Revelation: A Contemporary Erotic Romance (Iris Series) (32 page)

He stared at Emily across the conference table.  He’d just laid out all of his arguments as to why he felt the program and curriculum was ineffectual and then sat back waiting for everyone to agree.

“Mr. Strover,” Emily began, “we all know we don’t live in a perfect world.  This program is an opportunity for boys to have casual but structured relationships with upstanding men in the community who can mentor them in areas of conflict/resolution.  It’s to help teach them practical ways to move forward in positive ways, most especially when combating against some of the systemic flaws in our society, namely abuse against women –”

Emily was interrupted by Mr. Strover, who was sitting back in his chair, his fingers steepled and tapping at his lips.

“Miss White, is it?” he interrupted quietly.  Without waiting to see if anyone might correct him, he continued.  “Your argument comes from the insulting supposition that my stepson is not getting those teachings at home.”  He gave her a pointed look, then finished with, “I assure you, he is.”

“And regardless of whether a boy is getting those teachings at home or not, would it hurt him at all to get them here as well?” Emily asked.  “I would think you’d be pleased to have Kevin receive a double dose of all that goodness,” she said, trying to keep the sarcasm from her tone.  “Assuming of course that he
is
getting those teachings at home already,” she added and gave him a pointed look right back.

“There’s no assumption.  I’ve already said he is.”  He let a patronizing smile play on his lips while he silently stared at her, giving her a look that would melt most humans into the ground.  He looked like a cat toying with a mouse.

Asshole.  She wasn’t backing down.

“How’s your wife, Mr. Strover?  What are her thoughts on this?”

He continued staring at her, undressing her with his eyes.  He had that way about him.

“Since my wife is married to me, I’d say she’s doing very well.”  His eyes drifted for a split second to Emily’s chest.  The innuendo in his words coupled with his look wasn’t lost on her.  She could feel her skin crawl.

“And her thoughts on the program?”

He remained in complete control and continued to examine her, always with an unreadable smile on his lips as if there was a private joke he hadn’t let anyone in on.

“She agrees with me, of course.”

Of course.

Emily nodded.  Rene jumped in.

“I’d love to talk to her.  I haven’t spoken with her since Kevin was a freshman.”

“Is that normal practice, Ms. Ortiz?” he tsked.  “You’re the head guidance counselor here and you haven’t been in touch with a student’s mother in over a year?”

“Well,” Rene continued, not missing a beat, “you’ve always assured me all is well.  And since you’ve been the parent at all of the Parent/Teacher nights,” she shrugged.  “Are you saying things aren’t well?”

“They’re fine, as I’ve already stated.  I don’t like having to repeat myself because people can’t remember the answer to a question the first time I’ve answered it.  My time is valuable.”  He stood, indicating the meeting was over then buttoned his suit jacket.  “Kevin will go to the first class.  Once he’s given me a full report, I’ll let you know if he’ll be staying in it.  Now, if you’ll excuse me,” he said giving Emily a heated look and licking his lips, “Some of us are required to save lives today.” 

His look lasted a second longer than what would be deemed socially appropriate, then he turned and left, walking out the door without even acknowledging Rene before doing so.

There was a moment of silence after he left then Rene and Emily looked at each other, and literally burst out into disbelieving laughs.

“Seriously?” Emily chortled.

“I know, right?”  She leaned in as if ready to share some gossip.  “You know who he reminds me of?”

Emily began saying, “Alec Baldwin in
Malice
,” just as Rene said the same thing.  They each immediately started talking and laughing at once, quoting the infamous ‘I am God’ scene with the lawyers when Baldwin’s character, a doctor who is really a killer, says that when people are praying to God in hospitals because their loved ones are sick, they’re basically praying to him.  His final line is ‘You ask me if I have a God complex?  Let me tell you something.  I
am
God.’

A knock at the open conference door interrupted their laughs.

“I can’t believe you’re both smiling.  Did it go that well?” Maurice asked as he walked in and closed the door, taking a seat next to Emily.  “I just saw him leave and had a minute.”

They relayed the account to him, not leaving out any of the juicy details and bringing up the comparison to the movie.

“Oh, yeah,” Maurice said, “the ‘I am God’ speech.  Awesome scene.”

“That’s totally Vincent Strover,” Rene said. 

“Yes, it is.  Lovely,” Em said dryly.

Rene said, “I’m obviously not gonna sit here and say that I know he’s physically abusing his wife or Kevin, but he is definitely mentally and verbally abusing them in some way.  He’s got the control and intimidation down perfectly.  I mean look at how he talked to us?  I can only imagine how he is with them in the privacy of their own home.”  She turned to Emily.  “Did you see how he was looking at you?”

“Yeah, I noticed.”

Maurice’s back went up.  “What’d he do?”

“He was just looking at me, but you know women can tell when a guy is
looking
a certain way to intimidate them,” said Emily.

“Trust me, Mo.  If you were here, you would’ve clocked the guy,” Rene said to Maurice.  “I was half hopin’ Emily would.  His eyes were practically tearing her clothes off, the asshole.  And he wasn’t hiding it.  He’s got the intimidation thing down to a science.  And I’d bet he uses it on women all of the time.”

“Probably,” Emily mumbled.

“I’m calling his wife right now since I know he’s not home.  I wanna see what she has to say about the curriculum.”  She got up and ran out of the room.

“I’m sorry I wasn’t here.”

Emily turned to Maurice who looked genuinely concerned.  “That’s okay.  You have responsibilities.  We handled it.”

“I know.  You two could handle anything, but I’m just sayin’,” he shrugged then changed the subject.  “You comin’ to the training tomorrow?”

“No, actually, I have plans.”  She began playing with the papers on the table.

“Alright.  I guess we’ll have to deal with another Saturday training with a sad and pissed off Cag,” he chuckled.

