LOVING THE HEAD MAN (23 page)

       Deidra called herself getting emotional, and was wiping her eyes with a handkerchief.  “After that day, when he kissed and fondled me, I knew this couldn’t
continued
.  And although I knew it would probably cost me a position with Colgate and Associates, I went to my supervisor anyway.”

       “She came to me,” Alan said, moving her over slightly from the center of the podium and taking the mike.  “I was her supervisor at the time.  “She told me then what had happened, that Robert Colgate was sexually harassing her and had, in fact, just kissed and fondled her.”

       “What did you do when she told you that?” a reporter asked him.

       “I did what any good supervisor would have done and went immediately to the tower, to Mr. Colgate’s office.”

       “Did he admit touching her?”

       “I’m ashamed to say it, but yes, he did.  He said she was a hot mama who wanted it, so he gave her some.  He also admitted that she kept telling him no, but, according to him, her no, no really meant yes, yes.  He did agree to leave her alone, however, after I insisted.  But he did exact his revenge when he selected Prudence Cameron instead of Deidra here, who was far and away the best candidate for the job, as the new associate attorney in his firm.  So, Deidra, Miss Dentry, has suffered a great deal here.  And the thing that is so ironic to me is this: the
man
who represents our former vice president in the rape of a lowly hotel maid, is himself accused of sexually harassing a female subordinate, a very young and impressionable woman, who was under his charge.  Who are these rich and powerful men that they think the world has to bend to their will?  Well I say the media, and the American
people,
shouldn’t let these high and mighty so called leaders, but actually nothing more than flimflam men, get away with it yet again.” 

       And that was the end of the press conference.  And inside Robert’s office nothing could be heard but the stone silence of fear.  They all, and especially Bree, looked to Robert.

       Robert sat behind his desk with the look of a man about to be read his last rites before execution.  Then his look changed, to that familiar,
what
can you
do
look Bree was beginning to know so well, and he became animated again.  “Monty, take Bree down to the recruitment office and give her more insight on what will be expected of her.”

       “Yes, sir,” Monty said, pressing off the TV and heading for the door.  He, above them all in the room, knew how Robert handled stress. 

       “Bree, I’ll talk to you later,” he said.

       Bree wanted desperately to talk now, but by the look in his eyes, that flaming, uncompromising look, she heeded
  his
order without debate and headed for the door, too.

       “Okay, gentlemen,” Robert said, “
where
were we?  Yes, that’s right, forensic scientists.  Wade, I need you to assemble the five best in the world.  Everything rides on the forensics and we want to be prepared. 
Over-prepared.”

       Bree and Monty closed the door behind them.  But Bree’s heart was still in that room.

It became
a media
frenzy.  Bree, her legs underneath her butt, sat on Robert’s sofa and flipped from cable news channel to cable news channel that night, with every channel discussing, debating, disparaging the allegations Deidra Dentry, granddaughter of a former supreme court justice, had made against the former vice president’s criminal defense attorney.  It was so ironic, that snake Alan DeFrame had said, that a man accused of sexual harassment himself would be defending another man accused of rape, and the media was playing up the irony as if it was already legendary.

       The front door finally opened and Robert walked in.  He and Bree worked very different hours, as hers was the more traditional nine to five, especially since she was just getting started and the new recruiting process wasn’t due to take shape for another few months.  Robert, however, always worked late into the night.

       Bree didn’t know if she should jump up and run to him when she heard the door open and close, or sit and play it cool.  She wanted to run to him, but since this would represent their first night together in his apartment, and she didn’t quite know how the dynamic would play out when he saw that she was now here and occupying his once private lair, she remain seated.  

       Robert saw her sitting there when he turned the corner from the foyer.  She wore one of his big dress shirts and was watching the horrid cable news shows.  At first, given this law suit that had just been slapped on him, he didn’t know if he wanted to be bothered with Bree or anybody else.  When he was particularly stressed, he usually preferred to be left alone.  But he had invited her into his world, she had accepted, and his old lone wolf habits simply had to change.

       “Hello Brianna,” he said as he dropped his briefcase and keys on the Queen Anne side table and then moved toward the sofa.

       “Hi,” Bree said nervously, staring at him.  “I know you’re pooped.”

       He sat down beside her, his long legs outstretched.  “What are you watching?”

       “The news,” she said and then clicked it off. 
“Nothing, in other words.”

       Robert smiled weakly.  He really did look rundown, Bree thought. 

       “I put your food in the microwave,” she said.  “Would you like me to heat it up for you?”

