I touch Tommy’s arm. “He knows, honey. And you know. You know the law needs facts and evidence until they can assemble anything more than that, they have to call it a claim.” I turned back to Jake. “Be that as it may, what do we do now?”
“We finish up here. I’ll go to McKenzie Tech, tell Kane what you’ve told me and that I’m representing you, then go from there.” He pauses, taking a sip of his alcoholic drink, and moving from an onion ring to a mozzarella stick. He dips it carefully, precisely into the little jar of marinara provided. “While I’m there doing that, you take Tommy back to your place or whatever. Wherever you think it is going to be better than the office, and then you come back. I’m going to need you to tell me anything and everything you know about this whole situation between Tommy and Vanacore, and give us any evidence you have.” He shrugs, taking a bite of the dipped end. “After that, it really depends on Kane and the rest of the head honcho’s. Where and how they go about dealing with Vanacore.” He looks at me carefully, then at Tommy. “In the meantime, I’d suggest you take a vacation, Tommy. Find some reason to stay away from the office for at least a couple of weeks.”
“Already on it,” I say, grabbing up a few fries, and daring to taste a mini pizza pastry. “I was already planning to put Tommy on personal leave for the next two weeks, once I get back to the office.”
“Good.” Jake takes another sip of his drink, and then another bite of his mozzarella stick. “Then there’s nothing more to talk about. Only things left to do.”
Tommy and I nod, both settling into the plate of food, though we’re both not that hungry. All I want to do is get him home, back to my place, as I don’t think it will be a good idea for him to go back to his dad’s not with what will get potentially leaked out into the public over the next few days and weeks — even with tight lips all around.
The next thing I want to do is make sure Vanacore goes down. Not just in the public eye as a predator and someone who has no right to be practicing law, but down in flames for all eternity.
Chapter Sixty
Tommy
After lunch, Melissa makes good on her word. She practically spirits me away back to her place in her car, telling me to just sit tight and try not to think about anything or worry about anything too much. I tell her I’ll try my best, but I know that’s going to be all it is: a try, an attempt at feeling normal.
Even now, even as I’m sitting in Melissa’s car, watching the familiar streets go by that will lead us to her upscale condo, I haven’t really left Vanacore’s office. I haven’t really left the desk or the window I stood against as she had that gun on me. Even now I can feel her hands on me. Her hands trying to rip off my pants and grab my dick to try to fuck me.
This remains the case inside Melissa’s condo, too. All the way up the stairs and through the front door, during all of that time, I’m still reliving every moment of Vanacore’s malicious hunt of me in her office. Every grab, every launch for me, I’m feeling and seeing flashes of it in her paintings. In the little shadows cast on the wall from where the light doesn’t completely reach.
As Melissa guides me down onto the living room couch (the very same living room couch we had sex on a little less than a week ago), she kisses me gently, first on the forehead, then on my nose, that on my lips. “You’re safe now, honey. Please try to relax. Try to take care of yourself while I’m at work for the rest of the day, okay?”
Again, like I did in the car, I nod. I tell her sure, I’ll do my best, but I don’t know if I can, or what that even looks like. All I know is that I’m not quite myself, and I’m not likely to be for a while. Not with Vanacore’s ghost touching me from the recesses of my mind. Not with her lusty bright eyes fresh in my memory.
“You’re safe,” Melissa reiterates. “You’re completely safe here, Tommy.” She gives me another kiss on my forehead. “Anything you need, anything you want you to have while I’m gone, food, wine, a soak in the tub, whatever you want on TV, all of that’s open and available to you, my love.”
“Sure,” I say, but none of that sounds good, or like it will make a difference, but I know Melissa wants to feel like she’s doing something good for me, given the circumstances, so I thank her. I tell her how sweet and generous she is to let me stay with her.