LOVING THE HEAD MAN (16 page)

       “Yes ma’am.  Our Mr. Colgate is the lead attorney for the former vice president of the United States of America.”

       Bree once again watched Robert’s hyper-busy office.  “Wow,” was all she could say.

       “Ain’t it surreal, girl?”  Lois asked, watching the swirl of activity too.  “He’s the most envied attorney in the country right now.”

       Bree looked once again at Robert, concerned by the drain she saw all over him. 
“But what about Dr. Brokaw’s case?”

       “He’s already reassigned that case to Milt Landon.  Defending Vice President Bradford is going to be the only case he can even think about working right now.  I mean, think about it, Bree.  The former vice president of America can go to prison if he’s convicted.  It’s crazy!”

       “It’s huge,” Bree said, staring at Robert.  She knew there was no way she could even bring up her problems at this point.  “Doesn’t Jason Bradford still live in DC?”

       “He lives in West Virginia, but he has offices in DC.  And he was arrested in DC.”

       “I guess Mr. Colgate will be heading there soon,” Bree noted.

       “They’re readying the company plane as we speak,” Lois informed her.

       Bree kept staring at Robert, as if willing him to look at her.  And finally he did, their eyes locking in a tense quick second.  But as soon as there appeared to be a connection, Robert’s private phone line rang and he snatched it up.  “Colgate here,” he said into the phone as the noise in his office began to ebb somewhat.  Then he added, seeming to stand erect, it seemed to Bree: “Good morning, Mr. Vice President.” 

       Suddenly his entire office went pin drop quiet and one of his top attorneys immediately hurried to the door and slammed it shut, effectively leaving Bree and Lois and all of the other staffers, completely out of the loop.

       “Oh, well,” Lois said, taking the documents Bree had given her and putting them in a manila folder, “prepare for the media frenzy.”

       Bree tried to smile, to feel the excitement that now encompassed all of Colgate as if it were a sort of bonfire of the vanities they were dealing with, but all she could think about was Robert.  Once again it was too complicated, too
huge
, for him to say no.   Once again, he was wearing himself too thin.  Once again, Bree also thought, she was on her own.

       It couldn’t have been clearer later that same afternoon, when Bree had finally returned to the board room to collect her things and go home.  Alan, standing in the doorway of his adjacent office, asked to see her.   He did this periodically, to annoy her, in her opinion, but this time even she could tell the difference when she entered his office and closed the door as he had instructed.  He wasn’t harsh as he usually was.  He was gleeful.

       “I’m sure you’ve heard the news,” he said, leaning back in the chair behind his desk and twirling around a stress ball, “about our naughty VP?”  He looked at Bree grinning, as if he had just said something clever. 

       Bree’s expression remained unchanged.  The best way to handle Alan, she knew by now, was to never give in to him, never feed that beast. 

       “Which means,” he went on, “that our Mr. Colgate will be otherwise engaged for a long, long time to come.”

       “It’s late, Alan,” Bree said.  “Could you please get to the point?”

       A harsh, angry expression crossed his face, although he attempted to smile it off.  “The point,” he said with an acid lace to his tone, “is that our program is winding down.  In four more days the winner will be announced and this will all be over.  And it’s crunch time, Bree.  There’s not even going to be any recommendations allowed.  Did you know that?”

       Bree wasn’t stunned to hear it, but she refused to show it.  “No, I didn’t,” she said calmly.

       “Well, now you know.  I am not allowing any recommendations. 
Which means, of course, that you and Pru are the leading two contenders.
”

       Bree stared at Alan. 
“Your point?”

      
“You, Pru, and Deidra are neck n’ neck.
  It could go either way.  In a matter of days, one of you will have a fifty thousand dollar signing bonus deposited in her bank account, and a position here with the elites, while the other two will get to go back home with absolutely nothing.  That’s a big deal, Bree.  Can you imagine what you can do with fifty grand right off the bat?  And then, to top it off, you’ll start adding a six-figure salary to the pile, not to mention the prestige and advantages of working at Colgate that will automatically bring you.  I mean, this is dreamland we’re talking about.”

       He wasn’t lying there, Bree thought.  It would be the dream of dreams for her.  Not to mention how easily it would solve the problem of keeping her father’s house from the auction block.  But Alan was up to no good, she could see it in his murky blue eyes.  “So what are you saying?” she asked him.  “That it’s all between me and Pru?”

       “You, Pru, and Deidra, yes.”

