Mine to Protect

by Sarah J. Brooks

  Work was clearly what was so important to her. She had only been at Wolfe and Conley for a few months, but Rose was growing to love it there. Being a lawyer kept her mind busy, and she was constantly challenged with each new case. Rose was finally seeing why her late husband had loved the law so much. It was exciting and adrenaline evoking. Every day was filled with excitement, and Rose felt like she was high on adrenaline most of the time.

  When she had met Bronx, it was clear that he was a bit of an adrenaline junkie himself. Rose remembered thinking it was odd that he was a lawyer. Bronx didn’t look like the traditional lawyer, with his shaggy blond hair and relaxed demeanor. But Rose was starting to understand Bronx was a lot like she was. He was cast out of the traditional society and finding his own way of dealing with the world through adventure. Rose understood that much more than how Noah dealt with the world.

  Noah, was a bystander, at least in Rose’s eyes. He always was there in her memories, but she couldn’t remember what he was doing. Noah was happy to be on the sidelines and let others take the lead, but he wasn’t the lead actor in his own life. That frustrated Rose. Just like him not coming to talk to her if he was angry with her.

  As she walked into the conference room, her eyes briefly caught Noah’s before he turned his head back down toward the paper he was reading and ignored her. He looked angry with her, but it had been weeks, and he hadn’t approached her about it. Rose started to think it was all in her mind, and Noah wasn’t actually upset at all.

  “Good morning,” Rose said in general to the room.

  “Morning Rose,” Elaine said. “If you’d like to start reading through that brief, it will be helpful when the president arrives.”

  “The president?” Rose asked.

  “Yes, the President of the United States and Mrs. Storm will be here shortly.”

  Chapter 20

  “I got called in by my aunt right after you left,” Bronx said as he sat down next to Rose at the conference room table. “What’s going on?”

  Rose wasn’t sure she really knew what was going on either. All she knew so far was that she was supposed to read through the packet of information before her that seemed to indicate an impending criminal case against the first lady. It was really odd that there was so much evidence in the file in front of her, yet she hadn’t heard a single thing on the news yet. But then again, they were dealing with Matthew Storm, and he was a sketchy character. Even as president, Rose was sure he was able to manipulate information and keep it out of the media if he wanted to.

  She was actually really relieved to have Bronx in the room with her. Even though they were lovers, Bronx had also been one of her allies in the office. At first, they had tried to make people believe they didn’t like each other, but they soon learned that no one really cared if they were friends. The others they shared an office with were Stewart and Shamus, and those two were busy trying to make a good first impression on the partners. They hardly noticed when Rose and Bronx were even in the room. It was just easier to talk to each other and deal with work like normal without pretending.

  “The president and his wife are coming.”

  Bronx laughed like a frat boy. He always did that when Rose said the word ‘coming’, it was their little joke, and Rose tried not to react to it. They were in a room with Noah, Elaine, and some paralegals. She didn’t want to look unprofessional.

  “Coming is the right word. I bet that girl makes him come all the time,” Bronx joked.

  “Shhh,” Rose said smiling.

  “How about after this meeting I make you come?” Bronx whispered.

  Rose gave him a stern look, and Bronx just continued to laugh. He didn’t seem to care that his aunt and Noah were sitting in the same room with them. Rose turned back to her papers and tried to ignore Bronx, but he let his hand slip up her skirt, and she burst out laughing as she pulled it away.

  “Hands to yourself mister,” she said quietly.

  Both Elaine and Noah looked at the two with disapproval before turning back to the tasks they had in front of them. Rose felt like she had just been caught by her parents and suddenly sat up straight and went back to her own work. Noah hadn’t seemed like himself at all recently, and she felt horribly guilty about it, but if he wasn’t going to talk to her, then that was his decision, and she wasn’t going to let it be a big deal. There were plenty of other things she had to worry about for the time being.

  “Bronx and Rose, when they arrive, I want you two to sit back here with the paralegals. This meeting will be good to observe, but you two won’t have any time with the Storms and no messing around,” she said as she looked at Bronx and then over to Rose.

  “Okay,” Rose replied.

  When Matthew and Michaela Storm arrived, it was a bit like a circus. There were several security guards with them, and their personal lawyer arrived as well. Mr. Storm, the new president, had implemented an extreme amount of security around himself and his wife after several deaths close to them before he became president. It was understandable that he was fearful for his own life and the life of his loved ones, yet it was pretty overwhelming when they all arrived in the conference room at once.

  Although, Rose had a sneaking suspicion that the new president had some part in the deaths of people close to him. Everyone had been shocked by the deaths of the former vice president and then the president himself. Of course, there was no evidence that Matthew Storm had anything to do with it, and Rose wasn’t going to question all of that. Obviously, there were plenty of police and investigations, so Mr. Storm must have been innocent if they let him become president.

  Rose had a particular interest in Matthew Storm, though. She had met a young woman who worked for him a few years before at a party. That girl had been in love with Mr. Storm, at least from the way she had been talking with Rose about the man. So when the girl turned up missing a few weeks later, it was a total shock to Rose. She started her own conspiracy theories, but nothing more ever came of it. It turned out the woman had committed suicide.

