by Brenda Novak
“What’d she say?” Dallas asked as soon as she climbed back into his van.
“I got the job,” she announced. “Saturday will be my first day.”
“Congratulations.” He started the engine and put the transmission in Reverse. “What should we do to celebrate?” he asked as he twisted around to look behind them.
“How about dinner later—on me?”
He quit looking for a break in traffic. “Are you sure you want to spend the money?”
“I’m a working girl again. I can afford it,” she joked.
“I have an idea,” he said.
“What is it?”
“Have you heard from Tommy or his boyfriend?”
She opened Facebook on her phone to check. “No. Still nothing.”
“Then let’s go to LA.”
“Where I’m bound to run into people who’ll recognize me?” she said, horrified. “No thanks. That’s why I’m here—to avoid anyone who might’ve seen that video.”
“But I’ve been thinking. Ethan claims he kicked Tommy out and removed all of Tommy’s contact information from his phone, right?”
“Yes.”
“Do you believe that?”
“Not necessarily.”
“How long has it been since you two broke up?”
“It was the week before Thanksgiving.” She’d begun to grow disenchanted with Ethan a couple of months before that, but it wasn’t until then that she made it official.
“So not that long ago.”
“Not really. What is that? Three weeks?” Providing the timeline reminded her of how quickly her world had been laid to waste.
“And how long after you broke up was it when he loaded that video onto the internet?”
She grimaced at the memory. “It was the last day of November. I remember because that was the day I had the pedicure appointment.”
“It’s only the tenth of December now,” he pointed out.
She studied him in confusion. “I don’t get what you’re saying.”
“What are the chances Tommy was able to find another place to live in one week? Ethan blamed him for posting that video, so it stands to reason he wouldn’t have thrown him out until after it went up. If it went up on the thirtieth—that isn’t very long ago.”
“I still don’t get what you’re saying.”
“I’m saying Tommy might still be living with Ethan. He might be trying to move, but there’s a good chance he hasn’t been able to find another place and pack and remove all of his belongings, not in that short time.”
She seemed skeptical. “Unless he just moved in with Thiago.”
“If he and Thiago wanted to move in together, why did Ethan have to kick him out?”
“Ethan could be lying about that. We know he’s lying about plenty of other stuff.”
“It’s possible. But practically speaking, that’s a quick move. Why don’t we drive to LA and stake out Ethan’s house, see if we can’t catch Tommy? Even if he’s moved, he might not have gotten all of his stuff, so we might be able to catch him.”
Emery pictured Tommy returning for a final load. It would be so great to get his side of the story, and the longer she waited, the less chance she’d have of Tommy being anywhere near Ethan’s house. “It’s worth a shot,” she agreed. “But you’ve already done so much for me...”
“My mother doesn’t need me at the school today. I have the time. And I think Ethan should be held accountable. If we can find Tommy and you can get a leg up on this thing, I stand to gain some personal satisfaction.”
If she hadn’t already put on her seat belt, she would’ve hugged him. Her life had steadily improved since he came into it. “You’ve been really good to me. Thank you—for not judging me and for...for believing me and supporting me.”
“Oh, I’m still judging you,” he said with a completely straight face, and they both started laughing as he pulled out and turned toward LA.
10
“That’s it right there?” As they rolled slowly down a densely populated street filled with small, single-story houses, Dallas pointed through the windshield at the address Emery had given him. White stucco and with a red tile roof, it reminded him of a Mexican villa, especially because it had palm trees lining one side of the property. There was also a large sycamore tree turning most of the front lawn to dirt and exposed roots, and a plethora of cars parked up and down the street.
Emery slid down in her seat as they passed by. “That’s it.”
Ethan went to such great pains to take care of his physical appearance that Dallas had expected him to live in a nicer place, but it was expensive to rent a house in LA. Dallas had also taken the time to Google the starting salary of a news anchor and knew that Ethan’s job didn’t pay as much as some might expect—maybe fifty to seventy thousand dollars a year. “That his car?”
She shook her head as he indicated a black SUV parked in front. “No, must be a guest of one of the neighbors’, because it doesn’t belong to Tommy or Tommy’s boyfriend. There’s rarely any on-street parking around here—at night, anyway—so people park wherever they can, and if they don’t get up and go to work, their car can sit around all day.”
“Does Ethan use the garage?” Dallas checked his watch. “It’s nearly three. He should be off work. Do you think he’s home?”
“He’s got to be off by now, but he doesn’t park in the garage. It’s filled with his mother’s storage. If he was home, his car would be in the drive.”
“Why does he have his mother’s storage in his garage?” Dallas asked.
“She downsized when she moved to San Diego, doesn’t have a big place. She’s planning to come back for it eventually, but who knows when that will be. He’s a Mama’s boy. In her eyes, he can do no wrong, and he adores her for it.”
“We’re lucky his garage is full,” he mused. “Now we’ll know when he’s home and when he isn’t. What does he drive?”
“A brand-new white Audi A4.”
