Sharing Hannah

The article would run, but this guy planned on outing us as well. As far as assholes went, he was cunning. Resourceful. He also worked for a widely-distributed magazine. If anyone could spread the word about who ‘Hannah’ was, and who her three lovers actually were? It would be him.

I could only imagine the backlash at work. This smug little shit, calling to spread the word about me. I had a strong but still tenuous hold on my position as it was. Three other guys with more seniority, gunning for the job I’d somehow ‘taken’ from them. It would only require one slip-up. One bad batch of publicity caused by something like this, and they’d swoop in and usurp my power.

It might not be so bad, if the CEO and founder wasn’t such an oldschool traditionalist. Jonas Wright was a sweet old man. Kind and caring. But who knows how he would react, to find his CFO outed as some sort of polygamist sharing the same woman with two of his friends?

And it would be especially awkward for me, since the man had taken me under his wing. Jonas had been an incredible mentor to me, ever since I’d arrived at the company. He recognized hard work, and rewarded me accordingly. He’d also acted as a sort of home away from home, even inviting me over for holidays and family functions when I had nowhere else to go.

It was unbelievable to me that some lowlife scumbag — the kind of coward who would blindside my friend with a police baton, then play the victim card — could undo an entire relationship with someone I admired and respected.

All because he couldn’t take ‘no’ for an answer.

I wanted to crush him. To show up on his doorstep and go totally medieval on him, consequences be damned. But that wouldn’t help our situation. It wouldn’t help me, or Brooke, and it certainly wouldn’t help Trey.

“So do you have any other ideas?” I asked Tony. “I mean about what Trey should do or shouldn’t do? Anything that could help his case at all?”

Tony removed his hat and scratched his head. “There were no other witnesses?” he asked.

“No. Just the man and the woman who were on their way into the building.”

“So they roomed there, with your friend? They were professors also?”

“Adjunct professors, yes. But they didn’t know Trey. They couldn’t vouch for him.”

My friend slowly shook his head. “And unfortunately, their statements corroborate the video evidence. That they saw a smaller guy running from a bigger guy, who ended up body-slamming him into a concrete walkway.”

Fuck, I thought to myself angrily. Fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck.

All of a sudden, my backup plan of going medieval was starting to seem better and better.

“No other camera angles, eh?” asked Tony. “Showing the initial assault?”

“The only external camera was on the front of the building. It was trained on the entranceway.”

“That sucks,” Tony acknowledged. He put his hat back on and pulled it low. “If only there were other buildings with other cameras…”

Forty-Nine

BROOKE

“Any more Sicilian?”

Adam shoved one of the pizza boxes Trey’s way. It slid across the table just a little too easily, and he groaned as he lifted the lid to find it empty.

“Just wait until Dante comes home,” said Trey. “He’s gonna be pissed.”

He reached into the box, picking and eating the congealed remnants of what was once mozzarella cheese. I might’ve considered it gross if I hadn’t already done the same thing, ten minutes before.

“Dante hates Sicilian,” said Adam.

“Really?”

“Pretty sure.”

“Because I know he likes deep dish,” Trey argued. “And deep dish and Sicilian are pretty much—”

“Don’t even say it,” I warned. “Don’t even try to say those two pizza types are even similar, much less the same.”

Trey made a silly face at me. I stuck out my tongue. A split-second later, an empty pizza box came sailing at my head. Luckily, I ducked just in time.