Girl Power (18 page)

wouldn't—"

Crowe's cell phone vibrated. "Hold on, I got a call." It was Melissa. "Hold on." Crowe stood. "I gotta take this call. Don't touch my burger or the fries."

Crowe walked to the back of the cabaret so he could talk and hear over the

sleazy rock music. "Yea, Melissa."

"I'm in. The marks just left the store."

"Don't call them marks. This isn't a con."

"No, what is it then?'

"Ahh…espionage. Political espionage."

"All right, the victims just left."

Crowe didn't like victim any better than mark. "Just call them subjects. So you're in?"

"I'm as tight with the founding ladies as you can get. I'm their fashion

coordinator, beautician, make-up artist, and Sally's personal assistant."

"Wow, that's perfect. I knew you could do it."

"It's going to be expensive though. They walked out of here with $76,000

worth of clothes, and that's without the 50% markup."

Crowe swallowed. "How come so much?"

Crowe sensed annoyance in her answer. "Baby, you know I carry expensive

clothes and they both have excellent taste. $20,000 of that was for two evening

gowns. If you think this is going to cost too much, I can submit my final bill and we can stop right now, before I break your little piggywiggybank."

Crowe thought about the billionaires that were backing them. "I doubt you

could do that."

"Doubt what?"

"Break our litt— never mind. Whatever it costs, we'll cover it."

"Okay, there's one more thing we never covered."

"What?"

"My time?"

"Your time? Aren't they paying you?"

"Hell, no. They think I'm doing this for the cause. I told them I wasn't

interested in money. I could've signed up as a receptionist, but you wanted

someone in the inner circle and I delivered."

"All right, fine. What's your time worth?"

"When I was a model, I used to make $1,000 an hour."

Crowe felt weak.

But I'm going go easy on you."

"How easy?"

"Five grand a day."

Crowe ran his fingers through what was left of his hair. "Geeeeze. That's

more than I make."

"Crowe baby. I'm in the inner circle of the enemy camp. Just the way you

wanted. I'm taking it easy on you because of our relationship. Then again, I can stop right now."

Unexpectedly, Rogues threatening words floated through his mind. Crowe

we need someone in their camp
. If you can't do it, I'll find someone who will. Got it?

"No, don't do that."

Rogue's words continued to hammer him,
Crowe, trust me, they may moan

about it, but money is the least of our problems, for now.
"Hmmm. Baby, you've done so well, I'm going to give you a raise. Instead five thou. a day, I'm going to give you ten grand and you only have to give me $2,500 back.

Melissa squealed, "Oh, thank you sweetie."

Crowe, you have to realize our backers have more money than the U.S.

Government.
"And baby, the mark-up on the clothes seems a little low. Let's double it and you give me 25% back."

Another squeal, "Oh that's wonderful. You'll have to come over so we can

celebrate. I just bought some new electric nipple clamps."

"You did, for you?"

"No sweetie, for you."

~ * * ~

As soon as he walked back into his office, he told his secretary, "Priscilla, get Mr. Rogue on the phone for me."

"Yes, sir."

He barely sat behind his huge desk when the intercom rang. "Yes."

"Mr. Rogue is on line one."

Crowe lunged for the phone. "Good news, Boss."

"What?"

"We got our mole. She is—"

"No, don't tell me anything."

"I was just going to tell you how close she is to the Cummings woman."

"How close?"

"She couldn't be any closer if she was Lindy Rollins."

"Wow. Good job, Crowe. I knew you could do it."

"Thank you, sir. I must tell you though this may get expensive."

Rouge chuckled. "Crowe, the supporter funding this little enterprise makes

$1,900 a minute, and that's 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. You get the

information and I'll get the money."

The Campaign & Election

Chapter Fourteen – Twenty-eight Weeks to Election Day

In religion and politics people's beliefs and convictions are in almost every case gotten at second-hand, and without examination, from authorities.

- Mark Twain

In the ensuing months the popularity of SAFE, which evolved into the

nickname Pinks, soared. And the more it grew, the more it grew, as members

fanned out on voter drives signing up more and more, mostly women, but also a

fair representation of forward thinking men.

