White Lines III (13 page)

Sunny stopped pacing the room. “Resources?”

“Well, yeah.” Abe seemed to hesitate before continuing. “You know, Sunny, there's nothing wrong with admitting that you need some help. My brother Rick just got out of rehab, and he's doing well for the first time in years. The place is discreet. No paparazzi in the bushes, no leaks to the tabloids. It's the real deal. If you want the number—”

“Abe, I don't need rehab.” Sunny's voice was stern. “As I said, it was a misunderstanding.”

“Sure. No, Sunny, I didn't mean to imply anything. I'm just saying if you need anything—a lawyer, anything—you can let me know.”

“Thanks so much,” she said, softer this time. “I'll keep that in mind.”

“Sunny, that's not the only reason I called.” Abe cleared his throat. “Listen, Kaleidoscope decided to go in a different direction this year. We had a meeting yesterday with Malcolm about his involvement with the project. I'm sure you're aware by now that he's pulled out and won't be acting as your attorney any longer.”

Sunny felt so lightheaded with rage and shock that she nearly collapsed onto the sofa. “No,” she managed. “I wasn't aware.”

“Well, he did tell us that his office was looking to get in contact with you, but was understandably having trouble reaching you.” He tapped a pencil on his desk absentmindedly as he spoke. “Anyway, Sunny, listen. You've got one hell of a story. It's just not gonna be a good fit for us at this time.”

“Abe, come on.” Sunny was nearly panting. She needed that movie deal. It was her one ray of hope in a very gloomy reality. “Whether Malcolm works with us or not, we can still make this movie.”

“It's not just Malcolm, you know? We've just decided to take our focus in another direction altogether. That's the truth. But Sunny, I meant what I said about those resources. If you need anything, I'm just a phone call away. Okay? Take care.”

Sunny sat frozen in place on the sofa for several moments after Abe hung up. She felt completely blindsided. Malcolm, that cowardly bastard. She thought about him abandoning her in Mexico. Now he had pulled the rug out from under her movie deal. He had quit on her without the benefit of any discussion. Sunny was enraged.

Before she knew it, she was on her feet. She ran up the stairs, two at a time, and hurriedly dressed. She grabbed her father's car keys off the table in the hallway, and dashed out the front door, headed for Manhattan.

*   *   *

Sunny and Ava had never been close. Over the years, Sunny had viewed Jada's little sister as her snobby sidekick. Ava, on the other hand, viewed Sunny with an odd mixture of admiration and condescension. They had in common a genuine love for Jada, and that was what united them. That, and Sunny and Jada's dealings with Ava as their attorney in their publishing ventures. Sunny had all of Ava's contact numbers stored in her cell phone for the latter reason. She dialed Ava's office number and quickly shushed her secretary when she answered the line.

“Bradwell, Foster, and—”

“Fuckin'…'scuse me, Miss. I'm sorry to cut you off, but I need to speak to Ava Ford immediately.”

The frazzled secretary took a moment to recover before responding. “She's in a meeting right now. Can I take—”

Sunny hung up and dialed Ava's cell phone. Ava answered as Sunny sped across the Brooklyn Bridge.

“Sunny, let me call you back,” Ava said.

“Ava, let me tell you about your bitchass boy Malcolm!” Sunny was so angry that she felt the words spilling forth quickly and yet she couldn't say it fast enough. “He's a fucking
snake
, Ava!”

“Sunny, I can't talk right now. I'm in a meeting.”

“Ava, listen to me!”

The line went dead. Sunny gunned the engine.

*   *   *

Ava sat across from Malcolm in her office. He had been crying. She had never seen him like this. Since returning from Mexico, Malcolm had been avoiding her. Until today. Word around the office was that Malcolm's sexy girlfriend had turned into a psycho stalker, speed-dialing and terrorizing his secretary for days straight. Finally, after days of avoiding her, Malcolm had run into Ava in a department meeting and joined her on the elevator going down. Once the doors closed Ava turned to him.

“So, how was Mexico?”

