More references to sexual misconduct.
Payback's a…
Chuck was as good as his word. His contact brought everything she needed to carry out her plan. Even better, it all fit in the small clutch she was carrying with her tonight. She would have to wait for the right moment to enact her plan, mingling with the crowd without drawing attention to herself. Also, she couldn't drink or eat anything at the party until it was time. She trusted her instincts to guide her through this crisis. More importantly, she trusted her God to see her through this. Saying yet another prayer for strength, courage, and wisdom, she took one last look in the mirror. The navy-blue High/Low cut chiffon dress was v-necked in the front and back in equal, modest cuts. The skirt was gathered together with a gorgeous beaded embellishment that accentuated her narrow waist. The gray low heels she wore completed the look. She'd foregone her necklace but kept her bracelet and a delicate silver watch, one on each wrist. She knew that her boss awaited her in a gray suit that would compliment her dress. He'd actually asked what dress she was wearing to the ball before they left New York. With a final shake of her carefully styled updo to make sure it would behave and stay in place, she smoothed her hands down the skirt of her gown one last time and headed down to the lobby to meet her escort for the night.
"I must say, my wife's dress looks much better on you than it ever did on her. You fill it out well, Ms. Shaveed." Resisting the urge to tease him back, lest people think they were sleeping together, Landi opted for a courtly turn of phrase.
"Why thank you, good sir. I appreciate your wife's generous contribution to my wardrobe." The limo arrived just then to take them to their destination. Conversation came easy as the two were old friends, but once again she was grateful for her mind's ability to compartmentalize. The part of her mind not dedicated to the current conversation or worried about her safety was in a panic over tonight's mission. She was desperate to have the hard parts of this night over with so she could simply enjoy herself.
"Here we go," she muttered after the driver handed her out of the limo. Whitmore squeezed her arm in silent support as they paused to pose for the cameras outside of the venue. She took what comfort she could from the motion, but couldn't help a shiver that he didn't know the whole story and she was therefore on her own.
"You'll do fine," he reassured her as soon as they were free to enter. The entire place was subtly decorated. The fairy lights everywhere were the crowning achievement. There was still enough light to brighten up the place, but the fact that there were no dark corners for Mr. Henry to back her into was of great comfort to her.
Avoiding her target turned out to be easier than she'd thought it would be. The first three hours of the party were spent with interviews and photo ops for Gringotts and his son as well as Myers and her. She noted that Henry was constantly watching her, and kept from drinking anything according to plan. Once the alcohol was flowing and the interviews were over, came the second phase of the night: dancing. She circled the room, avoiding Mr. Henry's increasingly frenzied attempts to grab her attention for a turn on the dance floor. Considering what he was planning to do to her, she felt justified in making him sweat .
"You have a beautiful smile, Ms. Shaveed," Carl told her as he executed a twirl that had her breathless.
"Well, I should. I was stuck in braces for almost ten years," she grinned.
"Really?" the man laughed, clearly interested in the story.
"Oh, yes. I-"
"Do you mind if I cut in?" Henry asked charmingly. Feeling her dance partner starting to withdraw, and her mind screaming 'not yet', she tightened her grip on Carl's hand and turned to face her nemesis.
"Actually, I do mind. I was in the middle of a lovely conversation with Mr. Simmons and you are interrupting us. Now, I would be happy to dance with you. Later." Henry backed away from the pair, looking stunned. When she turned back to her dance partner, he looked just as stunned.
"Wow, you really know how to speak your mind, Ms. Shaveed! It's really going to shake things up when you start working here. Mr. Gringotts prefers a more docile type for his female staff."
"Um… Who said I'm moving to Los Angeles?" she asked, looking confused.
"Mr. Gringotts, of course," the man told her with a shrug as they continued to dance. "He said that it was part of the deal of the merger that you would be moving here. I for one am excited about that. You seem the type to shake things up." Landi was reeling. So, Gringotts the elder was that confident in his son's skills eh? Or maybe he believed that she would be so grateful for the opportunity to be taken advantage of by his son that she would demand to be reassigned to the West Coast. Huh.
"The situation is still in flux, Mr. Simmons. But we were talking about my teeth, weren't we?" Carl gave her an amused nod and he dipped her. "Well, my parents scraped together enough cash to get me braces, but they couldn't afford to get them taken off after three years. So I basically had braces from the summer before eighth grade until my Junior year of college! When they finally came off, I didn't even need a retainer. And they had to tell me to stop brushing my teeth so often. I was obsessed that I wouldn't end up with holes in my teeth or anything weird like that. But I was actually scraping the enamel off my teeth." The two shared a laugh as the song came to an end.
"I thank you for the story, mademoiselle," he said, kissing her hand with a smile. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I think I need some refreshment after such exertions. Join me?"
