He steepled his fingers and waited.
“The daughter of a prominent politician is being abused and wrongly imprisoned in a mental facility. I want her out of there. I went to the press to push the story, but I was stonewalled, lost my job, and my medical license was suspended.”
He cocked his head and narrowed his eyes. I couldn’t read if he was interested or studying my ever twitch. “And you want me to what? Help you get your job back?”
I jumped up. “No, please, I just want Kory out of that facility. It’s why I risked everything in the first place.”
“Kory is your…”
Zeus interjected, “Patient.”
Don’s eyes flashed to Z for a heartbeat and back to me. “You’re fucking a patient. Why Ash, I didn’t think you had it in you.” His tone spoke of games and scandal not the serious matter at hand.
“What Kory and I have done isn’t relent. I just want her free from her mother’s control. You can use the story yourself, sell it to a high profile newspaper, I’m sure it will work if the right paper took the story, someone with political leanings toward Senator Sito’s opposition.”
Zeus slapped his hands on the chair rails and pushed to his feet. “I think I’ll let you two boys catch up while I go check out the roulette tables.”
We both watched him walk out. I didn’t expect him to help me, but I also never expected him to abandon me either. I met Don’s eyes again. “Can you help?”
Don leaned forward and pressed his elbows into the polished wood of his desk. “I might be able to help, but I need to know why you are doing this? It is about the sex or about the politics?”
I weighted my answer. A man like Don didn’t know anything about love. He wouldn’t be able to comprehend I’d do anything for Kory. Anything to keep her safe and happy.
“I can’t say it’s about the sex, but it’s about her, not the politics.”
Don shook his head. “I cannot help you if you are lying to yourself about what you want. Do you want this Kory woman?”
“Of course, why would I be here?”
“Then tell me what you are willing to pay for her freedom.”
I threw my hands up showing him my palms. “I’d pay anything to help her.”
He weighed my answer while he stared me down. I didn’t flinch under his gaze no matter how much he seemed to press me into the chair with a simple glare.
He stood and buttoned his suit coat. “Then go home and wait for my call. But please, take Zeus with you, the last time I let him loose in one of my casinos, he made a mess of my female staff and took over a hundred thousand dollars in winnings.”
I left and went in search of Zeus. I found him at the roulette wheel with a blonde on each arm and a stack of chips in front of him. “Let’s go, Romeo. We need to get back.”
He kissed a blonde’s neck and glared over her curves. The dealer pronounced him a winner, and he gathered up the chips gleefully.
I trapped his hand in mine over the heavy plastic. “How about this…you take your winnings and come with me, and I won’t tell Hera where we’ve been and what you’ve been up to. You remember she was my friend before you were?”
He glared but snatched his chips and marched in front of me toward a sleek black car. It didn’t take long to get back home, Zeus refusing to speak to me the entire flight. Not that I minded. I wasn’t keen on talking to him anyway. Any time in his presence, it got harder not to reveal the truth to his wife about what kind of scumbag she married.
When I got home, I realized I’d be waiting again, but this time, I knew the plan would work. Donny—Don—always delivered on his promises, and he never backed out on a deal. I just feared what kind of payment he’d expect in return for his help.
Chapter Nineteen
Don
Hearing from Ash had been a surprise. We never got along well in school. He’d been born from money and opportunity. I’d been born from the streets and clawed my way to the university. Not that he would ever be so low class as to acknowledge those differences.
His request wouldn’t be terrible difficult, but I could tell he expected me to perform it the way he’d originally planned. Unfortunately, his idea of a plan was flawed. Men are so easily corrupted.
I picked up the phone and hit a few buttons and waited while the other line rang. A silky female voice cut through the line, one I’d heard a dozen times over the phone and in person. “Demeter, Darling, I have just made a deal, one I need your help to bring to fruition.”
She didn’t respond and losing a booty call whenever I ventured to Washington D.C. seemed a small price to pay when Ash would be in my little black book in the favors column. Getting Kory free from her mother’s clutches would be simple enough. It would be up to Ash to keep her, and himself, from Demeter’s crosshairs once the deal was set between us.
Chapter Twenty
Kory
I got up early to shower, clean up my room, do my hair. There would never be enough armor or ammunition to deal with my mother coming here for a visit. Not just a visit but a negotiation. I didn’t tell her much on the phone only that if she didn’t come, the next call would be to a prominent journalist who preferred her opposition, and wouldn’t he love the support of her daughter on the upcoming campaign.
Even with the extra preparation and mental fortification, I wasn’t ready. She shouldn’t be here, and a year that goes by without seeing her face is decent year. This year I’d seen, and spoken to her, far too many times for my own sanity. If I had such a thing.
Styx poked her head into my room without knocking. “You ready?”
I shook my head no and then switch mid-stream to a nod as she narrowed her eyes.
“You don’t need to prove anything to anyone except yourself. Your mother isn’t your keeper, and no one should be responsible for you but yourself.”
I shook out my shoulders trying to loosen up my tense muscles. “Do you do bumper stickers too?”
