Page 110 of Pride and Protest

“It looks like maybe we can do business. Tell me, do you want to play it safe with this money? If I put you on the advance plan, we’re talking triple, quadruple the returns.”

He’s such a slimeball.Liza looked at Janae’s face, forehead wrinkled in concentration. She was tapping furiously on her laptop. “Janae, can you actually do it? Can you take all of our money out?”

Janae didn’t answer, too focused on the numbers on the screen.

“I want to decide with my sister. Where is she again?” they heard Maurice ask.

“Oh, she’s out with the women. Let’s get you out with the VIP investors. She is quite the little entrepreneur. Her online campaigns have already netted me about three hundred K in three days! She’s a little moneymaker. And also, a daughter of Zion,” WIC rushed to say. “She’ll make someone an excellent Proverbs 31 wife.”

Liza heard some muffled sounds.

“Where is LeDeya?” Maurice was more insistent now.

“Why don’t you let her finish her little campaign for the day, and you can see her when she’s done?” WIC said. Liza tensed. She could see WIC smile.He thinks he’s won.“I know what you’re doing, and it will not work, my brother. She’s going to make the money she said she can make. And then she’s totally free to go.” Then the world turned sideways.

“No!” Liza cried.

Maurice had presumably tried to lunge toward WIC and throw a punch. But WIC was too strong, and despite theshaking of the phone, she could see that he had overpowered her brother.

“Reece!” Janae looked up from the laptop.

“No, you keep typing. Get all of our money! I’ll go get Maurice.”

MISTER

From: EliteEvents

To: [email protected]

Wow! That’s a tall order. But if money is not an object, we are the team that can get that done ASAP. We’ve added fire extinguishers every 100 yards, so this thing is nice and safe. Will you also need a dance floor?

At your service,

Tom, Elite Events

Dorsey paced in his loft. He thought of nothing else but Liza.

Dorsey, I love you so much! Don’t ever go.She had cried out.

He was hers and there was no way around it for him. They had set the sheets on fire last night, and he wanted her like that for the rest of his life. He had never been held so tight. She was the family he had found.

They worked.

But if Liza’s granny lost her life savings, he would feelpersonally responsible. Dorsey should have told Liza about WIC as soon as he began to circle around her like a vulture.

Gigi watched him pace. “Dorsey, are you sure this will work?”

“I trust her. Janae told me what they’re trying to do, and I think it’s the only way to catch a crook like that.”

“I mean, are you sure this will work to get Liza back?”

“Gigi, she told me she loved me.”

“Oh my god, Dorsey.” Gigi covered her mouth with both her hands.

“But it was kind of heat-of-the-moment talk, and it terrified me that she would take it back, so I tried to close the deal this morning. But—”

“Oh, and then I interrupted, so her mind is elsewhere.” Gigi nodded.