: Chapter 29

“You look like a man out for blood,” Austin says as he comes over with a tumbler of scotch. I take it, and he sits down in his chair, swirling his own tumbler around. “Tell me what all happened.”

“You read the story, I assume,” I start, and Austin nods. “What did you think?”

“That was the worst gossip line of shit I’ve read in years,” Austin says. “I thought Vanna was better than that. Have you reached out to her?”

“She’s not answering my calls.”

“Ah,” Austin says, reaching into his pocket and pulling out his phone. “Give me thirty seconds.”

It actually takes him less than that, as he sets his phone down on his thigh in speaker mode and Vanna’s voice comes out. “Austin?”

“I’ve got you on speaker, Vanna. There is an interested party listening in, one whom you owe an explanation to,” Austin says. “Please don’t tell me that you think you’ve outgrown your limits? That’s going to seriously piss me off if you have.” There’s a threat laced through his words, a warning to Vanna in his dark tone that she should take seriously.

“No! No, God, no!” Vanna says, her voice tight with fear. “Austin, I’m not answering the phone from your… friend because I’ve got people paying very close attention to me. They’re tracking who I’m talking to now.”

“Hard position for a gossip columnist,” Austin says. “So, can you speak freely?”

“I can speak. They’re not tracking this program,” Vanna says. “You’re the only one who calls me on it.”

I glance from the phone to Austin, finding him looking at me with a small smirk on his lips. He lifts his finger to his lips, silently telling me ‘shh’, and I realize Vanna, in her distraction and upset, has accidentally revealed one of her sources… Austin.

I’m surprised, but also not. Austin using any and all tools available to him, including information and information-collectors like Vanna, is right up his alley.

“End-to-end encryption’s useful that way,” Austin replies, giving me a pointed look. “You should look into using it with all your contacts.”

Message received, Austin.

“I just might. So, you want to know about the article?”

“I would,” Austin says. “So does my friend. He’s highly pissed off.”

“Join the club,” Vanna spits out. “I’m about ready to tell my editor he can stuff his contract up his ass, since they can’t hold their non-compete clause over me any longer.” She exhales loudly, her voice the slightest bit more controlled as she bitterly adds, “Potentially. My lawyer’s telling me to wait on that last bit.”

“What did your lawyer do?” Austin questions, and I hold my breath as if that would allow me to listen more intently.

“I wrote the article, just as your… friend stated,” Vanna says. “It was fire and brimstone type of stuff. I had it all backed up, the data, the evidence of embezzlement and fraud from what they did to my family, all of it on a flash drive that I gave to my lawyer for safekeeping. Four thousand words, a bit long, but goddamn, it felt good to actually be writing something deeper than who’s been fucking whom. And to get it out. To finally put the truth out there, threats from those pricks be damned. I turned it in to my editor, who read it and said it was good. Then three hours later, I’m getting called to the floor by him, telling me to rewrite it. I refused.”

“Someone got to him,” Austin guesses. Given how jaded Austin can be, he doesn’t seem surprised by that in the slightest.

I actually am, though. Vanna’s editor is a bastion of traditional journalism, having published articles on everything from war, to business, to exposés on the business of war. His reaction as compared to the article on the Faulkners seems out of proportion.

“Put it this way,” Vanna says. “I’ll give you three guesses as to who owns the bank that holds my editor’s mortgage, and the first two don’t count.”

I take a deep breath, pinching my nose. The fucking Faulkners. They have their damn hands in everything.

“So if you refused, how did it get rewritten?” Austin asks, holding up a hand, telling me to let him handle this. He knows what I need to know and how to get it. “It was your byline.”

“You think I write that level of drivel? Lady of Crows? Sharpe-edged? Fuck me, I was cringing as I read that the first time for myself. If I had to guess, probably Evan’s assistant or Bronson’s wrote it. Though either of them could’ve written it themselves.” Vanna hums as she considers that. “I’d put my money on Evan. It’s too personal for anyone else.” She mutters a curse I can’t make out under her breath, then says, “My rep’s going to need some serious rehab after this debacle.”

“Can you prove this?” I ask.

Like a cockroach living through a nuclear attack, Vanna is a survivor. And though I don’t think she would play me, there’s an outside chance she decided to back the Faulkners and is the one who wrote the article, published it, and is lying directly to me now.

“If you want, I’ll email you my original story,” Vanna offers. “Anonymous drop box, of course. I’ve sent it to a few concerned parties already, just so you’re aware. This shit may be out in public, but the truth is whispered in private. I do have lawyers involved as well. They put my name on something I didn’t write or approve. There is a potential copyright issue.”

“Who was concerned?” Austin presses, and Vanna tsks. “A number of people who doubted the story and have certain matters with Evan. “The water always finds its level and the truth comes to the surface. This isn’t the first time there’s been an obvious smear where Evan’s been protected. It’s good, I think, to let the real article circulate in private circles.”

