by Liz Peters
She was stuck between a rock and a hard place and there was nothing that Debbie could think of to relieve it. The only person she could confide in was well over a forty minute drive away, and she had two classes this afternoon that she hadn’t missed a single time through the entire semester. But there was no way she was going to be able to concentrate on what was going on.
By this time she was waiting for the elevators at the end of the hall from Professor Brennan’s office and mumbled to herself while jamming the elevator call button.
“Fuck it.” She pulled out her phone dragging up a text from one of her classmates to shoot off a quick message.
Hey Sarah, mind taking notes for me this afternoon? I’m not feeling good, so I just want to go home and lie down before I get sick.
Most of the campus was fighting off one form or another of the flu or a cold, so telling one of her friends around here she was sick was going to be pretty believable. The reply came as soon as the elevator doors dinged and slid open in front of her.
Not a problem. Go home, get some rest and feel better.
That was all she needed. Shooting off a quick reply of thanks before she stepped into the elevators and pushed the button for the first floor. The garage was only a five-minute walk from here, and she made a beeline for the car. Debbie needed her best friend right now. She needed to vent, and she needed advice from the smartest person that she knew.
Chapter Fourteen
The office was small, and the walls were thin. It was hard to not overhear things that went on in Sam’s office from Jamie’s seat at the desk just outside of the office door. Most of the time they were muffled or completely drowned out by the conversations and noise from his own desk, but Debbie had left the door open when she’d come in here. He could hear her crying as soon as he’d walked in the front door from grabbing lunch across the street. He had seen Debbie’s car in the parking lot outside of the office. It wasn’t like her to be here this time of day on a Thursday. She had class throughout the whole day every Tuesday and Thursday, and she never skipped a class. It just wasn’t like her.
He walked in the door ready to ask her what was up, but he didn’t dare walk in there and interrupt her crying. He wasn’t going to embarrass her like that. He just couldn’t stop himself from listening in on why she was crying. Apparently, neither one of them had heard him come in the door, and he froze, just hearing the entire story come spilling out of her. She couldn’t have been here long. The conversation between the two of them was just getting ramped up, but she was upset which meant her voice was loud and carried through the entire office when she started.
He didn’t know why she’d be this upset. Maybe she’d done badly on something at school. Maybe someone had broken her heart. That thought made his stomach turn a flip. He knew she’d had a thing for one of her professors and when he heard the word professor he took another step towards the office door. It took everything he had in him not to walk in there and find out what was going on straight from the two of them, but that would have meant that he was going to have to give himself away as soon as he popped in there.
“He basically told me he was going to flunk me until I slept with him.” Jamie knew Debbie’s voice as soon as he heard it, and he could tell just from the tone of it that she was absolutely distraught.
Jamie could feel the rage rise in his throat as she spoke, and what she was trying to convey completely registered with him. She was still talking and crying in the small room beyond, but he tuned most of it out. Her professor, probably the same one Reid had thought she had a crush on, was blackmailing her in exchange for grades. He had no idea what she’d done, or how far the two of them had gone, but this was obviously something that she didn’t want to be a part of.
Something came over him at that moment, there had to be something he could do about all of it, but he had no idea what. He didn’t even know the name of this asshole professor, but that problem got fixed as soon as he focused in enough on the conversation to pay attention to what Debbie was saying again.
“I wish I’d never met Joshua Brennan.” He didn’t even pause to say anything to the two of them. Jamie just walked out of the office slamming the door behind him as he made a beeline for his car in the parking lot.
Jamie had no idea what he was going to do or say when he got to the university. He didn’t even really know which office belonged to this Joshua Brennan character, but he knew he had to do something or he wasn’t going to be able to live with himself. He was due back from his lunch break at any moment, and the two of them would have had to have been deaf if they missed the way he’d slammed the door. He knew they’d heard him when his phone went off with a text notification.
You back from lunch, yet?
It was from Sam. She wouldn’t have even cared if he took a long lunch break. He knew her well enough to know that as long as he got his job done, he could have come and gone as he pleased. She was just curious how much time the two of them had to talk and wondering if the slamming door that the two of them had heard was him coming back from work.
He grabbed his phone, typing out a quick reply.
I got a message at lunch, and I have some business to take care of in town. Do you mind if I take the rest of the afternoon off?
He held his breath with the car still running, but in park, while he waited for a reply. It took only a moment. Samantha had no more appointments for the day, and her friend was in the middle of a disaster. He’d been counting on the two of them wanting some time to themselves when he’d sent the text. It turned out he was spot on when he got the reply.
Take all the time you need. I think I’ll be closing up the office early this afternoon. See you tomorrow!
