“You deceived everyone, didn’t you Madeline? You did anything and everything to get your way, but I won’t let you get away with it another moment. I’m taking all I have to the state and Joseph Bowen. You’ll go to jail for what you-” Phoebe was cut off sharply as Madeline seem to leap over the desk and enclose her long fingers around Phoebe’s neck strangling her.
Phoebe fell back from the force of body weight on her and Madeline followed all the way to the ground. At this same moment security arrived along with Lawrence to see Madeline choking Phoebe. Jacoby was above them, trying to pull Madeline away, but she had a death grip on Phoebe’s neck.
With all her might and what was left of the strength inside her body, Phoebe delivered a fist to Madeline’s right jaw sending the older woman careening off of her. Phoebe stood up with Jacoby’s help as Madeline jumped to her feet on her own. Phoebe was still coughing, but when Madeline charged at her and swung the claws she called nails, Phoebe ducked and Madeline viciously scraped Jacoby’s neck with her nails.
Phoebe bawled up her other fist and delivered a full body weight punch to Madeline’s chest followed by a right to her eye. Madeline fell back over the chairs. Phoebe turned to Jacoby to see if he was all right as Madeline barely was able to stand up on her own.
“Arrest her!” Madeline sneered. “Call the police.”
“But you were landing the punches,” one of the security officers said.
She sneered, “This is my office and I demand that this slut be thrown off my property.”
Phoebe was sick and tired of Madeline’s petty name calling. “I’ll show you some throwing, Bitch,” she sneered lunging for her, but Jacoby grabbed her around the waist and held her against him. Madeline ran behind Simon, who now stood with a daze and confused look on his face.
“Take your hands off of her,” Lawrence ordered.
Jacoby gave Lawrence a warning glance. “This isn’t the time, Lawrence.”
Phoebe rolled her eyes heavenwards and moved away from Jacoby to turn the attention back to her ignoring Lawrence’s displeasure. “Simon you better start talking, unless you were apart of this. In that case, I intend to tell your father about your involvement on having me fired.”
Simon was sweating like a stuck pig as he blurted out, “It was all her idea!”
The room was quiet as all eyes turned on Madeline, whom Simon was pointing an accusing finger at.
“She said we could get away with it all if I didn’t tell my daddy and I’d get a boatload of money.”
“Just how much money is involved here?” Jacoby asked bothered.
“Over a million dollars in overages alone, not including the money for the office personnel that she supposedly told Bowen that was employed here. Looking over the accounting records,” Phoebe said, going over to the desk to flip through the packet, “She has four bogus employees here that don’t exist, but their checks are being cashed and put in her account.”
Jacoby was astounded by the extent of Madeline’s deceitfulness. “I’m sure Joseph Bowen deserves to be called on the matter.”
A large man of over six foot came through the door. He was a larger replica of Simon’s short lean nature.
The giant was puffing on a thick Cuban and not at all looking too pleased about being there. “What should I be called on?” he demanded to know.
Phoebe knew exactly who he was. He looked bigger than the picture on the wall portrayed him, but she remembered that voice clearly from the voicemail she had made late last night and he was right on time. “Mr. Bowen, I’m Phoebe Green, I left a message on your machine last night.”
He shook her hand. “So you’re the little lady who left that vague message on my machine last night to be here at ten. I wasn’t about to come until I saw that fax early this morning on the FIA spreadsheets,” Joseph said, looking over at Madeline warily.
Phoebe smiled confidently knowing her mother had faxed over the spreadsheets and other information to Joseph Bowen and Leslie Cross.
“Whatever this tramp has tried to convince you I’ve done, Joseph, she’s a lying whore and should not be trusted. I have every intentions of firing her for incompetence and she just wants to get back at me,” Madeline said.
Joseph gave a long puff on his cigar before responding. “Seems to me, Maddie, you might be talking about yourself. This girl had enough information about your double dealings to put you away for a long while with the State of Michigan and I’m going to make sure you never try to screw with me again.”
At this time two Michigan State Police Officers appeared at the door.
Madeline gasped. “Joseph, how could you believe her? We’re partners! She’s nothing but a disgruntled employee who thinks we owe her.”
“And we do. I was never aware that you weren’t paying her what she deserved or even close to what you turned in on annual reports to me. I have had my suspicions that something wasn’t smelling right over here, which is why I insisted that my son worked here.” He looked over at Simon who looked about ready to pee on himself. “If I had known you would involve yourself in scamming me as well, I would have just done a private investigation myself, but I thought as my son, you would at least have the heart to come back and tell me that my partner was deceiving me.”
“She convinced me that we’d be rich if I participated in it, Dad, and I was going to tell you all about her taking the money once I got the money,” Simon nervously explained.
“How much was it going to take, boy?” his father asked, coming very close to losing his temper. “Because fifty thousand dollars was already transferred into your bank account from Madeline’s personal account two weeks ago. I think that was more than enough time to come to me.”
“You got to believe me, Dad. I was convinced this was the right thing to do,” Simon begged. “I didn’t realize-”
“You didn’t realize what?” his father exploded cutting him. “I damn well raised you better than that, you spineless son of a bitch. The only thing she convinced you was that you were as greedy as she was.” He turned to the officers. “Take my partner and my son into custody, officers.”
