Page 70 of False Evidence

“I don’t care. And I don’t care what Drake has to say. He already told me his thoughts, and when that failed, he ran to you like a child trying to turn Dad against Mom.”

“He’s also been my business partner since you were in diapers, and he owns a third of the company.”

“He’s wrong on this, Dad. Firing Spaulding was justified. He’s facing charges for attempting to drug a woman with the intention of raping her.”

“Being charged doesn’t mean he’ll be convicted. And he didn’t actually commit the crime. Attempted means something very different. If he’s found not guilty, he could sue us.”

“He did it at the company holiday party, meaning thevictimcould sue us.”

He had no clue if Alexandra could make a claim when, as Dad had said, she hadn’t actually been drugged. But it didn’t matter. He wasn’t backing down on this.

“But the victim doesn’t work for Talon & Drake, does she? She’s done a fine job manipulating you. You even moved her into the Mayflower. Got her so-called attacker fired.”

How did his father know Alexandra was the victim? All at once, he realized Drake would have probably sent him the police report.

She’d told Lee her name. Lee told Lisa. It wouldn’t have taken long for his father to connect the dots.

He wanted to point out that Lex hadn’t known whohewas, so it could hardly be manipulation, but Joe would never believe that, and the last thing JT wanted to do was explain the finer details of his yet-to-be-fully-consummated relationship with a woman he was increasingly certain would be central to his future.

“She’s not manipulating anyone. And you must not have been informed of the part where Lee and I were the witnesses who watched Spaulding spike her drink. He’s a scumbag who no longer works for Talon & Drake. That’s final.”

“We might lose the Lewiston contract.”

“Spaulding was fucking it up anyway. He wasn’t ready to manage a job that big, and it was bullshit that Lewiston and Drake insisted on making him the project manager. I’ve got seven other PMs who can step in and do better. I’m in talks with bringing Pamela Morrison up from Miami.”

He saw his dad flinch at the woman’s name, and that was why it was good that neither he nor Drake were in charge now. It wasn’t that either man believed women couldn’t manage a hundred-million-dollar build like the bridge replacement and neighborhood revitalization contract, it was that they worried the client would balk at having a woman at the helm.

The boys club was alive and well and determined to use any excuse to exclude women from power. If JT did nothing else as CEO of Talon & Drake, it would be to ensure all the top hires and promotions would be fair.

Edward Drake hated it.

“I’ve increased revenue by thirty-nine percent in six years. I’ve more than proven myself.”

JT had done little but work for the last six years for this exact reason. He knew much of the business world had thought Joe was a fool for appointing JT CEO when he was just twenty-five years old. Political rivals claimed JT was a puppet.

Two years in, JT had done an extensive interview withTIME Magazinethat resulted in his face on the cover and a story that laid out JT’s—not his father’s—vision for the company and the strides he’d taken to make it come true.

“Drake doesn’t like it, he can suck it up. We aren’t beholden to stockholders.” This was the key point that put JT in the driver’s seat. Company employees came first, not a stock price. “Waiting for a sexual predator to be convicted before firing him is not an option. My word is final.”

“I’ll admit, the woman is gorgeous, but you need to be certain she’s on the up-and-up. We made it through reelection, and now I need to start looking at a presidential run in 2008. If that were to happen, you need to be positioning yourself for your own senate run to fill my seat in 2010. Part of that is getting serious about finding a woman who can fulfill the duties of a politician’s wife.”

The idea of choosing a partner based on what she could bring to a campaign was repugnant, but at the same time, his father wasn’t wrong.

Tonight’s event had been planned, as it had been every year for the last several, by Lisa, Joe’s third wife and the first one suited to the role of political spouse. Lisa had her eyes on being First Lady, and there was a decent chance Joe could give that to her.

But that was four—or more likely eight—years away. “I don’t need relationship advice, Dad.”

“Don’t you, though? She’s pretty, and she helped out plenty tonight, but she needs more polish if she’s going to stick around. A cheap dress and makeup get a pass at a charity event for transitional housing families, but they won’t fly at a political fundraiser. And she better not be a twit.”

JT cringed at his father’s words. Alexandra looked beautiful just as she was. But his father had always been obsessed with having a wife who looked perfect at all times and wore couture clothing whenever she left the house. He suspected it was one way he sought to show the world how far he’d come after being raised in an Indian boarding school in which the headmaster spent every day telling the students how worthless they were.

“Pretty sure she’s smarter than both of us. She’s working on a PhD in theoretical physics.”

“Oh. That’s good. But possibly too intimidating.”

JT rolled his eyes. “I’m not having this conversation with you.”

“When Drake finds out you’re screwing her, he’s going to flip.”

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