Honesty - SF8 (2 page)

"Of course, Mr. Evans," he said immediately. "I’ve never let you down before!"

"No, that’s true," he agreed, "but this job…this job is absolutely top secret. No one--I emphasize, no one--can know about this."

"Mr. Evans," the voice on the phone reminded him, "my entire business is built on confidentiality. That is my only asset."

"True," the attorney mused. "You have a point there." He paused for a few long minutes, allowing his well-honed instincts to determine if he was comfortable going forward. Finally, he sighed and said, "I need a full work-up on a young woman. I want everything—background, friends, lovers, family. I want to know about every speeding ticket, every person she’s slept with, everything!"

"Screening for a new assistant?" Dick asked, knowing that Jim Evans always had anyone on his immediate staff investigated very thoroughly.

Jim paused before he answered, deciding to reveal all just to make sure the investigator understood the underlying goal. "Everyone has some dirt, Dick. I’m going to use whatever I learn to break this young woman. She’s threatening my family, and she’s going to regret it."

"Got it, Mr. Evans," he said immediately, shaking his head at the temerity of any young woman who would dare go up against an opponent like the powerful attorney. "We’ll find anything that’s out there."

"There’s something there," he stated firmly. "There had better be." The implication was clear, and Dick Williams understood it.

"There will be, sir," he stated confidently, hoping that he didn’t have to manufacture something out of whole cloth. While he was not unwilling to make the facts match the request, that wasn’t his preferred business style, and he silently hoped that the young woman was as dirty as Jim implied.

When Ryan returned home from her afternoon practice, Jamie was sitting in the back yard drinking a large glass of lemonade. Her feet were drawn up under her, and she had a pensive look on her face. Not noticing Ryan until the larger woman placed a gentle hand on her shoulder, she gave a little start, then patted the soft hand and gave it a squeeze. "I didn’t hear you come in," she said softly, a faraway look in her eyes.

"Didn’t it go well?" Ryan asked sympathetically, recognizing the look of disappointment on her partner’s face.

"What?" Jamie looked confused for a second, then nodded and said, "Oh, yeah, it went fine. I came in second."

"Then why the long face?" she asked softly, crouching down to make her eyes level with her partner’s.

"Oh." Jamie shook her head, obviously trying to dispel some bad thoughts. "I tried to make an appointment to talk to my father, and he claims he doesn’t have a moment to spare this week."

"All week?" Ryan gaped, stunned that Jamie actually needed to make an appointment to see her own father.

"So he says," Jamie mused. "It took several tries just to get him on the line. He must have told his secretary to brush me off."

Kneeling on the ground, Ryan nestled her head into her partner’s lap, trying to lend reassurance with her mere presence. "I’m sorry, Love. I’m sure it’s not that he doesn’t want to see you."

"Yeah, I know. He just doesn’t want me to be mad at him, so he avoids me. Very mature."

"Very hurtful," Ryan corrected, knowing that her partner had to be wounded by this snub.

"Right on the money, Baby," Jamie agreed, thankful that her partner understood her mood.

"Well, it’s probably best not to let this get in the way of your concentration anyway, right?" Ryan asked brightly, lifting her head to gaze into her green eyes. "I wouldn’t want this going on when I was trying out for a sport."

"Eh…good point, I guess. I’ll track him down over the weekend. Would you go down there with me if he won’t return my calls?"

"Um…sure," Ryan replied immediately. "I love the CD player in my car. I’ll be waiting for you in the driveway."

"Chicken!"

"Cluck, cluck, cluck."

Ryan came down the stairs on Friday morning, puzzled to find her missing lover sitting in the kitchen. The circles under her eyes indicated her lack of sleep, but her expression was determined and grim. "I’m going to my father’s office after the competition’s over this afternoon."

The words that Ryan had been dreading hit her hard, and she felt her stomach clench painfully. She knew that Jamie felt a strong need to confront her father on his behavior, but she knew in her gut that there was a very real possibility that her partner would find out that Ryan had known about her father’s infidelity for months now.
When you make a decision like that
,
you have to be able to tolerate the consequences
, she reminded herself.