“Yes,” I agree.

Austin tells Vanna to be careful, to let him know if he can be of service, and then hangs up.

A few minutes later, Austin pulls up the file, and I give it a read. Even skimming the first few paragraphs, it’s a completely different story. “Those motherfuckers.”

“You were blindsided,” Austin says. “That’s not like you. Normally, you know that sort of weakness.”

“I….”

I can’t argue that fact because he’s right. I should’ve known about the editor if I was putting Vanna into play.

I’m too close to the problem, too desperate to see the angles clearly. But Austin’s not.

“What now? What would you do if you were in my shoes?” I ask him, and Austin lifts an eyebrow. “You only look at me like that when you’ve got something to say that I won’t like.”

“You’re right, but you also know the truth,” Austin says. “Do nothing. This is lukewarm, grade-school shit at best, and by next quarter, everyone’s going to forget about it. Evan takes the win this time, but the battle isn’t over… unless you want it to be over.”

“If her lawyers⁠—”

“He said nothing that you could sue him over,” Austin advises me. “Maybe Olivia and Raven have a case, but that’d just drag them into the public eye, put names to innuendo. It’d be a disaster for them. Especially Raven. The stories about her were some of the nastiest. And the cost of it? Astronomical, and for what? You can only sue for money lost and it’s not like you’re going to fire Raven over this.” He pauses.

I sit back, shaking my head. “Would you be able to let something like this ride, knowing that it’s hurt someone you care about and could hurt your own bottom line financially?”

Austin’s answer is clear as he looks me dead in my eyes. He would destroy anyone and anything that threatened him. It’s a reason worth lighting the world on fire to him. But that doesn’t mean it has to be for me. We are different people, different men, with very different styles despite our friendship.

“That’s a decision you’re going to have to make for yourself,” Austin says. “What does Raven think?”

I can feel a small smile play on my lips. Amid all this ugliness, she is the most beautiful thing in my life, by far. “She said to do whatever I need to do, making it sound like that included leaving her to repair my reputation.”

Her willingness to sacrifice herself for me meant more than she will ever know, but there is no way I would or could do that. I would give up everything I own before I gave Raven up. She’s all I need now.

“I don’t think it will take much to repair this,” Austin says, interrupting my thoughts. “Gossip interests those of small minds, but your investors act based on bottom lines, and there, where it matters, you make them money. If anything, many of them will relate to fucking an intern or having a scandalous affair with a junior exec.” He waves a hand dismissively.

I growl, “That’s not what this is.”

His smile is easy, showing no reaction to my snappishness other than to put both of his palms up. “I know that, and you know that. I simply said they will relate your relationship with Raven to something all too familiar in our world and not jump to overreaction.”

My ire settles… slightly.

He takes a sip of his scotch, then stares into the amber liquid as if it’s a crystal ball. “You could go to the governor’s Young Leaders ball. You do qualify, you know.”

“And how would that help?”

“Simple appearances,” Austin says. “Evan and his family think that they’ve embarrassed you. Embarrassed her. And that you’ll go scurrying back to the hole they think you belong in. Well, throw it right back by acting like the article meant nothing and Evan’s beneath you. Because the truth is, he is. You go, you drop some gratuitously obscene donation for the governor’s reelection campaign, and walk out of there with the prettiest girl, the biggest dick, and the fastest growing bank account. Any chatter volleyed about by gossip rags or concerns by investors would be assuaged by a showing of you and Raven as a united force, unswayed by the lesser.” He pins me with a powerful glare as he says, “And then, you go on with your lives together, leaving Evan in your combined past.”

It’s so straightforward and obscene, a short huff of a laugh leaves me.

“Just ignore it?” I ask him with barely contained outrage.

“His time is coming, and when it does, he will suffer. It doesn’t have to be at your hand for you to enjoy it. We know what he’s done… and I know well that his time is coming.” He looks me dead in the eyes, and I hear the unspoken. “Don’t get mixed up in that.”

With a deep inhale, I sit back in the chair, considering my options.

“How long will I have to wait?”

“Years.” His answer is quick.

“Legal matters, then?” I ask, and Austin nods. The knowledge that he’ll get his due is comforting, at the very least. “And what about Raven?”

“Have her on your arm. Kiss her like you’re grateful to love her. And do it in front of everyone. She won’t care about rumors if she knows you love her more than anything.”

I nod, letting it all sink in slowly and ease the anger. Go public. We were going to do that, anyway. Might as well do it big.

This whole mess started with a fundraiser. Perhaps the way to end it is with one as well.

And Austin’s right. After we handle this, ironically by not dealing with it head-on the way I’d first wanted to, Raven and I can have our ultimate vengeance by not letting Evan or the Faulkners cast any shadows on our future together. Perhaps, the best revenge truly is simply getting to love her.