Saving Scotty Read online

  From time to time I had to get some more puffs from the inhaler. Other than that, however, I pretty much sobbed non-stop for the rest of the night. Poor Nick didn’t really know what to do, so he just silently let me feel my emotions for the rest of the night.

  Chapter 27

  The next day, after I spent most of the night bawling in Nick’s arms, I felt that it was time to take action. I hoped that I had gotten my emotions out long enough that I could have the strength to face at least some of the things that I needed to face.

  Thank god Nick was there. And thank god for Jack, too. Bless his heart, but he was staying with us in Nick’s guest bedroom on the first floor. He even said that he had taken some vacation days from his jobs, although he did have to keep going to rehearsal for his play. But, since his part was very small, and he really was just in the chorus, that didn’t take up too much of his time.

  “I have vacation time coming to me, Scotty,” he said. “So, I’m taking these days now.”

  “Jack. You don’t have to waste your vacation days on me.”

  “I have to waste them somehow,” he said. “God knows I don’t exactly have the money to travel to Europe. So, I might as well spend them with you.”

  I was happy about that, actually. I was pestering Nick to go back to work. I knew how important he was to that firm, and I didn’t want him to get any more behind than he had to on my account. He reluctantly agreed.

  “I don’t want to leave you, Scotty,” he said. “But I know that you’re in good hands here with Jack. But, please, if you need me, call. I’ll come home. In fact, I think I might just go into the office just long enough to clear some of my client meetings off my deck, and come home here and work. And, there’s also another very important matter that I have to clear up.”

  I knew what the important matter was. Portia. Nick had explained to me that he wasn’t going to work under the safe roof with her anymore. Which made me extremely anxious, as the last thing I wanted was for Nick to lose his prestigious partnership on my account. I had no idea what those partners would do when push came to shove. Nick had won the last showdown, but the stakes then were relatively low. Portia wanted me gone. Nick wanted me to stay. In the end, the partners sided with Nick, but only because Nick was willing to put more on the line to back his position than Portia did. Specifically, he resigned, and that made all of the partners snap to attention.

  That particular showdown was much lower stakes than what was happening here. After all, I was just a lowly intern. It was easy for the partners to side with Nick in that scenario. But, here, Nick was serious about getting Portia gone. That was huge stakes. They both were so important to the firm. I really hoped that Nick knew what he was doing.

  At the same time, I knew that it was necessary to have the showdown. He was not only protecting himself, but he was also protecting me. Portia had it out for me, and she would continue to have it out for me as long as she and I were both there. I just didn’t see my career thriving as long as she was there.

  So, that morning, I watched Nick get dressed in his suit and tie with apprehension. I felt like I was holding my breath, almost, as I watched him.

  He came over and sat down on the bed. He took my hand and looked me in the eye. “I’m going back to work, but I’ll be back as soon as I can. I’m not going to lie. I have a ton of work to do. I’m really behind on the Chase project now, and I have a bunch of other things coming down the pipeline at me. But most of that stuff I can do right here from home. And that’s what I’m going to do. I’m going to work mainly from home. Hopefully, soon, you’ll be well enough that you can return to work, too. But, for now, you’re here, so I’m going to be joining you as soon as I can.”

  I nodded my head. I had to get stronger, emotionally. I felt like such a little girl. A little whiny girl who was threatening to fall apart at just any moment. I wanted something different for myself, and that was to stand on my own two feet and face my adversities come what may. So, I simply nodded my head and swallowed hard so that my tears didn’t fall again.

  “Good luck, Nick. “

  He kissed my forehead. “I’ll see you soon, love.”

  And, just like that, he was off.

  Then, almost as soon as he left, Jack was up. “So, Scotch Marie, what can I do you for? Any special requests? I suppose it’s too early for a cocktail, huh?”

  I smiled. “A little,” I said. “But you can have one. Feel free. Nick has everything down there that you could possibly want.”

  Jack just shook his head with a slight grin on his face. “Oh, lord, no. Drinking alone, before 9 AM? People might talk about my scandalous alcoholic ass.”

  “What people? It’s only me here, remember?”

  “Well, you and the crazy goony who lives under the bed.”

  “Ha ha. There’s no goonies here. Well, unless you count me.”

  “I do count you in that, love.” And then he got serious. “So, how are you feeling today? Is there anything I can do for you?”

  “No,” I said. “Nothing, really.”

  He sat there looking at me. “Well, I didn’t want to say anything. But…I ran into Nick last night when he was getting an inhaler for you. That can only mean one thing. You’re not doing as well as you’re putting on.”

  I nodded my head. “Actually, it was damned lucky that Nick had one of those on hand. Did he happen to tell you why he keeps it?”

  Jack shrugged. “Something about his parents always advising him to have one in the medicine closet at all times, ready to go. Because you never know when somebody might need it. Now, I think that you probably went all Lauren Bacall on him, crying and carrying on. Not that I blame you. God knows you’re entitled. But I would appreciate it if you would just talk to me about how you feel.”

