Lilli…

I woke up alone in Backdraft’s bed and sucked in a breath. I pushed myself into a sitting position and rubbed the sleep out of my eyes, and when I put my hands back down to the mattress to prop myself up, one of them came down on a piece of paper that had slipped off his pillow. Only two words were written on it but they were two of the most important words that had ever been imparted to me…

---

I closed my eyes and pressed the page to my chest, closing my eyes and sighing. My phone started buzzing on top of my clothes, which were on a metal chair by the bed. I reached over and snatched it up, answering it immediately.

“Where are you?” Veronica asked immediately.

“Backdraft’s,” I said.

“Where is he?” she asked.

“Not here, I woke up by myself.”

“Ooookay.” She drew out the word slowly, and my heart seized with dread. “Can you get a car back here?” she asked.

“Yeah, why, what’s up?” I swallowed past the lump in my throat and thought to myself, Oh god, now what?

“Tell you when you get here, just hurry, okay?”

“Sure, um, what’s going on?”

“Nothing bad, I promise.”

My chest loosened and my phone beeped, that low tone of a call waiting, in my ear. I looked and sighed, frustrated. I was going to ask her if it was nothing bad, then why couldn’t she just tell me, but instead what came out was, “Veronica, that’s Backdraft. I’ll be home as soon as I can.”

“Try and get out without being seen?” she asked.

“Yeah.”

“Okay, bye.”

I accepted the waiting call.

“Where are you?” I asked.

“Had to draw the paparazzi away. They saw me leave, they should be gone if you can go check.”

“Yeah, hold on, I need to get dressed. I’m going to put you on speaker.”

I put him on speaker and got out of bed, deliciously sore from the night before. I worked on getting dressed, pulling on my jeans once I had my underwear in place.

“Veronica wants me home, like, right now; I don’t know what it is.”

“I called in some favors; it’s nothing bad, I promise.”

“Why can’t you guys just tell me what it is, then?” I asked impatiently.

“What, and ruin the surprise?” he asked, and I was glad one of us was back to our old selves. I couldn’t help but smile ruefully, though.

“I think I’ve had enough surprises this week, thank you very much.”

“Lil. You trust me?” he asked and I paused.

“Of course, I do. Why would you ask me that?”

“I just need to know.”

“What are you doing?” I asked.

“Want to give you some plausible deniability when it comes to your business, babe.”

“Okay, now I’m really worried,” I said, tossing my sweater over my head.

“So, you don’t trust me, then?”

“Backdraft, that’s not fair.”

“Okay, you’re right,” he said with a gusty sigh. “Let’s just say Tori’s fighting dirty and I’m fighting fire with fire.” I swallowed hard.

“And you don’t want to tell me because it may, or may not, piss off my PR firm, publisher, producers and what have you, and if it does, you know I’m Miss Goody Two-shoes and I’d sing like a canary.”

“Pretty much, babe, yeah.” He was laughing now, but I didn’t mind. The sound raised my spirits and put my heart a little at ease. His laugh had that effect on me.

“You vastly overestimate my goodwill when it comes to them,” I said. “But thank you for thinking of all of that.”

“What you don’t know won’t hurt you. Just trying to spare you from having to lie.”

He had a point. If I didn’t know, then they couldn’t get it out of me and I had no way of getting in any kind of trouble. So I guess the question was, did I trust him?

Answer? Yes.

“I love you,” I said.

I heard his smile through the phone, “I love you, too.”

I pulled on my last boot, swung into my jacket and picked up the phone off the bed, turning off speaker.

“I’m headed downstairs now; I need to call for a car to come get me.”

“Text you my address. I’ll talk to you soon, babe.”

“Okay, I’ll make sure security knows that you aren’t someone I consider a guest so much as a necessity. I’m sorry they denied you entry.”

“I’m sorry I threw a tantrum and busted my phone.”

I laughed and said, “You had a good reason. I’m sorry for thinking you didn’t care and for the thing with security.”

“You had a good reason, too, babe. You had a good reason, too.”

“Okay, I’ll talk to you later.”

“Okay, bye.”

“Bye.”