“Terrible.” Malcolm let out a deep sigh. He ran his hand across his face. “Evidently, um … Sunny's using cocaine again. She got arrested at the checkpoint. And I left her there.” It was the first time he had said the words aloud. Malcolm felt a wave of nausea, and forced himself to man up.

The elevator doors opened, but neither of them got off.

Malcolm had turned to her. “I left her there, Ava.”

They both let the doors shut again, staring at each other in silence.

For the next half hour, Malcolm sat in Ava's office telling her about Sunny—“She's so beautiful, and so intoxicating.”—and their love—“I fell for her hard.” He regurgitated the details of their trip, their detainment—leaving out the incident by the side of the road—in such detail that Ava almost felt that she was watching a movie. She couldn't help thinking that it all might be an interesting twist in the film Sunny was planning with Abe Childs. She also couldn't help but remember that she had set her sights on Malcolm first. Sunny had swooped in and stolen the spotlight as usual. But it had been Ava who fell for him first.

Then Sunny called, and Malcolm could hear her screaming through the phone, although Ava sat on the edge of her desk a good distance from where he stood looking out the window. Ava hung up and he turned toward her.

“See what I mean?” he asked. “How can I face her?”

“You just have to.” Ava sent Sunny's next call to voice mail. “Start with ‘I'm sorry,' and take it from there.”

“You don't understand.” Malcolm hung his head in his hands. Only Sunny and he knew the magnitude of what he'd left Sunny holding. Sure, it was the cocaine, the detainment, and all of the bad publicity. But there had been more. Sunny had saved their lives, and he had run.

“Malcolm … well at least you know she's okay.” She sighed. “Why don't you answer her calls? It's worth it just to get it over with.”

Malcolm shook his head. “And say what?” His voice was at a higher pitch than he intended, making him sound like a girl. He cleared his throat. He was exhausted, up all night and in meetings all day. And Sunny was out for blood. His stress level was at its highest peak. Or so he thought. “I have nothing to say to her.”

Suddenly Ava could hear a commotion near the office reception area.

“Bring him out here
now!
” a voice was loudly demanding. “I'm not leaving until I see him.
Punk ass Malcolm Dean!
”

Malcolm raised his head and met Ava's gaze. An intense sense of dread filled the room.

Ava ran out of her office toward reception to see what was going on. Her mouth fell open in shock when she saw Sunny without makeup and her hair snatched back into a sloppy ponytail. Security surrounded her, holding her back as she caught sight of Ava and tried to rush forward.

“Miss, we told you to calm down!” One officer was in her face. Sunny was furiously pointing in the guy's face, and unleashing a verbal fury.

“Sunny!” Ava rushed toward her. “What's your problem?” Ava spoke through clenched teeth, aware that all of her uptight colleagues were peering out of their office doors to see what all the commotion was.

“Where is he, Ava? Huh? Where's Malcolm? Let him bring his punk ass out here!”

One of the security guys was on his walkie-talkie calling for police.

Ava spoke in a hushed voice. “You can't come up here like this. Why don't you just call Malcolm?” She knew, of course, that Malcolm was avoiding Sunny's calls, but she would say anything to get her to leave.

Sunny sucked her teeth. “Are you kidding me? I've been calling him for days, Ava!”

“Come on. Let's step inside my office and—” Ava prodded.

“No!”
Sunny's voice was purposely raised loud enough for the whole floor to hear. “I just want this whole fucking firm to know that Malcolm Dean is a punk ass, bitchass coward who abandons his friends and his clients when they need him the most.”

As Ava thought of what to say next, Malcolm came out of his office and sheepishly approached Sunny. Security held her back as she called him every variety of bitch imaginable. Ava watched it all unfold with her mouth agape.

People were pouring out of their offices now, and Malcolm looked like he wanted to cry.

Her jaw set in a firm line, Sunny spoke through nearly clenched teeth.

“It took you this long to face me? You fucking coward!”

“Sunny…” Ava found her words at last.

“You're a real pussy, you know that?”

“Sunny, my secretary's been calling you all morning. She left you three messages.” Malcolm stood a safe distance from Sunny as he spoke.