  I sighed. “I don’t know,” I said honestly. “I haven’t quite figured that out yet. There’s just too much confusion going on in my head these days. Too many horrible and wonderful things are fighting for real estate in my head space lately. Sometimes it’s hard to understand exactly how I’m feeling from one moment to the next.”

  “Well, that’s natural. I hope that you got it all patched up with loverboy, though.”

  I smiled broadly. “Yeah, I did,” I said. “I did.”

  Jack looked at me suspiciously. “But…”

  “But, I, uh, just started crying hysterically in the middle of it last night. And I literally couldn’t stop. What’s wrong with me?”

  “Nothing’s wrong with you. You just went through an ordeal. And then, right after that ordeal, you get whipped around and see the man that you’re in love with. You feel so strongly about both things, so I would imagine that your poor little brain is quite confused about how you’re feeling these days. I wouldn’t worry about it, but just allow yourself to feel everything that you need to. That will help you come out of this a happy, healthy Scotty. Which is what everybody wants.”

  “Oh, well, then Jack, I hope to get better soon. Because this emotional roller coaster is for the birds. The pigeons at that.”

  “The rats with wings?” Jack said with a smile. “Scotty, my dear, you just feel everything that you need to feel. You’ll get better soon, I promise.”

  “I hope so, Jack. I hope so.”

  But, as I looked at him, I had my doubts. My doubts that I would ever get better, soon or otherwise.

  Chapter 28

  Nick

  As I drove along the usual interminable drive to my office, I wondered if I would have to go back home and paint my face with red lines. Because I felt like a warrior, and I needed war paint to go with it. In the Native American vernacular, I was going to be doing some scalping when I got to the office. And it wasn’t going to be pretty.

  Portia doing what she did was bad enough. It really was. I would have been supremely pissed off at her, no matter what the situation. But, since her actions were what led to this latest scenario, where my Scotty was terrorized and raped by that predator, I felt like her ac
tions could not go unpunished. She simply could not get away with doing what she did. I was going to make sure of that. If it was the last thing that I did in this world.

  Truth be told, that was most of the reason why I decided to go back to work today. I was itching to get in there and roast that Barbie bitch over the coals. Slowly. Put an apple in her mouth and turn her over on the pit. That was my dark fantasy right now.

  Not that I could have told Scotty any of this. At that moment, she didn’t need that kind of hostility coming from me. She only needed for me to be as positive and supportive as I could have possibly been. So, that was what I concentrated on when I was with her. Making her feel loved and special and like she could count on me to always have her back. She just didn’t need any negative juju right at that moment, so I tried to keep everything positive when I was with her.

  But, once I left the loft and made my way to my office, my entire mind-set changed completely. It changed from being calm and nurturing to being aggressive and war-like. And I couldn’t wait to face Portia down and get her ousted. Not that any of it would be easy. It wouldn’t. It would probably involve a ton of litigation, not to mention a buyout of her interest in the firm. None of it was going to be pretty. The firm would probably take a major hit in terms of revenue and reputation with this move.

  In other words, this was going to be a very serious matter. I would imagine that the partners of the firm would not take any of it very lightly. Yet, it had to be done.

  That much was positive.

  I finally arrived at the firm, and I put my briefcase down as I alighted in my office. I then called my secretary and asked her to hold all of my calls. She obliged, of course. I looked at my new schedule, which was sent over to me by Callie, my secretary, and saw that the Chase meeting was postponed until the end of the week. I groaned, inwardly, knowing that this was yet another fire that needed to be extinguished. I would imagine that they were probably not very happy with me going AWOL like that. I only hoped that George was able to sufficiently cover for me and give them a good excuse for where I was.

  And then I took a deep breath and headed down to Portia’s office.

  I got down there, and her door was ajar. I heard laughter coming from the office, as she was talking and flirting with one of her lackeys in the firm, Fred. Fred was forever trying to score a date from the evil queen, and she was forever keeping him on a string, dangling. She had no interest in him. He was like a mouse, and she was like a cat, toying with him. Always giving him just enough hope to keep him on the line, but not quite enough that he should have actually felt that he had a chance.

  I knocked on the open door. Portia looked up and I actually saw a different expression on her beautiful face. If I didn’t know her so well, I would have actually thought that I saw…fear. Shame. Guilt. Remorse.

  But no. There was no way that this woman was feeling any of those things. She just had a really good way of faking the emotions that normal people have. A really good way of doing this.

  Fred looked at me from behind his black rimmed Elvis Costello glasses and stood up. “Uh, hello, Nick,” he said. “How are you feeling?”

  “Like shit,” I said, looking right at Portia. “How about you?”

  “Uh, fine. I guess I should, uh, get out of here. You obviously have something to talk about with Portia here.” And then he eyed Portia longingly. He looked down at the floor. “I’ll see you at lunch, huh?”

  “Sure,” she said flippantly. And then she turned her attention to me. “Hello, Nick. I see that you’re feeling better.”

  I drew a deep breath. “Sit down,” I said, as I saw her start to rise from her chair to close the door. “I’ll get the door.”

  I got up and closed the door, and then came back and took my seat across from her.

