Deceptive Nights (26 page)

When the People Mover stopped, he lifted the
sleeping Stephanie into his arms and offered to carry Stephen as
well to her car. They went straight to the parking lot where she
had parked, but she stopped dead in her tracks when they were five
cars away from where she normally parked.

He followed her eyes to the old Chevy. The
car was in good condition, except there was a large hole in the
middle of the windshield.

“
It would seem the vehicle
would be difficult to drive like that? Please don’t tell me you
drove it around like that,” he teased looking around
cautiously.

Narrowing her eyes at him, she said, “I don’t
find your levity funny anymore, Jacoby.”

Jacoby wiped the grin off his face. “Who
would do something like this?” he asked handing Stephanie to her to
free his arm to get to his cell phone.

“
I don’t know.” She opened
her car and gasped. Someone had cracked the column and slashed at
the seats of the car with a knife. It smelled as if someone had
tried to start a fire, but was unsuccessful, but her radio was
stolen and the pedal off the accelerator looked as if it had been
hammered down.

“
This was deliberate
malicious destruction,” she said getting out the car, slamming the
door closed in frustration.

Jacoby called his car to his location and
looked into the car himself. After assessing the damage, he waited
with her for his car to arrive. “No one suspicious comes to
mind?”

Sarcastically and angry, she responded, “You
do, but you have an alibi.”

He finally looked directly at her. “You think
I would hurt you?”

“
I don’t know what you’re
up to, Jacoby. One minute-” she stopped almost saying something she
knew he would just use to hurt her with. “Since I don’t suspect
you, I would suspect Simon.”

“
He’s in jail, just like
Madeline, isn’t he?”

Phoebe would have figured he knew where
Madeline was. “No, his father bailed him out. Don’t ask me why
Joseph did this, but Simon was ordered to stay away from me by the
judge personally. I received a call just yesterday letting me know
I would be needed to testify at all three of their trials.”

“
You think he might do
something extreme?”

“
Simon doesn’t seem like
the type on the outside, but if he could deceive his own father,
who is to say he would do anything to stay out of jail.”

“
Even hurt you?”

“
Oh, he’s hurting me good.
He knows hurting my pocket book is always painful.”

A black limousine pulled up. Jacoby took the
car seats out the Chevy and the driver assisted in placing them in
the back of the limousine. While the driver placed the twins in and
securely strapped them down, Jacoby turned to her keeping arms
length away.

“
My driver will take you
home and I’ll stay here for and have this towed to your
home.”

She took a deep breath filled with a feeling
of disappointment. “I don’t know how I will ever pay you back,
Jacoby. You’ve done so much for me and my family.”

“
It’s not about paying me
back, Phoebe. It never was and you know it.”

Phoebe held back what she wanted to say so
bad and turned away to get into the limousine. He grabbed her arm
and turned her around holding her shoulders tightly.

“
Dammit Phoebe say it! Say
what you have to say or I swear I’m going to go insane.”

She bit her lip and searched his eyes that
were filled with so much pain and anger. Yet all she could think
about was today when he had deliberately avoided her eyes, chances
to touch her when other times he had, and how now it seemed to pain
him to even get this close to her. Why should she speak her mind or
her heart when she knew he wouldn’t care? Maybe Lawrence was right?
She probably wasn’t the only woman on his plate. Why should he care
about her feelings for him?

“
Nothing Jacoby,” she
forced out, using every bit of strength not to collapse in his arms
and mold her body against him. “There’s nothing to say.” She moved
out of his arms and quickly got into the limousine.

Jacoby was barely able to control himself as
the car pulled away. He slammed his fist down on the hood of her
Chevy creating a large dent in the middle. Cursing violently, he
paced trying to get his temper down.

If that woman didn’t come to her senses soon,
he swore he would end up raping her where she stood.

Chapter 29

When Phoebe got home that night, after
telling her mother what had happened at the parking structure, she
went to her phone book and found Amy’s home phone number. Amy
wasn’t home, but called her back after an hour.

“
What’s up?” Amy asked
concerned.

Phoebe told her what happened with her car,
then asked, “Do you think it was Simon?”

“
It may sound like
something Simon would do, but that would be impossible since his
father put him into a drug rehab Friday night when the sheriff
busted him at a rave party with a bunch of teenagers.”

“
What was he doing
there?”

“
Getting high on Ecstasy, I
suppose. Don’t really know the real details, Phoebe. Do you have
any other enemies?”

“
None that I know of. This
is all very confusing, Amy.”

“
Did you report it to the
police?”

“
I was going to make a
report, but I wanted to speak with you first.”

“
You be careful,” Amy
warned. “Not to change the subject, but what happened to the affair
with the boss you were talking about with me the other
time?”

“
I never got the chance to
do what we spoke about because he’s been avoiding me like I’m the
plague. I don’t know what to do, because I don’t know what he
really feels. Maybe I’ve hurt him too much for him to like me
again. I had a chance, but I don’t want to be disappointed,
Amy.”

“
That’s part of life,
Phoebe. You’re going to have to deal with whatever he feels for you
now in order to get through this. If you keep it all bottled up
inside of you, you’ll hurt even more.”

She got off the phone with Amy thinking more
about Jacoby than the destruction of her vehicle as the minutes
passed. Phoebe didn’t sleep well Saturday night. When the morning
came and Patricia asked if she would like to go out to Great Lakes
Crossing Mall, she declined feeling every muscle in her body
screaming for rest. Patricia let Phoebe know she was only taking
Stephen with her because Stephanie was still asleep.

About one in the afternoon when her mother
had yet to return, she heard Stephanie coming awake and decided to
crawl out of bed and get something to eat. After making a light
breakfast for the both of them, she started to clean the
kitchen.

When the telephone rung, she answered it by
the third ring with a tired, “Hello?”

