CHAPTER FOURTEEN
When they first walked out into the cool night air and Toya immediately began to wrap her arms around her body, Grayson took off his coat and put it across her shoulders.
“But you’ll be cold too,” she said. “We can share it.” She even went so far as to open it up so that he could ease into the warmth of that overcoat too.
Which made Grayson smile. Which made him even more convinced that he had done the right thing. “I’m okay,” he said. “I have on a coat.”
Toya knew he wore expensive suits, but a suit coat could not be compared to the warmth of an overcoat.
“Just come on,” she said, putting her arm around his waist and forcing him against her. “I keep most of it, but you can have some of it,” she added.
And there they were, walking arm in arm sharing his overcoat.
Which was remarkable to Grayson. He’d given his coat to many women on many a chilly night.
But never once did they give a darn about his warmth too.
They wrapped themselves firmly in his coat like they were entitled to have it by virtue of their gender and his gender alone, and they never looked back.
But not Latoya. She wasn’t built that way.
Even his driver, who stood at the back passenger door of his limousine waiting for them, looked as if he couldn’t believe it either.
He saw when the boss gave her the coat. But he also saw when she put her arm around the boss’s waist, something most women wouldn’t have the nerve to do in public given how private everybody knew the boss was.
But he saw her do just that. Who is she, he wondered.
But he was a good employee who knew to mind his own business.
He didn’t say a word. He nodded to the lady as he opened the back passenger door, and Grayson allowed Toya to get in first. Then he got in behind her.
When the door was closed and they were finally driving away from that detention center, he tried not to even look at them. He just did his duty and drove.
But inwardly, Grayson and Toya were both relieved to be getting away from that center.
The deal was struck, but even Toya knew it was a shaky deal. One that could easily unravel if all of the parts didn’t fit. Especially the part about his father.
She looked at Grayson. He had been quiet ever since the deal was struck, and he remained quiet. He had his overcoat folded up on his lap and was sitting with his legs crossed as if he was in deep thought. But they had to discuss it.
“Can I ask you a question?”
Grayson looked at her. She was relieved, he knew, but she was still worried too. “Yes.”
“That lady, the prosecutor, said she wasn’t going to press charges for now, but she said she could bring charges later. Is that true?”
Grayson hated that part too. “Yes it’s true.”
“If your father refuses to endorse her, will that be enough for her to take me back into custody?”
Grayson nodded. “Yes, Latoya, she could take you back into custody.”
“But that’s illegal, isn’t it?”
“It’s not illegal, no. Is it ethical? It’s not ethical either. But she’ll always claim that she uncovered new evidence, or decided that she had enough evidence to make the charges stick. She’ll always be able to justify it.”
“But the truth isn’t about the evidence. She’s tying my freedom to that endorsement. And that’s just wrong.”
Grayson exhaled. It was a fact weighing heavily on him. “Yes, I know it is. But she’s going to take a lot of flak because she released somebody involved with a very serious case. Without making a deal with her, you would still be locked up.”
“So it all comes down to your father’s endorsement?”
Grayson nodded. “Yes it does.”
Toya decided to go there. She hadn’t lived in Maryland for thirteen years.
And hadn’t been home in almost that many years.
She knew nothing about his father’s governorship or anything like that.
She had no idea about his relationship with his father.
That was why she needed to know. “But if you ask him to support her, he will. Right?”
Grayson wished to God he could say yes. He wished he and his father were like that. But the truth of the matter was that they were the exact opposite of that.
He looked at her. “Let me worry about my father,” he said to her in that voice that reminded her that he was still, ultimately, her boss.
She slowly nodded her head. “Yes sir.”
And then they drove the rest of the way, to her mother’s house, in silence.