CHAPTER SIXTEEN
David sat at the head of the table. Watching as another presentation of sales and investments filled the wet morning, he was seconds away from calling it to a stop. He was more than restless. It was hard to ignore the wrench in his stomach when a memory of Jo's eyes glazed with satisfaction when he hit her. It had not had the desired effect. Violence was predictable that way that is why usually he refrained from using it.
He clenched the hand that connected with her lip. He ran his hand over the knuckle. He had meant to greet his daughter this morning and give her a ride to work. From the tinted glass he could see the brunette exit the house looking very…satisfied. There were few moments that his cool veneer cracked. Joanne had been the reason for the two that came to mind; each one included his daughter in some way.
The lung had been out of reaction. An emotional fault that couldn't be rectified and in all honesty he didn't want to. He was sharp and quick and not usually a trade sadist, but Joanne was a personal project. David had already consoled himself that he would take his time with her. It was strange that even with the things that had gone wrong in her life she was still determined to be a pain.
"Mr. Warner," a whispered in his ear shyly, "this came for you," she handed him an envelope.
He looked at the envelope not looking up at the woman or the curious gazes aimed in his direction. He half expected to see nude pictures of him and some tryst, but he knew better than that. He wasn't as careless as his other protégés even more paranoid about what could get out and destroy the dynasty that he had built.
In place of a photo was a contract. His brow furrowed and the rest of the room escaped from notice as he read skimmed through it until he finally found the reason for it to be sent. He set his jaw curious as to how she pulled this off.
"Mr. Warner?" a brave executive interrupted his reverie.
David looked up acknowledging the speaker, "what?" he answered more brusquely than he intended, "we'll finish this tomorrow," he continued and stood to leave.
While inquisitive glances were exchanged no one offered a protest. They watched their boss head out of the office like a man, who owned the place, and since he did he could do whatever he pleased.
He took the elevator his first instinct was to press the first floor, but he chose his daughter's floor. He ran the contracts through his legal personnel before and after they were signed, it was just his way. He paced in the elevator unhappy at the speed of delivery. When he did reach the floor he pushed passed the duo waiting to get on. Whatever dark remarks they had didn't go any farther than their personal musings, that is, until he was out of earshot.
Vesper stood up quickly to greet David, but he ignored her just like he had done everyone else in his search for his daughter. Not bothering to knock he entered Blair's office unannounced.
"Mr. Warner," Roger's glared transformed into a wide welcoming smile. Blair smirked amused by how quickly his lips puckered whenever her father's ass was in his vicinity.
"What is this," he seethed slamming the contract, crumbled at the corner from his grip, into Roger's chest.
The man frowned never remembering a time when Mr. Warner was displeased with his work, when he realized it was a copy of the contract he was bragging about.
"What's wrong daddy?" Blair stood from her desk. She had never seen her father so demonstrative in his discontent.
"I don't own these shares why?" he tried to calm himself in front of Blair. "Have you read these?" he picked up the pile on her desk seeing another name repeated where his name should be. He hated when things didn't go his way and usually he kept a cool head. Joanne, however, inspired a primal urge that ended with images of his hands around her neck.
"Yes," Blair chimed in slowly showing her confusion.
"I….I…I…I don't know about this sir," he answered just as baffled.
"Then what the hell is it I pay you for?" he ground out inches from the other man's cringing figure.
Roger gulped and while the blonde wasn't fond of her coworker she didn't want anything ruined in her painstakingly decorated office. "Daddy," she said in a hopefully soothing voice brushing her hand against his arm. He was stiff with rage, but she prodded further until he took enough steps back to lessen her discomfort. Roger was appreciative as well breathing a brief sigh of relief until he heard the words 'you're fired'.
David didn't give the lawyer a second glance when he turned his back. In truth Roger had been a loyal employee. His work was exemplary, but he couldn't afford a staff of incompetents. The contract had to go through several hands and it took an unmarked envelope to tell him what Roger should have, that he made a mistake.
"Daddy," Blair started but his hand went up to stop her from speaking.
"Not now princess," he was thinking. Joanne had pulled a fast one, but there still was a card he could play. He turned to Blair. He never liked to involve his daughter in his dirty deeds, only when it was necessary and there had been quite a few necessary times over the years. She always forgave and understood if she found out he was using her, he always sugar coated it with a gift.
He doubted what he was about to propose next would garner the father of the year award. But in retrospect he'd always coveted the businessman of the year award more. His eyes darted to his daughter's door when Vesper interrupted to say she had a call from a Ms. Polniaczek.
"Put her through," he demanded forgetting he had an audience.
Words were sometimes an unfortunate way to communicate. Often when they matter most they halt their travel at the throat. Jo had spent her morning trying to decide how to tell Blair about her. Blair deserved the truth no matter how badly it ended for the former cop. She held onto the phone waiting patiently for the blonde's hello. However, she hadn't expected the voice she heard instead.
