by Tiana Cole
“It’s really that simple,” Barbara agreed. “The thing is, any time you take the easy way out in a situation, going back and making it right is even harder than doing the right thing in the first place. And postponing making it right doesn’t make it easier, it makes it harder.”
“When it’s possible at all.”
Barbara squeezed her hand. “You can’t make him love you, or even like you, or forgive you, but you can act like the strong and powerful woman you are. You can face him and tell him the truth, knowing it’s as much for you as it is for him. Without that, you lose your self-respect—and then you have nothing.”
As usual, her big sister was right. As usual, that didn’t make what she had to do next any easier. Her heart told her that a man like James might find it hard to forgive a woman who’d taken money to seduce him and pretend it was love. He seemed to value love as much as she had thought she did—until she’d taken Alan’s job. And the fact that she had what she considered a good reason for her actions didn’t make a lot of difference. It wouldn’t to him.
Still holding Barb’s hand, she looked into her sister’s large brown eyes. “I’ll think about all that. There’s a lot of truth in what you’ve said. But I need to think about how to approach it. I need to get my strength up.”
“Straightforwardly is the best. Soon is imperative.”
“And both of those are the most painful.” She glanced at her watch. “I need to get to the diner. I still have a job, even if it isn’t much of one, and I better not lose it. This marriage isn’t likely to survive.”
Barbara gave her a grin that told her that she was still loved if not forgiven. “Just keep in mind that the longer you wait, the harder it’s going to be, Now give me a kiss and get the hell out of here.”
* * * *
She hadn’t wanted to go to work that day. She didn’t want to go to work at all when it got down to it. Her job bored her to tears. Right now though, it offered two major benefits—it provided much-needed money, much of it in tips, and it didn’t require her to stay focused.
The irony of her situation wasn’t lost on her. She’d married a rich guy for pay and somehow she seemed worse off now than when she was single. Once she got paid, all that money would go to doctors. Then she’d agree to an annulment. Even with Barbara healthy, she’d still need her crappy job. She was behind on her bills. It would take time to dig her way back out of debt. And then she could start saving and see if she could get back to school and finish her degree.
It was nice to dream.
That night, after work, she went home, watched television, and fell asleep. The next day she went to the hotel and picked up the message James had left for her, with the new address. She put it in her purse and went to the hospital.
Barbara didn’t ask if she’d told James. She waited for Deja to tell her, but she kept the conversation focused on the tests Barbara was starting.
And then she went to work.
She knew what she was doing—burying herself in the old routine. If she stayed away from James, then he couldn’t trick her into telling him the truth. She could pretend that she didn’t feel guilty. She could avoid finding out what was going on with his deal, and what he wanted to do about their marriage. She could hide out until she got her money.
She was clearing a table when Alan came in. “I didn’t expect to see you here,” she told him when he sat down.
“I need you visible,” he said. “You didn’t call the reporter, and now you crawled back here. You are supposed to be with him. What the fuck are you trying to pull?”
“I did everything I agreed to do. I married him. I’m still married and it’s been several days.”
“That’s no fucking good. I need you seen with him. The point was for people to be asking questions about you and calling attention to the marriage. You didn’t even contact the reporter I sent over to the hotel.”
“That you sent?” Suddenly she saw the look in his eyes for what it was…hate. “You want to destroy him.”
Alan shrugged. “That’s the idea.”
“That’s not what I agreed to.”
“The thing is, you started the job, and I’d guess you still want the money.”
She stared at him, realizing that he was on some sort of vendetta. It didn’t matter why, but he really did want to destroy James. The entire thing made her sick. Seeing the cruel smile on his face, she also realized he had no intention of paying her. “Sure, I want the money, but I want it now.”
“Now? You haven’t finished the job yet.”
She decided to call his bluff. “Unless you pay me, I don’t intend to. In fact, I’ll do what I can to undo the damage I’ve done.”
He laughed. “What will you do? Tell James the truth?”
She sat and looked at him levelly. “No. You don’t care what James knows. But you do care how other people see what happened. You’re right though—I need that money. So I’ll give you a choice. You can pay me today and I’ll do what I’ve been doing. I’ll stay out of sight. You can do what you want with this story. I’ll not be a problem.”
“I don’t have the cash today.”
“Then tomorrow I’ll track down the television reporter who came over to do the interview. I’ll give her the story of a man who hired a desperate woman to entrap a competitor in a fraudulent marriage.
Then I’ll call the tabloid reporter. I’ll name the name of a man who is so low he uses another man’s friendship to destroy him and stop a major business deal. I’ll explain how I got that first thousand dollars that you paid me.”
She saw his face turning red. “It’s your word against mine. You can’t prove the cash came from me.”
“No, but we aren’t going to court, are we? I have a hunch that tabloid reporter might be willing to accept my word, and you refuting it wouldn’t get the play my story will. Besides, you gave me his number.
