Lovers and Takers (9 page)

“Goodnight, sir,” Hudson replied, watching him leave.
 
A sadness
crept over Hudson.
 
If any man deserved a good woman, it was Jake Varnadore.
  
But it never seemed to work out that way.

“Oh, and
Hud
,” Jake said, turning back around.
 
“Where are my children?”

“Pam and Mr. Lincoln went to the club, and Aubrey and Miss Wingate went with them.
 
Miss Kara Wingate, that is.”

“But Veronica didn’t go with them?”

“No, sir.
 
She said she’s going home.”

Jake was oddly pleased to hear it.
 
“But didn’t Kara drive her own car?”

“She did indeed, sir,” Hudson said.
 
“But you know young Miss Wingate.
 
Every chance she gets to be with Aubrey, she will take.
 
Miss Veronica Wingate took her car.”

Jake nodded.
 
Why a smart young man like Aubrey would even bother with a gold-digger like Kara was a mystery to him.
 
It was almost as if Aubrey was pulling one of his numbers: date only the women with the least chance of winning his heart.
 
Which, Jake thought, as he made his way back to his study, was a lousy testament to the kind of role model he really was.

When he returned to his study, he spent the next hour reviewing long, drawn-out briefing books about the various proposals on the table to avert a hostile takeover.
 
There was nothing new in any of them, and Jake knew, in the end, he would have to come up with something completely outside the box.

But the more he read, the more he realized just how little he was able to concentrate.
 
He removed his reading glasses, tossed them along with his briefing book onto the desk, and leaned back in his swiveled chair.
 
And all he could think about was Veronica Wingate.
 
Roni
.
 
She certainly had a look about her, he thought, that made him feel oddly happy to see her.
 
And that body.
 
Geez.
 
He was looking forward to touching her and being with her.
 

But the nerve of that woman!
 
He didn’t think he was being offensive just by asking her to stay back.
 
How was that offensive?
 
He wanted to have a nightcap with her, to perhaps talk to her some more.
 
He wanted more than to have a drink with her and to talk with her, of course he knew that.
 
But she didn’t know it!
 
He exhaled.
 
Why in the world, he wondered, would she turn him down?

He stood up and walked over to his wall-sized window.
 
Maybe she turned him down because she wasn’t interested, he thought.
 
It wasn’t as if he was some great catch, after all.
 
He knew his temperament and his womanizing made him overall a net negative.
 
But he thought they had made some kind of connection.
 
He thought she was interested too.

“Oh, forget it,” he said aloud as he went back to his desk.
 
He didn’t have time for this!
 
And he returned his attention to his work.
 
But even still his focus kept reverting back to Roni.
 
It became so distracting that he knew he had to do something.
 
He phoned Aubrey, whom he knew would be discreet, and told him to get Roni’s address for him.
 
Although Aubrey was surprised that his father would go to such lengths for any woman, he got the address and phoned his father back.
 

And amazing even to Jake Varnadore, he found himself driving away from the busy streets of South Beach, toward Miami Gardens, in search of Veronica Wingate.

FOUR

After pretending he had a client emergency he had to handle, Druce left Pam and Kara at the club with Aubrey, and headed straight to Troy’s apartment.
 
But he was in a foul mood.
 
He undressed, got in bed, and proceeded to complain.
 
Troy, who had been hoping Druce wouldn’t return, was at least thrilled that he was too amped-up about Jake Varnadore to want sex from him.
 
If it wasn’t for the fact that Druce was his boss and could get him a promotion, he wouldn’t give a guy like him the time of day.
 
But moving up the corporate ladder meant more to him than his own self-respect.

Troy turned toward Druce.
 
“So what happened?
 
Did Mr. V. object?”

“Hell no,” Druce said,
laying
on his back.
 
“That’s the problem!
 
He didn’t anything.”

Troy frowned.
 
“What’s that supposed to mean?
 
He didn’t anything?”

“He didn’t object, he didn’t support, he didn’t consent,
he
didn’t anything!
 
He just sat there like the sanctimonious asshole he is and stared at me like something was wrong with me!”

“Like something’s wrong with you?
 
What’s up with that?”

Druce could only shake his blond head.
 
“Don’t know, but I know I don’t like that shit.
 
He made me look like a fool in front of my girl!”

“You?”
Troy said, playing to Druce’s conceit.
 
“Who in their right mind would even dream of trying to make you look like a fool?
 
You?
 
Please.
 
You’re Mr. Cool.
 
There is nothing foolish about you.”
 
That pronouncement sounded so ridiculous to Troy that he knew Druce would just eat it up.
 

And Druce did, grinning.
 
“You’ve got that right,” he said, satisfied that he was king of the hill again.
 

But it wasn’t a smart move by Troy because it brought Druce back to himself.
 
“So turn your ass over and let’s get this bitch rockin’!” Druce declared.

Troy grinned, and did as he was told.
 
But as he lay on his stomach and allowed him in, the pain excruciating because he wasn’t prepped, he could just kick himself.
 
But he went along with the program anyway.
 