Dallas brought his van to a sudden stop. “Are you serious? He’s living in this house with a roommate while driving a car that’s almost forty grand?”
She rolled her eyes. “I know. I was with him when he bought it. He spent way more than he should have. He always spends his money before he gets it. But his mother gave him the down payment, so that helped. It’s important to Ethan to keep up appearances, and more people see his car than his house.”
“What a pretentious fool.” Giving the van some gas, he went around the corner and weaved back through the neighborhood. He wanted to get a feel for the layout of the streets in case he had to drive off without warning. He didn’t trust Ethan. If Ethan figured out what they were doing and got angry, Dallas would have to protect Emery, not only himself. He figured he’d better be prepared. He didn’t know if Ethan owned a gun or some other weapon, and after what he’d been through with his father, no one was going to be harmed on his watch.
Once he felt comfortable, he cruised down Ethan’s street again and was lucky enough to find a spot to park where they could see the house but didn’t feel they were too conspicuous.
“So now we wait?” she asked when he turned off the engine.
He adjusted his seat so that it wasn’t as close to the steering wheel. “Now we wait. Hopefully, Tommy will show up instead of Ethan, and we will have the chance to approach him.”
“That would be awesome.” She looked at her phone again. “I still haven’t received a response on Facebook, and even though I left my number for Thiago to give him, Tommy hasn’t called.”
“I haven’t given up hope that he will. In the meantime, we’ll do what we can.”
Her face looked pinched, nervous, as she studied the house.
“How long were you and Ethan together?” Dallas asked.
“We started dating about ten months ago. He tried askin
g me out before that, but I didn’t want to get involved with anyone at work. I’d signed that agreement and meant to honor it.”
“Were you ever in love with him?”
She took a few seconds to consider the question. “I thought I was. I was in love with his potential—but the man he is on the inside doesn’t match the handsome package. I finally had to admit the truth and quit making excuses for him. Whenever he’d be a jerk and we’d argue, he’d blame me for setting him off. It took me a while to realize he was manipulating me, making me feel responsible for his own bad behavior.”
Dallas shifted to get more comfortable. “I looked up revenge porn on the internet while you were in your interview at the coffee shop.”
“And? What’d you learn?”
“That posting a digital image in an attempt to harass someone is a crime.”
She leaned back and put her feet up on the dash. “Revenge porn is called cyber-exploitation. It’s a form of nonconsensual pornography, and it’s illegal in California, but the penalties aren’t very big. And proving what Ethan did was a willful act meant to cause me injury isn’t that easy.”
“How could anyone argue that it wasn’t a willful act meant to cause you injury? You lost your job because of it.”
“But if push comes to shove, he could claim consent—that I knew about the recording and gave my permission for him to do whatever he wanted with it.”
“What woman would give permission for something like that?”
“Someone who wanted the attention. Someone who thought that being in the spotlight might bring future opportunity. Someone like a news anchor who was just a little too eager to ‘make it.’”
Dallas felt his eyebrows jerk together. “Can he change his story after the fact? He’s claiming he didn’t put it up in the first place, not that you gave consent.”
“Because he doesn’t know the defenses that are open to him yet. It’s possible, if he gets the right attorney, they might go that way.”
“I’m pretty sure if the police confiscated his computer, they could prove it came from his IP address.”
“If only they would expend the time and resources.”
“If he was smart, he’d get rid of it right away, just in case. Maybe he already has. That would be a small price to pay to maintain his innocence.”
“It’s possible he didn’t use his computer. If he knew it was a crime, he might’ve been careful enough to use Tommy’s. Regardless, the police are so busy working on bigger cases—rapes and murders and bank robberies—that they aren’t going to search his house, confiscate every computer connected to him and bring in a forensics team to take a look at the hard drive. That would cost taxpayers a fortune, and, from their perspective, it would come with very little reward, even if they nailed him. The crime is called ‘harassment by means of an electronic device,’ and it’s only a misdemeanor. So nothing will likely happen from a criminal standpoint. My attorney said the worst Ethan would get on the criminal side would be six months in jail, a fine of up to a thousand dollars or both.”
Dallas rummaged around in his console until he found a pack of gum and, after offering Emery a stick, which she accepted, he put a piece in his own mouth. “Six months in jail would be serious for a pretty boy like Ethan. I can’t imagine he’d fare well with the type of men he’d meet in there. It would also publicly embarrass him the way he embarrassed you, and he’d lose his job for real this time.”
“We’d still have to prove intent—that he didn’t accidentally post that video when he meant to post something else, that it was him and not Tommy using his computer or whatever. Mr. Costa—”
“Mr. Costa’s your attorney?”
“Yes. He said if Ethan hired anyone who was any good to defend him—and I know he would get the best because his mother would step up to pay for it even if she had to sell everything she owns—he’d be unlikely to serve time. That means it would come down to a fine, which, even at a thousand bucks, would be nothing for what Ethan did to me, especially since he retained his job and I didn’t. That’s why we’re suing him in civil court. We can get a lot more than a thousand dollars if we win. And if my lawyer and I can create a strong enough case, the police might go after him, too.”
