Deceptive Nights (8 page)

She moved past them and went to her office
not giving Jacoby another look.

Desmond asked Jacoby, “Does she know who you
are?”

Jacoby walked angrily past them and went to
the elevators. Lawrence and Desmond followed soon after.

“
So that’s it. You’re not
going to find out more about her?” Desmond inquired.

“
No. She said she had no
intentions of contacting me.” Jacoby pulled the hotel stationary
that had her number on it out his pocket and ripped it in little
pieces.

“
Does that mean you have no
interest in her?” Desmond asked.

“
It means she doesn’t want
anything to do with me or weren’t you all listening at the door?”
he snipped, tossing the shred of papers in the nearest garbage
container.

Desmond nudged Lawrence. “Hey, now she’s free
game Lawrence.”

“
I don’t want used goods,”
Lawrence said nonchalantly.

“
Used goods never stopped
you before,” Jacoby bit out.

“
This is different. Now
that I know the kind of person she really is I’m not
interested.”

“
That’s a load of shit and
you know it,” Jacoby spat just as the elevator doors
opened.

It was a good thing the car was empty. They
all stepped inside and Jacoby waited until the doors closed to
finish what he had to say. “You have no idea the kind of person she
is. You couldn’t handle her even if you had her.”

“
Are you speaking about
yourself?” Lawrence asked amused.

Jacoby shoved him against the wall he was so
angry. Lawrence shoved back. First were about to follow, but
Desmond tore them apart pushing them on either side of the
elevators.

“
This is crazy. She’s just
some girl. The both of you are acting like she’s the last girl on
earth.”

“
Shut up, Desmond!”
Lawrence and Jacoby sneered.

Desmond sighed confused. “Look, let’s just
get back to Lansing in a professional matter, before we kill each
other.”

“
Fine with me, as long as
that ass don’t say shit to me,” Jacoby growled.

“
Same goes here,” Lawrence
hissed.

Chapter 10

As soon as the door to her office was closed
and locked, Phoebe leaned on the back of the door to catch her
breath and get control of herself. She was shaking all over felling
hot and cold at the same time, but either way there was the flush
of tingles in every part of her body.

The urge to make love to him again was quite
powerful, but she fought it with all her will. She couldn’t allow
herself to give in to the pleasure he could give her or she was
sure she would lose her heart to him. No, she had to find someone
she was clearly indifferent to because she needed to have
control.

Jacoby clearly had an aura about him that she
was drawn too and she was terrified he would be another Daniel.

A soft knock at her door sent her heart
racing again thinking it was Jacoby, but then Simon’s voice came
across.

“
They’re gone. I just saw
their limousine leave. You can come out now.”

She opened the door partially and looked at
him with narrowed eyes.He looked as if he were about to burst out
laughing. “Shut up,” she snapped, coming out the office completely
turning off her light.

“
You slept with
him?”

“
That’s none of your
business and if you know what’s good for you Simon, you should keep
your business to yourself.”

Simon giggled wickedly. “Then I shouldn’t
tell you the juicy gossip, Latrice told me.”

Latrice was Madeline’s assistant in Lansing.
Simon and Latrice were constantly on the phone with each other
gossiping back and forth about each office's going-ons. Latrice
knew all of Madeline’s personal business and loved telling Simon
about it. Simon could keep a secret if you made sure you told him
it was a secret, but he often shared some of Latrice’s information
with Phoebe even though she didn’t want anything to do with office
gossip.

Yet the way Simon was giggling, she knew it
was something she should pay attention to. “What Simon?” They
walked out the office together and he locked up as she pushed the
elevator button.

He came over to her and leaned real close to
her with a devilish glint in his pretty green eyes. “Remember a
couple of months ago, Latrice said Madeline’s got herself a love
slave and it’s a friend of one of our suppliers?”

Her face became a frightful gray.

He continued on taking her silence as not
remembering what he told her. “Remember when Madeline got drunk at
the Christmas party and was telling us how she got her bootie calls
with a tall dark man. How she would just call him up and he’d come
over and do her, then leave. They wouldn’t talk. Just do it. He was
like her love slave. Remember?” Simon finally looked at her as the
doors opened and she didn’t step in. He then realized her silence
was because she didn’t remember. Her silence was horror. Horror at
knowing exactly what Simon was going to say.

“
It was him?” she asked in
a tiny voice.

He nodded confirmation.

“
How do you
know?”

He spoke as if she should know this already.
“Latrice has sent me photos of him coming and going into the
Lansing office from her phone. I recognized him the moment he
stepped foot in here yesterday, but I was surprised he returned
today.”

Phoebe felt so sick to her stomach, she ran
to the bathroom to relieve what little contents she had inside.

Chapter 11

His phone was blowing up. Madeline had called
Jacoby five times since he had come into town.

Desmond was probably the one who alerted her
that they were back in town. He was usually the one who spoke with
the clientele for Lawrence.

Jacoby finally answered her call a little
after midnight picking up the receiver with a quiet, “Hello.”

“
How was Detroit?” Madeline
asked quietly.

“
Same as before,” he
answered.

“
Were you busy? Because I
wasn’t.”

“
No.”

There was a long pause at this point. Usually
when she asked this question, he would say, “I’ll be right over.”
This time was different. His body wasn’t into going over there
tonight.

Madeline took the initiative and said, “Why
don’t you come over and join me for a little fun?”

There was another long pause, before he said,
“I’m tired. I would be useless, tonight, Madeline.”

“
You won’t have to do any
work. Just lie back and let me take care of you.”

Again more silence before he said, “No
thanks. I’ll call you later.” He hung up and tossed the phone over
on the couch not bothering to replace it on the base and then he
went to bed after a long cold shower. He was hornier than a dog in
heat, but Madeline couldn’t satisfy his desires about now. No one
could, except Phoebe.