“
You sound exhausted,”
Lawrence said on the other end. “Are you up or still curled up in
bed?”

“
I’ve been up for
awhile.”

“
Is working for Jacoby that
exhaustive?” he asked.

“
No, someone wrecked my car
on purpose.”

“
Are you all right?” he
asked quite concerned.

“
Yes, I’m fine. Jacoby took
care of all the details. He even put the car in the
shop.”

“
Jacoby was in Detroit
yesterday?” he questioned quite shocked.

“
Yes, he was at the office.
He said the appointment he had canceled because his son was
sick.”

“
But he was supposed to be
in Canada with Thaddeus Newman, right?”

Phoebe only shrugged. “I guess so.”

“
Mr. Newman doesn’t have
any sons. His wife, Skye just had a daughter. That’s their first
child together. He lied to you.”

Phoebe frowned. “Why would he lie? He didn’t
know I would be in the office. Seeing me was very unexpected.”

Lawrence changed the subject. “I was
wondering if I could come over and speak to you about some things
that I think we should talk about. It’s really important. I
wouldn’t stay long if you didn’t want me to.”

She really wasn’t in the mood to entertain,
but decided today would be a good time to tell Lawrence that they
shouldn’t even be friends. Phoebe knew he wanted more than just
friendship and today she would really put her foot down about them
spending time together and her true feelings for Jacoby would be
revealed to Lawrence so she wouldn’t feel as if she were pulling
him along in some kind of game. Although she had made it evident to
Lawrence that she had no intentions of taking their relationship
any further in the past, she felt he would be a hindrance in her
pursuit to get with Jacoby with his negativity. “I’ll see you in a
few minutes?”

“
Sure.”

Just as she hung up the phone, the doorbell
rung and she put down Stephanie in the playpen to answer the door.
An Amazon dark chocolate woman about five feet eleven stood in the
doorway. She would be beautiful, almost angelic if it wasn’t for
that horrendous frown on her face. Her light green/gray eyes glared
down at Phoebe as if she had committed treason in the United
States. Either that or Phoebe was standing in the door naked.

Phoebe looked down at herself to see if she
was dressed appropriate. Today she had only dawned on some jeans
and a sweater because she had no intentions of going anywhere. The
cooking glove was still on her hand and her hair was still undone
from sleeping restlessly.

“
Are you Phoebe Green?” the
young lady asked vehemently.

Phoebe was unsure if she should answer her,
but curiosity was killing her to know why this woman wanted her.
“Yes, I’m Phoebe. Do I know you?”

“
It doesn’t surprise me
that you wouldn’t know who I was or you wouldn’t care that you’re
breaking up a marriage.”

“
What are you talking
about?” Phoebe demanded to know.

“
I’m talking about you and
my man being together shamelessly in public while his wife sits at
home five months pregnant.” Suddenly the woman burst into tears.
“I’ve tried to keep our marriage together. I’ve known he’s been
sleeping around. We only married for convenience, but instead of
him helping his wife run a business, he decides to start another
business. He understood if my daddy found out we weren’t running
the business together, he’d come and take my business away from me.
He knew this yet he’s still going to file for separation.” The sobs
became louder.

Stephanie, who was just in the other room,
began to whimper in distress.

“
Who are you talking
about?” Phoebe asked.

The woman suddenly stopped crying and asked
incredulously, “Are there so many men in your lives that you don’t
know one from the other?”

“
No!” she exclaimed.
Flustered and confused she said, “Why don’t you come in and have a
seat.”

The woman came in and Phoebe found some
Kleenex for her while ushering her to a seat in the living room.
Phoebe didn’t even bother closing the main door to the house too
eager to hear what this woman had to say.

Phoebe thought to take it from the top so she
could get an understanding of what was going on. “Let’s start all
of this back over, Miss. You think that I am seeing your husband
and that I’m breaking up your relationship.”

“
I know you’re seeing my
husband and I know you’re breaking us up because a lawyer, Abraham
Blue called yesterday to ask for my social security number so he
could file the separation papers. I knew you had to be different
from all the others, because even though he sees other women he’s
never made any attempt to leave me until now.” She broke into
another round of loud sobs.

Phoebe didn’t know how to handle this.
Abraham Blue was Jacoby’s attorney and if Jacoby was married...the
thought of it made the room spin and Phoebe had to sit down across
from the woman to keep from passing out.

“
I swear to you I had no
idea he was married.”

Spitefully the woman asked, “You don’t think
he gets his money off of trees, do you? He used my money to front
the money for part of his business. He wouldn’t have become a
partnership if it wasn’t for me.”

“
But Jacoby doesn’t have a
partner,” Phoebe pointed out completely perplexed.

The woman stopped the sniffles and sobbing.
In an about faced disgusted tone, she spat, “I’m not talking about
that sex maniac! Any woman crazy enough to even sleep with that man
won’t walk straight for the rest of her life. I’m talking about my
husband, Lawrence Ripley.”

Phoebe’s jaw dropped wide open. “You’re
Lawrence’s wife?”

“
Yes,” the woman sobbed.
“I’m Natalie Ripley.” She touched her stomach tenderly. “And this
is Lawrence’s baby I’m carrying.”

“
You’re pregnant?!” Phoebe
was feeling more nauseous by the second. Even though it was the
second time the woman had stated that, it was now that it really
hit home.

Proudly, Lawrence’s wife said, “Five
months.”

Patricia chose that time to enter the home
carrying Stephen. She seemed oblivious to Natalie as she spoke,
“You’ll never guess whom I found outside,” she sang merrily. “He
pulled up at the same time we pulled up.”

Lawrence came around the corner. “Hi Phoebe,
I was...” His words trailed off as he saw both women glaring up at
him. He looked from one to another speechless.