Games Divas Play (A Diva Mystery Novel) (27 page)

“You bitch! I knew you were out to get me. I know you’re friends with Vanessa! You did this on
purpose!”

“Like you said, get ready for the drama, right?” I quipped, leaning in and whispering in her ear as I dropped the microphone at
her feet.

I began to make my way back through the crowd of speechless Moët and Glam Network executives to DeAnna and Miki who were both on their feet by the couch. No time like the present to get fired. DeAnna’s face was twisted in a similar angry mask, blood rushing up her neck to her cheeks. Miki was typing furiously on her BlackBerry as she and her assistant walked past me out of the VIP area without saying a word. I couldn’t believe what I had just done, but I didn’t really have
a choice.

“Are you crazy?” DeAnna screeched as she grabbed my arm and pulled me into a corner behind a tall plastic palm tree. “What the hell was that stunt you jus
t pulled?”

“It wasn’t a stunt, DeAnna,” I said as I jerked my arm away from her. “We had a great exclusive, and I ran with it. Any editor would have done the sa
me thing.”

“I warned you that your loyalties to Vanessa were going to get you in
trouble!”

“This wasn’t about any loyalty to Vanessa. Like I said, I did what any editor would have done in my
position.”

“Oh, really . . . You think so? What about our corporate partnership with Glam Network, Nia? Did you think
of that?”

“I did what you asked me to do, DeAnna. I threw Laila a party, and I got our brand unbelievable buzz. People are going to be tweeting and posting comments about this party and Laila’s upcoming show for weeks. And traffic and sales are going to be through the roof!” I was desperately trying to spin some sort of tale to make it seem like tonight’s events were to our advantage, but she wasn’t
buying it.

“Did you see how fast Miki Woods hightailed it out of here tonight after you pulled this little surprise? She’s probably hopping on a plane right now back to New York to put your head on a platter!” I knew she was right, but I didn’t want to admit it and show DeAnn
a my fear.

“I was just doing my job,” I asserted, tired of being bullied by this woman. In the world of reality TV, all drama is good drama. But I didn’t expect DeAnna to unders
tand that.

“What job?” DeAnna sneered as she raked her cold hard black eyes up and dow
n my body.

CHAPTER 22

Vanessa

T
he stenographer typed quietly and efficiently across the table as Kareem faced the evidence in front of him. There was no way out, and the bastard knew it. A satisfied smile curved acros
s my lips.

James and the two partners had done an excellent job of laying out Kareem’s complex web of financial deception that had begun the night Marcus announced that his cousin would become his manager
and agent.

When Marcus signed the management documents that Kareem had hastily drawn up within a week of his announcement, what Marcus hadn’t realized was the stack of documents also included a power of
attorney.

James, in his clipped British accent, began to walk everyone through what had happened next. Over the years, he said, Kareem had surreptitiously built layer upon layer of shell companies, created fake employees and fraudulent expenses, and billed all of his own personal expenses, including the mortgages for his three homes, clothing, groceries and all of his cars, to bilk nearly $120 million from Marcus, approximately half of his earnings over the past ei
ght years.

Seeing the devastated look on Kareem’s face as he was presented with document after document that the firm’s forensic accounting team had created chronicling every single dollar he had stolen from Marcus over the past eight years made their $100,000 retainer and $2,500 hourly fee well worth it in m
y opinion.

Nearing the close of the meeting, Cedric really earned his money when he began to lay out Kareem’s relationship with Laila. He presented a folder to each of us, complete with photographs of the former couple, cell phone records, and e-mail exchanges outlining their plans to leak sightings, text messages, and photos to the media. Their ultimate plan, said James, pausing for dramatic effect, was to get me out of the picture and Laila installed as the new Mrs. King for both of their financia
l benefit.

While Marcus had thought he was prepared for walking into this evening, I think seeing it all laid out in front of him in black and white with page after page of stolen money and copies of text messages and e-mails unearthed by private investigators was harder than he thought. After being shocked into silence for most of the meeting, he suddenly
spoke up.