"I thought you were going to wait for the weekend. Were you able to get an appointment?" The words still sounded odd to her ear, but this was the Evans way, and she tried not to show her disdain for the practice.

"No, I wasn’t, but that’s not going to stop me. I just talked to his secretary and told her that I wanted to surprise him with a little visit since I haven’t been to his office in so many years. She’s going to make sure he’s free at four o’clock."

Ryan nodded, knowing that this would be a very stressful day for her partner. "How do you feel about your match?" The golf competition had taken a back seat to Jamie’s anger the entire week, and oddly that distraction had allowed her to play very well. She was still in second place, and a win today would ensure her a spot on the team. Her odds were still very good, even if she lost, but Jamie was determined to do her best.

"I feel good. I’m playing a freshman, and she seems really nervous. She’s good, but she needs a lot of seasoning. I honestly think that she’d do well to practice this year and work with a teacher to improve her confidence level, so I don’t think I’ll feel guilty if I beat her."

Hmm…I wonder what that feels like?
Ryan mused.
Have I ever felt guilty about beating anyone? I felt sorry for those women I thrashed during my volleyball tryout, but that certainly wasn’t guilt.

"Ryan!"

"Huh? Oh, sorry," she said. "I was just thinking about something. What did you say?"

"I said that I’d like to take the Lexus again today. You don’t mind, do you?"

"Course not. You’ll probably have to put gas in it, though."

Sighing heavily while giving Ryan a mock perturbed look, Jamie asked, "Do you ever actually fill it up? It’s chronically on empty!"

With an adolescent looking shrug, Ryan replied, "Yeah, I do fill it up. I just have a thing about buying gas. I put it off for as long as humanly possible."

"You’re gonna run out someday, Buff. Don’t say I didn’t warn ya."

"Duly noted," Ryan nodded, even though she was sure that would never happen.

Jim Evans barreled past his secretary a little after four, muttering, "I’m gonna try to get out of here, Helen. Anything urgent I need to know?"

"No," she said brightly, pleased with her role in arranging for Jamie to visit the office. "Enjoy yourself."

He cast a puzzled glance in her direction before opening the door to his inner office. Striding over to his desk, he grabbed his large briefcase and started throwing files into it, wracking his brain to make sure he brought everything he might need to complete a major deal with a Swedish company. He was so deep in thought that he didn’t see the young woman sitting patiently on his burgundy leather couch. Hitting the intercom he barked, "Helen, have my driver meet me at the front door of the building. It’ll take me all night to get to Pebble Beach as it is."

"Uh…yes, sir," she replied, puzzled by this order.

He shut the case, hefted it off the desk and started for the door when a quiet voice asked, "Don’t you think you should make a little time for your daughter before you leave town?"

The case fell to the floor, slamming into the carpet with a dull thud. "J--Jamie," he stuttered. "Wow, what a nice surprise!" His face immediately grew pale, and Jamie felt a burst of pleasure at having caught him so off guard.

"Tell your driver that you won’t need him for a while," she said coolly, her green eyes boring into him with unblinking intensity.

"Well…um…I have a big deal going on, Honey, and I uh…I’ve arranged for a conference call for late tonight…"

"You can do it from here," she said, her tone flat, yet determined. "Helen can change the arrangements when she cancels your driver."

"I’ve got an early tee time with a client…"

"Fine," she snapped, her limited patience at an end. "Let’s make this quick then. Ryan is my life partner. What you do to her, you do to me. I don’t give a rat’s ass if you like it or not—she’s staying! We live together—permanently! By the way, you can’t throw her out of a house that isn’t yours—it’s Mother’s, and she wants Ryan to stay. Maybe you should be a little more careful in trying to control things that you don’t own!"

Her face was red, both from anger and the hurt that had been welling up in her chest. She stood and approached him, getting close enough to see the small nervous tic in his right eye. "It’s bad enough what you’ve tried to do to Ryan, but what you’ve done to mother is beyond contempt. You’ve disgraced your family by cheating on her, and it sickens me to admit that we share the same genes!"

