Deceptive Nights (20 page)

She didn’t look at him as she quickly fixed
her clothes, but when she noticed the torn stockings she gave him
an accusing look. He had already adjusted himself and smiled
foolishly.

“
I’ll buy you some more,”
he promised.

“
I don’t want anything from
you, Jacoby.” She picked up her coat and brief. “Stay the hell away
from me.”

“
Phoebe, it doesn’t matter
about the money. You know it doesn’t make a difference and I didn’t
mind paying-”

She covered his mouth not wanting to hear
another word. “Please just stop it. I don’t want to hear another
word about money for sex. I don’t want your money anymore, Jacoby.
It served it’s purpose and this time was just ...” She couldn’t
find the right word.

He removed her hand smirking. “For pleasure?”
he finished.

“
Shut up!” she snapped
angrily as he began to chuckle. Phoebe stormed out the office and
decided to take the stairs wanting to get as far away from him as
fast as possible.

Upon getting home, she went to her room to
shower. When she had finished, she put Stephanie and Stephen to
bed, and then came down unexpectedly seeming to startle her mother,
who got up quickly from the kitchen table and put the ledger away
as if she didn’t want Phoebe to see what was going on. Phoebe was
about to ask her mother why was she acting so strange over the
ledger when the doorbell rung. It was ten o’clock at night and a
very odd hour to be expecting guest.

Phoebe hoped it wasn’t Jacoby because she
didn’t know if she could handle him when her bed was so close at
hand.

“
I’ll get it,” she said to
her mother and went to the door.

Patricia went upstairs quickly as if she were
trying to get away from Phoebe.

Opening the door, she looked as if she had
seen a ghost. “Daniel?” she asked not believing her eyes.

Daniel had lost a considerable amount of
weight, except in his stomach and he seemed frail. He was always
lean of nature, but the man she saw now looked almost malnutrition.
He had grown a thick moustache over his lips and his hair was
unkempt. His clothing looked borrowed from the Salvation Army and
outdated. On top of that he wore some old cowboy boots. Daniel
never wore cowboy boots. Matter of fact, she had never seen him
wear boots even in the wintertime.

“
In the flesh, love,” he
said excitedly. “How’s it going?”

“
How’s it going?” she asked
tightly between clenched teeth. “You bleed me dry, you leave me
penniless with two babies and drowning in so much debt, and you
have the audacity to ask me how’s it going?”

“
Aw love, don’t be like
that,” he said cajoling.

Placing her hands on her hips, she said, “If
you don’t get out of my face, I’m going to call the police.”

“
I just came here to help
you out. I know it ain’t that bad for you anymore. I saw your
credit report yesterday. You’re as clean as they come.”

“
What do you mean?” she
asked confused.

“
I mean, you got them rich
niggars paying your shit off. What’d you do to them, baby?” He
smiled wickedly and came closer to her. “You put a spin on it like
you use to do me?”

Phoebe didn’t know what he was talking about,
but she didn’t want Daniel anywhere near her or her children. “I
don’t need your help, Daniel. I’ve never needed your help. Because
of you, I’ve turned myself into a tramp. I’ve degraded myself. I’ve
had to lay down all the morals and values my mother instilled in
me, just to get by because of you. I will never make that mistake
again.”

“
Love, you know you’re my
first, my last, my everything. Remember that was our
song.”

“
I will always remember
that you’re my first damn mistake, my last damn mistake and I’ll
always remember you will be the most stupid mistake I’ve ever made
in my life. Get off my property now because I still have the
restraining order against you.” She turned to look behind her and
yell, “Mother, call the police!”

“
Aw love, don’t be like
that. We were so good together.” He tried to touch her with his
grubby hands and she stepped away.

“
Daniel, I don’t want
anything to do with you ever again and I suggest you leave now,
because since I do have a restraining order against you, I have
grounds to shoot you. I won’t go to jail as long as I shoot you in
the front and plead self defense.”

He started to get upset. “You’re crazy! Why
don’t you just listen to what I have to say.”