That was all the signal he’d needed. He slammed the car into gear and made a beeline for the highway that leads to the university. The entire way there, he was busily trying to figure out how he was going to handle this. He could go in guns blazing and clock this joker square across the jaw like he deserved, but he didn’t know what that was going to accomplish. Likely, it would just end with him in jail and Sam or Debbie having to come and bail him out. He couldn’t do that to either of them, especially if it meant they were going to figure out why he’d been there in the first place.
He could go in and try to talk through all of this, but something told him that it wasn’t going to make that much of a difference. This guy clearly had some kind of ground to be threatening her on, even if it was an asshole move. He was a law professor, even if he was a douchebag. Jamie had to go in there with a plan. He couldn’t just go off half-cocked and expect anything good to come of it. The last thing he wanted to do was make things worse for Debbie than they already were.
He had a long enough drive in front of him that he could gather his thoughts and put something of a plan together before he walked into the lion’s den. When he got to the school it was just a matter of finding the building that the law professors’ offices were located in, then use the directory on the bottom floor to locate the exact one he was looking for. Really, it couldn’t have been easier if he’d known where he was going as soon as he got there.
Jamie strode into the office without even pausing at the door when the man’s secretary tried to stop him. He kind of felt bad for the woman for having to work for this asshole and for having to deal with him today, but he had a purpose behind what he was about to do.
“Excuse me…” The man sitting behind the desk when he stormed into the inner office looked up shocked at what he was doing. “Can I help you?”
“Well, I’m not entirely certain.” The southern accent that Jamie had tried to shake back in college always grew stronger whenever he was angry or emotional, and right now it was out full force. “You are Joshua Brennan, correct?”
“Yes?” There was a hint of uncertainty in the older man’s voice.
“Good. Then you’re exactly the man I’ve been looking for.” Jamie settled into the chair across from the professor, cracked his knuckles
, and then leaned forward.
Professor Brennan looked thoroughly confused, and his secretary who was standing in the doorway was just as surprised.
“Why don’t you tell her to go back to her desk?” Jamie kept his voice calm and even. “I would hate for her to have to testify against you later.”
He watched an expression of shock wash over the professor’s face as he motioned for her to go back to what she had been doing before Jamie had come storming into the office.
“Close the door behind you, Sandra.” She didn’t say another word, just pulled the door until it clicked into place, in effect disappearing from both of their lives.
“Now, since it’s just the two of us, we have the matter of a young woman to discuss.”
“And which young woman might that be?”
Jamie thought about this for a moment, deciding to keep his cards close to his chest for this one. He was going to make him give himself away rather than throw everything in his face right away.
“Well, the one that you’re attempting to offer a passing grade in your class in exchange for sexual favors.” He watched the wheel turning behind the professor’s eyes as he struggled with how much to expose.
“How much has she told you?”
“Enough.” Jamie kept his tone low and conversational, not giving away anything with a single misplaced word before he needed to.
“I told Julia that everything that happened between the two of us had no effect on her grades. She’s been a willing participant in all of this.” Jamie felt the corners of his mouth turn up into a grin as the older man started babbling.
“Julia, eh? Try again…” He let his voice trail off as he tried to fight off a laugh.
“Anna?” The other man’s voice grew quieter.
“Go fish.” It was all Jamie could do not to laugh out loud as he went for another name.
“Deborah.” That name steeled Jamie’s reserve again, wiping any trace of a laugh out of his voice.
“Ah, we have a winner.” Now that Brennan had hit on the correct topic of conversation, it was time to sink the hook in completely.
“And what business is it of yours?”
“Well, let’s just say I’ve made it my business.”
“I’m not entirely certain what it is you expect me to say, except that you’ve got no legs to stand on here. She threw herself at me. She offered to sleep with me in exchange for a grade.”
Jamie just laughed out loud at that response.
“You and I both know better than that, Professor. Don’t try that worn out line of bullshit on me. It might work with someone you have any kind of influence over, but not me. There’s nothing you can do to me, and I’m going to be honest, there’s nothing you can do to her.”
“And pray tell, what do you think you’re going to do about any of it?”
“Well, Professor.” Jamie took this exact moment to pull the phone out of the breast pocket of his shirt and lay it down on the desk in between both of them. “I think that the administration of this university would love to have this recorded conversation where you’re confused about exactly which of the female students of yours you’re blackmailing that I’m referring to. I happen to know Debbie MacIntyre, and well enough to know that she hadn’t slept with you, nor has she offered to sleep with you in exchange for anything. That’s not her style. Now, her best friend is one of the best attorneys in the state currently, and I’m a guy who works for her with absolutely nothing to lose. So please try me.”
Professor Brennan’s mouth was moving, but no sounds were coming out. He was apparently searching for the words to try to back out of what he’d already said.
