Deceptive Nights (22 page)

Jacoby was astounded by the extent of
Madeline’s deceitfulness. “I’m sure Joseph Bowen deserves to be
called on the matter.”

A large man of over six foot came through the
door. He was a larger replica of Simon’s short lean nature.

The giant was puffing on a thick Cuban and
not at all looking too pleased about being there. “What should I be
called on?” he demanded to know.

Phoebe knew exactly who he was. He looked
bigger than the picture on the wall portrayed him, but she
remembered that voice clearly from the voicemail she had made late
last night and he was right on time. “Mr. Bowen, I’m Phoebe Green,
I left a message on your machine last night.”

He shook her hand. “So you’re the little lady
who left that vague message on my machine last night to be here at
ten. I wasn’t about to come until I saw that fax early this morning
on the FIA spreadsheets,” Joseph said, looking over at Madeline
warily.

Phoebe smiled confidently knowing her mother
had faxed over the spreadsheets and other information to Joseph
Bowen and Leslie Cross.

“
Whatever this tramp has
tried to convince you I’ve done, Joseph, she’s a lying whore and
should not be trusted. I have every intentions of firing her for
incompetence and she just wants to get back at me,” Madeline
said.

Joseph gave a long puff on his cigar before
responding. “Seems to me, Maddie, you might be talking about
yourself. This girl had enough information about your double
dealings to put you away for a long while with the State of
Michigan and I’m going to make sure you never try to screw with me
again.”

At this time two Michigan State Police
Officers appeared at the door.

Madeline gasped. “Joseph, how could you
believe her? We’re partners! She’s nothing but a disgruntled
employee who thinks we owe her.”

“
And we do. I was never
aware that you weren’t paying her what she deserved or even close
to what you turned in on annual reports to me. I have had my
suspicions that something wasn’t smelling right over here, which is
why I insisted that my son worked here.” He looked over at Simon
who looked about ready to pee on himself. “If I had known you would
involve yourself in scamming me as well, I would have just done a
private investigation myself, but I thought as my son, you would at
least have the heart to come back and tell me that my partner was
deceiving me.”

“
She convinced me that we’d
be rich if I participated in it, Dad, and I was going to tell you
all about her taking the money once I got the money,” Simon
nervously explained.

“
How much was it going to
take, boy?” his father asked, coming very close to losing his
temper. “Because fifty thousand dollars was already transferred
into your bank account from Madeline’s personal account two weeks
ago. I think that was more than enough time to come to
me.”

“
You got to believe me,
Dad. I was convinced this was the right thing to do,” Simon begged.
“I didn’t realize-”

“
You didn’t realize what?”
his father exploded cutting him. “I damn well raised you better
than that, you spineless son of a bitch. The only thing she
convinced you was that you were as greedy as she was.” He turned to
the officers. “Take my partner and my son into custody,
officers.”

Madeline gasped, “How could you do this to
me, Joseph?! I am your partner,” she exclaimed as one of the
officers started to put handcuffs on her wrist. “We’ve known each
other for so long! Please Joseph. Please don’t do this!” she
begged.

Simon only lowered his head in shame as they
led him out, but Madeline continued to plead, but all her shouting
fell on deaf ears. Joseph Bowen turned to Phoebe.

“
If you had suspicion
something was going on, Mr. Bowen, why did you wait until she had
taken so much?” Phoebe asked.

“
Because I had no proof. I
did secret searches on the server, but I never guessed that Latrice
was also in on it.” He took her hand in his. “Thank you for all
your help.”

Phoebe frowned very uneasily. “Why didn’t you
suspect me?”

“
I did,” he admitted. “And
I had the investigators look into you as well, but they couldn’t
find a thing that could link you to the embezzlement. Only Latrice,
Madeline, and Simon were involved. Madeline was only going to have
you as a temporary because the FIA account was in jeopardy of going
bad and she didn’t have anyone who could help her get the money and
also keep the account going. So she hid everything from you, while
Latrice took care of the money. It was too easy.” He smiled
gratefully. “I didn’t have any real proof of what she was doing
until now. I was very glad that you were not apart of this, Phoebe.
You have been a great asset with this company and now that I need
someone to really run this office, I was hoping that you would
assist me in this matter.”