I sighed and felt edgy and nervous. He texted his address and I texted the car service. I went to put my phone in my jacket pocket and came out with a set of unfamiliar keys. I frowned and then it dawned on me – they were for his brownstone. He’d given me the keys to his place.

I clattered down the stairs and went to the front window, peeking out the ripped edge of the paper he had covering them from the inside. I let out a relieved breath. The coast was clear. The paparazzi had cleared out.

Thank god.

I watched for the car to pull up and bolted for it, after locking up.

“Antonio, hi,”

My familiar driver said, “Hi, Ms. Banks, how are you doing?”

I gave a shaky laugh and told him the truth. “I’ve been better, Antonio. I’ve been better.”

“Yeah, it’s a real shame what they been saying about you on the TV. Breaks my heart, actually. You’re such a nice lady.”

“Thanks,” I said softly. “That actually means a lot.”

“Anytime, Ms. Banks. Any time.”

The rest of the ride went by in a blessedly tranquil silence and, without being asked, Antonio pulled down into the garage for me so I didn’t have to get out in front of the cameras. I tipped him handsomely and he tried to give it back. I insisted, he thanked me, but before he could get out and get my door, I got it for myself. I went up the garage elevator to the lobby and then took the elevator up to my floor.

When I let myself in to my apartment, Veronica was waiting, serving tea to two unexpected guests, one of them familiar, the other, new to me.

“Yale,” I said, shutting the door behind me. “What are you doing here?”

He gave a tight-lipped smile and bowed his head. His lips continued to twitch with amusement when he said, “Ah, not today I’m afraid, Ms. Banks. Today I’m here in an official capacity. Please, call me Mr. Parnell.”

I eased across the polished wood of my floor and said, “Official capacity?”

“Yes, I need to take your statement.”

“About what?” I asked.

The woman with him arched one dark brow and said, “Ms. Banks, I’m Christina Marie Franco, a prosecuting attorney with the Indigo City District Attorney’s office. Mr. Parnell agreed to accompany me as a courtesy, but your case is actually my case.”

“I don’t understand.”

“Lilli, come sit,” Veronica said. “Listen to what they have to say, they’re here to help.” My assistant and best friend pulled out a chair for me and I drifted over to it, hanging my jacket and purse off the back. The two attorneys sat across from me and Veronica took a seat beside me.

“Mr. Parnell, Ms. Franco, if you’re worried about saying anything in front of Veronica here, because she’s my employee, don’t be. She’s also my best friend and I’d really prefer if we could all skip being so stiff and so formal in front of each other. It’s really not necessary.”

Everyone exchanged a look and visibly relaxed which made me feel ten times better.

“Let me just start by saying, believe me, Ms. Banks, I know precisely what you’re going through.”

“It’s Lilli or Lil, and you do?” I asked, and searched both hers and Yale’s faces.

“I do. I went through something similar just last year.”

That’s when things clicked, “Oh, you’re ‒that‒ Chrissy, and you’re here about the pictures, aren’t you?”

She smiled and bypassed the shortened version of her name and said: “The drone footage, yes.”

I paled. “Footage?”

“Yes, Lil, footage. Those were stills from a video,” Veronica said, and I closed my eyes.

“Well,” I said, leaning back in my chair. “I guess I should be fine with it, I mean, I’m a porn author after all, am I right?” I asked bitterly. I wasn’t, but there were a lot of people out there that didn’t see a distinction between romance novels and pornography. It all depended on your level of prude.

“May I ask why you didn’t contact law enforcement when you were made aware of the images when they aired on…” Christina trailed off and flipped through some notes on her legal pad, “Celebrity Beat, this last Monday?”

“I didn’t even think about it being illegal, Lil. I should have, I’m sorry.” Veronica said quickly. I shook my head.

“No, it’s all right. I didn’t either, to be honest. I just passed it to my civil attorneys.” I sat in silence for a moment and said, “Wow, revenge porn. I guess she got way more than she bargained for out of selling her lies to that gossip rag.”

Yale sat up straighter and exchanged a look with Christina. “What did you say?” Yale asked.