  For several minutes I just stared at her, my arms crossed in front of me. For her part, she just stared right back, her crystalline blue eyes trained on mine. She barely blinked. She was trying hard not to register fear. I knew this. But, yet, I could also sense her fear just below the surface. It showed in her eyes, which showed glimpses of terror, but only glimpses. I had to admit that she was pretty good at masking what was going on in her head.

  Finally, after I sat there and stared at her for several minutes, I cleared my throat. “Portia. I know what you did. And you won’t get away with it.”

  “Oh,” she said. “What did I do?”

  “You drugged me with something powerful. And toxic, I might add. Anything that’s not toxic wouldn’t cause a blinding headache like I had when I came to in my loft several days ago. Anyhow, whatever it was, I know why you did it. And you won’t get away with it.”

  Portia looked at her nails insouciantly. “You have any proof of this nefarious thing that I allegedly did to you?”

  Gut-check time. “No, but I don’t think that I need it. Do you? Listen, you and I have been locked in a power struggle ever since I turned you down. You escalated it, and Scotty was the victim in all of that.” I didn’t go into detail, but Portia knew about Scotty’s accident. She had to. Everybody in the office knew about it. Portia didn’t need to know the other horrors that befell Scotty because of what she, Portia, did. That was a personal matter, one that was something that I was going to keep secret, because I thought that Scotty would want it that way.

  Portia was still staring at her nails. “Oh, yes. I’m very sorry to hear that Scotty got into an accident on the street outside of this building. She seems rather clumsy, don’t you think?”

  “Clumsy. That’s an interesting way to put it.”

  “Meaning?”

  “Meaning that you were what caused that accident. You. Your actions. You knew that Scotty was going to get upset when she saw you and me together. You knew that. You played that whole situation like Yo-Yo Ma plays a cello. Masterfully. Well, it backfired. It backfired, and Scotty has a major injury because of it. And I suppose that you don’t feel a single bit of remorse about that, either. Do you?”

  “Of course I feel bad,” she said. “I sent flowers to the hospital.”

  Flowers. As if that would make up for what she did to Scotty. “Oh, you sent flowers. Well, good for you. That should make up for the damage done.”

  “Listen, if I thought that she would have gone that ballistic, I never would have drugged you like that. It was all a lark. You know. A little practical joke. A little bit of fraternity humor to lighten up the day.”

  “Bullshit. You expect me to believe that for a half a second? Nobody’s going to believe that. You targeted Scotty in your little ‘prank.’ Awfully suspicious, considering how you’ve been trying to get rid of her since day fucking one. Just a little coincidental, don’t you think?”

  “Well, you know, Scotty obviously cares more than other people do in this office. So, that’s why I did it to her. To get more of a rise out of her.”

  I felt my breath inhale. I was going to keep calm. That was the only way to take her down. Keeping calm.

  But what I really wanted was to slap her. Hard. I was just too much of a gentleman to do such a thing, even though she sorely, sorely deserved it.

  “Okay. You have to listen to me, you rotten excuse for a human being. You are going down. On my watch. Today, if possible.”

  “Oh, Nick? And what, pray tell, do you mean by that?”

  “I mean that I’m going to get you ousted. Today.”

  “You can’t just get me ousted. I’m a partner.”

  “Be that as it may. I read the firm’s constitution. Any partner may be ousted at any time for ‘high misconduct.’ I would think that drugging another partner would qualify as that.”

  The look of fear in her eyes flashed again. But the flash was gone as soon as it came. “Nick. Even if you have proof of what happened, which you don’t, but, even if you did, my doing that to you would hardly be considered to be ‘high misconduct.’ That term generally means embezzlement or some other kind of misdeed that affects the entire firm. Playing an innocen
t prank like what you think that I did wouldn’t qualify as that. So, nice try.”

  “I understand what you think. But that term is not defined. And, all that I need is a 2/3 majority of the other partners agreement, and you’ll be gone.”

  “2/3 majority?” she said, as if she had never read the constitution herself, and had no idea what it said. “Good luck with that.” She laughed. “You’ll be lucky to get a single vote for something like that. Sorry to disappoint, but I’m way too valuable to this firm.”

  “Portia. Do you remember the last time that you attempted to challenge me? In that whole debacle regarding Scotty’s ouster for allegedly stealing from the firm?”

  “Of course. I stay awake nights thinking about how I could have won that one. I thought that by blindsiding you with it that you would not have the ammunition to fight it. I underestimated you, I admit. But what does that have to do with this situation?”

  “Well. If you can recall, all that I had to do was threaten to resign, well, actually tender my resignation, and almost everybody in the firm voted with me. I say almost, because you had a few loyalists. Very few.”

  Portia nodded her head. “Don’t remind me. God, everybody let me down on that one. But, again, what does that have to do with this? I mean, I guess that what you are getting at is that you’re going to threaten to resign unless I was ousted, and you think that everybody will magically fall in line. But it won’t happen like that. The stakes on the Scotty situation were much, much different then than they are now. Nobody is going to want to lose me as a partner. Nobody. Except maybe you. So, good luck.”