  “Mr. President,” Elaine said as she stood up and shook his hand. “First Lady,” she said as she shook Mrs. Storm’s hand.

  Noah followed with similar responses as they all said hello and sat down. The security detail moved outside of the conference room, and the president and the first lady stayed sitting across from Noah and Elaine. The personal lawyer they had brought with them sat next to Mrs. Storm, which seemed odd to Rose as she looked on, but then again she didn’t know why they were in Wolfe and Conley yet either.

  “We have been looking over the case and can see why you are concerned; it does appear that this young woman has a case.”

  “Ms. Wolfe, I hope I can be frank with you, but I don’t give a damn if she is Mother Theresa, this case won’t make it into the public light. But that’s not really why we are here.”

  “Yes, Mr. President, I understand. I’m just trying to be honest with you in my assessment of the situation. Your wife is in a lot of trouble here.”

  Elaine looked from the president to the first lady, who was sitting with a stern expression, whispering something to the lawyer sitting next to her. Michaela Storm was only in her mid-twenties, yet she acted much older. She also was about half the age of the president, which had caused a lot of controversy when he was a senator.

  Rose could still remember reading the stories and seeing the news headlines when Matthew Storm was a senator. His rise to the presidency had been very public and so had his relationship with his intern turned wife. Their saucy romance had enthralled Rose, and she remembered thinking that Michaela was one smart woman to have landed a man like Matthew Storm.

  Most people in the press put Michaela, or Kayla, down for her age and because she had worked in his political office. But Rose could see by the way the two of them communicated non-verbally that they were very close. In fact, sometimes it even seemed like Kayla was the one in charge, and the president was listening to her. But then again, that could have been because
she was the one being charged with bribing an official and threatening to kill a co-worker; neither of those things seemed like something the First Lady of the United States should have on her public record.

  “Ms. Wolfe, I prefer honesty over anything else, and I appreciate your statement. My husband is sometimes not as good at showing his appreciation. The reason we are here is not for your help with the criminal case; I’m sorry if that was what you thought we were here for. We need your help in preserving the non-profit organization we are now in charge of. The government is going to try and prove that it was run with illegal funds, which it was not. We need your help setting up the incorporation papers to ensure I can regain my status once these charges are cleared. I need to put someone into the CEO position that I’ve already chosen and who is willing to step down when I am ready to get back to work. They are a close relation who I trust with all the details of this non-profit.”

  Both Elaine and Noah sat and looked puzzled at the first lady as she spoke. It didn’t seem all that hard to rewrite some incorporation articles for a company, and they weren’t really sure why she had come to them. Or why they had submitted all the background information from the criminal case to review. There had been hundreds of pages of information that Elaine, Noah, Rose, and Bronx had to go over.

  “I’m sorry, I’m confused,” Noah said. “What exactly do you need us to do?”

  “Bring her in please,” the president said to the security guard near the door.

  Rose watched in total astonishment as the woman who walked through the door sat down next to the president. Neither Elaine nor Noah knew who the woman was, but Rose knew her. It was the same woman she had met at a party in Washington a few years earlier.

  “Elizabeth,” Rose said in shock before the woman had been introduced.

  Both the president and the first lady looked over at Rose in unison at her recognition of the woman. It was clear that they hadn’t expected anyone in that room to know who the woman was.

  “You know who this is?” the president asked Rose.

  “Yes,” Rose answered quietly as she looked at both Elaine and Noah who were still in the dark about who the woman was.

  The president and the first lady whispered something to each other and then to the lawyer sitting next to them. The woman, Elizabeth, just sat quietly, smiling pleasantly. She didn’t seem concerned about anything that was going on. She actually looked really happy to Rose.

  “Are you a lawyer?” the first lady asked frankly.

  “Yes, I’m a first year.”

  “So you are bound by the same confidentiality rules as Mr. Conley and Ms. Wolfe?”

  “Yes, Ma’am.”

  The first lady acknowledged Rose’s answer but did not reply. Instead, she turned her attention back to Noah and Elaine as she continued to introduce the woman. Rose seriously couldn’t understand what was happening. Her mind felt like it was in a mixer as she glanced at Elizabeth and how great she looked; especially for a woman who had been dead for several years.

  “Mrs. Wolfe and Mr. Conley, this is Elizabeth Anderson,” the first lady said. “My husband slept with her and was almost charged with her death a few years ago. She will be taking my place as the CEO of Charity Water.”

  Rose’s eyes were as big as they could possibly get as she looked from Elizabeth to the president and then the first lady. She knew that Matthew and Michaela Storm were notorious for their ability to keep secrets, but this was a secret on a whole different level. Rose had so many questions running through her head that it was near impossible to just sit and not respond to the president or the first lady. But she kept quiet as the meeting continued.