       “I already grabbed something, I’m okay.”

       This surprised Bree.  “You grabbed something?” she asked, puzzled. 
“From where?”
 

       “A friend of mine cooked a hot meal and bought it up to the office for me.”

       Bree wanted to ask if this friend was a male or a female,
then
realized how ridiculous that would sound.  Of course it was a woman.  Besides, what man would cook another man a plate of hot food and then bring it to him?  Bree already felt inadequate as his mate.

       “How was your first day?”

       “Other than Deidra’s allegations, it was great.”

       Robert leaned his head back.  Don’t remind him about that Deidra Dentry.  “Did Monty clarify some things for you?”

      
“Pretty much.
I still have a gazillion questions, of course, but he says you guys aren’t due back in DC for another couple days, so he’ll still be available.”

       Robert nodded.  “Good.”

       Bree stared at him.  “So what’s the game plan?”

       Robert knew what she meant without asking for clarification.  “I’m meeting with the attorneys in the morning.  We’ll see then.  I want you at that meeting.”

       Bree was surprised.  “Me?”

      
“Yes, Brianna, you.
  I value your opinion and I want it expressed tomorrow morning.”

       She was pleased beyond measure.  “I’ll be there,” she said. 
“Although I still can’t get over the nerve of Deidra and Alan, please.
  Who would need to sexually harass her when she was giving it away like free food at a company
picnic.
”

       Robert looked at her.  “So you don’t believe her?”

       “Believe that you sexually harassed Deidra Dentry?  Of course I don’t believe it, Robert.  I don’t think I could ever believe something like that about you.”  Not a man like you, she continued to think, with your kind of looks and, beyond mere looks, sexual magnetism.  Deidra would have spread her legs for him even if all he did was look down the length of her.               “Thank-you,” he said.

       “She’s a liar and the truth ain’t in her,” Bree said jokingly, although she meant every word, “and I know Alan is a liar.  I’ve already got the goods on him.”

       Robert didn’t want to be reminded of that horrible night when his sweet Bree almost slept with that slime ball DeFrame, and therefore didn’t bother to ask
what exactly were those “goods” she supposedly had on him
.  “It’ll all come out in the end, I’m sure,” he said, instead.

       “You don’t seem terribly worried,” Bree said, finding his reaction to such a devastating turn of events almost odd.

       “All of my worrying has been placed in Jason Bradford’s
defense,
I have just so much worrying to go around.”

       “The case doesn’t look good?”

       “No, it looks great, actually. 
Especially when we fully assemble all of our scientific experts.”

       “Then what are you worrying about?”

       Robert, his head still leaned back, stared up at the ceiling, his tired blue eyes unblinking, his brown hair flapping down into his gorgeous face.  At that very moment, watching him, Bree wanted to be in his big, warm, muscular arms.

       “If the case is going so well,” she asked again, “what are you worrying about?”

       “That maid,” Robert said.

       Bree stared at him. 
“The hotel maid?
 
The one accusing Vice President Bradford of rape?”

       Robert nodded.

       Bree screwed up her face.  “Why would you be worried about her?”

       Robert looked at Bree. When he saw recognition light up her beautiful brown eyes, he looked back up at the ceiling.

       “You think the vice president did rape her,” Bree said.  “Don’t you?”

       “Consensual
sex with a maid, by the former Vice President of the United States, come
on,” Robert said, his face showing some irritation, his body now leaning forward.  “Your friend Malcolm was absolutely correct.”

       “Then why don’t you pull out of the case?”

       Robert looked back at her.  “Pull out, Bree?  Jason Bradford could have asked any attorney in this country to represent him, but he asked me.  And you expect me to what?  Just walk away from the man, because he might be guilty as sin?  What the hell kind of defense attorney would I be if I walked away from every case where the alleged perp looks guilty?  I’ll be walking away from almost every case I try.  I’ll be in a perpetual state of walking away!”  Then Robert exhaled, tried to calm himself down.  He stared at Brianna.  She looked mortified.

       He leaned back and pulled her into his arms.  “Oh, Bree, forgive me,” he said, snuggling her against him.  “I can be an ambitious asshole sometimes, I’m sorry.”  Then he lifted her chin up and stared into her eyes.  “I’ve missed you so much,” he said.  “And after this case is over, we’ll get away, okay?
Just you and me, babe.
  I have a cabin, a veritable retreat, in the Wyoming
mountains
.  Maybe we’ll go there.  Okay?”