I shrugged and said, “It was Backdraft’s ex-girlfriend, some woman named Tori, goes by the name Torrid. She lied and told Celebrity Beat that Backdraft was cheating on her with me. She’s the reason, I think, that that footage even exists. Isn’t that almost the definition of revenge porn? Just because it was a woman doing it to a man doesn’t make it any less so.”

He looked impressed and jotted things down on his legal pad. Christina took up the line of questioning.

“Where was the footage taken? What hotel?”

I looked at her and frowned, drawing my head back in confusion. “It’s not a hotel; that was my bedroom.”

“Excuse me, what?” Yale demanded, and I could tell he was totally out of the loop and not happy about it.

“Yeah, come with me.” I stood and they stood with me, I took them down the hall and into my bedroom. Yale looked a deeply-dark level of pissed-off I don’t think I had ever seen on someone before.

“I don’t even know who took it, the footage I mean.” I said unhappily. “But yeah, it happened here. From the angle of the pictures, likely from out that window.” I pointed up and out the window and said, “I didn’t think I needed blinds on the forty-fourth floor; didn’t think anyone would be looking, or even be able to look, way up here. I never even thought someone would be so depraved as to use a drone, but that’s the only way they could have done it.”

“What do you think, Damien?” Christina asked softly.

“I think this sucks,” he said. “Celebrity Beat isn’t going to give up the source of the images willingly but they can be forced to. It won’t be fast, and your civil attorneys have a better position to work from than we do."

“Can I just ask?” They both looked my way. “Did Backdraft call you?”

They both exchanged a look and smiled, “We are here in an official capacity after receiving a call from a concerned citizen who saw the Celebrity Beat segment. Due to your celebrity status and the delicate nature of the images that were displayed on the show, we thought it best that the DA’s office pay you a visit personally,” Yale said and I nodded and waved him off. He laughed slightly and said, “Actually, Aly’s been bugging me about it since she saw it. I just couldn’t do anything until someone called me in. Backdraft did just that around an hour ago. It’s been a big game of telephone. I didn’t see the segment myself, I’ve just gotten hearsay from Aly.”

“Okay,” I gave a solid nod, because fighting back in any capacity felt a lot better than sitting around sullen and silent doing nothing. “What do you need from me?”

“First, we would like to know if you’re okay,” Chrissy said.

“I’m not, really,” I said with a nervous laugh. “It was, and still is, pretty violating. I can’t stay here, too much bad blood, too many bad things in too short of an amount of time. I’m selling it.”

“I’ll be drawing up some restraining orders and an order of protection,” Yale said. “Any of those paparazzi out there get out of line, you call me and we’ll put their name on them. I’ll save the order of protection for Torrid. Backdraft is right: she didn’t get what she wanted out of this, which was a reaction from you guys. Your keeping quiet is probably driving her up a wall, which is a bad thing when it comes to her.”

“How illegal is what this person did? You know, whoever took the video.” I asked.

“Well, we’re going to have to do some digging. At the very least, depending on who was operating the drone at the time, they could face a charge of voyeurism in the second degree, which is, sadly, just a gross misdemeanor punishable by some jail time that’s not nearly enough for something like this, and a fine anywhere between five hundred and a thousand dollars,” Yale said.

“That doesn’t include what your lawyers are going to do to them,” Veronica said.

“She’s right,” Chrissy said. “If we secure a conviction or even a guilty plea, even if they don’t serve any, or just minimal, time, your civil attorneys will have them dead to rights. Financially, you could ruin them for life.”

I felt my shoulders drop and looked out my bedroom window, up past the platform my bed was on, at the swatch of overcast sky where the drone must have been.

“Ruining someone’s life financially isn’t going to give me my dignity or sense of security back,” I said honestly.

“Trust me, I know,” Chrissy said softly. I exchanged a look with her and we both heaved a heavy sigh at the same time.

“Why just a misdemeanor?” Veronica asked, and I knew it was because she wasn’t nearly as nice as I was, deep down inside.

Yale nodded, his hands stuffed into his slacks pockets. “Truth is, the laws just haven’t, and won’t any time soon, catch up to technology like this.”

