, she knew it wasn’t a question that would be answered today.
“I’ll be in my office,” Tasia said, standing to her feet. “Holler if you need to.” Matty walked into the office as Tasia was leaving. She spoke to him, glanced back at her boss, and then walked out. Matty looked back at Tasia.
“What’s her problem?” he wondered.
“Nosiness,” Shay said.
Matty walked further into the office. Shay, who was seated on the edge of her desk, her legs crossed in her short skirt suit, didn’t move. He looked at those legs, and then into her eyes. “Why did you leave me,” he asked, unable to shield the pain he felt when he woke up this morning, and found her gone. “I asked you to stay.”
“I had to go, Matty.”
“Why?”
“Because I had to.”
Matty hesitated, his heart constricting. “You’re seeing someone else, aren’t you?” Shay almost rolled her eyes. “Oh, and I just slept with you although I’m seeing somebody else? I’m not like that. No, I’m not seeing somebody else.”
“Then why did you leave, Shay?”
“I told you I had to.”
“That’s not an answer.”
“Look, I’m not your young piece on the side anymore, Matty, all right?” It came out accusatory and full of venom. Shay had no intention of sounding that harsh. But it was harsh. And the pain seared Matty’s face.
“Matty,” she said, attempting to make amends, but the damage to his already frayed and beaten self esteem was already done. He left.
Shay laid back on her desk, angry with herself. But what was she going to do?
DeAndre had to be told, and Matty had to be told. But how, Lord? How?
***
Later, during lunch at a Chinese restaurant, when she couldn’t keep it to herself another second, Shay fessed-up to Tasia about everything: her previous relationship with Matty, Alex’s scheme and their eventual marriage, and DeAndre.
Tasia, a know-it-all when she wanted to be, claimed that she had already figured most of it out. And was ready with the advice.
“The longer you wait, girl,” she advised, chomping down on her massive pile of shrimp lo mein, “the harder it’s going to be. Dre will understand. The woman was dying, Mr.
Driscoll had to marry her, you didn’t want to add to their stress. Dre will understand. He may be upset initially, but in the long run he won’t hate you. But he could despise you if you know Driscoll’s no longer in that situation, is, in fact, here in Philly, and you still didn’t tell him.
Now there could be consequences and repercussions then.”
“Oh, Tazz,” Shay said, shaking her head. “I’m the queen of bad decisions.”
“You?”
“Yes, me! Everything everybody else touches turns to gold. I touch it and it fizzles.”
“Destiny didn’t fizzle.”
Shay looked at her as if she was nuts. “We are headed for bankruptcy, Tasia.
Receivership, hello? And you don’t call that a fizzle?”
“But look how long it took for us to get here? Nearly a decade. We was riding high once upon a time, girl. Mighty high. Look how long it took for us to get to this point.”
“But we’re at this point, don’t you see that? And that can mean only one thing.”
“What?”
Shay hesitated. A frown creasing her face. “I didn’t do this right.” She shook her head, stared at her plate of untouched food. “I should have told Matty, Tazz, regardless of his situation. I shouldn’t have handicapped my child because of something that had nothing to do with him.”
“But the woman was dying, at least that’s what she led Driscoll to believe. And you, being the good, kindhearted person that you are, wasn’t going to saddle that man with more grief. And then for him to have his wife murdered like that, and then to find out she’d been lying to him all along? Dang! That’s some heavy duty shit there. I don’t know how he kept his sanity, girl. So when he came to you with that she’s dying line, what were you supposed to do, just tell me that, Shay? Make him forget about her and marry you instead? Because he probably would if he would have known you were pregnant. And you know this.” Shay exhaled. This was too much. Then she noticed Linda, Fantasia’s assistant, entering the restaurant. “What’s she doing here?”
Tasia looked. “I’m sayin’. This ain’t her lunch hour.”
“There y’all are,” Linda said as she hurried to their table.
“I don’t recall extending an invitation your way,” Tasia said in her half-jesting, half-serious voice.
“I’m not here for lunch,” Linda said, sitting at the table, next to Tasia.
“Then what is it?”
Linda looked at Shay. “DSI has sent over a proposal.”
Shay’s heart dropped. “Tell me,” she said nervously.
“Eighty/twenty,” Linda said.
Tasia smiled. “Really?”
Shay was near elation too. But then she thought about it. “Eighty me, twenty DSI?” she asked, to be clear.
“DSI gets eighty percent of Destiny,” Linda said, being clearer. “You get twenty percent.”
Tasia could hardly believe it. She looked at Shay. “He has got to be kidding.”
“But that’s how they do business,” Linda said. “I checked around. DSI always clears the field and then drives the hardest bargain possible for them. They know what kind of shape we’re in.”
Shay just sat there. Stunned. Had the fact that she left this morning affected him that much? Or was Linda right, and this was business as usual now for Matty? “Get the Ritz-Carlton on the phone,” she ordered Linda, “and ask for Matty Driscoll’s suite.”
