“Tell them to go to hell. And then dig deeper. I want so much smut on her accuser that he’ll beg her to stay silent.”
Bobby laughed. “That’s right up Max’s alley.”
“And his guys are following right in his footsteps too,” said Sloane. “They were the ones that broke up that commotion in the lobby. It was classic Max Men. That’s what I call his security teams: Max Men.”
“What commotion in the lobby are you referring to?” William continued to search his phone for various charities on his list that he felt could give an award to Rawlings that would be prestigious enough to get instant attention.
“The day we left for Europe, and Bobby was walking us to the car, there was a commotion in the lobby involving some crazed hood rat.”
Bobby looked at Sloane. He knewhood ratwas code in her world for a person of color.
“She was trying to get to you,” Sloane added.
“What do you meanget to me?” William asked her.
“She tried to attack you, but Security stopped her.”
William didn’t look away from his phone, but he froze. Last year’s violent attack, and the aftermath, was still raw with him.
“When did this happen?” Bobby asked. “I don’t remember anything like that.”
“It was that same day we left for Europe. It was what? Five weeks ago?”
“Oh I do remember hearing some noise and maybe a scuffle that day, but I thought it was just two people arguing in the lobby. I didn’t even look back.”
“She was arguing with Security,” said Sloane. “I dropped my pen, that’s why I saw her. She looked like some pathetic waif calling the boss’s name. “William,” she cried. “It’s me. It’s Joy.’” And Sloane and Bobby laughed. Bobby found the very name humorous.
But when William heard that name, he didn’t freeze again, he looked at Sloane. “She said her name was Joy?”
“That’s what she said, yes sir. You should have seen her.”
William had thought about her several times since he met her in that restaurant in Indiana. “Describe her.”
Bobby was confused. So was Sloane. “Sir?” she asked him.
“Describe her.”
Sloane had to think about it. It was over a month ago! “She was African-American, I remember that,” she said.
“Why am I not surprised that it would be a black girl given your hood rat reference?” Bobby asked.
Sloane ignored him. “She was small, but she had curves too. She had hair below her neck. Dark hair. I don’t know, Boss. She looked like any other hood rat to me.”
“Stop using that term,” Bobby ordered her. He wasn’t playing now.
But William was inwardly mortified. He swiped out of his charity list on his phone and began pulling up the security cameras for his office building. “When did you say this happened?”
Even Bobby looked at him.
“It was the day we left for England,” said Sloane. “Why?”
“What happened to her?” William began searching his phone for that date, on his calendar, five weeks ago when he left town. He looked at Sloane. “I said what happened to her?”
“What should have happened to her. They arrested her.”
William frowned and looked at Sloane. “Arrested her for what?”
“For trying to attack you.”