“It sucks, but it’s true,” Chrissy said. “There was some seriously fancy lawyering that had to happen when it came to my case which was mostly cyberstalking and using the media like a weapon.”

“I can’t even imagine,” I said.

“Trust me, you wouldn’t want to,” Chrissy said flatly.

“Let’s be real, here please?” I said. “What’s the actual likelihood you can even catch who flew that thing? I mean, I know drones have to be registered, but there’s no telling when or where they fly. I mean, it’s not like it’s something that can be tracked, right?”

“No, it’s not,” Yale said. “In fact, the more I think about it, the more I’m seeing that the only way that we’re going to find out who took those photos and sold them to Celebrity Beat is through your lawyers. I would suggest making that information part of whatever settlement you are seeking.”

“Okay,” Veronica interposed carefully, as she searched my face. “Say I pass that little tidbit along to Timber’s lawyers and they get the information. Why is it only a misdemeanor? Isn’t there anything else you could charge them with?”

Chrissy sighed and gestured out into the hallway. I nodded and led everyone back up the hall to my dining room where we could retake our seats and, my hands shaking but needing to do something, anything, right now, I poured four cups of tea from my little teapot. I didn’t really care if anyone drank them.

“Like Yale said, the laws surrounding situations like this are woefully inadequate to begin with,” Chrissy said unhappily.

“Right,” Yale agreed. “In order to stick a felony charge, we would have to prove the videographer’s intent.”

“His intent was to earn a buck, at the real cost of my humiliation,” I said, frowning, and I felt my nose start to tingle in that familiar way that meant an ugly cry was coming. I didn’t want to give in to it, so I tried my hardest to force it down.

“Right,” Chrissy nodded. “And that’s the problem. From a legal standpoint, the way the law is written, that’s just a misdemeanor.”

“If I may continue to be blunt?” Yale asked and I nodded. I actually preferred it because I could tell, for him, that ‘blunt’ really meant ‘If I may continue telling you the un-sugarcoated version of the truth’ which, in my line of work, was becoming harder and harder to come by. He went on.

“To be considered a felony, the person would have to be a stranger to you and the intent behind the video would have to be proven to be that he filmed it in order to get himself, or other people off.”

“You’re joking?” Veronica looked a mixture of angry and aghast. In fact, if she were a cat, her ears would have been plastered flat back to her skull. The image made me smile affectionately at my friend.

“I wish I were. If this had been filmed and released on a porn site rather than sold to the gossip show, this would be a whole different set of charges with higher stakes.”

I’m pretty sure it looked like I had sucked a lemon when I said, “Doesn’t matter, though. The same end result was achieved either way.”

Chrissy’s face crumbled into lines of sympathy and I remembered what Backdraft had said to me. That Chrissy’s best friend had died and that she’d been shot during her situation. I had the brief thought that things would be so much easier if Backdraft’s crazy ex-girlfriend had tried to kill me, instead.

“Look, I know it's bad news from a criminally-legal standpoint, but there’s a reason for that,” Yale said and I looked him in the eyes. His jaw tightened and I could tell I really wasn’t going to like what he was going to say as much as he wasn’t going to enjoy saying it.

“Just say it,” I said.

“The law, as written, is classist as hell. It’s mostly inadequate, in my opinion, because people like us, with money, don’t really need criminal charges to even the scales. As a civil matter, you pretty much have everyone over a barrel here. Your lawyers are more than welcome to use my office as leverage. Even saying that the Indigo City District Attorney’s Office is looking into this might be enough to shake-down a settlement in a civil suit.”

“That’s great for me,” I said bitterly, “but what about when this happens to someone without money? Something like this to an underprivileged or even a middle-class girl trying to get in to a good college?”

“Hence, why the law is classist. For a ‘normal’,” he used air quotes around ‘normal’, which only made sense to me, because most people didn’t have the kind of money to burn on something like this, “person, there’s little or no recourse.”

I scrubbed my face with my hands and sighed, heavily.