“They’re not now?”
“They claim they’re looking into it, but from what I understand, if we do their work for them, make it easy, we’ll have a better shot.”
“I remember hearing about the civil case that Nicole Simpson’s family filed against O.J.”
“It provided their only justice,” she said sadly. “Taking the civil path might prove to be my best recourse, too.”
Dallas spotted a car coming down the street. “That’s a white Audi, isn’t it?”
Emery sat up, then ducked down. “Damn. It is. That’s Ethan.”
They watched as he parked, gathered his shopping bags and went into the house. He didn’t seem to notice them. “Are you okay if we stay here to see if Tommy comes?”
“Yeah,” she said, but after two hours of waiting they began to despair that he would ever show up. They were also getting hungry; it was dinnertime.
“I’m going to the door,” Dallas announced.
Once again, Emery sat up straighter. “What?”
“Why not? It’d be smarter than hanging out around here indefinitely. He doesn’t know me. He doesn’t know we know each other, either, so he has no reason to suspect we might be in contact. I could ask for Tommy, see what he says. Maybe if Tommy’s not there, he’ll tell me where I can find him. At a minimum, he might clarify whether Tommy has really moved—and if he has, we can safely assume we’re wasting our time sitting here.”
She puffed out her cheeks as she mulled it over, but agreed in the end. “That makes sense.”
“Okay. Be sure to stay down.”
“Will do.”
As Dallas got out, he was hoping Ethan would do something to give him an excuse to throw just one good punch. As far as he was concerned, a broken jaw might not be everything he deserved, but it would be the quickest form of justice.
* * *
Emery curved her nails into her palms as she watched Dallas cross the street, walk down a couple of houses and cut across the lawn under the sycamore tree. It wasn’t until he was almost to the door that she got the idea to text Ethan. If she distracted him, if she made him believe the fight was elsewhere—somewhere far removed from his front door—he might be less suspicious of his visitor.
He would certainly never guess she was behind what was going on.
I thought you wanted to talk. But then you curse at me and hang up?
The symbol indicating he was looking at her text appeared on her screen the moment Dallas reached the stoop.
When Dallas knocked, the ellipsis disappeared.
She waited to see what Ethan would do first—answer her or answer the door.
After a minute, he came out.
His encounter with Dallas lasted much longer than she’d expected. Ethan flashed his best smile, shoved his hands in his pockets and leaned against the doorjamb as they talked—like some kind of GQ model.
Dallas stood back a few feet, and although she couldn’t see his face, he seemed every bit as affable. Eventually, they both pulled out their phones and Dallas typed something into his while looking at Ethan’s—a great sign as far as Emery was concerned. Then they talked and laughed a while longer.
Finally, Ethan watched Dallas walk away.
She ducked down as Dallas approached, didn’t dare put her head above the dashboard, especially because Dallas murmured, “He’s still there,” as he climbed in.
“Did you get anything?” she asked.
He didn’t answer; he didn’t even look at her. He started the engine, drove past Ethan’s house and waved. For Ethan to still be outside, he either really liked Dallas, or he was suspicious of
him.
It wasn’t until after they’d turned the corner that Dallas pulled over and she was able to get back into her seat and put on her seat belt. “What happened?”
His teeth flashed as he grinned. “Tommy has moved in with Thiago, but Ethan gave me his phone number.”
“No way!”
“It’s true.” He handed her his phone with the contact information on the screen.
She smiled when she saw it, then settled back as he pulled from the curb and merged into traffic. “You two looked like old friends. What’d you say to him?”
“I made a big deal about recognizing him on TV, told him how attractive he was and said if he ever wondered what it was like to be with a man, I’d be interested in helping him explore.”
“You’ve got to be kidding me!” she said with a surprised laugh. “You hit on him? And he believed you were sincerely interested?”
“All it took was a little flattery.”
“Knowing how vain Ethan is, I shouldn’t be surprised. But...how’d you bring up Tommy?”
“I asked if he was home.”
“And Ethan gave you his number?”
“Not quite that easily. First I made up some bullshit about having met Tommy at a bar—and hinted that he took me home.”
Her jaw dropped. “You didn’t...”
“I had to have some reason for knowing where he lived.”
“Since they live together, that was a risk.” She couldn’t help admiring his nerve.
“I was assuming they have completely different circles and rarely even saw each other.”
“Fortunately, that would be true.”
“It helped that I knew Thiago’s name. And that he and Tommy went through a rough patch a few weeks ago. Ethan assumed that was when I met Tommy, and I played along.”
“Wow. I had no idea you were so devious,” she joked, unable to quit smiling.
He arched a remonstrative eyebrow at her. “I prefer to think of it as clever,” he said. “Anyway, it worked out. You now have the ability to contact Tommy and, hopefully, counter all the lies Ethan has been spreading.” He slung his arm over the steering wheel, looking casually in charge as he glanced over at her. “I’d call that a good day’s work,” he said proudly. “So I’m ready to take you up on that dinner invitation.”