What will it look like when the hospital confirms the date that I gave them a thousand dollars? If I didn’t get it from you, where would a waitress come up with that kind of money? The best part about going to him is that he’ll probably pay me to tell the story. And then it will get lots of attention. Your intended business partner will get a nose full of the other side of the story you’ve presented him. If a little drunken marriage story is enough to turn him off James, then he might think someone who hires a woman to seduce his competitor isn’t exactly a decent match for him either.”
Alan’s scowl creased his brow. “We had a deal.”
“Based on your lies.”
“I didn’t lie, and you took my money.”
That was true. “I’ll find a way to get it back to you.” Then she smiled. “I’ll pay you with the money I get for selling the story to the tabloids. I like the irony.”
He shook his head. “I’m going to pay you, but I can’t get that much together today.”
Now that she knew who he really was, it was easier for her to read his face, and it was clear he was lying. Again. “Then you don’t have much of a business operation. It’s kind of underfunded, Alan, and that makes me wonder. Truthfully, I’m putting the pressure on you because I don’t think you have it at all. You never had it and didn’t intend to pay me a dime beyond what you already gave me.”
He glared at her. “That’s not true.”
“Then you’d have the money available. If you’d intended to pay me, doing it a few days early wouldn’t make that much difference. And I don’t trust you, so I need it before you don’t need me anymore. I’m pretty sure that once you’ve used me to get this deal for yourself you’ll just tell me to fuck off. If I wait to see, then even if I went public, you’ll have gotten what you wanted.”
“I’ll pay you, as agreed and not before.”
She stood up. “Then we aren’t doing business anymore. I have to go now. I’ll get your money back to you as soon as I can. In the meantime, I want to take action while James has plenty of time to repair the damage you’ve done.”
&nb
sp; “It takes time to get an annulment.”
“But, Alan, like I told you, I’ve figured out that the marriage, whether or not it’s annulled, isn’t the real issue. Getting my story out will help James, or at least hurt you. I can see that it all boils down to trust. You wanted James to seem irresponsible. I want to show that you are the kind of person who double crosses people he calls friends, not to mention someone who tries to stiff a girl he hired to help him do it. Hell, no one can afford to trust you, and I intend to the let the world know about that.”
“You are a right bitch.”
“And you are a traitorous son of a bitch masquerading as his friend.”
“He won’t thank you for doing this. He’ll hate you.”
She was quite sure Alan was right. “Probably, but that isn’t the point. I’m not going to worry about that. I just want to tell the world the truth—that you are a liar and a cheat. Whatever James thinks of me is my problem.”
Alan stood. “I’m not without resources in this town.”
She laughed. “And you’ll use them to ruin my reputation? It will just look like you’re trying to discredit me, won’t it? You going after a poor girl you just stiffed would make another story.”
“I’ll pay you when it’s been a week. Like we agreed. Not a penny before.”
“I’ve changed the deal, Alan.”
When he stomped out, she sat at the table, thinking. Part of what she told Alan was just a bluff. Even if it helped him, going to the tabloids wouldn’t please James. Clearing his name needed to be done more directly, more personally. And despite what she had said to Alan, telling him was the place she had to start. She had to face him and lay out the facts. Barbara was right—he deserved to know everything that was going. All of it.
But not right away. She needed to finish her shift, and sort a few things out in her head. Tomorrow she would be at the hospital. She’d paid for those tests for Barbara and wanted to see if the treatment even made sense. Until she knew that much, she wouldn’t be able to focus. She was too distracted. She’d swing by the hotel and find out where James moved to so she could find him later.
“You still work here?”
She looked up to see Jerry, the cook, scowling through the serving opening. “Sure do, Jerry.”
He waved over at a table where a couple was sitting. “Then maybe take the folks some menus.”
She got up and went over to him. “Sure thing, Jerry.”
“How’s the sister?”
“Still real sick. I just had to pay for more tests.”
“Goddamn doctors. If there’s anything I can do…”
“You’ve been so sweet in letting me change my schedule at a moment’s notice. I’m sorry I wasn’t paying attention. I’ll get my ass over and see what the customers want.”
“It’s okay. You’re a good girl.”
She cringed as she walked to the table. If Jerry only knew what a bad girl she was. If things blew up in her face, it might be hard to keep him from finding out. That would hurt him, and she was tired of hurting people.
* * * *
Once again James found himself pacing the floor in a hotel room. It was over a day since Deja had gone off to see her sister. He hadn’t seen her or heard from her. The clerk at the front desk of the casino hotel was able to tell him that she’d picked up his note that morning, but nothing else.
“She didn’t leave a message?”
“No, sir.”
A call to the desk downstairs told him she hadn’t arrived and there were no messages for him. He checked his phone, but the only messages were about minor business matters. None of them were important, and none were from either Deja or Shen Liang. Here he was, the man who hated waiting on other people, waiting to hear from two people whose decisions and actions would affect his life in big, if quite different, ways.
