Informed Consent (2 page)

Now they
were very late.
 
She was short one
kid.
 
And she had a suspended
license.

Denise
grabbed the cell from her pocket, poking buttons and praying at the same
time.
 
Robert wasn’t known for
early rising any more than she was.
 
The call bounced over to message.
 
Denise hung up.She did no better with the next four numbers she
tried.
 
The cab service would be
happy to pick her up as soon as one of their drivers reported he was free.
 
Both boys sat in the car, the radio
blared rap, and Lucas threw himself from one side to the other, rocking the
heavy SUV.Denise opened the driver’s door, and climbed in.

***

“You guys have to get to
school from now on.”
 
In the drop
off line at school the big vehicle inched forward.
 
Denise rifled her purse and the console looking for lunch
money to pass out..
 
“Andrew’s
kinda big on that.”

 
“No worries, sistah,” Lucas crowed. He
grasped the door handle, beginning his swing out to the sidewalk while the car
was still moving.
 
“Let’s go bro!”

“You have to get
yourselves up,”
 
she yelled after
them, her head jamming out from the moon roof.
 
“You can’t rely on me to wake you up!”

 
She pulled her head back in the window.
She was unreliable; they couldn’t rely on her for anything.
 
Shouldn’t have to.

 
Stop wallowing.
 
She was all they had so she’d have to
man up.
 
Metaphorically
speaking.
 

Denise pulled slowly
into the other lane.
 
She glanced
in the rear view and smiled.
 
Her
brothers were bouncing up the walkway, hi-fiving friends, strutting, calling out
to people.
 
They did
not
look like crushed and damaged orphans.
Whatever she had to put up with was worth it.

 
Another flash of heat surged through
her.
 
She felt a kind of tension,
not really soreness, in her--well, her loins, for the love of Christ. Had she
ever
thought
the word ‘loins’
before?
 
Her pussy.
 
Her cunt.

She blushed and stepped
more firmly on the gas.

Andrew had been amazing
last night.
 
Sex with him had
always been pretty damn good. If she didn’t feel morally obligated to despise
the man she would admit the sex had been the best of her life.
 
Meanwhile though, she did hate him and
she’d be dammed before she gave him props. Still, that orgasm…her face burned.
She’d never, ever had one like that in her life. Last night she’d had several
of them.

 
Since sex with Andrew had always been
good it probably had made it easier to overlook other annoying habits; twisting
himself into contortions in order to reach and open doors before her; getting a
basset hound look on his face when she said ‘fuck’, lecturing her on the
importance of voting in elections.
 
But now, the sex, coupled with all that other dominance stuff, was like
nothing she’d ever stumbled over. It was hot fudge on vanilla bean ice cream.

Animalistic.

She pressed her palms to
her cheeks and sucked in a deep breath. The man was a sick, twisted individual.
She wasn’t going to even
think
about
the sex.
 
Candy was great, that
didn’t mean it couldn’t hurt you. Cocaine could be great but look how bad that
was! Ergo: really awesome sex
could
be
very bad.

Then she
didn’t need to worry about not thinking about wild sex because that was
definitely a cop.
 
Behind her.
 
Lights flashing.
 
Siren whooping. Panic slithered into every
cell in her body carried by the rush of blood pounding through her veins. Tears
welled up in her eyes.

Before
all this, before her parents died and left her personally responsible for the
welfare of her brothers, before she’d had to humble and totally humiliate
herself in front of an idiot lawyer (this wasn’t helping stop the tears)
before
, she couldn’t remember the last
time she’d freaking cried.
 
She’d
never cried.
 
Now she leaked every
damn time she turned around.

Pulling
the SUV over Denise tried to think. What had been her offense?
 
What should her strategy be?
 

Crap.
 
That really was Officer Harrison, the
same Officer Harrison who had asked her repeatedly for a date.
 
She’d said ‘no’ once.
 
She’d said ‘Sorry.
 
No way’ once.
 
She’d said ‘Get a clue’ the last time.

Scrunching
down in her seat, she risked a glance in the side mirror.
 
Harrison looked mighty pleased.
 
He knew who he’d pulled over. You could
bet he knew her license was suspended too.

“Well,
well.”
 

Denise
rolled her eyes because after all that line called for it, making her forget
for one moment how desperate her straits were.
 

Harrison
chuckled and leaned his elbows on the rim of her lowered window,

“Yeah,
Ms. Marrow.
 
You go right ahead and
roll those pretty eyes.
 
License.
Registration. Insurance.”

Denise
snapped down the visor and the insurance card and registration fell into her
lap.
 
She handed them to Harrison,
this time with a real smile, a full 100 watt one.
 
“How are you Harrison?
 
That was an
OhMyGodWhatHaveIGoneAndDoneNow
roll
of the eyes, Harrison.”
 
She beamed
up at him, sitting back in the seat and bracing her hands on the steering
wheel.
 
Which caused her breasts to
elevate. “NOT a smart alecky roll.
 

“I’m
really sorry I caused you to get out of your car,” she added.
 

Harrison
dipped his chin down onto his chest, peering at her over his glasses, brows
raised nearly to his hairline.

