“You still have my card?” he asked as the door cracked open again.
“Charles,” Beth queried with a frown. “Are you still here?”
“Tell her this isn’t over.” He glanced over Beth’s head. “I’ll see her in Miami.”
“I don’t think…” Beth trailed off as he walked away with a dismissive wave over his shoulder. Her lips flattened, but her expression was neutral when she turned back to me. She opened the door more widely. “Come in. She’ll see you now.”
The huge suite dwarfed the standard hotel room War and I shared. It was huge with a large sitting area in front of floor to ceiling windows featuring a gorgeous view of the Bay Lake. Mary sat on the middle of a beige sofa with her spine straight and her shoulders back.
“Have a seat.” She gestured to the orange egg chair beside her.
As she shuffled through a stack of papers on the oval coffee table, I was surprised to see her hands were shaking. An aftereffect of her encounter with Charles Morris? No doubt the man was a force to be reckoned with. But I got the distinct impression that Mary Timmons usually got what she wanted.
She smoothed her short brown hair into place and I heard the door clicked closed behind Beth. All business now, the exec leveled me with a serious stare. “I want to let you know up front Black Cat is interested in signing you.” She tapped a finger against the manila file. “But there are a couple of things that came up on your background check that concerned me.”
“Oh?” I raised a brow.
“After graduation, you moved in with a man named Martin Skellin. Is that correct?”
I nodded.
“The man was a convicted drug dealer.” Mary tossed the file on the table. “I don’t know if you were aware, but he was murdered last week. Shot in the back of the head, execution style.”
I inhaled sharply. I hadn’t known, but I wasn’t surprised. Martin had been skating on thin ice with the higher ups long before I’d left him. I gave the news of his death about ten seconds of my time, less than two of those feeling bad about it. “That’s awful, but I don’t know how that’s relevant to me.”
“People are often measured by the company they keep.”
“Guilt by association. Great.” My hands balled into fists. “Look, Martin Skellin was an asshole. He knocked me around. I left him when he tried to pimp me out to pay off some debt. My time with him is not something I’m proud of, but who he was or what he did, have nothing to do with me.”
“I understand you’re engaged to Warren now?” She glanced at my left hand. “Isn’t that a little sudden?”
I shifted, uncomfortable under this cross examination. I felt a fine sheen of perspiration break out on my upper lip. “Not really. War and I have known each other for years. Why all this interest in my love life?”
I’m not sure what I was expecting, but I was beginning to feel really uneasy. I wished now I had taken War up on his offer to come with me. He’d warned me Mary was a hard ass. He had been way underselling it.
“It takes a strong personality to go solo. I need to be sure you’ve got what it takes to handle it. There will be no boyfriends or fiancées to hold your hand.
“I realize that.” I straightened. “I can take care of myself. I have been for a long time now.”
“Yes. I know all about your childhood. I can’t even imagine what it must have been like for you.” Mary’s eyes softened. She stood and pulled the bottom hem of her suit jacket down. “I can certainly sympathize, and I admire your resilience, Lace, really, I do. But I have my concerns.” She moved to the windows. “You’re untrained. You’re young, and you’re inexperienced. But more than that,” she turned back around, her brow furrowed. “I’m concerned about your judgment. I’ve heard about all the partying you’ve been doing on this tour.”
I gulped and looked down at my ankle boots. I was sunk. The woman didn’t miss a thing.
“All that said I’m still willing to offer you a signing bonus of thirty thousand. I just need your word that drugs won’t be an issue.”
I nodded, telling myself it wasn’t a lie, not really. I was quitting. Drugs wouldn’t be an issue for me anymore.
“Good. I can assure you that Mr. Morris wouldn’t match that much upfront.”
My head snapped up.
“Don’t look so surprised. I know all about what Morris has been up to.” Mary tapped her fingers against her folded arm. “I think it was very shortsighted of him to try to lure Warren and Bryan out of Tempest.”
“What do you mean?” My eyes narrowed in confusion. “I was under the impression that Morris’ offer included all the guys.”
“No.” She shook her head. “Zenith’s deal was very personnel specific. Morris is an unrepentant disassembler. He likes to take things apart and put them back together in a way he thinks is best.”
I put my hands over my churning stomach as the reality of it sank in. War had been planning to sell out the rest of the group. Just like he’d done to me in Seattle. This was what Bryan had wanted me to know. I wished he had just told me himself.
It was obvious why War had kept this bit of damning information from me. It was a real manipulative move on his part, an obvious attempt to tie me to him, proposing to me the same night he’d just brokered that sleazy backroom deal with Morris, Did he honestly think I would overlook the betrayal of my brother or King and Sager just because he put a ring on my finger?
Bryan was right. War had changed. And if he thought I would turn a blind eye to all this, well he didn’t know me any better than I knew him.
“I put an end to it,” Mary continued oblivious to the fact that my world had just been turned upside down. “Morris has assured me he’s withdrawing his offer.” She sat on the couch again and leaned forward. “But back to you. I know what Zenith has offered you is high, but I know you’re smart enough to see through all those dollar signs. His offer is back end loaded and full of stipulations. Basically, if you don’t meet them you get nothing. The most likely scenario is that you end up owing Zenith money.”
“Read this over.” She handed me a piece of paper. “My offer is very simple.” She slid a check across the table toward me. “A thirty thousand dollar advance on a three year exclusive contract with Black Cat. Do things our way, Lace, and I think there’s a good chance that you’ll be a star.”
I picked up the check and stared at it. Mary’s signature was a wide sprawl on both it and the contract. She was right about the Zenith deal. It was pages long and full of tons of legal mumbo jumbo. My vision tunneled in on this moment. There really wasn’t a choice. My mind was still reeling from what I’d just found out about War, but I was sure of this decision. I needed to do this. It was a chance for me to finally turn my life around.
I picked up the pen and signed.
The rest of our meeting passed in a blur. Mary shook my clammy hand. Beth came back in and congratulated me and before I knew it, I was on my way back down the hall, in the elevator to my floor, and in front of the door to my room.
I inserted the key card and went inside, grateful that the room was empty. I didn’t feel up to a confrontation with War at the moment. I leaned back against the door. The air conditioning felt too cold against my feverish skin. I recognized what was going on now. It wasn’t Bryan or Mary. It wasn’t the flu. I was having withdrawal symptoms from the heroin. I’d had bouts like this before when I’d tried to quit, but never quite this bad.
I just needed one more little dose to get me over this hump.
Just enough to get me through today.
After that I was done for real.
I opened the safe and pulled out the small satchel. My hands were shaking so violently, I almost dropped the bag. I stumbled to the bed, sat down on the edge, flicked on the lamp, and unzipped the bag.