Page 55 of Mine, Forever

I looked over to York who stood behind her. I didn’t quite know what to make of her request, and he didn’t react in a way to give me any idea how to proceed. He seemed to be confused by her request, something that didn’t quite make sense to me.

“You’re demanding I help you?” I asked her.

“Yes,” she replied. “I helped you so now you owe me.”

Laughing, I saw York roll his eyes and leave the room. That wasn’t behavior I was expecting from him. He never showed his annoyance at anything. Erin was on edge when she heard the door close leaving us alone. I liked to see her fear, it was something I’d always lived off of, and now was no different. Her breath was coming in short bursts, her chest rising and falling faster as she tried not to fidget with her hands.

“I don’t owe anybody.”

“Please?” she begged, her voice almost breaking with unshed tears.

“Jesus,” I replied, forcing myself to ask her more. “Why do you want to be a senator? From what I recall, you didn’t want hard work.”

“I can get you things that Joe can’t.”

“Like?”

“I can control Commissioner Jenkins.”

Now, I was paying attention. Jenkins, as well as Cole, were driving me crazy. I hated men with morals and ethics. Those two had it out for me, and I couldn’t buy them off.

“And Drew Cole could be my little puppet as well. I’m guessing that would take away all of the people against you. You’d be free to run your organization without fear of being caught.”

“I don’t fear being caught, Erin.”

“Then without fear your woman would be arrested for whatever she’s done in the past.”

That was something I could deal with. Ebony had a way of getting into trouble—something that was making me so distracted I couldn’t properly run my organization.

“You can do this?”

She confidently nodded.

“I can’t just trust your word, you know that?”

“What can I do to prove it then?” she asked me, heaving her chest out. I could see she had worn a bra to enhance her cleavage. Obviously, this was how she covered up all those scandals I knew Joe had been involved in.

“Do you understand the stakes of working for me?”

She straightened in the chair. At first I had thought it was because she was nervous, but it wasn’t. She was confident, more confident than I was used to when people came to me for help.

“I can do this, Jett.”

“Fine… you’ll need to discredit Joe first. Have him resign his position, and I’ll get you where you need to be.”

Erin stood. “How do I do that?”

I smiled. “Be creative. You said you had this, now prove it to me.”

Erin left the office just as York was coming back. I turned back to the computer to get back into the one part of my job I loathed with all of my black soul.

Finances.

York took a seat in the chair recently vacated by Erin and leaned forward on his knees. He had something on his mind.

“You think you can trust her?”

“Time will tell, if anything she’ll get rid of the problem I have with Joe.”

---