"Unfortunately, I can't right now," she said and was surprised to find that she meant it. "Enjoy the rest of the party, okay?" The two parted and Alandra shared two dances with her boss - the one man Henry couldn't intimidate away from her - before finally making herself available by heading to the snack table. It was the one place she hadn't visited all evening. She tried to make herself look lost once she got there. This next part had to go perfectly or his suspicion would be aroused. With the party two-thirds of the way over and the guests starting to leave, it was showtime.
"Need a little help, Ms. Shaveed?" She repressed a shudder at the familiar voice.
"I'm not familiar with some of these foods," she said guilelessly. "I admit curiosity, but don't want to embarrass myself." With that, she picked up a spicy little concoction that she knew well and turned around to lie. "Here goes nothing. I'm allergic to spice, but this looks safe." The delicacy was out of her hand before she could take a bite. "Hey!"
"Ms. Shaveed, that's one of the spiciest foods at this party. Couldn't you smell it?" At her blank stare, Mr. Henry's smile turned fond. "I would be pleased to be your guide through this treacherous field of culinary delights. But first, I believe I am owed a dance."
'Don't overdo the helpless maiden act,' she told herself sternly as she shyly accepted his hand. The two moved to the dance floor and Henry wasted no time trying to impress her with his waltz. She let him think it was working, though he didn't hold a candle to Carl or any of her other dance partners tonight. After three dances, she'd had all that she could take of his ineptitude.
"I'm sorry, Ms. Shaveed. Ballroom dancing is not my forte."
"Not your style of dance?" she asked through grit teeth, thinking of her bruised toes.
"Come with me to the club and I'll show you dancing," he murmured into her ear. Landi backed off immediately, conscious of people whispering.
"I would suggest you invest in a few lessons, Mr. Henry. We can't all live in the club." She turned as if to leave at that and let him stop her mid-retreat.
"Wait, Ms. Shaveed. Allow me to make up for my lack of expertise on the dance floor by giving you that tour of the snack table." He grabbed two flutes of champagne off a passing tray and handed one to her.
"I don't drink," she said forcefully, refusing the glass. "I prefer to go to the bar for a club soda and cranberry juice. After a quick trip to the bathroom." She left to relieve herself after that, knowing what would happen next.
When she returned, Henry tracked her down, holding out a drink for her. "It's the least I can do," he said, charming smile in place.
'Now.' Taking the offered drink, the woman leaned forward as if she'd stumbled and attached a micro transmitter to his collar. Righting herself, she took out a vial with a small amount of clear fluid in it. She poured a small amount of her drink into the vial, stoppered it, and shook it.
"What are you doing?" he asked in shock.
"Checking to see if you spiked my drink. The color will tell me what exactly you put in there, if anything." The reddish liquid turned bright purple almost immediately. "So, you really did it. You went through with putting Rohypnol in my drink," Henry was gaping at her openly, causing her to smirk. "I would report to your father for further instructions." Henry stumbled away from the woman, looking as if he'd seen a ghost. Alandra followed him, Whitmore following in her wake, sensing that whatever plan she'd hatched was unfolding at last.
"Vater, sie ist auf uns los! Die schlaue Schlampe hat herausgefunden, dass ich ihr Getränk versetzt habe," he said as he rushed into the conference room he was supposed to report to once the deed was done. (Father, she's onto us! The clever bitch figured out that I spiked her drink.)
"Unmöglich. Diese Schlampe spielt mit dir! Und du lässt es zu, mein dummer Sohn. Ich meine, wie konnte sie das nur wissen?" The firm owner asked arrogantly. (Impossible. That bitch is playing you! And you're allowing it, my stupid son. I mean, how could she possibly know?)
"Sie weiß es, weil sie das Getränk getestet hat," Henry growled furiously. Everything was falling apart. He couldn't believe this was happening. "Dein dämlicher Plan ist gescheitert. Wenn sie klagt, verlieren wir alles," (She knows because she tested the drink. Your stupid plan failed. If she sues, we'll lose everything.)
"Das ist alles deine Schuld! Du musstest nur mit der Schlampe schlafen," Heinrich groaned, seeing his chances of turning this deal around slipping through his fingers. (This is all your fault! All you had to do was bed the bitch.)
"Aber es ist nicht seine Schuld, Sir. Ich fühle mich überhaupt nicht zu ihm hingezogen," she said with pretend remorse. As the Gringotts men stared at her, slack-jawed at her impeccable German, she smiled. "Gentlemen, shall we discuss the true terms of this merger?" She seated herself at the table and waited for the three men to do the same. (But it's not his fault, sir. I'm not attracted to him in the slightest)
"What do you want?" Heinrich asked furiously, looking like a cornered alley cat.
"First, the current contract stands. There will be no further changes to try and benefit yourselves. Should I catch wind of you two pulling a stunt like this again - sleeping with a woman and recording the act to bring down a company - this will be plastered all over CNN. I don't care how much your board of directors condones this disgraceful behavior behind closed doors, they will be forced to act with the eyes of the world on them. You will lose your company, am I clear?"