“Your
secretary
called me.” Sunny repeated his words as if pondering the absurdity of them. “Why didn't you call me yourself, Malcolm? Huh? You scared little—”

“I'm not gonna stand here and let you insult me.”

“You could never stand like a man. That's the problem. You crawl your way out of every situation and you leave other people to stand alone.”

The elevator doors opened and six police officers stepped off.

“What's the problem?” the first cop asked, looking at the black guy immediately.

Malcolm held up his hands. “This is a misunderstanding. We don't need the police,” he protested.

“Someone called us,” one officer replied.

Sunny glared at Malcolm. “Probably this b—”

“Listen, I don't know who called you,” Malcolm said. “But, we don't need any police, thank you. We're just having a disagreement and we can talk in private.”

“The young lady is the aggressor,” the security guard explained. “We called you. Mr. Dean works here. We had instructions not to let her upstairs, but she got past one of our workers who's new on the job.”

Sunny glared at him. “
Instructions.
From this pussycat?”

“Listen,” Ava said. “We don't need the police. The two of them can talk in my office.”

“You think that's smart?” the officer asked, looking at Sunny as if she might be able to kick his ass. She was clearly pissed all the way off. Her chest was heaving, and the look in her eyes made it clear that she meant business.

Malcolm looked around. Truthfully, he didn't want to be alone with Sunny. The security guards stepped to the perimeter, but stayed on the scene. Along with the handful of employees who milled about, the presence of all the police and security officers was overwhelming.

Sunny did her best to calm down now that there were police involved. The last thing she wanted was for her loved ones to discover she'd gotten herself arrested again.

“Ava can come with us. I just need a few minutes.” Her voice was much calmer, but her body language was saying something altogether different. Her fists were clenched at her side, and she looked ready to pounce.

Everyone looked at Malcolm.

He thought about what Ava said about Sunny deserving a chance to have her say. He looked at the cops and said, “You can go. I'm going to talk to her in private.”

Malcolm looked at the building security officers lurking nearby. “You guys stay out here, please?” They agreed, and he led the way to Ava's office.

Sunny wished the cops would leave so she could punch him in the back of his head. Sensing Sunny's tension, Ava trotted to catch up to her.

“Calm down,” she hissed in a harsh whisper. “You don't want to get thrown out of here. Those cops would love to drag you out of here.”

Sunny heard her, but her focus was on the man she thought she could love. As soon as the door was shut behind them, Sunny went in.

“I never met a bigger pussy in my whole entire life.”

Malcolm didn't flinch.

“You ran like a bitch.” Sunny stared him in the eyes as she said it.

“I had to leave. I have a career to protect, Sunny.”

“What about protecting me?” Her voice caught on the last word and she was so angry with herself for allowing her vulnerability to show. “You got no balls, no integrity, no loyalty.”

“Sunny, I'm sorry,” Malcolm pleaded. He felt terrible seeing the hurt that she masked with her anger. He had not meant to hurt Sunny. He stepped closer to her, aware that Ava was watching. He didn't care. “I got scared. You lied to me. You put my whole life in danger.” He thought about the man Sunny had killed in Mexico, about being detained at the airport. He loved her, but she was too much trouble.

“Don't you think
I
was scared? Did you even give a shit?” Sunny glared at Malcolm. “Did you tell anybody?” she asked. The question hung between them alone, although Ava, and probably security on the other side of the door, was listening.

Malcolm locked eyes with her, and wished he never left her. “No,” he said. “I swear.”

He couldn't believe what happened. But he would take their secret to his grave. “Never.”

Sunny stared at him with contempt.

“Sunny, I don't expect you to forgive me. But at least try to put yourself in my shoes. I was scared. I never thought I would be in a situation like that. I panicked. I'm sorry.”

Sunny's eyes narrowed. “You left me there. And now you backed out of the deal with Abe. So now he dropped the project altogether.”

“Abe was on the fence about the whole thing from the beginning, Sunny. My backing out has nothing to do with it.”

“That's a lie!” Sunny was seething. “I let you get close to my daughter, my family. I left my best friend here to deal with her son's suicide attempt by herself. All so I could be with you.” Sunny was full-on sobbing now.