“Me? Never,” Janet said with a smile, although his putdowns hurt her to her core. But she wasn’t about to let anybody, least of which William Rice and Kimmie Fisher, see her sweat.
Besides, she was about to see Richard again. That had her sweating enough.
And true to form, as soon as they walked into the massive building, she focused exclusively on the job at hand. Her job was to be the observer of the action, to see what the principals might have missed. Despite her boss and his arrogance, she was going to do her job.
The Shetfields of Oklahoma were legendary. She’d heard about them all her life. And most of it was bad. Bad working conditions at their oil refineries, at their factories, at their newspapers, at their sporting goods stores. Paid slave wages she was told, even though Janet knew there was no such thing since slaves weren’t paid any wages. But they supposedly treated their workers as if they were their slaves.
She worked for them for all of one week. A new hire making minimum wage. And she quit inside a week when Richard bought her a car, left town, and left her reputation in tatters. She slept her way to that car, was the biggest rumor. The one that felt like a sucker punch every time she stepped onto that factory floor. And Janet couldn’t live in that. She was young and poor back then, and needed that job desperately, but nobody was going to try to assassinate her character while she hung around to give them the bullet. She didn’t hang around. She couldn’t. But Richard’s actions, though harmful to her reputation, were well-intentioned, and through the years she always reminded herself of that fact.
“Don’t work for the Shetfields,” the Henleys used to tell their children. “They’re like vampires in suits. They’ll suck the life out of you. They’ll suck you dry.”
One of those vampires sucked her dry. But that was her fault.
Now she was a part of the team that just might represent that same vampire in whatever he needed representation for. It was all so surreal to Janet!
Just as their office complex was too. She’d seen it hundreds of times as she drove around Tulsa looking for work. Sometimes she thought about Richard whenever she saw that building, and that night they had dinner together, and that fateful morning. But other times he didn’t cross her mind.
But as they entered the lobby, she felt as if she had stepped into another world. From the massive Christmas tree that nearly touched the high ceiling, to the decorations that overwhelmed the beautiful, busy space, it was a sight to behold. The decorations were so expansive that they bordered on gaudy to Janet based on the sheer volume alone, but that was probably tastefully done to most everybody else. She wouldn’t know about things like that anyway. Christmas for her was a quiet dinner at home with Mo.
“Good morning.”
When they turned around, a beautiful black woman with a bouffant hairdo was standing in front of them. And she was extending her hand to William. “Mr. Rice, welcome,” she said to him as they shook hands. “I’m Doris Wilson. I’m Mr. Shetfield’s secretary. Right this way, please.”
If his secretary was any indication, William was right. Richard had a thing for beautiful women. Because Doris Wilson put the g in gorgeous. Doris Wilson even made Kimmie look plain.
So much so that Sheldon gave Janet another elbow, when they both saw the jealousy coming out of Kimmie like shards of glass.
William apparently saw it too. He placed his hand on Kimmie’s back as they, and Sheldon and Janet, followed the secretary down a long corridor that led to a conference room at the end of the hall.
“Mr. Shetfield will be with you shortly,” Doris said, and then walked out of the room and closed the double-door behind her.
William smiled and rubbed his hands together as if they were at a blackjack table in Vegas. “Now this is what I call a room,” he said, admiring the spacious conference room. “Everybody take a seat. And remember what I said,” he added, glancing mostly at Janet.
They were seated for a mere couple of minutes when the door opened again and the man himself, Richard Shetfield, walked in.
And Janet thought she was going to fall out of that chair as soon as he walked through that door. Because that warm feeling she felt the first time she laid eyes on him came flooding back. And the memories of that night, and that fateful morning.
Her second impression of Richard, even after all those years, was still a wow.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
Not because of his good looks. That would have never wowed her in and of itself. Although she’d admit he was still a very good-looking man. But he wasn’t as fun-looking as he had been. Now he was all business. Now he was good-looking but only if you liked the stern, blunt, let’s just get on with it kind of person. She didn’t. She preferred a man with manners.
