CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
At the hospital, JJ had insisted that Tish be checked out, too, although she insisted she was fine, and they were waiting in one of the rooms in the back of the ER for the test results. Tish was seated on the bed in a hospital gown, and JJ, his legs crossed, was seated on that bed beside her. The palm of his hand was resting on the other side of her: hugging her without touching her.
But she still thought JJ was overreacting. “I told you I’m fine,” she said to him. “This is so unnecessary.”
“And I’m sure the test results will bear that out,” said JJ as he pulled the top of her gown further up on her shoulder. “Are you cold?”
“Not really, no. I’m just worried about my P.O. It was like watching a movie.”
“She’s in surgery right now,” said JJ, who checked on her condition while Tish was undergoing tests. “We can only hope that she’ll come out okay.”
Tish agreed with that.
“But LaTisha, I need you to do me a favor.”
She looked at him. His cologne scent had filled the room. “What favor?”
“I want you to stop worrying about everybody else and start worrying about yourself. You think that probation officer would be sitting up here worrying about you had the tables been turned? That lady doesn’t give a damn about you.”
“I know she don’t,” Tish said with a frown on her face, as if she wanted to make clear that she never lived in fantasyland. “I’ve always known nobody cares about me like that. You think I don’t realize that? But just because they see me like I’m lower than a pile of dirt doesn’t mean I see them that way. You said you’re not involved in mankind. Well I am. It doesn’t matter if they want to be involved with me or not.”
JJ stared at her. She was a treasure alright. And he was beginning to have the kind of deep-seated feelings for her that partly proved it. And partly terrified him. He placed his hand around her waist, touching her this time, and she leaned against him.
“Knock-knock.”
It was Artie’s voice. Because they were still in the ER, there were curtains separating the rooms instead of doors. “Are you guys decent?”
“Come in,” JJ said.
Artie walked on in.
“How did you find out?”
“It’s all over the press. Are you kidding me?” Then he looked at Tish. “Now perhaps,” he said, “you can formally introduce us.”
“I thought I had.”
“I would have remembered that,” said Artie, glancing down at Tish’s very attractive bode.
But JJ was not inclined to make that introduction. He knew how Artie felt about Tish.
Tish knew it, too, from the way he was screaming into the phone when that video came out and Manny Davis spoke to that reporter. She didn’t care to make his acquaintance either.
Artie could feel the chill. But he didn’t care. “That’s not why I’m here anyway,” he said.
“Then why are you here?” JJ asked him.
Artie grabbed the remote from off of the room cart and turned on the television. He switched the channels until he got to the local news. They saw the scene after the accident with JJ hugging Tish after Danny the driver was apprehended. A reporter could be heard giving a voiceover report: “According to the Scottsdale Police Department, the driver was apparently angry with LaTisha Payton, Judge JJ Brant’s girlfriend, and tried to run her over. He, instead, hit Miss Payton’s probation officer Dena Lamb, dragging her beneath his car as he attempted to get away.”
JJ wanted to glance at Tish, but he refused. But Artie glanced at her.
The reporter kept talking: “Many of the judge’s colleagues that we spoke with at the courthouse, all of whom spoke to us on condition of anonymity, said they were appalled by their chief judge’s behavior in recent weeks. They believe he should cut ties with this thug, as they call Miss Payton, and quit while he’s still got a slim chance at victory. Or, as one of them put it, ‘his goose is cooked.’ Reporting live from the Scottsdale Golf and Country Club of which Judge Brant is a member of longstanding, Winifred Jackson for News You Can Use.”
JJ grabbed the remote from Artie’s hand and turned off the television.
Artie looked at JJ. “You hear all the catchwords: the girlfriend. Her probation officer. The thug. The driver had a beef with her,” Artie said, motioning toward Tish. “This isn’t a story. It’s a hit piece!”
Then he exhaled. “I’m going to say this and then I’m out of here. “You’re my brother-in-law and you know I think the world of you. I look up to you and always has. But that’s why I’m coming to you, begging you, pleading with you, to get your shit together. Because, and I don’t mean to be rude, but if you don’t kick this lady to the curb and pray that the voters will remember your toughness and your used-to-be stellar reputation, instead of all this craziness she brings to your life, then there is no way you’re ever going to win reelection. I promise you that, JJ. There’s no way!”
Tish was devastated by such a blunt statement. But JJ held his ground. “Then I won’t win reelection,” he said as if it didn’t matter to him anyway. When even Tish knew better than that.
She looked at him. Artie did too. “Your work is your life, JJ,” Artie said to him. “What are you doing?”
But JJ wasn’t interested in debating a decision that was his alone. “Goodbye, Artie.”
Artie looked over at Tish with nothing but pure hatred in his eyes, then he looked at JJ again. And then he left.
JJ pulled Tish closer against him. “Don’t let him worry you,” he said. “I’ll be just fine.”
But Tish, and JJ too, knew that wasn’t true at all.