“Yes, ma’am,” Linda said, pulling out her cell phone.
Tasia looked at Shay. “What kind of game you think he’s playing at?” Shay could only shake her head. “I don’t know.”
“You think he’s decided not to invest in Destiny and that’s why he came up with this ridiculous offer?”
“I don’t know,” was all Shay could say. She’d never known Matty to be a vindictive person, especially because of mere words. But life’s experiences can change a man, and Matty’s had those kind of bitter, devastating life experiences.
“It’s ringing,” Linda said and handed Shay her cell phone.
“Hello?” It was Jordy.
“Jordy, hi,” Shay said. “Is he there?”
“Hi, Shay, and yes, he’s here. You’re okay?”
“I will be.”
“Hold on a sec.”
There was a pause, and then Matty came on the line. “Yes?” he said, sounding very matter-of-fact.
“There was no error.”
“Eighty you and twenty me?”
“That’s right.”
“I’ve had Destiny for a decade, struggled to keep it afloat for most of that time, and you just expect me to give my company to you?”
“Your company is hemorrhaging money every second of every day. Your company is in trouble.”
“I know it’s in trouble, Matty, but it’s still my company!”
“Try telling that to the bankruptcy judge when it becomes his company and you’ll have to abide by whatever dictates he determines.”
“Yeah, but at least I won’t be just giving it away! At least I’ll be able to restructure and have something left. What you’re asking me to do is to just give it away to you for virtually nothing. You’ll not only have controlling interest, but so much control that you’ll effectively sideline me for good. I won’t have any say in anything that happens to Destiny going forward. What kind of offer is that?”
“It’s my offer,” Matty said, uncharacteristically harsh. “Take it or leave it.”
“Oh, consider it left!” Shay said, and emphatically slammed shut the phone.
***
Matty felt the reverberations of Shay’s last words all the way deep inside his hotel suite.
He looked at his own phone a moment longer, and then hung up too.
Jordy stared at him. “She’s not what I would call a happy camper,” he said.
Matty just stood there, his mind deep in contemplation, his heart aching. “No, she’s not happy.”
And neither was Matty, Jordy thought as he watched his boss, his best friend, leave the room. By Jordy’s calculations, Matty hadn’t been happy in sixteen years, not since that day he had to leave Shay behind.
***
Later that same night, around ten p.m., Shay was at home in her study, reading over revisions to the upcoming edition of the magazine. DeAndre was also at home, lying across the living room sofa talking on his cell phone. Some girl he’d met on Facebook, who was a friend of a friend of a friend’s friend. Shay’s study was adjacent to the living room and she could hear him on the phone, although she wasn’t paying attention to the conversation. Her mind was still on Matty.
She couldn’t believe how strange he sounded earlier today, as if he was so fed up with her, with life itself, that he didn’t even want to be bothered with it anymore. Take it or leave it, he said, and he said it with such conviction. She’d never known him to be that way. It smacked of giving up on her. Of having it up to here with women, with her, with everything.
And just as she was thinking about it, just as she was considering the ramifications his decision to quit would have on DeAndre, she heard a sudden blast of what at first seemed like fireworks, but she quickly realized was gunfire.
She dropped out of her chair and crawled under her desk, the sounds so deafening, so unrelenting, that she thought her eardrums would pop. Were they just outside shooting, she at first wondered. But when she heard the windows in her living room began to crash, she knew then that this was no random act. Her house was the target.
Then she thought about her son, about Dre, and all she could do was scream.
“Dre!” she yelled. “Dre!”
When there was no sound coming from the living room, just the continued hail of gunfire, she knew something was wrong, something was wrong with Dre.
She crawled from under her desk and moved, on her belly like a snake, for the living room, for her son. Just as she crossed the threshold of the study and entered the living room, the gunfire stopped, a car tire squealed, and then there was nothingness. Pure, terrifying silence.
When she saw DeAndre, slumped half on the sofa, half on the floor, his cell phone fallen from his hand, blood oozing from his chest, she stood up, so stricken that she could barely stand, so determined to get to her son that she just couldn’t find the strength to get there. But she had to get there. Her child was in trouble.
But as quickly and as desperately as she had stood, all forces seemed to conspire against her and she slid back down, like a spineless rag doll with no control, and passed out too.
FIFTEEN
Matty arrived back at his hotel suite exhausted. He had just endured a four hour meeting with two different Philadelphia companies DSI had been eyeing, and nothing had been settled with either one of them. He felt as if he was working himself to death, and seeing little or no results in return. Jordy had said as much, when they arrived back at the suite.
“How about a drink?” he asked Matty.
