“We’d have been better off using our usual methods to get that deal closed!”
“No!” Beaumont thundered, rising from his chair. “We had a deal that there would be nothing that sinister!”
“We also had a deal that the land was as good as ours.”
“Cheer up, Beau. This mess hasn’t gone public. Besides that fire, there’s been no other press. No one knows what’s going on. No one except the proprietors, who will soon be dealt with.”
“Casey, you still holdin’ out on us, brotha?”
Casey chuckled in response to Clifton Knowles’s boisterous inquiry. The Queen City Happening was in the midst of its daily budget meeting. Of course, the buyout story was still the hottest topic. Everyone eagerly awaited its appearance on the paper’s front page.
“The story is solid, my sources have been confirmed and reconfirmed, but I’m inclined to wait a little longer. I want to present a beginning, a middle, and an end to this piece. I’d like to wait a little longer and see what the owners do.”
“Is that wise?” Clifton asked. “This is a hot story. We wait too long, we may find it on someone else’s pages.”
Mmm-mmm,” Casey replied, with a slow shake of his head. “This is a hot story that hasn’t been leaked. Why is that? This story was in the works long before I ever got wind of it. No, boss, there’s a lot more to this story than we realize and I think a few more weeks may make all the difference.”
Brooklyn, New York
Topaz stood on her toes to reach a box of one of the flavored teas that filled the cupboard above the kitchen sink. She was reading the box of one when she heard her name.
“Hey, Mommy. You want some tea?”
“No, my dear ...” Patra Emerson declined, trailing her fingers through her glossy, shoulder-length tresses. “That stuff will put you to sleep. Quick,” she warned.
“Good,” Topaz sighed.
Patra tapped her nails to the peach marble counter, then relieved Topaz of the tea box. She pushed her daughter onto one of the stools surrounding the kitchen island. “You’ve only been here a short while and I can still tell that you aren’t your usual sunny self.”
“Mommy ... it’s probably just the trip.”
“I don’t think so,” Patra stated, setting a kettle on to boil.
“And the fire ...”
“Hmph, nice try, but I don’t think that’s it either.” Topaz realized the sixth sense her mother possessed where she was concerned was building up to full steam.
“Talk to me,” Patra ordered, finishing with the kettle and turning to lean against the counter.
Topaz slumped in her chair, her mouth forming a pout as she toyed with one of her pigtails.
Patra smiled, glancing down at her small, spice-polished toes. “Does this have anything to do with a certain young man I heard about?”
Topaz’s amber eyes darted to her mother’s face, and her expression registered with shock and realization.
“Aunt Sophia!”
“Tell me everything,” Patra urged, folding her arms across the front of her elegant mauve silk lounging gown.
“Mommy, I wouldn’t know where to begin.”
“Sophi said he was quite handsome,” Patra remarked, taking a seat on a stool across from Topaz. “Is he as attractive on the inside?” she asked.
Topaz smiled, closing her eyes as she pictured the man. “He’s even more attractive on the inside, Mommy,” she confirmed, fixing her mother with a dreamy look. “I mean, I have a lot of male friends, but Alex ... it’s different. I knew that from the first moment I met him.”
Patra eased off the stool to remove the whistling kettle from the stove.
“If only he weren’t so complex,” Topaz moaned, cradling her forehead in her hands.
Patra placed two steaming mugs of the fragrant tea on the countertop. “Is he worth the heartache, baby?” she whispered.
“He most certainly is. There’s just something eating away at him. I know he wants to talk about it, but he won’t allow himself to share it.”
“So what will you do?”
Topaz shook her head and began to stir her tea. “I have no idea ... that’s why I came home. I just needed to escape, you know?
“I take it you didn’t tell him you were leaving?”
“I thought it best not to, Mommy. I would’ve gone crazy had I stayed there any longer.”
Patra raised her mug and blew softly against the surface of the berry-colored liquid near the rim of the cup. “Do you feel he’ll soon tell you what the problem is?”