She turned on her heel and made for the door, not getting four steps away when his equally fiery temper snapped and he slammed his hand down on his desk and yelled, "That bitch!"

Wheeling around and flinging herself in his direction, Jamie grabbed the lapels of his custom-made suit and gave him a powerful shake. "Don’t you DARE speak of my mother that way! DON’T YOU DARE!"

His hands automatically grabbed hers, and he peeled her off of his suit, his dumbfounded look reflecting his befuddlement. "What? I never…" Realization dawned and he shook his head quickly. "I’m not talking about your mother," he growled. "I’m talking about that sanctimonious bitch you’re living with. I guess it’s okay for her to lie to me, huh?" he demanded, his anger nearly equal to his daughter’s.

"What in the hell are you talking about?" Jamie asked, her entire body shaking with rage.

"The bitch swore she’d never tell you, but the second I call her on her little extortion scheme, she can’t keep her mouth shut!"

The rage that flowed through her body was stunning in its intensity. Without having any conscious thought of what she was doing, Jamie started to advance on her father as he retreated in shock.

"WHAT!" She slapped hard against his muscular chest, both hands open, the sharp sound echoing loudly in the quiet room.

"ARE!" He backed up a step, hitting the back of his leg against a low table as he tried to escape her attack.

"YOU!" Another slap as her hands gave him another rough push, the furor in her eyes stunning him into speechlessness.

"TALKING!" An even harder push caused him to stumble a bit, his body unused to moving around his office in a backwards direction.

"ABOUT!"

She had shoved him into the corner of the office, and he fell into the couch, nearly too shocked to speak. His daughter stood over him, her fists clenched, a look of absolute rage distorting her normally attractive features. She was breathing so heavily that her chest was heaving, and for just a moment, he was afraid that she would punch him. With effort, he managed to sputter, "She told me that she wouldn’t tell. I thought we had an understanding!"

A sound unlike any he had ever heard from a human erupted from her throat, and before he could say another word, she was gone, nearly sprinting from his suddenly silent office.

After a long week of two-a-day practice sessions, Ryan was physically and mentally exhausted as she drove across the Bay Bridge during the height of rush hour, having a hard time getting through the near-gridlock even on her Harley. It was legal to straddle a lane on a bike, and she made slow progress until some aggressive jerk decided to block motorcycle access by wedging his car between the lanes.
Damn! It’s not like I’m not nervous enough! Sitting in this mess makes me feel like jumping out of my skin on a good day, and this is turning out to be anything but a good day
. Practice had gone poorly, Coach Placer ragging on the team for the entire two-hour session. Ryan knew that they were just exhausted, but she realized that he had certain expectations that were not being met, mostly because they had missed the previous week of practice because of repairs to the gym. She knew that she had been much less than sharp, and she had seen her coach give her several long looks of near-disgust at her poor execution of the fundamentals.

I’m so damned worried about what’s going on with Jamie that I was in another world! I have got to be able to focus better or he’s gonna have my ass!

When she pulled up in front of the house, she was pleased to see Conor’s big black truck blocking the driveway.
Well, at least I’ll have someone to talk with to take my mind off Jamie.

Conor proved to be a very competent distraction as they sat in the kitchen having a beer. He was going out soon, accompanying some of the cousins to a baseball game, but he lingered as long as he could, sensing that his little sister needed to talk.

They had just finished their beers when the front door flew open, the heavy frame rattling as it slammed. Giving her brother a wide-eyed look, Ryan got to her feet and walked toward the living room, only to find herself face-to-face with her extremely angry lover. "HOW COULD YOU?" Approaching Ryan with a menacing look on her face, Jamie raised her hands, looking like she was going to grab the startled woman. She paused a second, looking down at her hands as though they belonged to someone else. Roughly crossing her arms over her chest, she tucked a hand into each armpit, seemingly trying to stop herself from striking Ryan. Again she said, "How could you?" By this time she was backing up, and as she moved back the rage that colored her face began to dissipate, slowly being replace with a devastated look of hurt that tore at Ryan’s soul. "How could you?" she finally cried, nearly hysterically, as she turned and ran down the stairs to their bedroom.