He knew giving Dreadful Druce these nights would mean prosperous days ahead for him.
 
And that was all Troy was about: getting ahead.
 
He was convinced that the only way he was going to climb that ladder to success was to take advantage of all of the freaks already above him who couldn’t keep their slimy little hands off of his incredible packaging.
 
The only way he was going to make his way to the top, he felt, was to sleep his way there.

And capture certain moments, he thought, as he smiled at the hidden video camera that was furiously recording this session.

“They pulled their support?” Roni asked her caller.
 

She had just stepped out of the tub when her cell phone began ringing.
 
By the time she was able to grab a towel and hurry to her bedroom, grabbing the phone from her purse, the ringing stopped, with no voice mail message left.
 
When she checked the missed call list and realized it was her partner Griff Armstrong who had phoned her, she dried off quickly, wrapped the towel just below her armpits, notching it just above her breasts, and phoned him back.
 
Griff would not have called this late at night, she was certain, unless it was vital.

“I meant what I said,” Griff said into the phone.
 
“They pulled their support.
 
Their rep phoned me earlier today and left it on my voice mail, but I didn’t get a chance to check my messages until now.
 
And Roni, I was floored.
 
It was so impersonal.
 
All they said was that they regret to inform us that the LaBreek Foundation will not be renewing our contract.”

Roni sat on her bed.
 
It was another blow in a long string of blows lately.
 
“But why?” she asked into the phone.
 
“We’re beginning to see results.”

“That’s what’s so infuriating about this.
 
They knew we were getting our footing.
 
They knew we were beginning to turn things around.”

“Then why did they leave?” Roni wanted to know.

“The same reason many of the other sponsors left.”

“Statistics?”

“Yes,” Griff said.
 
“Our success rate is just way too low for those people.”

“But they knew that going in.
 
We aren’t defending boy scouts.
 
We’re defending convicted criminals.
 
It’s a tough business.”

“You’re preaching to the choir, Roni.
 
I know all of that.
 
You don’t have to convince me.”
 

Roni rubbed her hand over her forehead.
 
The idea of losing another sponsor was unbearable.
 
And the LaBreek Foundation was one of their biggest.

“I know you hate to even think it,” Griff continued, “but we have got to consider more layoffs.
 
And I’m talking at least a third more.
 
And if things keep going the way they’ve been, we may have to close our doors altogether.”

Griff was right.
 
Roni didn’t want to think about something that drastic, but she knew he spoke the truth.
 
“Meet me in my office tomorrow morning, nine a.m.
 
We’ll discuss it then.”

“Right,” Griff said.
 
“And don’t worry yourself sick about it, either,” he added.
 
“Get drunk, Roni.
 
Relax.
 
Nothing we can do about it tonight.”

“Good night, Griff,” Roni said, and hung up the phone.
 

Then she fell back on her bed.
 
She didn’t drink so she wasn’t about to get drunk, and how could she not worry herself sick when her law center was her life’s work?
 
The mere thought of it all going
down,
all because of finances, made her close her eyes in anguish.

It was times like these, agonizingly scary times, that she wish she wasn’t so alone.

And just as she thought it, her doorbell rang.
 
Which gave her a start.
 
She sat up and looked at the clock on her night stand.
 
It was almost eleven.
 
Then she realized it more than likely was Kara coming to get her beloved car and car keys.

She grabbed the keys from her purse, knotted the towel tighter just above her breasts, and headed for the front door of her small home.
 
All she could think about was how so many people would be affected if she didn’t get it together.
 
Wingate Law Center was the last chance for many of the wrongfully accused, and she couldn’t bear being unable to help even one of them due to lack of funding.
 
And
laying
off any more investigators would be professional suicide.
 
They couldn’t help anybody without boots on the ground knocking on doors and finding lost witnesses.
 
It was all so disconcerting, she thought.

She opened her door to Kara gladly, hoping that Kara could stay and talk for a while.
 
But that hope was quickly dashed when she realized it wasn’t her younger cousin standing at her front door, but the man her younger cousin so desperately wanted her to connect with.
 

Jake Varnadore.

She could hardly believe it.

For a few seconds they both just stood there, looking into each other’s eyes, as if they were connecting on a different level this time.
 
Earlier, at his house, they felt good just to know that the other wasn’t as awful a companion as they had both assumed the other would be.
 
But now, with him on her doorstep, with her standing before him half naked, and looking so flustered and in need of such serious TLC that it stunned him, a different feeling overtook them.
 
And it was as real, as natural,
as
palpable as the prickly tingles that ran up both their spines.

Jake didn’t ask to enter her home, and for some odd reason she didn’t expect him to.
 
It just seemed natural for him to walk in.
 
Which he did.
 
And close the door.
Which he did.
 
And as soon as his powerful presence filled her home, Roni
felt
him.
 
She felt his masculinity.
 
She felt his humanity.
 
She felt his need as intensely as she was feeling her own.
 
And suddenly the thought of being with this man didn’t make her feel disrespected.
 
It didn’t make her feel loose or immoral.
 
It made her
feel,
unlike she had felt in a very long time, womanly.