Her thin lips stretched flat. “Ha ha. Do you want me to bring her in here when she arrives, or do you want to see her in the public visitor room?”
As much as I ‘d love to see my mother avoid putting her Chanel covered ass on the canvas couch cover in the day room, I didn’t want out conversation to be public. “Bring her here. We need privacy.”
I thought I’d mentally prepared for her entrance, but as usual, I’d deluded myself. She sauntered into my little white box like she not only owned the place, but was about to raise the rent. Her gaze fell on my books, my bed, my desk, sweeping over every inch of the space before landing on me filled with contempt.
No matter how old I got, she always looked at me the same, with pity and possibly a little regret. And, why wouldn’t she? I was the fuck up, not the arm ornament she could use to garner votes from younger constituents. She’s regretted my presence in her life a long time ago. But never more than I did.
I stood and smoothed out my already straight pants. “Mother.”
Her dark eyes met mine, the ones so very much like her own, and she arched a perfect eyebrow. “Persephone.”
Not daughter, not child of mine, not fruit of my loins. No, acknowledging me would be acknowledging I was a mistake, and Demeter Sito didn’t do anything so foolish as make a mistake.
I tried diplomacy even though I knew it would bite me in the ass. “Thank you for coming. I’m sorry it was such short notice, but this was kind of an emergency.”
I clamped my hands together to keep from fidgeting. From showing her how much her presence affected me.
When she didn’t say anything, I gestured at the hard wood chair at my desk. “Would you like to have a seat or a beverage?”
As silly as it was, these little courtesies might earn me some points. My mother prided herself on her hostessing skills. Not that I’d ever been invited to one of her parties.
She took the seat, perched on the very edge in her rich maroon pants suit, her black hair brushing the wood behind her back. “No, I don’t need
a drink. I won’t be here long. Please get the point of why you requested this meeting.”
I sighed and sat on my bed, careful not to curl my leg up protectively against my body. “I want you to fix whatever you did to Ash. I know you made a call or paid someone—whatever—but I need you to rescind it and the investigation into his medical license.”
Her perfectly smooth brow folded slightly, but it was the only show of emotion she gave me. “And why should I do that? He not only violated his contract to work here but also the non-disclosure agreement he signed when he took this job. As for the question of ethics, it’s obvious you two are fucking, and I’m pretty sure that is against a doctor’s ethical code.”
I inwardly cheered myself for not flinching when she said the word fuck in such a monotone sentence. I kept my tone as careful and business like as her own. She’d taught me a long time ago the benefit of hiding your emotions. Especially during a negotiation. “It doesn’t matter what he did or didn’t do. You will fix it, or you will have problems.”
My mother peered behind her at my bare desk, surveying her surroundings more. To anyone who didn’t know her, they’d think she’d been distracted, but I knew a stall tactic when I saw one.
I pressed further. “He doesn’t have to work here again, and you don’t need to find him another job. I’m sure he can do that on his own. You simply need to get the investigation dropped so he is free to do so.”
She shook her head softly. “No, I don’t think I will. I don’t like him, and I am deeply disturbed by what else he was doing behind the walls. Have you thought about how many other patients he could have been…intimate with?”
I waved toward the door. “Since you strip this place of patients the moment I show up, I’m pretty sure his options were limited. Me or old Bess down the hall. I don’t think she would have objected, but somehow, I don’t think she’s his type.”
“Do you love him?”
Her question sucker punched me. I didn’t have time to school my features, and she saw right through any mask I slid in place at the last second. My stomach twisted up in knots. “Don’t be ridiculous. He was a dalliance, something to pass the time.”
Demeter folded her hands gracefully in her lap and angled her head. “You were always a terrible liar. I wish I’d taught you better. Maybe you wouldn’t be such a disappointment.”
I shrugged. “Belittling me won’t make me change my tune. The days of bullying me are over. You’ve taken everything from me. There’s nothing left for me to lose.”
She leaned forward and snagged a book off a neat stack. “And these, your precious books, what if I take those away? Once upon a time, you’d do anything as long as I left these dusty tomes alone.”
I snatched the book she held loosely and tossed it out into the hall. It hit the far wall with a thwack and then a dull thud when it fell to the floor. “I don’t care. Not even these books bring me peace anymore. What would make me crawl back into my hole so you can forget I exist is if you do what I ask and restore Ash’s credentials. I don’t care how you do it, but you do it by the end of the week or this is over, and it won’t end well for you.”
“What exactly does that mean? You’ll try some pitiful attempt at contacting a journalist until I shut down that story too? I own the newspapers. No one will publish a thing without running it through my team.” She stood and walked toward the door. “Is there anything else?”
I smiled wide and a little crazy. “When I was in California earlier this year, I met a man. We spent weeks holed up in his cliff side house playing naked in the pool and eating our way through the coastal take out menu. It was wonderful. That man would do anything for me. He wanted to marry me. I think if I reached out, he’d move heaven and Earth not only to free me but also to bring you down too. After all, he does support your opposition, and I know both of them would reward me handsomely afterward.”
She narrowed her eyes, but something like a smile played on her lips. “Maybe you learned a little more from me than I thought.” She took the seat at the desk again. “Name your terms.”