But what wowed her most about Richard Shetfield, just like before, was his eyes. They were so large and so stark, but yet so desperately sad and kind, that Janet wondered how anybody could describe him any other way. If they were looking at his manners alone, yes, he would be that vampire he and his family were described as. She could see him sucking the life right out of you, and your livelihood while he was at it. But if they were looking at him, they couldn’t help but see a man who might have been as horrible and shallow as they said he was, but he wasn’t enjoying it. Janet saw that right off. His eyes gave it away.
At least that was how Janet saw him. William and Kimmie and even Sheldon seemed to see his fierce style only, and his crude manners, and they couldn’t get beyond that very salient point. That was why they all rose to their feet when he walked in. Janet, however, remained seated. Not because she was being disrespectful. She was still too shocked to stand.
Richard noticed the one who didn’t stand immediately on entering the room, and he wondered why she didn’t stand. He was accustomed to people standing whenever he entered a room. Especially people who wanted to be on his payroll. That was just how it was done. But she didn’t bother.
“You may be seated,” he said as he stood at the head of the table like a man accustomed to barking out orders. “As for you,” he added, as he looked past Sheldon to Janet, “as you were.”
William’s eyebrows rose in shock when he realized Janet had not stood up, too, and he looked angrily at her. But he knew how to camouflage better than most. He continued to smile it off as they all, including Richard, sat down.
But as Richard was sitting down, a sharp pang hit him. And then he suddenly realized who she was. The one who didn’t stand up. He knew her!
Janet? Was that Janet?
“First of all, Mr. Shetfield,” William began talking, “I want to thank you for giving us this opportunity to meet with you.”
“My secretary gave you the opportunity,” said Richard crudely, although his eyes kept darting over at Janet to make sure he was seeing who he thought he was seeing. “That’s how you got this meeting. Doris looked you up. She said you’re the largest consulting firm in Cope. I suspect you’re the only consulting firm in Cope.”
Janet smiled. Sheldon and Kimmie looked at William to see if it was safe to smile. When William smiled, too, they did as well. But Richard noticed how the woman in the nice skirt suit, the one who didn’t bother to stand, Janet, didn’t wait for permission. He liked that.
“We aren’t the only firm in Cope,” William said. “There are quite a few actually. But we like to think we’re the best one in Cope.”
“Why should I hire Rooney and Rice?” Richard asked. He was doing all he could to keep it together. He couldn’t count the times, after he spent that night in her room, after that morning when they made love, when he wanted to throw caution to the wind and go see her again. She was his standard-bearer. She was the shining example to him of what a good woman was. The problem? He wasn’t a good man. He didn’t deserve her.
“Well, sir,” William said, attempting to answer his question, “you should hire Rooney and Rice for a number of reasons.”
“Please don’t let one of them be because both names begin with an R too.”<
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William frowned. He didn’t get the joke. But Janet did. She smiled at that one, too, which made Richard inwardly smile. With her, he was two for two.
Then William caught on. “Oh!” he said. “You mean we’re Rooney and Rice and you’re Richard. All begin with R. Got it. But no, sir, not at all.”
“Then why should I hire you?” Richard took another peep at Janet.
“As I stated, you should hire us for a number of reasons. We are--”
“You’re Rooney or Rice?” Richard asked him.
“I’m Rice, sir,” William said. Janet could tell he was getting a little perturbed by Richard’s constant interruptions. “I’m William Rice. And you should hire our firm because we will represent your interest in a way that places you as our number one priority.”
“As would every consulting firm in America,” Richard fired back. “I’m a billionaire. At least that’s what the papers say. You think I’ll let you make me your number two priority?”
Janet smiled again. She couldn’t help it. He was slinging aces all over the place and putting that obnoxious William Rice in his place while he was at it. Although, she was also a little shocked. He was a billionaire?