He sat on the bed, still dressed, and put his feet out. He rubbed his face. He was still recovering from the consequences of his debauchery. He’d been on a bad run. In the past two days he’d managed to get wasted, probably screwed up his chance to work with the businessman he most admired, as well as blowing the deal of his life, and now he’d somehow lost the woman he was married to.
Accidentally married to—his accidental bride. It almost sounded funny. If it weren’t so sad, it might be hysterically funny. A joke on him. The man who didn’t date but managed to accidentally get married.
And he’d lost her, or chased her off, which was potentially even more worrying.
He allowed himself a moment to feel sorry for himself, then picked up the phone and called Kieran. “She’s disappeared,” he said.
“Your blushing bride?”
“Who else?”
“The way things are going, I wasn’t sure. Did you chase her off?”
“I’m not sure. We were fussing at each other, but just being out of sorts and uneasy. But I might have been prickly, or even nasty to her. She said she needed to go see her sister about family business. That was yesterday.”
“And she hasn’t come back?”
“No. I changed hotels after she left to dodge reporters who found us. She got my message with the information about the new one, but she never showed up here.”
“Where did she meet her sister? What was that about?”
“I don’t know where. And she just said it was family business.”
“You didn’t ask any more than that?”
“It didn’t seem important and I was a little preoccupied,” he snapped.
“With yourself. In fact, I’m guessing you don’t have a clue where she lives.”
“No, I don’t.”
“Have you called her?”
James winced. “I don’t know her telephone number. I do know she isn’t in the phone book.”
Kieran snorted. “Who is these days? So you let her leave and didn’t even ask for her phone number?”
“Apparently so. Where does that leave me?”
“Rather fucked, buddy.”
“Speaking of which, I know this entire thing was staged. She was put up to it.”
“How?”
“I told you I met up with my old pal, Alan, that night.”
“No, you didn’t mention that.”
“We went drinking and we met a couple of girls and he went back to his room with his.”
“So what makes you think—”
“I just found out he is the competition for the deal I was negotiating. Add that to the news that he is the one who told Liang the video was on the Internet and you get quite a set up.”
“Shit.”
“My sentiment exactly.”
“So you think that he arranged for you to meet her?”
“I suppose so. That’s all that make sense. I was going to ask her outright, which is why it’s doubly frustrating that she hasn’t shown up.”
“If that’s true, maybe we could get her to tell the story to Liang.”
“Maybe, but I don’t know if it would make a difference, to be honest. If he knew, if he believed that Alan set this up, it might make old Alan out to be a blackguard. But that leaves me still portrayed as an irresponsible drunk. I wouldn’t be off the hook.”
“It’s a shame that neither of them did anything that’s actually illegal, as far as we know.”
“So here we are, dealing with two problems that are separate, but intimately related. I have to keep my deal from going south and figure out what to do about the now-invisible woman I’m married to.”
“We can find her, but that takes time. Without her handy, and willing to sign the necessary documents, getting an annulment gets more complicated. I’ve done some research, James. If you have her sign a sworn statement saying you were drunk, and if Elvis will give you one as well, and she signs the annulment application papers with you, you’ve got a good shot at doing this quickly. If you can’t find her, then you need to hire a skip tracer to see if she can be found. If they can’t find her, then, after twenty-two days you can ask
a judge to grant your petition. That can take more time.”
“Twenty-two days? If I’m going to stand a chance to close this deal it’s got to happen faster than that, Kieran. When Liang comes back to Vegas he’s going to expect to see that I’ve gotten things neatly resolved.”
“He wants you to get the annulment done?”
“Well, he made noises about honoring the marriage contract, but I think he just wants results, everything all wrapped up in a bow. He’s a businessman and I’m sure the only thing he won’t accept is that I’m sitting on my thumbs and resolution is still a work in progress. That would seem like I’m stalling.”
“So the time problem sucks, but what do you expect me to do?”
“I can’t think of anything useful, unless you want to find someone to take out Alan McCabe. That would make me feel better, at least.”
“As your lawyer, part-time friend, and as an officer of the court, I have to firmly advise against resorting to a hit man. It tends to be tacky, even if common enough in your current neighborhood.”
“So should I hire a private investigator to find Deja?”
“That would be a start and acceptable. Finding her is useful, but as we big-shot lawyers say, if she doesn’t want to see you, you can’t make her. Even if you find her, you better prepare yourself to do some sweet talking and maybe open up your wallet. If you have to fight her in a court battle, she can drag everything out, and it sounds like that is the last thing you want. The publicity isn’t likely to improve your blood pressure either.”
“Do you have any good news?”
“Just that you’ll soon see my smiling face out there. I want to chat with a local lawyer, and he’s doing some paperwork on a just in case basis. Fortunately, the marriage license gives us her legal name. I’ll call and let you know when I’m arriving.”
“When you call I’ll book you a room.”
