C.J. processed one report and then moved onto the next one on her desk. Kyra had left the stack for her that morning and she'd gotten herself some coffee and started tackling it.
As lunch arrived, she ordered some Thai takeout and then continued working. But she did so with a sense of accomplishment because reviewing each file reminded her of the work that she'd done.
The woman and girls that had been helped.
Girls who had been sold into slavery by family members or guardians…women who had been lured into it from poverty promised a better life. The promise of fame and fortune as a model snared others and in some cases, getting kidnapped off of the street or even from the home.
She knew what the latter had been like, what it meant to walk to your car, your mind focused elsewhere one moment and then the next, be struggling against an unknown attacker. She still felt a trace of the terror that had grabbed her then just thinking about it now. Blinking it back, she picked up the next file.
That of Alisha, who had lived with a drug dealer who'd used her as his mule at some point. But he'd had sex with her too, swapping it for affection and she'd gotten pregnant. She currently sat in a safe house awaiting her date to testify against the drug dealer about what she knew about his operation. But it wasn't a given that she'd make it to the witness stand because she wavered almost daily in her decision to turn state's evidence. So many times the women who occupied her rung of the drug trafficking operation faced harsh penalties than the higher tiered men who dragged them into their dealing, because they had little in the way of bargaining chips to use with prosecutors to make plea bargains.
But Alisha with the help of C.J. and Matt had gotten lucky even though she didn't feel it. She hadn't called lately so she must be settling in better.
Kyra stood in the doorway.
"You staying late tonight?"
C.J. shook her head.
"No, I'm meeting Houston and some of his clients for drinks later at Marlena's so I'll finish up this stack and head on out there."
Kyra smiled.
"Sounds like fun," she said, "I've got my shift at the center to do so I'll be leaving at five."
"Sure and have a good time."
Kyra had been a client of the women's crisis center funded by Houston Enterprises Foundation herself not too long ago but had been going to school to get her MSW and had been working here. C.J. hoped she'd decide to help her more with the field work as time passed, she knew she'd be very good at it.
"So how are things going with the trial?"
C.J. made a face.
"The usual delays but one day it'll start up."
"So that Scott guy really wants a trial," Kyra said, "I remember him when he was at Houston Enterprises, what an asshole."
Oh that and more, C.J. thought but he'd been Matt's close buddy from way back and it had taken him quite a while to figure out what a snake Scott had turned out to be. Part of that had been C.J.'s fault because she knew back in Boston, he'd been working for Andre Duval and had never told Matt.
She'd been too ashamed of that deal she'd made with the future trafficker. The one that had tied her to him for so long, even before she realized it.
"Yeah he wants his day in court and he's got that right," she said, "It's not up to me anyway."
Kyra sighed.
"If it'd been up to Matt, he'd be dead."
C.J. had no doubt about that. Matt hadn't ever been a killer, only in self-defense or defense of others like her but when he had found out what Scott had done to her, he'd been angrier than she'd ever seen him. And she knew he carried his own brand of guilt with him even several years later though he'd learned how to deal with it.
She'd see him later tonight at Marlena's and looked forward to it. But when she thought about seeing Stefan again, it left her cold. She couldn't figure out what it was about him she just didn't like. But she had to go along with it tonight because he'd proven to be such an important client for Matt and Dan. She could put her misgivings aside for the evening.
"I know…but the guy's going to get what he deserves and that'll be a long prison sentence."
She hoped the trial and testifying it no matter how grueling it turned out to be would allow her to put the ordeal behind her at last. Looking at her future had been more difficult with it looming between her and the rest of her life, but when it was done, she could finally exhale. She looked forward to what lay ahead, her burgeoning career and her relationship with Matt that she'd waited her whole life to realize.
She couldn't wait for that day to come when she'd feel free.
Matt picked up his lunch from the deli and headed back to the office. The streets outside the building had crowded up during the lunch hour and it took him a while to get his food. Dan had been in the lobby talking with Chris when he'd arrived back. She turned to face him, a hand resting on her pregnancy.
"Stefan called, he said he's looking forward to tonight," Dan said, "You'll tell him about the new test product?"
Matt nodded.
"He should be interested in it," he said, "It'll enhance his security system at his home even more.
Dan sighed.
"It looked so damn impressive in the photos and specs," he said, "I can't believe someone actually lived there."
