Justice(109)

As I’m imagining what her blurb will be saying tomorrow, Harry is stopped by the mayor, who smiles and shakes his hand with enthusiasm. A photographer snaps a shot. I roll my eyes. Two weeks ago the mayor was threatening to fire him, now they’re best friends. He’s even pushing for Harry to become a Major at one of the precincts. I might be dating the future commissioner.

“I didn’t know you had a thing for older men,” Grace Pickering says as she saddles up to me. I was too busy watching my boyfriend, I didn’t notice her approach. We smile at each other. “I thought you liked them tall, blonde, and with cleft chins.”

“I do,” I say, glancing at Justin who is holding court. “They just don’t like me.”

“So, is the puppy love over?”

I shrug. “To tell the truth, I think a small part of me will always be a little in love with him. It’s just a part of who I am.” I sigh. “I’ve just decided to try requited love for once.”

“It’s so much better for the skin,” Grace says. We chuckle again. “Well, happiness suits you.”

“Thank you. You look exquisite tonight as well.” She does. She’s gained a few pounds and has this glow. She must be getting some.

“You must feel a lot better knowing all the drama’s over.”

“You too. Must be a weight off knowing he’s not coming back.”

“I suppose,” she says, sipping her champagne. She gazes at the crowd while people keep glancing at us and whispering to each other. Grace and I exchange a look. “I feel like some fresh air. Keep me company?”

Harry is still being fussed over by the mayor, and Justin is drumming up donations. “Love to.”

I follow Grace into the hall. “Mind if we stop by the bathroom first?” she asks.

I shrug. “Sure.”

“I hate these people,” she says as we walk. “I always have. They’re so stuffy and selfish. They have the depth of a puddle. I will not miss them.”

We walk into the bathroom as two women walk out. “You’re leaving?” I ask.

She goes into the stall. “Tonight. I’m sick of this town. There’s nothing for us here now.”

“Where are you going?” I ask, applying more lipstick.

“Brazil,” she says inside the stall. “Rio, more specifically.”

My back straightens and a feeling of dread runs down my spine. Oh, shit. No way. No way in hell. Just in case, I start reaching for the gun strapped to my thigh. “Why there?”

Before I can get it, the stall door flies open. Grace holds a small gun with silencer right at me. “You know. No extradition treaty.” She gestures up. “Hands behind your head, please.”

Shit. I do as she says, lacing my fingers behind my head. “Jane Smith, I presume.”

She smiles. “I hear you’ve been looking for me.”

I stare at her, eyes bulging out of my head. “What the fuck, Grace? The man kidnapped and raped you. He killed your fiancée.”

She laughs, shaking her head. “You know, I’m not surprised you never knew about Justin. You are really a moron, Joanna.”

“Enlighten me.”

She considers it, walking over to the bathroom door and locking it before resuming her position right in front of me. “I fell in love with James the moment I saw him and him me. Chad was…dull. He was like every other man I had ever dated. No fight, no vim or vigor. No imagination. James had fire in his eyes. Ambition. A devil-may-care attitude that drove me wild. After that first night, we met up wherever we could. The gym, the opera, it was thrilling. The sex was…” She shakes in ecstasy at the memory. “Intense. Passionate. Then one night we misjudged time, and Chad almost caught us. I made up the mugging story.”

“Why didn’t you just dump Chad?”

“I needed his money. Pickering was in the red. Daddy overextended before he died, and left me with a dead company. I knew Chad always had a thing for me, and I wanted to keep my legacy afloat. He was a billionaire, and I was fond of him. Marriages have been built on less. Then James came into my life and showed me what was really important. But I couldn’t let my company go under. I couldn’t let Daddy be right about me. James didn’t have enough to cover it all, so we came up with a plan. Chad and I changed our wills to make each other the beneficiary, and James was supposed to kill him at the AIDS gala. Justin ruined that. So we came up with a new plan.”

“You staged your own kidnapping to cover up the murder?”

“Exactly. Then it all went to shit once again because of Justin. For years he’d been looking for Alkaline’s identity and he chose then to put it all together. James went mad. I couldn’t be released after the ransom drop and then go on to be comforted and courted by James Ryder if he was the man who kidnapped me. So we plotted, and planned, trying to find a way out of it without getting suspicion thrown on me.”