“But not to worry, the thinking on that is, you keep working while you’re awaiting trial.”
“You’re kidding, right?”
Louis shook his head.
“Do they want me to do live reports during the trial too?” Carmen laughed, but Louis didn’t. “You’re serious?”
“It was discussed.” Louis leaned on the conference table and looked at Carmen. “But I don’t care about any of that.”
“What do you care about?”
“You. I could care less about whether you get the story or not, Carmen. I want Carmen to be safe. So, what I’m saying is, these people seem to be a little more dangerous than the political types that you usually go after, so be careful, Carmen. That’s what I’m saying and that’s all I got.”
When Carmen left the conference room, she went to her office to get her things and got outta there. Once she was outside, Carmen hailed a cab and got in.
“Where to?”
“Anywhere. Just drive.”
As the driver drove, Carmen thought about where she was, what she was doing and most importantly, why she was doing this. It had to be more than just the need to know, it had to be. Carmen had always considered herself to be a passionate person, passionate about the things that are important to her. She was driven by those things and Carmen had worked hard at them. And Carmen was competitive; she had a strong internal need to succeed and give her best to everything she did. Admirable traits, but in this case, her driven, passionate and competitive nature may prove to be fatal.
So it was decision time.
Keep digging or go to Paris with Jada?
One thing that she was sure of, one way or the other, Max was done. It was bad enough that she was putting her life in jeopardy, but it was selfish of her to include Max in her madness.
And it is madness, Carmen thought.
Max had a wife and a family. She could never forgive herself if something happened to Max because she didn’t know when to let go.
And I guess that answers my question.
With the decision to stay and keep digging made, Carmen needed to decide what she was going to do next. She knew that the answer to that question was at Enzo’s Palace. That was where she needed to go next, but before she went there, there was somewhere else that Carmen needed to go.
“Peninsula Hotel.”
Carmen wasn’t the only one who was deep in thought that night. Jada stood in the window of her suite at The Peninsula Hotel, and she too was thinking about what she needed to do next. Not only did she have the situation with Carmen on her mind, but Chanté had dropped a bomb on her with the news that Detective Bautista had and informant on the inside of The Family.
After dropping off Chanté, Jada canceled her appointment and went to J.R.’s hoping that somebody could tell her where Rain was recovering. Not knowing how deep the penetration was, Jada understood that phones were out of the question, and she needed to speak to her in person. When Jada arrived at J.R.’s, it was closed, so she resolved herself to wait until later in the evening and try again.
So, she waited.
But Jada wasn’t waiting alone in the suite. Not only was Fantasy there, so were Simone, Victor and Nesmith. And knowing that she was going to be in the city for a while, Jada had sent for Caprice, her personal assistant. She had just arrived from Nassau, so the atmosphere in the suite was somewhat festive.
Since Jada wasn’t able to speak about it, and was clearly distressed by it, she chose to stay in her room by herself until there was a knock at the door.
“Yes.”
Caprice opened the door. “Carmen is here to see you.”
“I’ll be out in a minute.”
After glancing in the mirror, Jada came out in the suite to greet Carmen. As soon as she came through the door, Carmen started walking toward her. She grabbed Jada by the hand. “We need to talk,” she said and literally dragged Jada into the study before shutting the door.
“I have so much to tell you; I don’t know where to start.”
“Start with telling me that the police aren’t going to charge you with murder.”