Phoebe took a deep breath and looked back at
Jacoby. Before she could answer Joseph though, Jacoby spoke up
saying, “You have a month, Mr. Bowen to find yourself a new manager
for this office. Phoebe has accepted my offer to become my Detroit
office manager.”

Joseph looked highly disappointed. “I do
apologize for any loss wages you may have suffered because of all
of this. You’ll be paid for every cent you should have been give,
Phoebe,” he promised. “I give you my word and if you ever need
anything, I’m at your beck and call.”

“
Thank you, Mr. Bowen,”
Phoebe said gratefully.

With a defeated sigh, Joseph said, “I had
better get on the job of getting someone dependable here, but I
must admit you’ll be a tough act to follow Phoebe.”

When he left, she turned to Jacoby, who
looked as if he were going to burst with pride. Before she even got
a word out her mouth, he swept her up in a big hug almost crushing
her.

Looking over his shoulder she noted that
Lawrence was still in the room with them just leaning against the
windowsill. Pushing away from Jacoby, she moved towards
Lawrence.

“
You did a good job,”
Lawrence said quietly. “I’m glad you did that.” He looked over her
shoulder at Jacoby and then he looked back at her. “Do you need a
moment alone?”

Lawrence just naturally assumed she wanted to
be with him and not with Jacoby. It was quite arrogant of him and
he was being "gracious" enough to allow her to speak with Jacoby
alone. The idea that he could be so arrogant didn't shock her, but
she wondered when had she given Lawrence indication that she didn't
want to be with Jacoby. Or did he just naturally assume that she
would do his will, rather than Jacoby's.

She looked over her shoulder at Jacoby with a
look of sympathy. He knew what she wanted, but it didn’t look like
he really wanted to give it to her. Reluctantly, he left out the
room to give them some privacy. The security officers followed him
closing the door behind them.

“
Lawrence, I think we do
need to talk,” she said feeling quite guilty.

“
There’s nothing to say,”
he said, coming up to her and pulling her in his arms. “You’ll be
working only as his office manager, nothing else. I can accept
that.”

“
Can you accept us only
being friends?” she asked.

“
Of course. Jacoby probably
won’t like it, though.”

She frowned in frustration and pushed away
from him. “I think you are misunderstanding the matter, Lawrence. I
was speaking about you and I.”

The deflated expression on his face was very
evident. Phoebe didn’t want to hurt him, but she did not want him
to get his hopes up and think that there could be something more.
“Jacoby doesn’t know how to treat a woman like you, Phoebe. You
need tender loving care and I can give you that.”

Biting her lip, she decided to be evasive in
her relationship with Jacoby. “This has nothing to do with Jacoby,
Lawrence. I have already told him I don’t want a relationship. I
just don’t want you to think that there could be something more
between you and I, when I know there won’t be. The last thing I
want to do is hurt you, Lawrence.”

Lawrence looked towards the door warily. “So
you have no intentions of being with Jacoby either?”

Phoebe bit her lip confused not really
wanting to discuss how she felt about Jacoby right now. Looking out
the window to gather her thoughts, she said, “I really can’t answer
that question right now. I’m not sure how I feel.”

He gently rubbed her cheek. “Like I said, I
don’t want to pressure you about it. I’ll always be there for
you.”

She had a feeling Lawrence was highly
disappointed and had expected a lot more than just friendship from
her. Yet she smiled at him and said, “Thank you so much.”

Lawrence leaned over and kissed her cheek
very close to her lips paused a moment then left. In her heart
Phoebe felt she was right to tell him the truth about her confusing
feelings for Jacoby. On one hand she was very much loved what he
did to her sexually and emotionally. She enjoyed the times she was
with him and when he wasn’t around she found herself still thinking
about him. Yet, she was terrified. Terrified of getting hurt and
terrified that she would hurt him.

