“Representative McGrath has requested a consultation with you at three. I told him you were unavailable, but he refused to take no for an answer.”
A potential new client. Interesting. At least it wasn’t another retainer withdrawal.
Wainwright and Drake were powerful. Dwight Holderfield was dead. Half her client list was pulling out. She had dirt on nearly all of those bastards. Control represented her most valuable asset. Someone was methodically taking it away from her, leaving her powerless.
Were Wainwright and Drake really this influential?
“Shall I tell him you’ll get back to him?”
Annette took a moment to gather her composure. “Tell him I’ll meet him at five.” She gave Daniel the usual protocol and put her phone away.
In the beginning, her work had been more of an intelligence-gathering mission. Otis set her up as a fundraising coordinator. Over time she had developed an in with the most powerful people in Birmingham. Otis gained insight to those he needed to manipulate, and she grew financially secure. As time went by, the services she offered expanded into problem solving. She provided a service no one else could. Keptthe ugliness away from those the community trusted and looked up to. Someone had to do it. Otherwise there would be bedlam.
She wasn’t a monster.
But the world, her world, considered her just that.
Heconsidered her that.
Carson Tanner thought he was better than her despite the reality that his job dictated he do things far worse than she. He made deals with hardcore criminals. But it was different when he allowed a killer to get less than what he deserved. The law was on Tanner’s side. Just as it was on Wainwright’s and Drake’s.
If the naive citizens of Birmingham only knew.
The fear she inspired in those who knew her, knew what she did, ensured that she would never be anything but evil in the eyes of all those law-abiding citizens.
They just didn’t know.
That sense of doom crowded in on her, banded around her chest. She stood, steadied herself. She would get through this.
They would not win.
Annette smoothed her palms over slacks. The look, the attitude. All of it was part of the job. Part of what made her who she was. She would find a way to regain her power.
No man would keep her down for long.
Carson Tanner was hers already, he just didn’t know it yet.
5:00 p.m.
Terrace Drive, Pelham
Oak Mountain State Park
At least someone still asked “How high?” when Annette saidjump.State Representative Bryan McGrath had not balked once at the shortnotice or the change in location. New clients were never given the actual location of the meet until the last possible minute.
McGrath parked his extravagant sedan alongside her Lexus. Annette watched as he got out of his vehicle, removed his jacket and cell phone, and tossed both back into the car. Then he walked to the passenger side of hers. She never met with a client on his terms. Always on her own. And only for the initial meeting so that she could assess his motives and his nature. After that, there was rarely any personal contact.
When he had opened the door and settled into the seat, she placed a jamming device on the console just in case he’d worn any transmitting bugs.
Never trust anyone, that was her motto.
“Nice to see you, Representative McGrath.”
“Can we get this over with?”
McGrath was a relatively young man in the political arena; he’d only recently turned thirty. He had a lovely wife and three precious children, as he so often said in the media.
Evidently he also had a dark side. Something for which he needed her expert assistance. This was the part of her work she always found the most fascinating. It never failed to amuse her just how stupid those who had it all could be.