She avoided his eyes and continued moving around the papers as if they needed her attention. 

“No comment?” Maurice asked with a smile.

“I’m pleading the fifth on that one,” she mumbled.

“I thought maybe something was goin’ on with you two.  Not that it’s any of my business, of course.”

She looked up at him.  “You’re certainly fishin’ a lot, Maurice.  You tryin’ to ask me out on a date or somethin’?” she asked dryly.

He barked out a laugh.  “And have Cag kick my ass?  Especially in his mood lately?  No thanks.”  He got up and pushed his chair in.  “I gotta get back to work.  You’ll be here for the first day of the class with the students though, right?”

“Yeah,” she said with a forced smile.  “See you then.”

“Later.”

He left her sitting there, staring into space.

And thinking about Mike.

After leaving the Academy and the interview with the ‘Vinnie’ situation, she needed to get her head on straight before heading to work, so she figured a shot of caffeine would help her along.  She got off the subway and stopped at the popular coffee shop near the law firm. 

She placed her order for her skinny vanilla latte and while standing on line to receive her order, she heard a mumble behind her, “Unbelievable.”

Emily turned and stopped at what she saw.

“I haven’t seen you in years and now I bump into you twice in the span of a few weeks in the biggest city in the country,” Scott said.  “Must be fate,” he grinned.

He crossed his arms over his chest and looked her up and down then his eyes skittered around her as if looking for someone.

“Definitely not fate,” Emily quipped.  “Just a very unlucky coincidence.  Don’t let me stop you from getting your coffee and leaving.”  She turned her back on him, internally sighing.  It
was
unbelievable.

“Where’s your fahckin’ bodyguahrd?” he said, the Boston coming through in his accent.  “He let’s you out of his cave sometimes?”

She took a cleansing breath and without turning to look at him said, “Walk away, Scott.  I have nothing to say to you.  You’re water under the bridge and I’d rather not take a swim there again, thank you.”

“I never thought I’d see the day where you would let a guy like that have that kind of hold over you.”

She ignored him. 
Do not engage, Emily.

“A guy that size?  Maybe you don’t like to beat up guys anymore?” She heard Scott take a step closer behind her, lowering his voice.  “Maybe you decided you like it the other way around, with some guy swingin’ his big dick calling all the shots –”

That made her turn.  “What the hell is wrong with you?” she said in a low voice.  “Is your ego that fragile?  You don’t know anything about him.”

“Oh, that’s where you’re wrong, Em,” he said looking her dead in the eye.  “I know quite a bit about him thanks to the card he shoved in my pocket,” he snarled quietly and took another step forward.

She was tired of men who felt the need to intimidate this morning.  She also took a step forward and cocked her head with a pitying look on her face.               

“Poor Scott.  Always playing the victim.  Nothing better to do with your time, I guess, then sit around and stalk people on the internet?”  She shook her head and tsked.

“Emily!” the barista shouted behind the counter.  “Skinny vanilla latte!”

Emily gave Scott one last look and turned to get her coffee.  When she stepped
around him to leave, he got in her path and placed his hand on her arm.

“So much leashed energy, Em,” he snickered then gave her another once over and licked his lips.  He dropped his voice.  “Any time you wanna go at it again, you let me know.  Now that
you apparently like to give up some of that control between the sheets and let a guy take the lead, I’ll bet I can give you a good fahckin’ you’ll remember.  For old times’ sake.”

She couldn’t help but snort out a laugh.  ‘Unbelievable’ really was the word of the day.  She easily removed her arm from his grip and with a smile on her face, she leaned in for her parting shot.

“Listen very carefully, asshole.  If you ever touch me again?  I’ll rip your dick off.”  His eyes widened and took on a furious gleam.  “And I think you know I can,” she whispered with one last knowing look.

Then she turned and left, making her way to work.

While there, she buried herself once again in paperwork and legalese, trying to forget. Forget Vincent Strover, Scott Matthews…

And ultimately, Michael Callahan.

All she needed to do was keep her mind distracted.  It didn’t work.  Her mind continued to wander and by the end of the day her stomach was in knots.  All she wanted to do was go home and go to bed.

“Hey, Em?”

Terrence was standing at her open office door.

“Yeah?”

“Joe wanted to see you before you left.”

“Okay, thanks,” she said looking back down to the papers in her hands.  Terrence had been examining her for the last two weeks and every time she looked at him, she felt like he could read her mind.

“Can I ask you something?”

“Hmm?”  She didn’t look up.

“I know you’re not one for sharing, but if something was really wrong, you could talk about it, you know.”

She put down her pen and finally lifted her head.  He really was a sweet man.

“Thanks, Terrence.”

He left and she looked at the clock.  It was approaching 6pm so she packed up then went to see what Joe needed.  When she got to his office, she knocked on his open door.

“Emily, hey.  Come on in and have a seat.”

She did, looking at him with curiosity.  Whatever it was, it sounded serious.

“I’d like you to take Monday off.”

Huh?  “Why?” she asked with a furrowed brow.

“Because I think you may be coming down with something and I want you to take the weekend and Monday to get some rest.”  He leaned back in his chair to scrutinize her with his look.

“Joe, I’m fine.  Really.”  There was no way she was taking Monday off.  The weekends were bad enough with nothing to keep her distracted.  What the hell would she do with a day off?

“Well, if it’ll make you feel any better you can still work, but do it from home.  Keep your jammies on all day while you’re doing it, though.  You haven’t been yourself for the last two weeks and I want you to take care of yourself.”

“Joe, I’m sorry if I’ve been slacking.  I really don’t need time off.” 
Had she jeopardized her job?
  “Have I been dropping the ball on anything?”  Her mind raced to figure out what was causing this conversation.