“I told you fix whatever you did to Ash’s career. Restore everything so there isn’t even a hint of scandal attached to his name, and that’s it.”
“That’s it?”
I held my arms open to her. “I’ve got nothing left, and I don’t want anything except Ash’s freedom. I’ll stay here in my little white box forever if that’s what you want. My only condition is fix things for him.”
A coldness leached into her eyes. “You are as shitty a negotiator as you are a daughter.”
Once upon a time, a barb like that would have hurt. Now, nothing could reach into the black hole of my heart she’d sown. “Well you’re as shitty a mother as you are a politician. I didn’t have much of a role model to follow. Can we stop with the emotional pity party and finish this so I can get on with my life? Styx brings me pudding for lunch, and General Hospital is on at one.”
She didn’t move only stared me down trying to get me to crack. There was no way she could know that on this front, I’d never ever crack. Not when it came to him. Not when it came to his life and his freedom. I’d do anything—anything—to protect him.
Finally, she spoke. “I don’t trust you to keep your word in this case. You have been unreliable about keeping your word in the past.”
“Hi, Kettle, I’m Pot, nice to see you again. Is that black you’re wearing…I think we match.”
“Sarcasm doesn’t become you.”
I continued to hold her gaze. “And that color doesn’t become you, so I guess we’re even.”
As much as I didn’t want to sit here and continue trading quips with my mother, our conversation needed to end, and soon, the longer it took to seal the deal, the longer it gave her to think of ways to circumvent things. “Your answer now…or I’ll contact my friend right now.”
“Do you forget that I hold guardianship over you. I can make sure you don’t make a single phone call for the rest of your life. Not a letter, not an email, not even a text message. You say you’ve been locked up…I can make it so you actually feel like you’re in jail. You’ve had it pretty easy until now. I think we should try that route first, see if I can make you feel a little more solicitous in your choices and decisions.”
I chuckled. “It’s a nice try, but there are always ways to talk to the outside world. I haven’t pursued many, but if I’m stuck 24/7 in my room with no freedoms, I think I could focus my attention on the one task pretty damn well. And as we both know, people will do anything for the right amount of money.”
My heart pounded in my chest, and for a minute, I thought I’d overplayed my hand. There were no other cards to play. If she called me, I would be toast. And not the good buttery kind, the burned to a crisp kind that stank up the entire kitchen for a day.
But then I knew by the way her eyes narrowed and her beautiful red lips curled up. “And what is stopping me from having your little boyfriend arrested? As your guardian, I can press charges against him since you aren’t legally able to consent to sex while here in the institution. What do you think would happen to his license, and his life, once that news was spread across the papers?
I stood and held the door open wider for her to leave and prayed she didn’t so much as brush my skin when she passed. “Do it and see.”
Chapter Twenty-One
Ash
The second the blocked number notice flashed across my vibrating phone, I hit the button and pressed it to my ear. Donny’s voice cut through the line harsh and cold. “You can stop fretting, Ms. Daisy. You’ll get what you wanted and soon. But you’re going to need to be patient and wait. Not even I can get it done instantly.”
I didn’t think he could do anything immediately, but every second which passed with her locked away felt like another gouge out of my soul. “Are you going to keep calling me with updates? How am I going to know you’ve held up your end of the deal?”
He exhaled deep and low through the speak
er it almost sounded like a growl. “I always keep my word, and I thank you not to insinuate anything to the contrary. I’ll call you back when you can go pick up your little toy. Don’t call me, or my office, until I call you back.”
He hung up, and I stared at the phone. Me questioning his tactics or his word wouldn’t buy me any points. His temper already seemed to be on edge where I was concerned. I’d burned any credit being his fraternity brother provided me. But if he did what he said…I’d survive his disdain. Zeus was also avoiding my calls and refused to accept my begrudging apology. He wouldn’t accept he had a part in Kory’s lock up. And I wasn’t ready to forgive him for it either.
He also feared I would call Hera and out his extracurricular activities. I hadn’t exactly made being my friend easy lately.
A number I didn’t know flashed across my screen now, and I stared down at it, suspicious. The same number called me the other day about my license. I hadn’t even received the notice in the mail yet. Maybe they were calling to take away my license completely.
“Hello?”
“Hello again, Doctor. I’m calling on behalf of the state medical board to inform you the investigation has been cleared, and the suspension on your license has been lifted. We apologize for the mistake and any inconvenience or hardship you may have experienced because of our error.”
I pulled the phone away from my ear and stared at it. “Are you kidding me?”
A voice squeaked through the line too low for me to catch. I pressed it against my ear again, and the man was in the middle of a sentence. “Please call us if you have any problems or questions. Disregard any notices you may receive in the mail about the investigation. Have a nice day.”
He hung up, and I put the phone on the gray couch next to me. I stared at it like it might jump up and bite me. I didn’t trust any of it, and I was getting sick of Demeter and anyone else toying with my life and my mind. Was this some kind of plot to drive me crazy, discredit me that way?
Deranged: Twisted Myths Book One Page 12