She looked behind her and yelled, “Mother,
bring me my gun!”

When she looked back around at him, Daniel
had bolted off the porch and was running down the street. The sorry
ass couldn’t even afford a car to get away in. She slammed the door
just as Patricia was running down the stairs.

“
What is going on, Phoebe?”
she asked out of breath.

“
That was Daniel at the
door. I bluffed him and told him I was going to shoot him,” Phoebe
explained.

“
I would have tried very
desperately to find some kind of weapon to help you out,” Patricia
agreed.

Phoebe told her mother what Daniel had said.
“He was saying my credit is all cleaned up. That someone had
cleaned it up.”

Patricia looked a little guilty. “How did he
know?” she blurted out.

Phoebe frowned. “You knew. What is going on?”
She went over to the ledger as Patricia immediately started to
stammer. Looking at the totals, she saw that they were down to all
zero. “Who did this?” she demanded to know. “Is this true?”

Patricia took a deep defeated breath and sat
down at the kitchen table. “Yes, it’s true.”

“
How Mother?”

“
I didn’t want to tell you
too soon. They were paid with personal checks and I wanted to make
sure they all cleared because I couldn’t believe it all
myself.”

“
Believe what?” Phoebe
demanded to know. “That some mysterious person just swept in and
paid my debts.”

Patricia didn’t answer. She didn’t have to
answer as the realization dawned on Phoebe’s face of shock and
bafflement all at the same time. Placing the ledger on the table
she crossed her arms over her chest.

“
How long have you
known?”

“
Friday afternoon, when I
went to the bank to pay off the rest of the loans before we left
out of town, I found out someone had come in and paid it off, so I
checked other large debts and found out that same person had paid
off those debts too. I requested your TRW before we left and they
sent it yesterday in the mail.” She got up and pulled out an
envelope carefully hidden in one of the cookbooks on the
shelf.

“
How long were you going to
keep this from me Mother? You were planning on deceiving me from
the truth.”

“
Because I knew what Jacoby
Knight does to you and I didn’t want him to hurt you like Daniel
did.”

“
But he wasn’t, Mother.
Don’t you know what this means?”

Patricia scoffed. “It only means that he is
trying to hold you in debt to him instead of the creditors. He’s
paying you to be his mistress.”

Phoebe shook her head. “No!! Mother, he knows
the money means nothing to me. He did it not to keep me in debt to
him. He did it so I could finally put the hurt that Daniel caused
out of my mind and get it out of my life so I could...” Her voice
faltered as she remembered him about to speak about the money and
the horrible things she had said to him. Covering her face with her
hands, she moaned into them a long agonizing moan.

“
Don’t you dare feel
guilty, Phoebe,” Patricia said. “He said those mean things to
you.”

Removing her hands, she screamed in
frustration more to herself than anything. “He thought I had slept
with Lawrence, Mother. If I had known Friday what you knew, then
you knew I wouldn’t have went on the trip with Lawrence. I did
deceive him, because I should have told him about going on the trip
so he wouldn’t get the wrong idea,” she cried starting to pace. “I
should call him. I should at least go see him again to apologize
for what I said.”

“
What about what he said to
you?!” Patricia cried.

“
Mother, I deceived him!
Don’t you get it? He thought I betrayed him with his best
friend.”

Patricia sighed in frustration. “Alright
Phoebe, I’m sorry. I thought I was doing right by you by keeping
this information from you. I should have respected your wishes and
kept out of it.”

Phoebe calmed down and hugged her mother. She
knew her mother was no more deceitful than her and that Patricia
was only looking out for Phoebe’s best interest because her mother
cared so much for her. “I understand what you thought you were
doing for me, Mother, but you have to understand that what is
happening between Jacoby and I. You’ll help me won’t you, despite
how you feel?”

Patricia stared long and hard into her
daughter’s eyes so unlike her own. Phoebe knew her mother was only
concerned with her happiness and if Jacoby made her happy, Patricia
would stick by her. “I don’t want you to be hurt again,
Phoebe.”

