Page 73 of Off the Rim
The last will and testament of Lorena Vell-James stares at us from the pile of crinkled papers. Next to it, there are two wills for a Mr. Ashton James. One that includes clauses and inheritance for Roman Vell. There's even a letter for him, which has beenopened. The paper is so worn, it seems like it's been read over and over again.
Marcus tucks the letter into the inside his jacket, then wordlessly starts taking pictures of the wills with his cellphone. Smart thinking. We might not be able to sneak out of here with a thick file shoved under our clothes.
It's only because we are so quiet with focus that I hear the voices. Running over to the door, I hear my father's voice, and maybe two others. It sounds like they are ascending the stairs. I flick off the light, which startles Marcus. He looks up from the desk, and I hold a finger over my lips. Nodding, he stands up and arranges everything back on the desk as close to neatly as possible while I turn off the light to the file room and pull the door close. I switch off the lamp just as I hear my father unlocking the double doors, and we escape into the conference room, pulling the door shut with a quiet snick just as my father and his two guests walk into the office.
"Listen, Governor, I understand what you're saying, but you surely understand how things work by now. I'm not going to pour my money into your campaign for nothing. You told me you could get me the sale, Thom. I've got my contractors lined up and ready to go, and I'm just sitting on these plans. I need a guarantee that we'll be in business by the end of the year at the very latest."
"Even if I can facilitate the sale without rousing suspicion, you can't just buy up public housing and kick people to the curb. It'll take months to relocate all those people."
My father scoffs. "If anything, the people of Pinecrest will be thankful to have luxury condos downtown instead of dirty slums. They'll thank you."
My stomach roils, and my face burns hot with embarrassment that someone I share a bloodline and a name with could be this vile. I'll be lucky if Marcus wants anything to do with me after overhearing this. I knew my father was involved in some shady dealings, but demolishing public housing to build luxury condos?Why am I even surprised? Isn’t that exactly what he did to the town's small business district so he could develop the land and sell out to big name companies? What he did to Marcus' father…
"I can't push it now, not when my approval ratings are already low after the environmental committee debacle. I need to focus on re-election. Once my position is secure again, I can work on pushing the sale through under the table."
"Funny you should bring up the environmental committee, Thom, because you fucked that up for me, too. I sank millions of dollars into that deal for nothing. Seems to me I should stop sinking money into a lost cause."
"It was protected land, Mr. James. There was no way of knowing those kooky environmentalists were going to pull together a protest like that, or that they'd be able to dig into my financial records and start questioning why I was receiving campaign donations from the one company that was going to benefit from the environmental protection reform bill I introduced. I'm lucky I wasn't impeached."
"It's not my problem you got outsmarted by a bunch of damn hippies. You have a month to get me that sale, or I'm going to turn my attention to someone more effective. I heard Nicole Hales is considering running."
He wouldn't.
"Nicole Hales is not electable. She's a fanatic and no one likes her."
"If there's one thing we learned in the last national election, Thom, it's that if you have enough money and rile up a voter base enough, you can do whatever you want. The fact that she's so extremist might actually work in her favor these days."
"Considering your own son just made a public appearance and showed up to your event with another man on his arm, you really want to back a candidate that is so vehemently anti-gay? Didn't she compare same sex marriage to bestiality? Loudly and publicly?"
"Don't you worry about my son. He knows how to behave in public, and he'll fall in line. As far as the media understands, Ashton brought a friend back from college for the party."
My body tenses, rage pulsing through my veins. If Marcus wasn't here to hold me back, I don't think I'd be able to stop from busting into that office and telling him exactly how I'll be behaving in public from now on.
But thankfully Marcus is there, and he leads me away from the door just as we hear, "Mr. James, what happened to your desk?"
With a quick glance at each other, Marcus and I make a silent agreement that now is the time to get the fuck out of here. Our mouths move at the same time.
Run.
CHAPTER 33
MARCUS
Ashton opens the door to the hallway and peeks his head out.
"This way," he whispers. Instead of leading me back to the stairs we came up on, he enters another hallway and descends a narrow set of stairs.
I lose track of the number of dark hallways or staircases we run up and down, but eventually we make it into the kitchen, which looks like a fully operational restaurant kitchen. There are so many servers and staff members running back and forth, I think for a moment that we might be able to slip by unnoticed. Then again, I forget that we're dressed in fancy tuxedos, and Ashton's handsome ass is a full foot taller than the tallest person in the room besides me. Oh, and he's not wearing a shirt, which honestly kind of works for him. He could probably pull it off as an edgy fashion choice if he takes the bow tie off.
"Mr. James, what are you doing back here?" A dour-looking man dressed like he's in the secret service asks when we're shooed out into the main hallway.
"Definitely not checking off a bucket list of rooms I want to have sex in before I never return to this monstrosity of a so-calledhome," Ashton says under his breath, loudly and clearly enough for the man to hear him. "Come on,babe. There's a formal living room I'd really like to blow you in."
The man touches his earpiece, and Ashton smirks. "Tell my father I said nice party, will ya, Artie?"
"You did that on purpose," I say, laughing as Ashton leads me to a back door.
"That bootlicking asshole is predictable. If he's going to rat me out, the least he can do is give us an alibi for being in my dad's office."