"What the hell have you done?"
"I want to talk to Blair."
David looked at his daughter as he said she wasn't available to come to the phone, nor would she be for Joanne. The brunette bit the bottom of her lip glaring at the cracks on the sidewalk. The man could grate her nerves like a pro.
"Where are you?"
Jo's glare moved to the phone then she slammed it on the receiver. She ignored the looks in her direction and headed toward the building holding her favorite and least favorite people. Security didn't give her a second glance when she moved through the turning doors. The elevator ride to Blair's office was going too slow for her tastes. And while she would have appreciated the exertion of running up the stairs she needed the energy for the confrontation ahead.
"Daddy what's going on?" Blair kept her tone calm even as her aggravation evolved to anger.
David ignored his daughter's question. He didn't think his daughter would look at him the same if he knew how deeply involved he was with unscrupulous affairs. He knew his daughter was a highly intelligent woman, more worldly than most. But being a father wouldn't end until after he was long gone. Until then that meant doing everything his power to preserve her image of him. Sure, she knew that he could be cutthroat in business, but to her knowledge he had never exercised that initiative outside of it.
"Nothing you need to concern yourself with princess," he plastered on an assuring smile, but in seeing her jaw set he knew she wasn't going to drop it.
"It becomes my business when it involves my...," she stopped short to catch herself, "friend."
The patriarch caught the pause and his hackles rose at the possible words that 'friend' replaced. He often thought a confrontation of their affair would be wise. Then he considered the words that would come out of her mouth, words he didn't and wasn't ready to hear.
"This is between Joanne and I honey," his tone had hardened.
Blair tilted her head frowning now, "what are you talking about?" she stepped toward him, "you've been hiding things from me daddy and I don't like it. I turn a blind eye to business because you're a businessman, but I grew up with Jo I care about her. I don't want her to get hurt."
"You think I would hurt a friend of yours?" he mirrored the tilt of her head with one of his own. He never dwelled on his daughter's perception of him. All she had ever given him were kind words and warm welcomes and an endless supply of 'I love you'. Where in any of that had she gotten the idea that he was capable of hurting someone on purpose? It didn't change the fact that he could and did, but it was always something to shield his baby from. Through her eyes he could be the perfect father despite the unworthy title.
Blair shook her head lowering her head, "what do you expect me to say daddy?" She sounded lost and hurt, "I know what those contracts mean and I know you when it comes to business."
Sighing he smiled at his baby girl. "Life was so much easier when all I had to do was buy you ponies and pearl earrings when you were a little girl."
"Is that what you want to do, distract me from the truth?"
"What's so great about knowing something that can hurt you?" he began his play of words to manipulate the conversation.
"Hurt me?"
"I made a mistake pumpkin one that I did because I cared," his opening offered introduction to a deeper conversation.
Jo walked in to hear the last part.
Blair's hair whipped over her shoulder as she returned her gaze back to her father when Jo entered soundlessly. He took a step toward her and then made a dramatic pause and turned to Joanne. If he beat her to it, it made her out to be the one keeping secrets. For him to lament and confess he could show his daughter how deep his internal turmoil was over the role of the untruth.
"Don't choke on that line of bull," Jo folded her arms in disgust.
"Wait!" Blair exchanged a look with Jo then her father. Placing a hand on her forehead she closed her eyes and left it there when she spoke. "Why did you give the maintenance contracts of Warner vehicles to a shop in the Bronx where Jo happens to work? And when I talked to the owner, he said he had Jo to thank for the business? And why don't the numbers match up with how much it should really cost?" She met their eyes again, "why are you lying to me?"
Jo tightened the cross of her arms before dropping them at her side; they didn't stay there for long. She brought them up to piece together a sentence that wouldn't get anything thrown at her head. But softening the blow wouldn't make the news sound any better to hear. David saw her struggle, but when he jumped in, it had little to do with lending aid.
"Joanne and I have a complicated history."
"What kind of complicated history can develop over a handful of meetings?" Blair didn't like where this was heading.
David took control again steering it away from recent events Blair inquired about, "I'm the reason that Joanne went to Eastland."
"What?" Blair shook her head smiling away her father's absurdity, "Jo was there on scholarship."
The older man shook his head and Jo watched not believing how easily he could warp this to his advantage. He took the long pauses. He made sympathetic overtures. David was a pro at this game and Jo realized that perhaps giving Monica all the credit for Blair's diabolical side may have been rash.
He shook his head slowly his eyes met his daughters, "I wanted you safe and looked after and I knew you wouldn't appreciate armed guards."
"So…you what?" the truth was forming slowly against a resistant psyche.
Jo stepped toward Blair to finish, "I needed the money," she started then amended her statement, "my family needed the money. And this suit offers my mom a paycheck every month and all I had to do was go to school and….," Jo trailed off losing steam. Ignoring the situation had only made explaining it worse.