“License,
Ms. Marrow.”
 
“I know that’s when you officers
are at greatest risk.
 
Not from
vicious criminals, Harrison.
 
I
know it’s when you have to get out of your car and deal with idiots!’

Denise
smiled a big sweet apologetic smile.“I guess I was going a little too fast?”

 
“Well, yeah, Ms. Marrow.
 
Considering you shouldn’t be driving at
all, I’d say you were going too fast.”

Busted.
 
Time to grovel.
 
“I’m sorry Harrison.
 
I had to get the boys to school. What
could I do?”

 
“Gosh. Maybe stick the little bros on
the school bus?
 
No, wait, that’s
right, they go to a private school. No bus.
 
Well then Ms. Marrow, I guess you make arrangements: cabs,
jitneys, car pools? Chauffeur? You don’t drive on a suspended license. And
that’s Officer Harrison to you.”

Denise
let her head drop.

“I know.”
She hiccupped a sob, lifted her face towards Harrison.
 
The tears in her eyes were not an
example of her out of control emotions.
 
Denise Marrow, consummate player.

 
“I’ve been a wreck, Officer
Harrison.
 
With my parents
gone…”
 
She set the tears free to
stream down her picturesque face.

“Can’t
that rich husband of yours help?”

Crap.
 
He knew.

Denise
shook her head.
 
“I had to marry
him, Officer Harrison.
 
According
to my parent’s will, I lost my brothers if I didn’t marry the man.
 
He doesn’t help and he’ll be so angry.
It’s doesn’t love me at all.”
 
More
tears.
 

Denise
reached for a Kleenex from the dash and dabbed at her eyes.

“So you
can’t wrap him around that little finger, eh, Ms. Marrow?
 
I’m sorry to hear that.”

“Please.
Can’t we work this out?
 
Officer
Harrison, surely there’s something…?”

She
lowered her head.

“Something?”
 
Officer Harrison asked, interest
creeping into his voice.

Denise
let her tongue flicker for a second then she sat up, tilting her face up,
towards him.
 
She ran her tongue
along her top lip.

Officer
Harrison leaned in, his head coming thru the window.

“Be
clear, Ms. Marrow.
 
I don’t want
there to be any misunderstanding.”

A warning
bell sounded somewhere.
 

Denise
took a deep breath. She couldn’t do it.
 
There had been a time, in the not too distant past, where sexual
behavior had been a game, a strategy, a play, a move. Yes, even a coin to
barter -- for the right reward of course --nothing so crass as money.
 
Those days were gone, or at least they
had been.

 
“You could do something for me, Ms.
Marrow?
 
Is that what you’re
telling me?”

Denise
sat frozen, staring at the man, her mouth open, trying to speak though her
brain still couldn’t make up its mind one way or the other.

A huge
grin spread slowly over Harrison’s face.

 
“You’ve made my day, Ms. Marrow.
 
You’re trying to bribe an officer of
the law!
 
Come on out of that car,
Ma’am.”

He
wrapped a hand around her upper arm, opening the door with the other and
hauling her from the car.

 
Denise had freaked to think of Andrew’s
anger when he discovered one of the boys had missed school.
 
Next she’d lost it imagining how pissed
he’d be when she got a driving without a valid license rap.
 
He’d be tickled pink when he heard
she’d tried to bribe a cop.

***

At the police
station Denise was left sitting on a hard chair while Harrison tried his
darnedest to convince the Captain he had grounds for an arrest for bribery.

Denise
asked to call her parents’ lawyer.

The
Captain scowled at her.
 
“You
haven’t been arrested yet, babe.
 
If you want to call your lawyer I’m arresting you first.”

She
slumped back into her chair.
 

The
Captain slapped Harrison on the shoulder.
 
“You don’t have enough.
 
Write her up for driving on a suspended license and get her out of here.
 
You impounded her car, right?”

Harrison
grunted, shot Denise a dirty look, and wandered off at a leisurely pace to get
coffee.
 
Then he sharpened
pencils.
 
Made some calls.
 
Chatted with other officers.
 
Denise got the message and resigned
herself.
 
Two months ago she
wouldn’t have had the brains to keep her mouth shut.
 

Today,
she had an insane husband watching her every step and three younger brothers
she needed to raise.
 
She was
amazed at how quickly she learned there were times when the best idea was to
shut up.

This was
maturity.
 
Yippee.

An
occasional glance at a clock on the wall told her the time.
 
Officer Harrison intended to keep her
at his desk as long as he could.
 

“Denise?”

A tall,
striking woman wove her way through the jumble of desks, office machinery, and
file boxes.

“Denise
Marrow?”
 

Denise
nodded and offered her hand. “Yes.
 
Sorry, do I know you?”

“Not
really.
 
But I know you.
 
Harrison, what the hell is going on
here?
 

“Oh never
mind.”
 
Without further explanation
the woman made a beeline towards the Captains office.
 

Harrison
leveled another disgusted glance at Denise.
 
“Looks like your cavalry arrived even without a call.
 
Aren’t you a lucky little princess?”