But Richard noticed that she had smiled at one of his comments again. She understood his sense of humor when most people just found him crude. She hadn’t changed at all, which he was pleased to note.
And William hurried to correct his error. “Oh, no, sir,” he said, “we would never place you as number two. Nobody would. You’re correct. That’s not what I’m saying.”
“Then what are you saying, Mr. Rice? Why should I hire your firm?”
“Because you will be getting the . . . the best of the best. Phillip Rooney, as you may know, is legendary in our neck of the woods, and he and I will drop everything to work your case exclusively. And, if I may say so myself, we are undeniably the best of the best.”
“You’re Rooney and Rice of Cope, Oklahoma,” Richard fired back. “Get real, okay? Don’t try to come off as if you’re in the same league as the Lauder Firm in California, or the Trevor Reese firm in Boston, who handles most of my consulting business by the way, or any of the other major players. I’m only giving your small-ass firm a chance because of the delicacy of this matter and the fact that I need local representation. And by local I don’t mean Tulsa. I mean Cope, where the allegations were filed. But I’ll forget the local flavor in a heartbeat and go with my top guys if you don’t come at me better than you’re coming right now.”
To say Richard Shetfield was fierce, Janet thought, would be a gigantic understatement. He was mean and callous. And maybe even a bully. But it wasn’t as if William didn’t deserve it. His unprepared butt deserved every lick. Janet was enjoying his verbal beat down. But it was just that Richard seemed to have changed. Those six years since she last saw him seemed to have hardened him even more than he already was.
Not that she knew him like that. She didn’t. But that had been her impression of him.
But William continued to fumble. Janet was seated beside Sheldon and across from William and Kimmie and she could see it all over William’s arrogant face. He didn’t know how to come back from a beat down by a real man. He didn’t know how to fight back when the fight was fair: two titans against each other. He only knew how to beat up on people like Janet and his other frontline workers. People who couldn’t fight back because their livelihoods depended on that job he dangled over their heads.
William, instead, turned to Kimmie. And Kimmie, remembering that Richard Shetfield supposedly loved him some good-looking women, turned on the charm as if she were a sudden floodlight in his dark room. She even stood on her feet so that he could see just how attractive, not only her face was, but her body too. And a pang of jealousy swept through Janet.
“You should hire Rooney and Rice, sir, not because we can compete with the big boys,” Kimmie said, making certain to push out her big breasts when she said it, “but because we know Cope. And we know what people in Cope will buy, and what they won’t buy. And a big boy like the Trevor Reeses of this world coming down here to tell us how it’s done? They ain’t buying that.”
Janet actually looked at Kimmie. Because Kimmie was talking good sense. At least Kimmie was giving Richard something fresh to think about.
But Richard still seemed unmoved to Janet. It was like he knew they were small potatoes and so out of his league that it wasn’t even funny. Was he was entertaining them, anyway, for the hell of it?
Which was exactly how Janet felt after he purchased that car for her, and then left America. He had entertained her for a brief moment in time, knowing she was way out of his league, too, for the hell of it.
“Why would Cope buy something different than Tulsa will buy?” Richard asked. “It’s only a twenty-minute drive from there to here.”
“But it’s a world apart,” William said, and Janet smiled. She once told Richard the very same thing.
But Richard found his interruption rude. “I’m talking to the lady,” he said to William.
Janet could see William’s jaw tighten. He seemed so out of his depth!
“Cope and Tulsa are worlds apart,” said Kimmie, answering the question. “William is right. But we know what will sell in Cope. It just depends on what kind of harassment that’s being alleged.”
“Sexual,” Richard said without skipping a beat.
“On your part?”
When Kimmie asked that question, Janet quickly looked at Richard. Not that it mattered, but it would be a shame, she thought, if it did involve him.
