by Tiana Cole
James felt the sharp stab of a knife between his shoulder blades. This entire thing had been a trick from the beginning. “McCabe is the man I was drinking with that night. He used to be my friend. I thought he still was.”
Liang tugged on his ear. “That compounds your failure. Perhaps you need to pay closer attention to your criteria for the people you call friends. Also, I find it troublesome that you didn’t bother to find out who your competitor was. McCabe did learn that and he outwitted you. If he also betrayed you, that doesn’t speak well of him. On the other hand, regardless of his role, I don’t suppose you would suggest that he somehow forced you to behave as you did.”
James felt like he should hang his head in shame. Not only was he losing out on the business deal, he had totally lost Shen Liang’s respect. Winning it back seemed impossible, but at least he wouldn’t whimper or whine. He didn’t want Shen Liang thinking any less of him, if that was possible. “I won’t say anything more, because I don’t want to sound as if what I did is justifiable.”
Liang nodded. “Send me a copy of the video. I will watch it. Then I will talk with McCabe. I wish to see if there are other sides to him that I do not like.”
“All right.”
“We will talk again in a few days.”
The last sentence made him his breath catch. The man wasn’t showing him the door. He wanted him to hang around. He possibly had a chance to turn things around yet.
James had an investment in a small high-tech company that was, for no apparent reason, headquartered in Las Vegas. “I had some business I’d intended to deal with after we settled things, but now I will spend the time taking care of that. I’ll be free when you want to speak again.”
Liang nodded. “You might want to give some thought to how you handle the other business as well—like this marriage. I understand that it is a private matter, but you must keep in mind that for people in our position there is little privacy. For that reason, I’ll be interested in seeing what you ultimately do.”
“Of course.”
As Liang left, James fumed. That bastard McCabe had picked Deja out and pointed him at her. He knew that she’d appeal to him, with that lovely lithe body and ebony skin, that ready smile. He’d gotten him drunk and then saw that he danced with her. Now he vaguely remembered Alan suggesting he go ask that hot black chick to dance. The band was playing a Martha and the Vandelles song. He couldn’t resist.
Alan engineered the meeting rather skillfully, he had to admit. But that left a huge unanswered question. How had he gotten so drunk and still been able to function? He’d never been that drunk in his life. When he’d come close, he’d passed out. That night he’d not only continued to party, but he’d made it through an absurd wedding, and then, if Deja was to be believed at all, he’d been a bull in bed. His ego liked the idea of that, but it didn’t make sense.
None of it made much sense.
CHAPTER SIX
It took some time for her to get her breathing under control. Barbara’s stare was harsh, but that was because Deja felt guilty. Finally she swallowed, looked into her sister’s eyes, and began to explain. “A week ago I met a man named Alan McCabe here at the hospital.
I was in the waiting room while you were getting a treatment. I’m not sure why he was there, but this man seemed interested in hearing about you, about the surgery you needed. He was very nice. More than nice. We had coffee and talked.”
“And he offered you a way to make money.”
“Not then. He asked for my phone number, and a few days ago he called me. He knew everything by then…about the new treatment, our finances, mine and yours, and, well, everything. He said he might have a solution, a way for me to get the money you needed. And he needed a favor. So I met him for lunch and he explained that he wanted to play a prank on a friend.”
“A prank.”
“He had a friend named James Andrews who was in town for business. The two of them were in a club of very rich people, ‘stupid rich,’ he called them.
The group often played elaborate tricks on each other. He said that James was shy and tended to bury himself in work. He was shutting out the world. This trick was going to help wake him up. Alan was supposed to get him drunk—very drunk.
Then they wanted to introduce him to a woman. She was supposed to get him to marry her in an absurd ceremony. It would be a great thing to hold over his head, that he had fallen for this trick.”
“And you believed him.”
She nodded. “I wanted to. He offered me fifty thousand dollars if I got James to marry me and stay married for a week. It seemed like a miracle, and I know I should’ve sensed that it was a too-good-to-be-true thing, but I didn’t want to see that it could be bogus. I needed that money and being able to get it soon...”
“Why a week? If it was a prank, once he married you, the trick was finished.”
Deja felt her cheeks turn red. “He said it was to have time to make sure James learned his lesson. This morning I found out it was so he could use that time to make James look bad and screw up a business deal.”
“So you did it. Did you really marry him, or was that fake?”
“As real as it gets when everything from the first date to the honeymoon takes place in one night.”
“How did you do it?”
“I showed up at the club. He was drunk already. I danced with him and we got cozy and… one thing led to another and we wound up at one of the downtown quickie marriage mills. He turned out to be nice, really nice, and I liked him. He really liked me too, so I didn’t have to do much of anything, and the marriage idea was totally his. I even tried to back out, to convince him to wait, but he was all for it. So I figured, why not?”
“Because it’s dishonest.”
She shrugged. “I couldn’t resist. All that money for one week’s work. And it can save your life.”
“And when you woke up this morning?”
“He was furious about the marriage, although I’m not sure whether he was madder with me or Elvis.”
“Elvis?”
