Less than twenty-four hours ago, if someone had told Rachel Jackson Adams that she would be huddled at a table, in cahoots with her nemesis, she would’ve told them they were crazy.
That’s why you should never say never.
Because not only was she working with that highfalutin skeezer, it had been her idea. But the one thing Rachel hated more than a conniving tramp was a backstabbing, conniving tramp. And Cecelia King was queen of the backstabbers.
At the end of the day, Rachel knew Lester could beat Hosea. Cecelia, on the other hand, might be a challenge. So at this point, it was the lesser of two evils. That’s not to say Rachel wouldn’t continue to take Jasmine down, but she could do that on her own. Taking Cecelia down was going to require some help.
“So, how’d you dig up all this stuff so fast?” Jasmine asked, flipping through the papers Rachel had laid in front of her. They were meeting in Jasmine’s suite, something she’d been wary about, since it was right next to Cecelia’s. But Jasmine had insisted it was the best way to avoid any interruptions.
“You just found out about Cecelia yesterday,” Jasmine continued. She looked shocked at the sheer magnitude of what Rachel had dug up. There had to be at least two hundred pieces of paper.
“Let’s just say I’m pretty resourceful.” Rachel flashed a proud smile. “I know how to find out what I need.”
A beat passed, Jasmine, no doubt, recalling all the dirt Rachel had dug up on her.
“So, why didn’t you put those investigative talents to good use?” Jasmine asked snidely.
“I have,” Rachel said, defensively pointing to the stack.
Jasmine shook her head as she flipped a piece of paper and scanned the page. “No, I mean like college or something,” she said nonchalantly. “How someone can just be content with a high school diploma is beyond me.”
No, this chick wasn’t trying to take a dig at her. Rachel took a deep breath to keep herself from getting heated. She knew Jasmine had an MBA in finance but Rachel had a PhD in real life, so she wasn’t impressed.
“If you must know, I did go to community college for a semester, it just wasn’t for me. I had two kids, so it was hard to balance it, not to mention the fact that my family wasn’t wealthy.” She put her finger to her temple like she was thinking. “Oh, wait, neither was yours. That’s why you took to the pole—” The way Jasmine was glaring at her stopped her midsentence. Rachel paused, then said, “I’m sorry. That was uncalled for.” She hated apologizing to this woman, but they didn’t have time to be fighting. So if that meant she’d have to be the bigger woman, she would be.
Rachel turned her attention back to the papers. “Let’s just stay focused on our mission.” She picked up a few sheets and started flipping. “I’m not even sure what all is here, but I pulled some stuff, then I had my private investigator, um, I mean my friend, pull up some stuff and fax it to me as well. I even had Melinda from the TV station run the Kings through this special database called LexisNexis, which compiles just about everything there is to know about someone. Government and investigative agencies use it a lot. I just figured we could go through everything and see if we can find anything we could use.”
Jasmine turned up her nose as she scanned the papers. “Ummph, it looks like just a bunch of articles singing the praises of the Kings and all they’ve done for the ABC. What is that supposed to do?”
Rachel bit her bottom lip. She wanted to slap all of this negativity out of this woman. They didn’t have time for her to be shooting down everything Rachel was doing. She was such a hater, she couldn’t even give Rachel props for all that she’d done so quickly.
“Yes, there are articles,” Rachel said calmly, “but we don’t know what all is in them. No one is that squeaky-clean, so there has to be something there. Plus, there’s some background info on the Kings and a bunch of other stuff.”
Jasmine looked like she wanted to say something sarcastic. Instead, she just said, “I still don’t understand what we’re supposed to do with all of this stuff. And even if we find anything, how are we gonna confirm it, then let everyone know by the election tomorrow?”
Rachel threw her papers down. This heffa was working her nerves. “Do you have a better idea? Because seems like to me you walked into this meeting empty-handed.”
“Well, I … I made some calls, too,” Jasmine stuttered.
Rachel leaned back in her seat and folded her arms across her chest. “Okay. What did you find out?”
“Well,” she said slowly, “I’m waiting on some people to call me back.”
Rachel let out a small laugh. The way Jasmine cut her eyes, Rachel could tell she didn’t appreciate the humor of the moment. Rachel almost told this bootleg Barbara Bush about herself. She was trying to act like she was all that, but when it came down to it, she was as fake as that Yaki 1B ponytail on her head.
Still, with only one day left before the election, Rachel needed Jasmine, so she kept her thoughts to herself.
“Well, until your people call you back, this is all we have to go on,” Rachel said, not bothering to hide the edge in her voice. She jabbed the papers. “My point in bringing all of this was so that we could go through it and hopefully find something we could use.”
“Fine,” Jasmine huffed, and started studying the paper in front of her.
They sat in silence, reading the documents for more than twenty minutes. Then Rachel found something that struck her. She read it again and her mouth fell open.
“What?” Jasmine asked, noticing her expression.
“Look at this,” Rachel said, turning a paper around for Jasmine to see. “The Kings quietly settled a civil lawsuit against an unnamed woman who charged that Cecelia had her beat up for having an affair with Rev. King.”