  Chapter 21

  “Thank you for your time, we will get started on the legal paperwork and keep in touch with you,” Elaine said, shaking hands with the president and first lady after the meeting was over.

  It was a hurricane of excitement as they left the building, and Rose sat quietly in total shock as she looked on. Neither Noah nor Elaine had actually asked the president for an explanation of why they wanted a presumably dead woman to be the CEO of the first lady’s charity. They hadn’t even asked if the first lady was actually guilty of bribing the public official or of threatening to kill her co-worker. Rose couldn’t understand why those essential questions hadn’t even been asked, but Noah and Elaine seemed unfazed by the meeting that had just taken place.

  No one had even brought up the subject that Elizabeth was considered dead of an overdose. That information had been all over the news when the incident happened. Rose was in shock. Were Noah and Elaine really going to agree to whatever the president wanted without questioning what they were getting themselves into?

  “So he pretended to kill her and now they keep her as their sex slave?” Bronx asked jokingly.

  “I have no idea what just happened,” Rose said quietly. “She supposedly committed suicide after having an affair with him. He was the prime suspect, and then all the gossip just disappeared.”

  There were so many versions of what had happened between the president and his intern that Rose really didn’t know which one was true. But she did know that Elizabeth had been totally in love with the then senator but had been worried about their relationship. Rose remembered her conversation with Elizabeth at the party very clearly, and she couldn’t get that fresh faced young woman’s picture out of her mind for months after the death had been announced in the news.

  Rose remembered thinking that Elizabeth had not looked depressed at all. She looked happy and excited, and only a little nervous because she was having a relationship with her boss. But there she was sitting with the man she’d had an affair with and that man’s new wife. It was all so bizarre that Rose couldn’t help thinking of a million questions that were running through her mind.

  “Maybe she wanted to disappear, and he just helped her?”

  “Maybe, but those two are weird,” Rose said as she waited for Noah or Elaine to comment on the meeting they had all just attended. “I know he’s the president and he is damn sexy as hell, but he scares me, and so does Kayla.”

  Kayla was sweet looking, and she had been rather nice while in their meeting. But she appeared calculating and certainly not naive like the press had made her out to be. In fact, Kayla and Matthew seemed like the perfect partnership. They had come from the senator’s office to the White House in only a few short months; something the two of them were doing was exactly right.

  There was a chemistry between the president and his wife that Rose admired. She watched them in the meeting as he gently touched her hand, and she looked at him. Rose could tell that they loved each other very much, and for a brief moment, she missed having someone like that in her life.

  “Are you two done gossiping yet?” Noah said curtly to them.

  Bronx just blew off the comments, but Rose wasn’t in the mood to be berated in front of Elaine. Rose felt like she had a little bit of an upper hand since she knew Elizabeth. Certainly, she had some insider information that Noah and Elaine would want to know. But instead of asking her about Elizabeth, Noah was trying to make her presence in the meeting insignificant.

  “It’s not gossip if it’s true,” Rose replied.

  “Oh, so you know this woman so well that you know exactly what is going on do you?” Noah asked.

  “No, I don’t know what’s going on exactly. But I know that woman, and I know she supposedly killed herself a few years ago after having an affair with him, and now she’s sitting right here with both the president and his wife like nothing happened. I know enough to have asked some questions of what the hell was going on.”

  “Questions aren’t what we are being hired for. Do you think the president just paid us five million dollars to ask him questions about his twisted sexual life, his children, or his secrets?”

  “Children?” Rose asked.

  She really had no idea what was going on, but apparently, Noah knew more than he was saying. The president didn’t have children,
not that Rose knew of. In fact, Rose even remembered an interview that the first lady had given where she was talking about not having time for a child in her life at the moment. It had been awhile ago, though, and perhaps the first lady was pregnant, and they just weren’t announcing it yet. Either way, Noah seemed to know what was going on even without Rose adding her information.

  “When someone like that comes in here, it’s our job to get what they are asking done for them in a legal way. It is not our job to question their life, do you understand?”

  “Noah, it’s not unreasonable that she is confused. Maybe a little explanation would be helpful?” Elaine stepped in as Noah started to fume with anger.

  “Rose doesn’t appreciate explanations. Instead, she’d prefer to make her own reasoning up and avoid the reality of what is right in front of her. I’m going to file the motion; you can bring them up to speed if you want,” Noah said before storming out.

  Rose was shocked at how Noah was behaving. Especially to talk to her like that in front of Elaine and the rest of the employees; it was obvious he was upset with her. She should have talked to him sooner about it.

  Noah was the type of guy who just let things fester until he exploded. Unlike Rose, who just avoided everything and didn’t explode at all; Noah was an emotional and sweet man. Rose felt horrible for her part in making him angry.

  “What the hell is wrong with him?” Bronx asked when the door shut.

  “Bronx, be respectful. He’s under a lot of stress right now. Rose, I’m sorry he was so stern with you. There is a lot to this case that we didn’t let you two read through. I didn’t feel it was necessary. I’m sure it’s confusing since you know that woman, but please try to stay focused on the task we were hired for.”