“That’ll work,” Matty replied as he dropped on the sofa and laid down. Jordy went over to the wet bar, to pour drinks, when he saw that it was after eleven. He grabbed the television’s remote control and turned on the local news. They were talking on and on about some city council decision regarding redistricting, with reporters getting the various opinions of the locals where, Jordy thought, the camera was way too close, making not only the residents they were questioning uncomfortable, but those who were watching the newscast and forced to see their warts and all. Then there was this:
“When we return there’s breaking news regarding Destiny Magazine publisher Shay Cooper.”
Matty’s eyes flew open at the mention of Shay’s name.
“Apparently her home has been firebombed tonight,” the news anchor continued. “Our team of crack reporters have been dispatched and we’re getting the details as we speak. Stay with us, folks, we’ll be right back.”
And then they went to commercial. Matty sat up on the sofa. And Jordy, who had been pouring drinks, was now holding one of those drinks in midair, suspended in disbelief.
Neither man said a word, and then the newscast resumed.
“Our early reports were apparently inaccurate,” according to the anchor. “It appears that the home of Destiny Magazine Publisher Shay Cooper was not firebombed, but was the target of a massive drive-by shooting tonight. Early reports are that Ms. Cooper and her son were both inside the home at the time of the shooting and both have been taken to Memorial hospital. Their conditions remain unknown.”
Matty jumped to his feet. “Dear God,” he said, his heart hammering, and he and Jordy both ran for the exit, with Matty unable to understand. Her son, he found himself saying.
What son?
***
They entered the hospital at a near-sprint. While Jordy asked for information, Matty nervously looked around. When he saw Shay seated with her back against the wall in the waiting area, his heart soared and he hurried to her.
“Shay!” he said as he ran into the room.
Tears filled her eyes as she stood and they embraced. He quickly pulled back and looked her over. “Are you okay?”
She nodded. “I’m okay. They said I passed out, but I’m okay.”
“And your son?” he asked her.
Shay looked at him, then looked away from him. “He’s still in surgery,” she said, still in disbelief.
“He was shot?”
She nodded. “Three times,” she said.
Matty hesitated, as Shay wiped her tears away. “How old is he, Shay?” he asked her.
Shay closed her eyes, as the pain was almost unbearable. Then she opened her eyes and looked Matty squarely in his. “Sixteen,” she said, and Matty nearly collapsed.
“Dear God,” he said in anguish, as he pulled her, once again, into his arms.
***
Shay was asleep in Matty’s lap, and they were both, along with Jordy, still in the waiting room when the surgeon finally arrived. Matty nudged Shay, waking her up.
“Doctor,” she said urgently, and jumped to her feet. Matty and Jordy stood up, too.
“Is my baby all right?” Shay hurriedly asked the surgeon.
“Yes, he’s going to be all right,” the doctor said, causing Shay to fall against Matty in relief.
“Fortunately,” the surgeon continued, “the a
ll three bullets that struck him entered and exited cleanly, with none hitting any vital organs. A full recovery is expected.”
“Thank God,” Matty said. “Can we see him?”
“I’m sorry, sir, and you are?”
There was a moment when both Matty and Shay seemed unable to move. Then Matty spoke up: “I’m his father,” he said, to Jordy’s shock. Shay closed her eyes.
“He’s still in recovery, sir,” the surgeon said. “I would recommend against seeing him tonight, he’s still under the anesthetic and should he awake, we don’t want him excited. But tomorrow, yes.”
“Can he be transported to a different facility?” Matty asked the doctor.
“A different facility?”
“In Baltimore, yes,” Matty said. “Johns Hopkins hospital.”
“Well,” the surgeon said, swallowing his pride. “They are certainly the best. If it was my child I would want the best for him, too. Yes, I don’t see why not.”
“As early as tomorrow?”
“I don’t see why not.”
Matty shook the surgeon’s hand. “Thank-you, doctor,” he said.
When the surgeon left, Shay looked at Matty. “You think that’s necessary, Matty?
Moving him, I mean?”
“I want him to have the best, Shay.” Then he looked at her. “Get your things. Let’s go to my suite. I’ll bring you back. But right now we have some talking to do.” Shay understood what that meant. She never dreamed it would be under these circumstances, but in times like these she was grateful, so thankful, to have Matty, to have her baby’s father, by her side.
***
They sat on the sofa, side by side, with Matty’s arm around her shoulders. He knew she had been through a lot that night, and should probably just be allowed to sleep, but he had to know the truth. The whole truth. He couldn’t take another surprise in his life, not any more.
He had to know now.
“I found out the day before you told me about Dr. Graham,” Shay said. “I had planned to tell you that same night when you were supposed to come over. But you never came.”
“Why didn’t you tell me that next morning, Shay?”
“I couldn’t,” she said with conviction, that worried look he used to know so well overtaking her again. “Not after what you said to me. Dr. Graham had been handed what amounted to a death sentence, and you was prepared to take care of her for the rest of her life. I couldn’t put my situation on you, too. I couldn’t.” Matty held her closer. “It wasn’t true, you know that? She didn’t have ALS.”
Romancing Her Protector Page 13