       “Deidra?” Bree asked with a frown.  “But Deidra’s test scores haven’t been great, and her legal mind always accepts the obvious and isn’t supple enough to go beyond the surface.”     “That’s your opinion,” Alan said, although he and Bree both knew why gorgeous Deidra was making the final three cut.  “But that’s not my opinion.  And my opinion is the one that matters.
  You know why? 
Because, contrary to what you may think, Mr. Colgate has put me solely in charge of the selection process.
  It’s one hundred percent my decision.”

       Alan had already told the finalists about that, so that wasn’t exactly news to her. 

       “However,” he went on, staring at her breasts, “I will decide in your favor, Bree, and decide without hesitation, if you give me what I want.”

       Bree attempted to play dumb.  “And what exactly is that?”

       “Ah come on, Brianna!  The airhead act doesn’t do you justice and I’m way too smart to fall for it.”  His look changed.  “You know what I want.  You know I’ve wanted it since the moment I laid eyes on you.  I want to fuck you,
that’s
what I want.”

       This was Bree’s opportunity to see if her suspicions were right.  “
Isn’t
Pru and Deidra and those other pretty Prada girls giving you that already?”

       “Pru, are you kidding?  Who the hell wants that prudish bitch?”

      
“Deidra then, surely.”

       Alan smiled.  “Oh, yes, Deidra is available to me anytime I want her.  Only that kind of easy lay takes the excitement out of it, know what I’m saying?  So forget about her,” he said.  “If you give me what I want, you’re in.  No ands, ifs or buts about it.  You’re in.”

       “I want in,” Bree admitted, “but never like that.”

       Alan frowned.   “How else do you think you’re making it in?  Everybody has to give a little, what’s your problem?  You think you’re too good to give it up to somebody like me?  I’m giving you the ticket.  Free and clear.  One night with me, and you’ll in. 
Guaranteed.”

       “No thanks.”

       “No thanks?  Are you kidding me?  You should be honored.”

       “Bye, Alan,” Bree said, turning to leave.

       “You think he’s gonna look out for you, don’t you?”

       Bree hesitated, and then turned around. 
“Pardon?”

       “You think Robert Colgate is going to take care of you.”

       “I don’t think any such thing.”

       “He’s gone, sweetheart. 
To our nation’s capital.
  And he ain’t coming back any time soon, deary, so any ideas you may have had are out the window.  Besides,” Alan added with another grin, “he’s taking care of too many now as it is.  You may as well get in line.”

       Bree rolled her eyes and walked out, determined not to show her devastation.

       But life got in the way, and it was far more devastating than Alan’s proposal.  She spoke later that day to her mother, who begged Bree, like Candice, like Titianna, like Ricky, to do something.  They were in panic mode now.  She couldn’t let them lose the house and become homeless.  She just couldn’t.  It was up to her, they begged.  It was on her shoulders and she had to do something! 

       And she did, the very next day.  She tried every way she knew how to get in touch with Robert, or even Monty Ross, who was with him in DC.  But those who
would,
didn’t have it, and those who could, wouldn’t dream of giving Bree the time of day, let alone their boss’s cell number.  Then she begged them to contact Monty, and ask him to call her.  But they wouldn’t even do that.  Not the associates.  Not the administrative staff.  Not even Lois.  He wasn’t even taking business calls from this end, not right now, as he was in serious negotiations with the DA to keep the vice president out of jail, and his days were long and too complication for them to dream of bothering him.  She asked everybody she could, but nobody would help her.

       And as the days grew closer to auction day, and even closer to selection day at Colgate, she knew she could not allow her father’s home, a home he worked over thirty years to pay off, to be sold so easily, and her mother and siblings become homeless. 

       Although it was the most painful conclusion Bree had ever made in her life, she knew she had run out of options.  Her back was literally against the wall.  And for that pitiful reason alone, she walked into Alan’s office the day before selection day, and accepted his sick, perverted proposal.

       “How can I be sure,” she asked him, “that you won’t sleep with me and then stab me in the back by picking Pru or Deidra or somebody else?”

       Alan smiled that reptilian smile of his Bree despised.  “That’s always a possibility of course,” he said.  “All I can tell you is that you have my word.  You make love to me tonight, and tomorrow I announce you as the victor. 
As simple as that.
 
The kind of transaction that happens all the time at our level of the game.
  You have got to trust me on this, Bree.  You have got to trust me enough to know that I’ll keep my word. 
Which, by the way, I will.”

       Bree wouldn’t trust him as far as she could push him, but there were no better ideas around.  And she hadn’t heard a word from Robert.  Not one word.  That was why, later that same night, she found herself from there to this, standing naked in the living room of the company condo, as Robert walked through that door.

       “
Brianna
?” he said, stunned beyond belief.