“How could you do this to me?” Marcus said, his voice choked up in a hoarse whisper. “You were my brother.” He couldn’t even look across the table at Kareem. I took his hand under
the table.

Kareem, his broad shoulders deflated and head hung low, pushed through the pile of papers as if searching for something that would wipe away all of the damning
evidence.

“Answer me, dammit!” Marcus said, pounding his fist on the table. “You fucking a
nswer me!”

Kareem refused to meet Marcus’s gaze, so I motioned to Cristoff, the second senior partner, to
continue.

Cristoff nodded and cleared his throat before he began his part of the evening’s presentation. He slid a gray legal-size folder containing a packet of documents across the conference room table
to Kareem.

“Mr. Davis, we’ve taken steps to unravel your agreement with Mr. King,
and as such you will sign this agreement that will dissolve your management agreement and power of attorney with Mr. King effective immediately. As such, the mortgages on your three homes, all contents therein, tags and titles for your six cars, have all been ceased and are in the process of being liquidated. All the credit cards in the name of Marcus King Holdings have also been canceled. Against our recommendation, the Kings have decided that you walk away today, keeping whatever you currently have on deposit at y
our bank.”

Cristoff pushed a few buttons on his iPad to pull up Kareem’s account and then, looking over the top of his reading glasses, said, “For the recording of this meeting, the stenographer is to note that Mr. Davis’s bank balance as of this moment, held in a Merrill Lynch CMA account, is $235,987.34. Consider that a very generous severance package, Mr. Davis, especially since it goes against our recommendation, that Mr. King is declining to press charges and send you to jail for a very l
ong time.”

Kareem exploded out of his chair, knocking it back on the floor. “You can’t do this to me!” he yelled as he pounded on the table with both his hands. “Marcus, I made you the star you are. You wouldn’t be where you are today if it weren’
t for me.”

“Are you kidding me, man?” Marcus snapped through gritted teeth. He pushed his chair back from the table and stood up. As he leaned forward across the table, his eyes bulging and face tense with rage, his body was coiled and ready to pounce. “You stole money from me, from my family, when I would have given you
anything!”

“You don’t know what I’ve done for you,” Kareem retorted, desperately shaking
his head.

“What you’ve done for me? Let me see what you’ve done for me.” Marcus counted down the irreversible offenses on his fingers. “You’ve stolen half my money. You’ve tried to break up my marriage. You’ve betrayed yo
ur godson.

“I loved you like my own brother. Made you the godfather to my son. I’ve had you in my home. I’ve asked you to protect my wife, and all this time it was just about the money with you. All about the money. You were never my
brother.”

“Don’t try to blame your sneaking around on me, partner. No sir,” Kareem said. “You liked fucking all those freaks and had me running around making airplane reservations, hooking up hotels and shit. Don’t act like you were just an innocent bystander. Yeah, everything was all good while I was hooking up your little rendezvous with Laila, but now you want to act all high and mighty like you weren’t down for
the game.”

It hurt me to hear about all the other women, although I had suspected that Kareem had been facilitating Marcus’s hookups with groupies all t
his years.

“Yes, you’re right, Kareem. I’ve done my dirt, I’ve disrespected my wife and my vows, and I have to try my damnedest to make amends for that with her and with God. And you’re going to have to do your damnedest to make things right with God yourself, but don’t ever come looking for me to forgive your
punk ass.”

“Punk? Who you calling a punk! You don’t even know half the things I’ve done for you!” Suddenly Kareem crossed over to Marcus in three quick strides and grabbed his cousin’s lapels, pulling him close into
his face.

“You don’t know what I’ve done for you!” he screamed desperately,
his eyes wild with fear and anger. As Marcus fought to free himself, Tyson and Bruce bounded across the room and wrestled Kareem o
ff Marcus.

“Get off me! Let me go!” Kareem tried to twist out of the tight hold of the two bodyguards, but with one on each side of him, they easily pulled the two
men apart.