So she did love him, but was too proud and
too terrified to admit it to anyone.

“
Penny for your thoughts,”
the man on her mind whispered in her ear.

“
I think you’ve given me
enough money, Mr. Knight and who gave you permission to talk for
me?” she asked, turning around to face him folding her arms across
her chest and looking highly upset.

“
I assumed you wanted me to
give you the opportunity not to answer him directly and you
probably didn’t figure Mr. Bowen would assign you as director of
this office. Plus I wasn’t going to lose the best thing in my life.
Did I assume wrong, Phoebe?”

Dammit if her heart didn’t skip an extra
beat. Was he talking about his business life or personal life?
Phoebe pushed the thought of her actually finding him attractive
even more out of her mind. She just needed right now to get home
and away from this irresistible man to think over the days
events.

“
No you assumed correct,
Jacoby.”

Immediately, he asked, “Will you accept my
position at my office?”

“
I would be a fool not to.
It’s too good to be true and you know I need the money. Why do you
always have to do that?” she asked perturbed more at herself than
at him, but he didn’t know that.

“
Do what? Use money in
order to get you?” Jacoby questioned. “Phoebe, you’ve made it no
other way to have you.” His voice was almost desperate.

Filled with apprehension, she asked, “What do
you want from me personally, Jacoby? You’ve got everything. What
could you possibly want from me?”

“
Haven’t I made it
obvious?” he asked as if she should have known, but the look on her
face made it apparent that she had no idea what he was talking
about.

“
Thank you for paying off
those things for me,” she said. “Is that what you want to talk
about? I will pay you back all that money, I promise, now that Mr.
Bowen will give me the back pay.”

Angrily he said, “I told you before it wasn’t
about the money. It was never about the money and you should know
this by now.”

“
Then what?”

He looked at her seriously. “I can’t believe
all this time you didn’t know. Phoebe, have you been that hurt that
you can’t see when a man really likes you?”

“
Likes me? Daniel liked me,
but that didn’t stop him from hurting me,” she sneered.

He cursed under his breath. “There is no
convincing you is there? You will never be able to put down the
hurt Daniels caused you, will you?” he asked. “Why can’t you just
accept what today has to offer you, Phoebe?”

“
And what has today offered
me?” she asked incredulously.

Jacoby stood there for a long moment as if
just staring at her would make things better. Yet it seemed the
harder he stared the more she just didn’t get it? Shoulders slumped
in defeat, Jacoby went to the doorway, stopping before he went
completely out of it and turned back to look at her. “Me,” was all
he whispered before turning back around and leaving out the
door.

Phoebe sat down in the nearest chair covering
her face in her hands hoping the best thing in her life had not
just walked out the door.

Chapter 24

Phoebe went through life at the office like a
robot. She had always done her job well whether she wanted to be
there or not. Of course, Joseph still continued to offer more money
to get her to stay, but Phoebe wanted no part in P&B
Communications anymore.

Lawrence called her often and came by as much
as he possibly could to cheer her up, but it was hard to cheer her
up when he couldn’t figure out what was bringing her down. Patricia
was still enamored of Lawrence, but had stopped trying to convince
her daughter on what a mother thought was good for Phoebe. Instead,
Patricia kept all her comments to herself about the situation.

Two weeks passed and Jacoby had not called
Phoebe. Lawrence mentioned by the middle of the second week, Jacoby
had gone to Chicago to secure another deal and in the middle of it,
he was called away to go to the Philippines to see his parents.
Apparently, his mother had fallen ill, but with it being right
before Thanksgiving, Jacoby had intentions of seeing them anyway,
although usually his parents came home for the holidays. Lawrence
seemed in high spirits with Jacoby out the country.

Phoebe was not that out of touch with
everything. She knew Lawrence wanted to start a relationship with
her and if she had not met Jacoby, she would very seriously
consider being with Lawrence, but she had met Jacoby, and her heart
and body was in desperate need for him.