Madeline gasped, “How could you do this to me, Joseph?! I am your partner,” she exclaimed as one of the officers started to put handcuffs on her wrist. “We’ve known each other for so long! Please Joseph. Please don’t do this!” she begged.
Simon only lowered his head in shame as they led him out, but Madeline continued to plead, but all her shouting fell on deaf ears. Joseph Bowen turned to Phoebe.
“If you had suspicion something was going on, Mr. Bowen, why did you wait until she had taken so much?” Phoebe asked.
“Because I had no proof. I did secret searches on the server, but I never guessed that Latrice was also in on it.” He took her hand in his. “Thank you for all your help.”
Phoebe frowned very uneasily. “Why didn’t you suspect me?”
“I did,” he admitted. “And I had the investigators look into you as well, but they couldn’t find a thing that could link you to the embezzlement. Only Latrice, Madeline, and Simon were involved. Madeline was only going to have you as a temporary because the FIA account was in jeopardy of going bad and she didn’t have anyone who could help her get the money and also keep the account going. So she hid everything from you, while Latrice took care of the money. It was too easy.” He smiled gratefully. “I didn’t have any real proof of what she was doing until now. I was very glad that you were not apart of this, Phoebe. You have been a great asset with this company and now that I need someone to really run this office, I was hoping that you would assist me in this matter.”
Phoebe took a deep breath and looked back at Jacoby. Before she could answer Joseph though, Jacoby spoke up saying, “You have a month, Mr. Bowen to find yourself a new manager for this office. Phoebe has accepted my offer to become my Detroit office manager.”
Joseph looked highly disappointed. “I do apologize for any loss wages you may have suffered because of all of this. You�
�ll be paid for every cent you should have been give, Phoebe,” he promised. “I give you my word and if you ever need anything, I’m at your beck and call.”
“Thank you, Mr. Bowen,” Phoebe said gratefully.
With a defeated sigh, Joseph said, “I had better get on the job of getting someone dependable here, but I must admit you’ll be a tough act to follow Phoebe.”
When he left, she turned to Jacoby, who looked as if he were going to burst with pride. Before she even got a word out her mouth, he swept her up in a big hug almost crushing her.
Looking over his shoulder she noted that Lawrence was still in the room with them just leaning against the windowsill. Pushing away from Jacoby, she moved towards Lawrence.
“You did a good job,” Lawrence said quietly. “I’m glad you did that.” He looked over her shoulder at Jacoby and then he looked back at her. “Do you need a moment alone?”
Lawrence just naturally assumed she wanted to be with him and not with Jacoby. It was quite arrogant of him and he was being "gracious" enough to allow her to speak with Jacoby alone. The idea that he could be so arrogant didn't shock her, but she wondered when had she given Lawrence indication that she didn't want to be with Jacoby. Or did he just naturally assume that she would do his will, rather than Jacoby's.
She looked over her shoulder at Jacoby with a look of sympathy. He knew what she wanted, but it didn’t look like he really wanted to give it to her. Reluctantly, he left out the room to give them some privacy. The security officers followed him closing the door behind them.
“Lawrence, I think we do need to talk,” she said feeling quite guilty.
“There’s nothing to say,” he said, coming up to her and pulling her in his arms. “You’ll be working only as his office manager, nothing else. I can accept that.”
“Can you accept us only being friends?” she asked.
“Of course. Jacoby probably won’t like it, though.”
She frowned in frustration and pushed away from him. “I think you are misunderstanding the matter, Lawrence. I was speaking about you and I.”
The deflated expression on his face was very evident. Phoebe didn’t want to hurt him, but she did not want him to get his hopes up and think that there could be something more. “Jacoby doesn’t know how to treat a woman like you, Phoebe. You need tender loving care and I can give you that.”
Biting her lip, she decided to be evasive in her relationship with Jacoby. “This has nothing to do with Jacoby, Lawrence. I have already told him I don’t want a relationship. I just don’t want you to think that there could be something more between you and I, when I know there won’t be. The last thing I want to do is hurt you, Lawrence.”
Lawrence looked towards the door warily. “So you have no intentions of being with Jacoby either?”
Phoebe bit her lip confused not really wanting to discuss how she felt about Jacoby right now. Looking out the window to gather her thoughts, she said, “I really can’t answer that question right now. I’m not sure how I feel.”
He gently rubbed her cheek. “Like I said, I don’t want to pressure you about it. I’ll always be there for you.”
She had a feeling Lawrence was highly disappointed and had expected a lot more than just friendship from her. Yet she smiled at him and said, “Thank you so much.”
Lawrence leaned over and kissed her cheek very close to her lips paused a moment then left. In her heart Phoebe felt she was right to tell him the truth about her confusing feelings for Jacoby. On one hand she was very much loved what he did to her sexually and emotionally. She enjoyed the times she was with him and when he wasn’t around she found herself still thinking about him. Yet, she was terrified. Terrified of getting hurt and terrified that she would hurt him.
So she did love him, but was too proud and too terrified to admit it to anyone.