"And what?" the blonde narrowed her eyes waiting for Jo to carry on.
David jumped in, "I paid her to be your friend."
Jo's face folded, "no," she shook her head. "No, I mean that's how it started out," she tried to convey what she felt without saying the words. Blair was still unaware David knew about them, and there was already one big secret out of the bag they didn't have room for two. "But this spoiled self absorbed assembly line Barbie brat grew on me… until growing on me turned into a being my best friend."
Blair glared, "the scholarships that you lost? The money troubles at home?" she tried to piece the moments from their past into a cohesive memory. It was a lot of past to pick through, but the common denominator came from Jo's underprivileged roots.
The older man interrupted Jo before she had a chance to answer, "Joanne was never genuinely in financial peril."
Blair gasped making a sound like a choke, as if she were trying to speak with disobliging words. Jo glared, "shut up," she held up her hand, her mouth curved upward nervously as she continued to talk directing the words to Blair. "My mom waited tables for guys that thought pawing at my ma came with the special of the day. I didn't think about who you were when I took the deal. I just thought of the hours my mom could cut back on at a job that took so much outta her."
Blair's eyes dropped, but Jo continued needing to say her peace even as the heiress closed herself off in front of her. She avoided Dave's gaze and focused on the woman she wanted to spend the rest of her life with. "I planned to be fake…and then I met you," she trailed off letting her tone say the rest. Their first meeting had been disastrous. An uncensored Blair and an equally unrepressed young Polniaczek unintentionally foreshadowed their entire friendship from one introduction.
"Oh." The first words Blair had said since Jo stopped speaking. Jo hadn't anticipated immediate understanding, but the delivery left the mechanic wishing for more emotion. The bad thing about the socialite, that had only gotten worse over time, was her ability to hold a grudge.
"Princess I know it was wrong of both of us for this charade."
"Charade?" Jo mocked the word, "I lied, but I never acted like someone I wasn't," Jo interrupted taking another step towards Blair. She was on the brink of damning how her father or how Blair would respond and take the blonde in her arms. Jo was always better hands on rather than living everything up to words. Using words for her were as much of a gamble as a weekend in Vegas.
"It's funny Tootie was so worried about taking acting courses," she chuckled humorlessly, "and all she had to do was take notes from you."
Jo's heart sank at the comment knowing Dave's swelled. This was indeed happening. She was losing Blair and she knew she deserved it. For months this was what she wanted for Blair to accept and say goodbye. But the sensation never lasted and this moment illustrated why. Jo could never hammer in the last nail because she wasn't capable of letting Blair go.
"Blair," she started, but the blonde cut her off.
"No Jo," she whispered. She could feel her eyes become weighed down by wet. She desperately wanted to keep them dry. Jo didn't deserve seeing how much she had affected the heiress.
"Leave," she croaked hating her voice for breaking.
"This isn't what I want," Jo sighed heavily lost on how she could make things right with Blair. When she headed toward the door she wondered if Blair would ever carry the same warmth in her eyes that she once had. She wasn't hopeful, but that didn't stop her from turning around to see if Blair was even looking at her—she wasn't.
"We have a problem," David didn't like saying the words.
"Why are you calling me?" the sleepy voice on the other end demanded.
"The 'call' contracts…they were stolen," David chose the words carefully considering Jo's deception.
March sat up from his couch, "what are you talking about?" he growled into the phone.
David explained and March listened and by the end of it neither man felt good afterward, bad news had that affect. Moving the phone away from his ear March shut his eyes before he stood grabbing the rest of the phone with him as he paced. He didn't usually raise his voice, but he felt the situation called for an out of character response. The deal had been simple and genius. His senior stockholders were bad men with vices. They didn't trust him for good reason. With the information that he knew he sold the blackmail to Warner as a long term investment. David in turn agreed to become majority a majority stockowner and eventually procure the fixed price per share of preferred stock. The money along with the blackmail purse was enough to start anew.
Unfortunately David had thought his misgivings about including Jo in his scheme were unfounded and now here they were.
"How could you be so obtuse Warner," he pinched the bridge of his nose as a throbbing started in the behind his eyes.
"Calm down this can be handled."
"How and when?"
"I still have a card to play and soon."
The man was obnoxious and arrogant. In many ways they were alike, but in the ways that counted not so much. David was content to play games, but it was more efficient just to cut the problem out of the equation.
"I can't stress to you how much this deal means."
The older man smirked, "if my net worth was waning by the second I'd be worried about time too."
March bit his tongue letting David's barb slide. He was going to be worth nothing and unfortunately the only thing left was his product. His name now mingled in a cesspool alongside child molester and murderer despite the unfounded investigation. While nothing was proven, people had made up their own minds and his business paid for it. He stared at his ostentatious furnishings knowing that if the former Detective had her way all of it would go. He had to liquidate his company to save it. David could talk a big game, but he always shied away from getting his hands dirty. March had different proclivities.