No one outside the SAFE organization knew for sure how many members

SAFE had as they'd stopped reporting the numbers when they hit twelve million

in late April.

Around the end of April, persistence by bloggers and news organizations

ferreted out the source of the cookie cutter legislation that had been turned into law in many states. Apparently there was more than one source, all conservative

think tanks, but the largest supplier of legislation on demand was an

organization of corporations and mostly Republican legislators called American

Legislation Exchange Committee—ALEC for short. Once ALEC and the others

were revealed to the public, they backed away from their more controversial

bills, and many corporations withdrew support citing the groups' sudden switch

to a social agenda as the reason.

Starting with Brenda Morris and her boyfriend, Mickey, Winfred hosted the

lead members of SAFE on her show. She did this partly to get to know them, but

mostly to audition them as potential hosts for her planned weekly show, Women

in Politics.

~ * * ~

Melissa Abrams walked into the coffee room, poured a cup of coffee and

took a seat next to the young, pretty, African American girl she'd noticed on her first day with SAFE. "Good morning, I'm Melissa Abrams. I started three days ago." Melissa held her hand out.

Brenda smiled and shook it. "I'm Brenda, Sally's girl Friday."

"Well, we have something in common then, because I was hired as Sally and

Lindy's Beauty and Fashion Coordinator, and Sally's Personal Aid when we are

traveling."

"Oh, that explains it."

"Explains what?"

"Sally and Lindy's new look. It's very obvious something has changed."

"You don't like it?"

"Oh no. I like it very much. I wish I could dress like that. "I'm just not sure it fits the humble woman I know and love."

Melissa patted Brenda's hand. "Don't worry honey. I will dress her for the

audience." Melissa hitched her chin toward the manila folder beside her other hand. "What's in the folder?"

Brenda glanced at the folder. "Oh, it's just the daily stats. I email a copy to Winfred and Jennifer every week and give a hard copy to Sally, Lindy, Lee and

Carla. Would you like a copy too?"

"If you wouldn't mind."

"No problem. I'll make another copy and get it to you."

"I have to run. I'd rather have it emailed to me. Could you?"

"Sure. Melissa?"

Melissa rose. "Yes?"

"I'm glad you're here."

Melissa smiled and squeezed Brenda's shoulder. "I'm glad to be here."

As Melissa started to walk away, Brenda cleared her throat. "Ah-hem."

Melissa paused.

"Ah, this is Wednesday."

Melissa lifted a solo brow. "Yes?"

"Well on Hump Day, several of us girls go to Happy Hour at Alter Egos.

We'd love for you to join us."

She smiled. "I'd love to. Five o'clock?"

Brenda smiled. "Four-thirty. It gets crowded fast."

~ * * ~

Winfred Opry Studios, One p.m. two days later

"Today, I'm very excited to introduce you to Brenda Morris. She is Sally

Cumming's, and now, my right hand girl. With her, is her very cute boyfriend,

Mickey Adams."

Holding hands and smiling as they walked out, Brenda and Mickey waved

to the audience, hugged and kissed Win and took their seats. When the applause

died down, Winfred spoke to the camera and studio audience. "Aren't they

adorable?"

There was some clapping, but the audience mostly nodded and said, yeah.

Winfred turned back to her guests. "Oooh, I'm so excited to meet you face to face."

Brenda lolled her head. "Well, I'm over the moon to meet my lifetime role

model. I can't tell you how excited I was when Sally asked me to be your

campaign coordinator."

Mickey nodded. "She really was. For a week, her feet never touched the

floor. She just glided along."

Winfred and some of the spectators laughed, then Winfred asked, "Where

did you meet this cutie?"

Brenda glanced at Mickey then at Winfred. "I'm not sure. We've known each

other for years. I started as an intern with Sally while I was still in school and being a reporter for the Herald he was around a lot."

"So you've been going together for a while."

"Nah!" Mickey said emphatically, "She wouldn't go out with me at first."