"So, the Christian Lawyer strikes again," Henry said nastily.
"Hey, I would have been happy not to sleep with you and let it lie. But you had to make it personal by trying to poison me. This is on the two of you. Anything to add, Mr. Myers?" she asked as an afterthought. Whitmore looked absolutely livid at the moment. Then he got a creepy smile on his face.
"I want your resignation, Heinrich. Effective immediately. Ms. Shaveed may be willing to let things lie, but I am not. And all this talk about her moving here stops, I don't care how you do it. While I do intend to send someone to this company to straighten it out, you cannot have my best lawyer. Make it happen. Ms. Shaveed and I have a plane to catch in a few hours."
"You won't be able to get away with this!" Gringotts the elder shouted in a rage. "It's my son's word against yours in this case. You accuse, he denies, case closed."
"Actually, it's your word against yours," she said smugly. Both men looked confused at first, then twin looks of horror dawned on their faces as they searched Henry for a bug. He found it on his collar and slid it across the table. Then Heinrich pulled out a Colt 45 and aimed it at her.
"And now's the part where we renegotiate the renegotiation. I'm not losing my company. Hand over the tape. NOW!" Landi looked at him with something like pity in her eyes.
"What do you think this is, 1985? This conversation is streaming straight to the Cloud. It's not here to 'hand over', so put that gun away before you hurt somebody."
"What do you mean 'in the Cloud'?" the man asked in confusion.
"It means that it's been stored on the internet, ready to disseminate to the masses. It's on a monitored feed, which means that I'm not the only one that has access to it. Someone is listening in on our conversation right now. And if anything happens to me, the whole scandal comes out and you lose your company anyway. Put the gun down."
"You can't retrieve it?" he tried again, gun still trained on her heart.
"I can't. It's in the Cloud, baby," she said in a patronizing voice. Then she got serious again. "Should I suffer from a terminal case of lead poisoning, the whole recording gets dumped onto the Internet. And the Internet is forever," she spelled it out for the man.
"It… It doesn't matter! Half of that recording is in German so-"
"They have these things nowadays called 'translators'. They'll figure it out. Now are you going to shoot me and destroy Gringotts Law, or are you going to put the gun down and preserve what's left of your dignity?"
"Put it down, Dad," Henry said through clenched teeth. "I understand what she's talking about even if you don't and if we want to keep a lid on this scandal, we have to give in to their demands."
"This is entrapment," Heinrich roared angrily. "I won't stand for it!"
"What are you going to do? Tell the cops that your plan to have me rape her backfired and now she's got us by the short hairs?" Henry asked sarcastically.
"Besides," Landi shrugged. "Entrapment is something that cops do to criminals. Are you a criminal, Mr. Gringotts?" For a moment he seemed to really contemplate pulling the trigger. But his son's hand on his shoulder seemed to make him think better of it. He put the gun back in its holster with a growl.
"Very well," Whitmore said into the sudden silence. "You will submit your resignation, effective immediately."
"I get to pick my replacement?" he asked hopefully.
"You just pulled a gun on my associate, Heinrich. I do not trust your judgment. Our Board will pick your replacement." He turned to his employee. "I believe our flight leaves in five hours. Just enough time to pack and nap. Oh, and don't bother playing the victim in your retirement speech. Otherwise I will be forced to release the recording from the Cloud to vindicate myself." Heinrich stiffened in surprise before sighing in defeat.
"Well played, Ms. Shaveed," Henry said as she reached the door. The woman nodded, a wave of exhaustion crashed over her now that everything was over. Whitmore led her through the party, the two careful to keep up appearances as they left. She felt much like she did after a court appearance - worn out and ready for bed. There were times when she barely made it out of the courtroom after an emotionally charged case. Alandra was a woman who put her all into her work. It was hard to be so invested in every case, but it yielded results as she won more cases than she lost.
As soon as they were in the limo, the privacy screen engaged, Whitmore turned to the exhausted woman angrily.
"Just what were you thinking, putting yourself in such a dangerous situation?"
"I was thinking that the terms of the merger were entirely too good to pass up simply because upper management is full of scum."
"Landi…"
"Heinrich practically handed you and Mr. Joshua his company in a bid to humiliate you and take your business right out from under you. Isn't this preferable to that?" At his reluctant nod, she pressed her advantage. "I know you don't approve of my methods, but you can't argue my results. Reprimand me when I'm awake enough to take it, please."
Whitmore grabbed her chin and forced her head up to her shock. "You are never to put yourself in such a compromising position again, Alandra. I don't care how favorable the potential outcome is. Do I make myself clear?"
"Crystal," she glared, pulling her face away from him. Instead of triumphant, she suddenly felt like crying. Determined not to give him the satisfaction, she curled up facing away from him and closed her expressive brown eyes. Sleep found her quickly and she felt much better after the forty minute nap.