With great relish, Phoebe said, “I know
Mother, but like Jacoby said, in order to experience life, I’ve got
to appreciate all that life has to offer. Up until now, despite
Monday’s events, Jacoby has been just trying to make me happy and
I’m not expecting anything like marriage from him, I just want to
live for the now and enjoy that.”

Bowing her head, Patricia’s shoulders slumped
in defeat. “Fine, I’ll stand by you, Phoebe and support your
decisions from here on out concerning this young man, but the
minute you aren’t happy anymore, promise me you will stop seeing
him.”

Phoebe laughed as if the weight on her
shoulders had finally been lifted. “Yes Mother,” she promised.

Patricia hugged her again. “You won’t be
going out tonight to see him. You have a lot of work to do tonight
for tomorrow. You should also get some rest before tomorrow when
all the crap hits the fan. I’ve finished with everything and
complied it all. I even made copies for you. In the morning I will
do the necessary faxing and contacting for you.”

“
Thank you Mother. I love
you so much. When this is all over I want us to use a little of the
money and take a nice long trip with the kids away from here. Can
we?”

“
Yes, Phoebe,” Patricia
promised. “Maybe you can invite Jacoby along,” her mother hinted
with a wicked little grin.

Chapter 23

Coming in to work on Friday two hours early,
Phoebe had not slept a wink. Madeline would be in the office that
day and had shot an email to Phoebe Thursday night with a silent
threat concerning those reports and her job. Phoebe had put the
reports on disc after she had emailed them over to Leslie on Monday
and now was coming into the office before anyone was to even think
about getting here to print off those reports.

She knew this was judgment day and she wanted
to rub all of this is Madeline’s face. After putting the reports in
the print queue, she checked all the offices and was surprised to
see Jacoby in his office. He was speaking on the phone, but once he
saw her, he hung up.

He had changed his clothes from the night
before and was in a hand fitted Armani suit.

“
I wasn’t trying to bother
you,” she said.

“
You didn’t. It was my
mother and I was really looking for an excuse to get off the phone.
You’re as good as anyone for an excuse.”

Phoebe wasn’t about to let his snide
statements perturb her today. She had to stay focus. “Do you sleep
here?”

“
China markets are open at
night and my father wanted to speak to me since he was there about
some family decisions. He’ll be selling the house in Lansing once I
have found a house here. Do you know someone in realty?” He leaned
forward on the desk.

She didn’t know if he was being a smart ass
or serious, but she was not in the mood to help him out. “No.”

“
I figured you would say
that.” Standing up, he came around the desk and looked at her up
and down from head to toe. He didn’t press his proximity to her,
but he could still smell her sweet perfume despite the five-foot
distance. Coolly, trying to ignore his arousal, he noted, “You
didn’t get much sleep either, Phoebe. Did you miss me?”

“
Far from it, Mr. Knight.”
She said full of cockiness. As much as she believed he was still
angry with her, he didn’t look at all put out. Yet, knowing what
Phoebe knew about the money he had paid on her debts and Jacoby’s
forgiving nature, he was more interested in being with her than
anything. Now would be a perfect time to speak with him about what
she had said the other night and her own selfishness. “I think we
should talk.” She closed the door ensconcing them into them in the
office alone.

Jacoby raised a wary brow, but took full
advantage of her need to be private. “Come a little closer and we
can or are you afraid of me?”

She stepped forward until she was arms length
from him. “I know what you did for me-”

He placed a finger over her lips to stop her
from speaking. “How much time do we have until the first person
gets here?” he whispered, removing his finger from his lips, but
cupping her face in his hands.

“
About two hours,” she
figured with a slight shrug to her shoulders.

Jacoby gently pressed his lips against hers
in a simple kiss, but the look in his eyes told her a wealth of
information. Moving her arms around his neck, standing on her
tiptoes, she smiled knowing what was to come and the eroticism of
everything was overwhelming.