“The minister.”
“Oh, right.”
“I was feeling kind of guilty—”
“As you should.”
“As we talked I started seeing clearly that it wasn’t a prank at all. Eventually, after some reporters came knocking, James got to wondering more about my motives, thinking that maybe I called them. He was coming up with all sorts of ideas.”
“And you defended yourself, even though you were not being honest.”
“He insisted on getting married. I just went along with it.”
“You were sober and no one held a gun to your head.”
“No, Barb, but they offered me fifty thousand dollars to go through with it. It was like taking a gun away from your head.”
“And where did you leave things?”
“James called his lawyer and they are happily trying to figure out the best thing to save whatever business deal it is that Alan was using me to sabotage and figure out what to do about my prickly presence. I needed to get out, so I just told him I was coming to see you and then going to work.”
“And then?”
“I’m not sure, but I don’t think I’ll go back. Staying away will make things easier.”
“Why does that make things easy?”
“Without my signature, he can’t get an annulment quickly, and tracking me down will take time. He has no idea where I live or work and doesn’t even have my phone number. All I have to do is stay out of sight and then, after seven days, I can collect my money. After that he can divorce me or I’ll help him get that annulment.”
Disappointment distorted Barb’s face. “So running off makes things easy for you, by making it hard for him. What a totally crappy way to behave. So manipulative and cowardly too.”
It was, and the words made her cringe. “Still…”
“Still nothing. You are a decent woman, and that means you need to face this man. You have to sit in
front of him and tell him the whole story. You might have done this as a trick, a way to get money, but he is your husband. You have an obligation to let him know about this shitty joke being played on him. He deserves that much from you.”
“He’d get rid of me immediately and then Alan wouldn’t pay me the money.”
“Maybe. I wouldn’t blame him in the least. But you would get back a little bit of your dignity. You used sex to get him to marry you. And you were paid to do it. You slept with the man for money. What you did is throw away your integrity.”
“To get you the treatment that will keep you alive, Barbara.”
“The end doesn’t justify the means. Not ever. Do you think I want to go into surgery thinking about what you did to get the money? Hell, Deja, the treatment might not even work and you would be doing this, to him and yourself, for nothing. You messed up, girl, but there is still time to try to make it right. He’ll be mad as hell at you, but there is a chance that if you are strong and admit what you did, he’ll see a flash of the wonderful girl I know you are.”
“I don’t know. I also gave Alan my word. I said I’d do it.”
“You promised to trick someone when you didn’t understand the consequences.”
“What do you mean?”
“You are deliberately being a little idiot, Deja. I know you. You don’t trust this Alan as far as you can throw him. He lied to you, and you feel almost as used as James Andrews must. But I can tell from the way you talk about him that you care about this fake husband of yours. It’s written all over your face every time you mention him.”
“So what?”
“If you care about someone, you don’t lie to them. And you don’t even seem to know everything that’s going on. If this Alan lied about it being a prank, you don’t even know that you aren’t mixed up in something that is illegal. If you act now you have a chance to come clean with James. Then he’ll be able to find out exactly what’s going on. Even if that doesn’t make things right between you two, if you keep lying to him, you’ll never be able to find out. Someone will be hurt. Most likely both of you.”
“If I tell him, he’ll annul the marriage. If I don’t stay married to him a week I’ll lose the money.”
“It’s filthy money. If he pays you.”
“Filthy or not, we need the money for your treatment.”
Barbara shook her head. “And you think I want it on my conscience that my little sister did something like this to get the money? It’s just prostitution, you know. You probably didn’t want to think about it that way, but you slept with a stranger for money.”
Having had the same thoughts, she couldn’t fault Barb’s logic. “Maybe I slept with him for money, but I married him. Any marriage is a business arrangement.” Her protest sounded weak, even to her.
“This was a fraud, pure and simple. You deceived the man and I don’t want you using me as an excuse. I can forgive a lapse, Deja, but what you do now, understanding what’s going on, will tell the world who you really are. Even if you didn’t actually trick him into marrying you, or screw him and then insist he marry you because you were pregnant, you certainly went along with a set up.
No matter what Alan intended, you were part of it. And you didn’t bother to ask yourself what kind of prank is worth that amount of money to pull off.” Barbara gave her a thin smile. “You aren’t stupid, not in the least, but you never asked yourself that question. You had to know something more than a gag was the point of this. Face it, you knew it was wrong when you did it. Now you are obligated to make things right.”
Suddenly what had seemed like a grand opportunity was nothing but a colossal failure. It was all true, and Deja couldn’t look her sister in the eye. She had no stomach for looking James in the eye either. She damn well could have stopped the marriage if she’d cared enough about her own self-respect, or his, for that matter. Now, owning up to that, was harder than it would’ve been then.
“You’re right,” she said. “I did a stupid thing. I fucked up. All I had to do was not say, ‘I do.’” More than that, during the evening, behind the drunk she’d seen a man she liked, or might like. It wouldn’t have been that hard to say good night; she could have easily convinced him that they needed to see each other when they were sober. That would have been the right thing to do.
“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.