"Really. How long is at first?"

Brenda scrunched her nose. Her answer sounded more like a question, "A

year and a half?"

"No kidding. Why wouldn't you go out with him?"

She pursed her lips. "First of all, Mickey had a reputation and it wasn't

good." She frowned. "I shouldn't say that. Depending on your point of view, some parts of his reputation were good."

Winfred threw head back and laughed "Oh I get it. You kind of liked the

love 'em and happy face part of his reputation, but were afraid of his love 'em

and sad face part."

Brenda clasped her hands together and laughed. "You have a way with

happy faces."

"Thank you. Am I right?"

She nodded. "Pretty much."

"Then how did you get past your reluctance to go out with this dreamboat."

"I never said I didn't want to go out with him. My heart would race if he

was near and my stomach would do aerials if he touched me. I dreamed about

going out with him, kissing him, but there was his reputation and he was the

wrong flavor."

Winfred waved her hands. "Hold on. I have to find out more about this

wrong flavor. Brenda when you kiss Mickey does he taste like vanilla or white

chocolate."

She shrugged. "Never thought about it. White chocolate, because that's

what we are."

"Brenda you are too much. Mickey, how did you break through Brenda's

concerns and prejudices?"

"I'm not prejudiced."

"I know you're not, sweetie, but in this one case you were. You wouldn't go out with him even though he made your tummy do flips because he's white."

"Plus his reputation as a ladies man."

"All right, Mickey how did you finally assuage Brenda's concerns?"

"Persistence. From the start, I liked her, but she wouldn't give me the time of day. I knew she was interested, because I'd see her sneak looks. Still, she'd always put me off. I must have asked her out two dozen times. Then after I wrote the interview of her boss—"

"Hold on. You wrote that interview?"

"Ms. Cummings has given lots of interviews, but as far as I know, I wrote

the first."

Brenda agreed. "Yes, it was the first."

Winfred's eyes brightened. "Ladies and gentlemen, Brenda's boyfriend,

Mickey, wrote the interview that got me interested in SAFE, into politics and

ultimately running for Vice President."

There was a mild round of clapping and Winfred continued, "So Mickey,

after you wrote the interview, Brenda warmed up to you?"

"Somewhat. Brenda finally agreed to go to a movie. After the movie, I

talked my baby into going dancing. We had a great time. Brenda may have a

different opinion, but I felt when we left there we were an item."

"That's a wonderful story. How long ago was that, Brenda?"

Brenda smiled at Mickey and grasped his hand. "Seems longer, but that was

only a month ago."

"Well, you make a lovely couple." Winfred smiled. "Brenda. You've been such a big help. I'm glad I finally got to meet you. Thank you for coming on my

show."

~ * * ~

Crowe walked into Starbucks and scanned the establishment. Unable to

spot Melissa, he glanced at his watch. No, he wasn't early. When he searched the room again, the hot, sunglass-wearing, blonde in the corner, waved to him. He

stared, and she smiled demurely. Sitting at a two-person table with her long

slinky legs crossed at the calves and tucked back under her chair, she puckered

her luscious lips, and hitched a kiss his way.

Is she flirting with me? Crowe turned around to make sure she wasn't

throwing kisses at someone behind him. No one was there. God she's hot. She

was flirting with him! Too bad, he was meeting Melissa. He'd take that hottie to the special VIP room the RNC keeps at the St Regis in a heartbeat.

As graceful as a gazelle, she rose. OMG she's coming toward me. Sashaying

toward him, swaying her hips with each precise step, the mystery lady wore a

short, white, belted shift with large black polka dots, matching nine-inch heels and a black and white summer hat.

Miss ten-plus stopped directly in front of him. She raised her dark glasses

and winked. "It's me. Are you coming over?"

Crowe nearly had a heart attack. His eyes bugged out and his jaw dropped

to his tie. "Melissa?"

She wrapped her long elegant fingers around his hand and led him to her

table "Yes. I didn't want anyone to see us meeting so I donned my Angelique persona." They arrived at the table. "You like it?"