“Penny for your thoughts,” the man on her mind whispered in her ear.
“I think you’ve given me enough money, Mr. Knight and who gave you permission to talk for me?” she asked, turning around to face him folding her arms across her chest and looking highly upset.
“I assumed you wanted me to give you the opportunity not to answer him directly and you probably didn’t figure Mr. Bowen would assign you as director of this office. Plus I wasn’t going to lose the best thing in my life. Did I assume wrong, Phoebe?”
Dammit if her heart didn’t skip an extra beat. Was he talking about his business life or personal life? Phoebe pushed the thought of her actually finding him attractive even more out of her mind. She just needed right now to get home and away from this irresistible man to think over the days events.
“No you assumed correct, Jacoby.”
Immediately, he asked, “Will you accept my position at my office?”
“I would be a fool not to. It’s too good to be true and you know I need the money. Why do you always have to do that?” she asked perturbed more at herself than at him, but he didn’t know that.
“Do what? Use money in order to get you?” Jacoby questioned. “Phoebe, you’ve made it no other way to have you.” His voice was almost desperate.
Filled with apprehension, she asked, “What do you want from me personally, Jacoby? You’ve got everything. What could you possibly want from me?”
“Haven’t I made it obvious?” he asked as if she should have known, but the look on her face made it apparent that she had no idea what he was talking about.
“Thank you for paying off those things for me,” she said. “Is that what you want to talk about? I will pay you back all that money, I promise, now that Mr. Bowen will give me the back pay.”
Angrily he said, “I told you before it wasn’t about the money. It was never about the money and you should know this by now.”
“Then what?”
He looked at her seriously. “I can’t believe all this time you didn’t know. Phoebe, have you been that hurt that you can’t see when a man really likes you?”
“Likes me? Daniel liked me, but that didn’t stop him from hurting me,” she sneered.
He cursed under his breath. “There is no convincing you is there? You will never be able to put down the hurt Daniels caused you, will you?” he asked. “Why can’t you just accept what today has to offer you, Phoebe?”
“And what has today offered me?” she asked incredulously.
Jacoby stood there for a long moment as if just staring at her would make things better. Yet it seemed the harder he stared the more she just didn’t get it? Shoulders slumped in defeat, Jacoby went to the doorway, stopping before he went completely out of it and turned back to look at her. “Me,” was all he whispered before turning back around and leaving out the door.
Phoebe sat down in the nearest chair covering her face in her hands hoping the best thing in her life had not just walked out the door.
Chapter 24
Phoebe went through life at the office like a robot. She had always done her job well whether she wanted to be there or not. Of course, Joseph still continued to offer more money to get her to stay, but Phoebe wanted no part in P&B Communications anymore.
Lawrence called her often and came by as much as he possibly could to cheer her up, but it was hard to cheer her up when he couldn’t figure out what was bringing her down. Patricia was still enamored of Lawrence, but had stopped trying to convince her daughter on what a mother thought was good for Phoebe. Instead, Patricia kept all her comments to herself about the situation.
Two weeks passed and Jacoby had not called Phoebe. Lawrence mentioned by the middle of the second week, Jacoby had gone to Chicago to secure another deal and in the middle of it, he was called away to go to the Philippines to see his parents. Apparently, his mother had fallen ill, but with it being right before Thanksgiving, Jacoby had intentions of seeing them anyway, although usually his parents came home for the holidays. Lawrence seemed in high spirits with Jacoby out the country.
Phoebe was not that out of touch with everything. She knew Lawre
nce wanted to start a relationship with her and if she had not met Jacoby, she would very seriously consider being with Lawrence, but she had met Jacoby, and her heart and body was in desperate need for him.
At night after she had put the twins to bed, all she could do was think about him, wonder where he was and hoped she had not destroyed her last opportunity of happiness. On top of this, knowing his insatiable nature, she was deeply envious of the woman who could be satisfying his needs now and Phoebe wished desperately it were she getting his attention at that moment in time.
At the beginning of the third week, a package came to the office for Phoebe. The new office manager, Amy Tarre, had brought the package in Phoebe’s new office, which was Jacoby’s old office space. Amy looked very excited and it made her oriental eyes close even more. She was a real nice girl, thirty years old, and very able to take over the position at the office.
“Hurry up and open it,” Amy said.
Phoebe pulled out two envelopes of varying sizes. She opened the skinny one first. It was a letter from Jacoby addressed to her in a professional manner along with some other documents.
Ms. Green,
Welcome to your new position as office manager for Knight Marketing. In this envelope you have just opened, I have enclosed everything you need in order to get you started as a new employee. Although, I will be away from the office most of the time, we will always be able to keep in touch. My previous office manager, Cathy Reese, in Lansing, will also assist you in setting up all that you need in order to get things under way in Detroit. Please fill out these forms enclosed and send them to back to Cathy in the envelope provided as soon as possible.
The other envelope contains the necessary items you will need in order to run the office in Detroit and to stay in contact with me. Cathy will explain to you all the priorities and what I will expect from you, but please don’t worry, I know you will do well in the position as my eyes and ears when I am not around.
Deceptive Nights Page 16