Matt sat in the chair and took his sandwich out of the bag.
"It's more so in person," he said, "There were so many rooms in the house including that safe room."
"The one you got into during your test?"
"Yeah file cabinets lining up the walls and the safe," Matt said, "I think it's family stuff rather than corporate secrets but he'll still want to make sure it remains secured."
Chris looked at the both of them.
"The Pharmaceuticals industry is among the most covert," she said, "They all hire spies to find out what the other's doing."
Dan nodded.
"I heard that his competition has a crack team constantly trying to put him under surveillance but they've never succeeded."
Matt sighed.
"I don't imagine they would," he said, "This guy is very discreet, very stealth and very aware of his surroundings at all times."
"He's had to be," Dan said, "but he still needs our product in case the competition ups the ante."
Matt leaned back eating his sandwich.
"He's attracted so much attention because he rose so quickly," he said, "When I met him in Germany, he was doing great but nothing like now."
Chris piped up.
"I read about him in Time and he's a very private man," she said, "Keeps his family out of the light to the point that most people have never seen them."
"He's wealthy enough," Matt said, "and he knows that they could be targets of kidnappings."
"Makes sense," Dan said, "He's certainly an interesting guy."
Matt couldn't deny that but he wondered about how Stefan had just appeared and dominated his industry so quickly, how he'd seemed to have brought a lot of capital to his company yet he didn't appear to come from wealth. But there could be different explanations for that.
"How's C.J. like him?"
Matt didn't know how to answer that at least not right away.
"She's working so damn hard and I think it's because of the trial."
Dan shrugged.
"Her and you both," he said, "You've done so much traveling lately."
Matt picked up his iced tea bottle and sipped it.
"I don't know how she feels about him," he said, "I did see them together at the party but she didn't talk much about it."
"Well then it'll be good that you're both meeting him and his assistant for drinks tonight."
Dan didn't need to mention Clarissa for him to react to his ex-lover. She'd told him she was engaged but he hadn't yet seen her fiancé. But she probably didn't take him on business trips while working for Stefan. It truly was a small world that they'd wound up working together but maybe it arose from their meet up at the Halloween party in the German village.
But something rankled at Matt because he knew C.J. as well as he knew himself and he'd picked up from her that she didn't appear to be too enthusiastic about either her or her boss Stefan. No that it seemed like a personality clash, she just had seemed a bit chilly. It didn't matter whether she became friends with his clients but he wondered what had spawned that reaction in her.
He could ask her why but it might be like the dreams this morning where she closed herself off and then when prompted opened herself up bit by bit. He'd try with smaller steps if he noticed the same dynamic tonight.
But he hoped he just had been imagining things.
Clarissa folded her arms looking at her boss who sat in the restaurant near the hotel eating his salmon and vegetable plate.
"So we're just going to sit there and have drinks with them, and you think you'll know if she remembers you?"
He nodded.
"That's the plan."
"Well how do you know that she remembers you and is just hiding it?"
He sighed.
"That's why we need to find out what's going on with her," he said, "and whether or not she's taken any suspicions to Matt."
"She probably would and he's not come after you yet so maybe she doesn't remember. Tough not being that memorable for a woman isn't it?"
Stefan ignored Clarissa's jab.
"Sasha, I never take such memory lapses like that personally," he said, "It's one less piece of property that needs disposal."
Clarissa chuckled.
"For a while there, I thought you'd seem taken with her while you were at Andre's compound," she said, "but you're back to your heartless self."
"I have a heart Sasha," he said, "I just know that it has no place in the business world, whether it's trafficking or pharmaceuticals."
She just looked at him, sitting there in his chair, exuding a raw sexiness that enhanced his attractiveness. She knew he was good in the sack, if you liked domineering men which she did very much. But she knew that other side of him that lived underneath his smile and eyes that were a glacial blue.
She knew the side of him that could snap a woman's neck and walk away from it to attend a social gala. But the matter with C.J. could have been handled that easily last night or it could have been handled by someone else so he could keep his hands cleaner.
Stefan didn't see her reasoning, he wanted to handle her himself and she knew he'd take no argument from her about that. She just hoped he knew what he was doing because she knew Matt even though their paths had only briefly crossed. He could become a formidable foe if he even suspected why they really sought out his business.
They couldn't underestimate him, not even for a moment not when it came to her.