He cursed to himself.

About thirty minutes later, Lawrence called.
“I just got a call from Madeline,” was the first sentence out his
mouth.

“
Yeah?” Jacoby asked, with
a matter of fact tone of voice. “It is kind of late for clientele
to be calling you, isn’t it?”

“
She was calling to discuss
how things went in Detroit. She wanted to know if the upgrade went
okay.” There was silence on the line for a moment. Lawrence
continued, “I told her it went great.” A pregnant silence and then
Lawrence said, “She asked about you.” Jacoby didn’t respond. “She
asked me how were you and how did things go for you in
Detroit?”

“
What did you tell
her?”

“
I told her things went
great. Everything was fine.”

Jacoby cursed under his breath. “Do you think
Desmond opened his big mouth about the incident?”

“
No, but who’s to say that
office assistant want. He looks like a faggot gossiper if you ask
me,” Lawrence sneered.

Again Jacoby cursed. “She’s going to get
fired you know if Madeline finds out.”

“
What make you think
Madeline doesn’t mind sharing?”

“
She doesn’t. There’s no
strings attached, but I think she will take an exception to the
rule when it’s her own office manager. I don’t give a shit at how
good Phoebe is at running her office, she won’t like it that I’m
fucking her too.”

“
It was only one time,”
Lawrence said. “I think you’re making a big thing out of
nothing.”

“
I don’t think I am,”
Jacoby said very concerned now over Phoebe. “I should drive down
there tomorrow and tell her about Madeline and I.”

“
Why? What does she need to
know about it?”

“
Because I think she
should.”

“
Are you listening to
yourself, Jacoby? The girl doesn’t want anything to do with you. I
know this is hard to believe, but why should she care on whether
you were intimate with her boss? You’ll spread unnecessary business
around the office and she’ll hate you more.”

Jacoby had to admit Lawrence made a little
sense.

“
Do you think allowing
Phoebe to know this information is going to make things better
between the two of you?” Lawrence questioned.

“
I just need to see her and
let her know.”

“
If it’s so important for
her to know, why don’t I tell her? Madeline mentioned she needed me
to go down tomorrow and supervise the installation at her new
apartment in Detroit.”

“
Madeline is moving to
Detroit?”

“
Sure. She getting a lot of
clientele that would make it easier for her to work in the city and
do business in the city. Why shouldn’t she move to Detroit? You and
I will,” he pointed out. “In any case, when we spoke tonight she
asked me to go down tomorrow and personally supervise the
installation then setup some things.”

“
You usually send a
technician for things like that,” Jacoby pointed out
suspiciously.

“
Yes, but she asked me to
address it with my personal attention and I want to make her happy
because when it’s time for us to having lunch with the rich and
powerful we both have to remember Madeline made it all
possible.”

Jacoby had a feeling that last statement was
meant more for him than for Lawrence sake. It was true Madeline had
gotten Jacoby and Lawrence many appointments with a lot of their
clientele and had swung a lot of business their way. Lawrence was
really trying to say, “don’t fuck up with the goods for a little
piece of pussy.”

“
I’ll speak with Phoebe,”
he said to Lawrence. “I want to tell her myself about Madeline if
she doesn’t know already, but I won’t be able to get down there
until Sunday.”

“
I’ll stick around and you
can tell me how it goes. I’ll be staying in Madeline’s apartments
on the river.”

“
I’ll call you when I get
in town.” He really didn’t want to speak with Lawrence anymore
about Phoebe. He truly felt Lawrence had his own hidden agenda, but
he didn’t want to even think about what it could be. “Talk to you
later, man.”

Hanging up, he stared up at the ceiling
wondering how was he going to let Phoebe know that he and Madeline
were lovers.

****

Phoebe had come home and immediately went to
her room. Patricia probably assumed her daughter had a hard day at
work and needed a few minutes alone, but when Phoebe didn’t come
out after dinner, she knew her mother was going to start to
worry.

Patricia came in the room to see Phoebe
buried under the covers in her bed. Her clothes were thrown around
the room and the lights were out. “Phoebe, what in the name is
wrong with you?”

“
I’m exhausted, Mother,”
Phoebe mumbled under the covers. “Can you put the kids to bed
tonight? I’m so tired I can’t move a muscle.” In truth, she had
just finished throwing up once again just from thinking about what
she had done.

“
Of course. I figured you
would be. I don’t see why you just didn’t call out today and stayed
at home for some rest.”

Phoebe peaked over the covers at her mother.
“You know I only use my sick days for the kids.”

“
Well, I need to speak with
you about an important matter that happened at the bank this
afternoon.” Patricia said sitting on the bed next to
Phoebe.

“
What’s wrong?” Phoebe
asked.

“
They posted a debit to our
account of a thousand dollars. I let them know it was a
mistake.”

Phoebe sat up abruptly. “What?! Why’d you
tell them that?”

“
Because neither one of us
had that kind of money to put in the account and you know I’m an
honest woman just as I have raised you to be. I wasn’t going to use
money that wasn’t mine, Phoebe.”

Groaning in misery, Phoebe said, “It was
yours, Mother. I put it in there this morning.”

“
Where did you get money
like that from?” Patricia demanded to know.

She took a breath to prepare for the lie she
was about to tell. “It’s a loan from an old friend. Let’s just
leave it at that, but now we can just pay some of the taxes and
don’t you worry about paying it back. I’ll figure something out for
them and I have as long as I want to pay it back.”

“
You shouldn’t have done
that Phoebe. I’ll help you,” Patricia insisted.

She shook her head. “No Mother. I won’t have
you give me a dime. What you do around the house and for the kids
is worth its weight in gold. I have plenty of time to return the
money so I don’t want you to worry about.”