“I’m not sure what it is you’re trying to say, Sir, but I’m pretty sure that I can get at least some kind of corroboration from this Julia and Anna that you’ve referred to. I’ll bet Debbie would be happy to give me the contact information of anyone in her class with those first names and seeing as women in law school are few and far between, I’m pretty sure she’d be spot on with at least one of them. How about you?”
The older man just shook his head as Jamie sat back in his chair.
“That’s what I thought. So why don’t you go ahead in your little grade book or computer or what have you, give Miss MacIntyre the grade that she deserves, and we can just pretend this little conversation never happened. As long as she’s happy, I’m happy. And as long as I’m happy, this stays right here on my phone where no one else can hear it.” Jamie reached out, turning off the recording. “Of course, that also is dependent upon you cutting off whatever connection you have with these other young women. I hope you understand, and if I so much as hear a whisper of you texting her, talking to her outside of class, or marking her down based on nothing more than the fact that you want more out of her than she’s willing to give, I promise to make your life a living hell to the best of my ability, whatever that takes. Are we clear?”
He simply nodded in response as Jamie moved to stand up from the chair he’d been resting in.
“It’s been a pleasure doing business with you, Sir. I hope I never hear from you again, and you’d sure as hell better hope you never hear from me again.” Jamie turned and strode out of the office, promising himself that he was getting a drink as soon as he got himself home. He just had one place he needed to stop first.
Chapter Fifteen
Debbie had spent the better part of the afternoon in Sam’s office crying her head off and trying to figure out what she was going to do about everything that had happened. The two of them had tried to brainstorm a few ideas, but all of them ended up with the potential that Debbie was going to be punished by the administration of the university and kicked out of school.
It was the last thing that Debbie wanted, and Samantha wasn’t going to push her into anything she didn’t feel comfortable doing, so the afternoon had ended in a deadlock. She was still no closer to figuring out how she was going to handle this whole situation than she had been when she’d left Professor Brennan’s office at lunchtime.
The two of them stayed in the office until it was time for Sam to go home. Her friend had invited her to come back to her place to have dinner with Sam and Reid, but Debbie wasn’t going to impose her problems on the two of them more than she already had. Something was going to have to be done about it, and Debbie was just going to have to figure out what she was comfortable with doing on her own.
She’d come to the conclusion that all she could do was call Professor Brennan on his bluff. She was going to stop answering his texts and calls, keep going to class like nothing had happened and just cross her fingers that he would give up when he saw he wasn’t getting any kind of response out of her. It was the only course of action she felt comfortable enough to take at this point.
At the moment, she’d been trying to settle her nerves by getting comfortable at home, but all she’d managed to do was work herself into a nervous wreck, pacing the floor and obsessively eating all the chocolate in the house. She was going to feel bad about that later, but for right now, she didn’t have the emotional capacity to be this worried and to feel bad about what she had eaten.
Debbie finally quit pacing the floor and settled onto her couch, but she found herself gnawing on her fingernails and jumping so violently that she nearly fell off the cushion onto the floor when she heard a knock at the door. She hadn’t been expecting anyone, but there was certainly someone at her door. It was only seven in the evening. The sun was just barely set, and the crickets had begun to sing in the grass out past her front door. She could make out the silhouette of someone on the other side of the glass, but she didn’t know who it was until she turned on the porch light.
The light revealed the last person she’d expected to be standing on the other side of the door — Jamie Halston. She wasn’t sure if he was the first person she wanted to see or the last right now. She opened the door a little reluctantly.
“Jamie? What are you doing here?” He was standing there a little expec
tantly on the front porch as the bugs who were suddenly attracted to the porch light swarmed around his head.
“I mean, I guess. I’ve just got a lot going on right now…” She opened the door and let him inside. Every nerve in Debbie’s body was on edge after the day she had. She was waiting on every decision she’d made to backfire on her right now, and here was another man she’d done something foolish with at her house in the middle of the evening when he should have been at his own place. She wasn’t expecting anything good to come of this.
“Listen, I know this is stupid. I shouldn’t be here. I just wanted to tell you that you don’t have to worry about Professor Brennan anymore.”
Debbie’s eyes went wide as Jamie brought up the last person she wanted to hear about right now. She didn’t even know that Jamie knew about the professor or about anything that had been going on. She felt the heat rise in her cheeks in complete embarrassment at the situation that she had found herself in.
“How did you…” She started to ask the question that was on the tip of her tongue, but Jamie interrupted her before she could finish.
“I overheard you two talking about him this afternoon when I came back from lunch. You didn’t hear me come in, and I wasn’t trying to eavesdrop but I didn’t want to embarrass you either.” He took a deep breath. “I should have minded my own business I know, but I couldn’t stand by and just watch him try to take advantage of you. You deserve so much better than that.”
Debbie was a little relieved that someone had stepped in on her behalf, but she had wanted to be able to take care of this problem herself. She was just too stubborn to accept that she couldn’t fix all of this on her own.