“You don’t even know what you’re doing! You can’t cut me off! I know this isn’t you, man. I know it’s Vanessa’s idea. We family, man! She’s always tried to come between us!” Kareem was desperate now, begging for
his life.

“No one brought this on but you, Kareem! We’re finished. I kept my promise. I said we’d make it to the NBA together, and we did. Now it’s over. You betrayed me in the worst way
possible.”

Suddenly Kareem turned his anger on me as I came up beside my husband. “Fuck you, Vanessa,” he sneered, straining against the bodyguards holding him in the chair. “You bitch. I’ll get you for this! I swea
r I will!”

Suddenly Marcus wrestled his way out of the bodyguard’s grasp and lunged forward to punch Kareem hard across the face as he sat in the chair. “Don’t you ever say my wife’s na
me again!”

Tyson stepped forward to block Marcus from taking another shot. Kareem turned his head to the side and spit some blood onto the carpet and rubbed his aching jaw. Marcus took one last look at Kareem, then came back over to me and grabbed my hand to leave. As I quickly grabbed my purse, I took one last look at Kareem, and my lips curved into a satisf
ied smile.

As we made our way out of the conference room, Marcus tossed over his shoulder to Tyson and Bruce, “Make sure that muthafucka doesn’t leave this room until he signs those d
ocuments.”

Before James escorted Marcus and me to our third and final meeting of the evening, I asked him to give us a moment of privacy in the hallway. He gladly obliged and slipped into an office down
the hall.

“Are you OK, baby?” I took Marcus’s hands in mine and looked into his eyes, which were filled with pain. “I know that was hard for you.” I would have given anything for him not to have to go through that pain of betrayal, but it had been necessary. He needed to know the truth. And now we could forge a new future free from Kareem and free f
rom Laila.

“I just can’t believe K. would do that to me,” he said, a tear slipping out of his eye. I reached up and brushed it away and hugged my husb
and close.

“Baby, I know he was like your brother, but this world is vicious, and he got greedy and turned on us. But at least now
you know.”

“But look at what I almost let him do to us,” he said, his lips in my ear. “I almost let all the bullshit kill our marriage. I almost lost everything that
mattered.”

“I won’t pretend you haven’t hurt me. But it’s for better or worse with us. I knew from the beginning that this wasn’t going to be easy, but I knew it would always be worth it. You can always trust me, baby. You know that I’ll always have your back. I’ll always hold you down. I love you, Marcus. Always have, alw
ays will.”

“I don’t deserve you, Vanessa. I real
ly don’t.”

“Yes, you do, Marcus. We deserve each other, and we’re going to be together forever because that’s how we do. Today is the first day of the rest of our lives, baby. It can be that way if we wa
nt it to.”

“Oh God, Vanessa. Can’t we do this next meeting later? I just want to go back to the hotel and be with you.” His warm breath tickled my ear as his embrace tightened. I hugged him and then stepped back to look into
his eyes.

“I would love nothing better than to go back to the hotel, but we’ve got to take this last meeting because you need to make some more money to take care of your growing family,” I said as I placed his hand on m
y stomach.

“You’re pregnant?” he said, his eyes suddenly wide with delight and
surprise.

“Yes, baby. We’re pregnant.” I smiled. Marcus picked me up and hugged me hard, swinging me around in the dimly lit hallway just as James returned to retrieve us for th
e meeting.

He walked us down to a large glass conference room. There were about ten young men and women seated around the large glass table, and they all stood up and started clapping when we
walked in.

“Marcus King, it’s a pleasure to finally meet you,” John Knight said as he made his way over to us from the head of the room. “Mrs. King,
so lovely to see you also. I trust our lawyer and team of forensic accountants were helpful with your last meeting and that you’re ready to move forward with Knight Sports Ma
nagement.”

“Absolutely,” Marcus said, extending his hand to John while keeping his other arm firmly around
my waist.