But Richard was already shaking his head. “Heavens no,” he said. “I haven’t seen the inside of that mill since the day I opened it.”
Janet stared at him. Not in the last six years? The day they ran into each other? How could he own a mill and not bother to personally check on it in six years? Then, again, she realized he was super-rich. He probably had a hundred businesses he had to check on. A mill in Cope wasn’t high on his list.
“I just own the place,” Richard continued, making no bones about it. “I have competent, experienced people I trust running that mill.”
“Are the so-called victims all females?” Kimmie asked.
“They are, yes.”
“Then that’s what we’ll have to do,” said Kimmie. “We’ll have to put those women on trial in the court of public opinion, which is right up our alley. Because where I come from, Mr. Shetfield, those females won’t stand a chance.”
She was up-playing her small town girl appeal at this point, Janet thought. And to good effect, she also realized.
“Because where I come from,” Kimmie continued, “they have a saying. A gold digger will say anything to dig your gold. Those women will allege anything to take your gold from you. It’s our job to keep it in your pants.”
As she said those suggestive words, she glanced down at Richard, although that conference table was blocking his midsection. But they all got the point. And Janet felt the heat. She remembered that same point inside of her!
As Kimmie spoke, Richard was looking at Janet, wondering if she remembered his point. Wondering if she remembered him at all.
“That’s why they’re claiming all of this harassment,” Kimmie went on. “That’s why Cope and Tulsa are worlds apart. Because, in Cope, we know gold diggers when we see them. And a gold digger never mean nothing good. That’s why the word itself rhymes with nig---”
She almost said it. Janet was stunned that she almost said it! All those years working with Kimmie and she never saw that side of her. But as Mo said: you never really know people.
Kimmie caught herself. “Bigger,” she said. “That’s why it rhymes with bigger, because they want a big chunk of your money. Anyway, that’s what they say where I come from,” she said, and glanced at Janet.
But Richard wasn’t impressed. What a nasty bitch, he thought when Kimmie almost said the n-word. Had Janet not been in the room, he was certain she would have felt comfortable
enough to outright say it. As if he would go along with that shit. Which meant, to Richard, it would be a cold day in hell before Rooney and Rice got a dime of business from him.
He wondered how Janet, the only person of color in the room, felt about it. He looked past Sheldon, to Janet.
Janet’s heart began to beat faster when he looked her way. She remembered him as if they had bumped into each other just yesterday, rather than six years ago. She’d also noticed how he’d been taking peeps at her since the moment he came into the room, but this time he was staring at her. Did he remember her too? “What about you, Miss um . . . um?”
Did he forget ever running into her period, or just her name, she wondered. And she was about to answer his question, to find out, but William beat her to it. “Jane,” William said. “Her name is Jane Evans.”
“Miss Evans,” said Richard, although he absolutely had not forgotten her nor her name. “What about you?” he asked her. “Do you agree with your coworker?”
“I’m her supervisor,” corrected Kimmie. “Not her coworker.”
Richard frowned. “Who the fuck cares who you are?!” he yelled at Kimmie, showing a flash of out-of-nowhere real anger, which astonished everybody in the room. Vampire, Janet thought, was an amp term for that man!
But Kimmie was hurt by his outburst. She angrily looked at William, expecting that yellowbelly to take up for her. William, to no one’s surprise, didn’t say a word.
It didn’t matter anyway. Richard had already looked away from both of them, and he was still staring at Janet. “What do you have to say about it?” he asked her.
William gave Janet a hard look, as if he were daring her to say anything at all. But the man asked her a question, and she aimed to answer it. “I say you have a major problem on your hands,” she said.
Richard’s eyebrows lifted, as if he were finally about to get some truth from at least one of them. Because he could already see that whatever William Rice and his obvious girlfriend were selling, Janet Evans wasn’t buying. “Why would you call it a major problem? Simply because an allegation was made?”
Plain Jane Evans and the Billionaire Page 8