“What?” Jasmine exclaimed.
“Dang,” Rachel said, turning the page over, “it doesn’t give any more details.”
“I don’t believe Cecelia would have someone beat up,” Jasmine said.
“Did you believe she would smile in your face and stab you in your back?”
Jasmine looked pensive as Rachel continued, “Does Cecelia look like someone who would let you have an affair with her man and get away with it?”
“No, but—”
“But nothing. This is the ammunition we need.” She waved the paper. “If Cecelia wasn’t guilty, why in the world would she settle out of court? I know I’ve only known her a few days, but I do know she wouldn’t take this all the way to court if there wasn’t some truth to it. We just let everybody know about this, and bam, she can hang up her chances.”
“No,” Jasmine protested. “First of all, they can say they settled to avoid a costly trial or something like that, and they end up looking like the victim. Secondly … The. Election. Is. Tomorrow.”
Rachel let out a frustrated sigh. She hated to admit that Jasmine was right. The lawsuit wasn’t an angle they had time to explore and there were so many ways the Kings could wiggle out of that one. Plus, revealing this would just seem like more dirt-digging, and that could backfire on them.
“So what do you suggest?” Rachel asked.
“I don’t know,” Jasmine replied. “But I’m starting to wonder if there’s even anything to be found.”
This was getting ridiculous. Rachel leaned forward on the table. “Jasmine, let’s keep it real, we don’t particularly care for each other.”
“That’s the understatement of the year,” Jasmine mumbled.
Rachel ignored her and continued talking. “But think of the things you did to try and sabotage me.”
Jasmine raised an eyebrow.
“Okay, the things we did to sabotage each other,” Rachel admitted. “But if we’ll go to such lengths for a position we want, imagine what Cecelia would do to hang on to something she has.”
Jasmine looked doubtful. “Okay, I’ll give you that because I don’t really trust any woman,” she said, emphasizing “any.” Rachel wanted to tell her that the feeling was mutual but she let Jasmine continue talking.
“But if Cecelia had this planned all along, we need to find out why. My instinct tells me there’s something more to this story,” Jasmine said.
That’s because a liar knows a liar, Rachel wanted to say. Instead, she said, “I’ve been going through these papers all night. And I haven’t been able to find anything we can use. I mean, I thought this merger information was something, but it turned out to be nothing.”
“What merger information?”
“You know I told you she was talking about merging with the National Baptist Coalition.” Rachel had shared that bit of information with Jasmine, but she had been so focused on Cecelia’s backstabbing that she hadn’t thought much about it.
Rachel dug through the papers until she found the one she was looking for. She slid it across the table to Jasmine. “This. Apparently, Reverend King and two other men—a Pastor Griffith, and Reverend Lyons—were working a deal to merge the ABC with the National Baptist Coalition. I don’t know what that means, but since Cecelia mentioned it, this caught my attention.”
A look Rachel couldn’t make out passed across Jasmine’s face.
“You think that’s something?” Rachel asked.
Jasmine just kept staring at the paper.
“I mean, I know the two groups have this big rivalry, so it’s surprising that they would agree to come together,” Rachel continued. “So between that, Cecelia talking about it, and both Lester not knowing anything about a merger, and they’re real active in the ABC, I thought there might be something to this. Now that I think about it, my dad said it sounded like a secret deal.” She stopped talking because Jasmine hadn’t taken her eyes off the paper. “Jasmine?”
“Oh,” Jasmine said, shaking out of her trance, “there may be something to this.”
“The more I think about it, the more I think there is. The National Baptist Coalition isn’t as big as our group, but it’s still huge and they have some major political clout.”
“And if the two groups merge, the result would be phenomenal.”
“Making the ABC even more powerful than it already is?” Rachel added.
“Exactly,” Jasmine said.
Rachel’s eyes danced as images of being an even more powerful first lady filled her head.
“That has to be why Cecelia wants this,” Rachel muttered.
“I’m sure it is,” Jasmine replied, sounding more and more sure. “And I’ll bet she wants to keep the merger news under wraps until she’s elected.”
“She won’t be elected,” Rachel quickly said. Lester will, she wanted to add, but she left it at that.
“But why is Earl Griffith involved in this?” Jasmine said, more to herself than to Rachel.
Rachel’s eyes widened. Earl! That was the name Cecelia had used yesterday. “Earl Griffith is your Pastor Griffith?”
Jasmine shook her head, like she didn’t want to focus on that. “We need to be worried about Cecelia. She thinks she’s slick,” Jasmine said. “The one complaint Cecelia and her husband get all the time is that people say they have too much power. She knows that telling everyone about the merger ahead of time might bring that issue back up. That’s why they’re keeping it a secret. But I guarantee you, that’s why she wants the position.”
They sat for a moment, processing this discovery. The members of the ABC wouldn’t take kindly to any secret deals, but she and Jasmine had to tread carefully. Cecelia was a smart woman, so they had to figure out a strategy to use this information against her.
Rachel glanced across the table at Jasmine. She looked like her mind was churning. Rachel hated to admit it, but together, she had no doubt she and Jasmine Bush would come up with a plan to bring Cecelia down.