“What about Backdraft, then?” I asked. “This happened to us, not just me. I mean, I believe he’s added to the suit per my request, but at the end of the day, even if we win, where’s the justice? The person really behind this is Torrid, not even Mark, really. I mean, he’s complicit, but he never would have done this and outted himself on TV like that, without her somehow being involved. He was pretty much home free.” The bitter bite of anger flooded my mouth and I realized something about myself as I sat there.

That people like Torrid, like Mark, were used to getting their way. That they were used to people like me, who were too nice, too forgiving, letting their bad behavior slide and that they counted on it. Maybe I need to rethink some things, here. I thought.

“The justice,” Veronica said derisively, “Is when they can’t get a car or an apartment because their credit is so bad from not paying the judgment against them in your case. The justice is in them having to think about what they did to you every time they sign their name on the check paying out to you, to get out from under the mountain of debt you drop on them.”

“She’s right,” Yale said. “It would take years to pay off the court costs and whatever fines are levied against them.”

“And they would have to think about that, about why they were in the predicament they were in, every single day, for as long as it took to crawl out from under it,” Chrissy added. I raised a hand and nodded, indicating they’d made their points.

“In short,” Yale said, “jail would honestly be shorter and easier.”

I leaned back in my chair and sighed. I looked over at Veronica and said, “I know I’m too nice…”

She gave me a flat look and interrupted me saying, “Honey, you’re a doormat. Let’s be real.”

I laughed, a genuine smile crossing my lips and nodded, “I am what my mother raised me to be,” I agreed. “So, let’s do this. You are not a doormat and you will do the right thing by me and the situation at hand, so you call the lawyers and give them the new information and marching orders accordingly.”

“They’re coming straight from you,” she said.

“That’s right. You know how this is played.”

“I surely do. That’s why I am absolutely indispensable to you,” she said lightly and she was already halfway across my apartment to the door leading into my office.

Yale chuckled and Chrissy was smiling. I couldn’t help but smile, too.

“Thank you for coming,” I said and they exchanged another look and smiled wider.

“You’re part of the Indigo Knights by proxy, now,” Chrissy said.

“It’s how we operate,” Yale agreed. “We help each other where we can and keep it above legal board at all times.”

“I like that,” I said.

Yale gave a tight lipped smile and said, “Well, we like you. Those of us that have had the opportunity to meet you. Otherwise, we wouldn’t be here.”

I smiled and blushed under the sentiment murmuring and awkward, “Thank you.”

“A piece of unsolicited advice?” Chrissy asked.

“Of course,” I said.

“As someone who’s sort of been there, with the media dogging my steps, don’t play into their hands. Don’t hide. Just go out and live your life accordingly and eventually, they’ll get bored. You and Backdraft staying strong, staying solid as a couple, will do more to make this die down faster than anything. There’s no scandal, no drama, and no story there. You go out and live your lives and your truths, and don’t let these assholes stop you.”

I sat and processed what she was saying for a moment, really thinking about it, and finally nodded.

“There’s absolutely nothing normal about my life anymore,” I said with a strange, nervous sort of laugh. I lost the battle with fighting back my tears and a couple got free. I wiped my eyes with my fingers and sniffed.

The looks of compassion from across the table leveled me and I struggled even harder not to just lose it and cry.

“I think you know that’s not true,” Yale said with a wry grin and I blushed a bit. I mean, he was right. Backdraft and what we shared was definitely a nice, normal, and the happiest thing, oh, my god… They got up, and I rose with them to see them out.

“When you’re club, you’re family,” Chrissy said softly. “You need anything, even if it’s just a girl’s night, you just call. Backdraft knows how to reach everyone.”

I nodded, “Thank you. Um, Yale, can I send you out of here with some things for Aly and Dawnie?”

He smiled and shook his head gently, “I’m afraid not. Considering I’m here in an official capacity, being seen leaving with any sort of gifts could be easily misconstrued.”

“Oh, I didn’t even think of that. I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be, it was the thought that counts and I appreciate it more than you could know.”

“Tell you what,” Chrissy said, flipping to a blank page on her legal pad. “Why don’t I get all the girls together and you meet us at the 10-13 later this week? You just name a time.”

“Um, how about the day after tomorrow, around eight?”

“Saturday at eight, it is,” she said with a warm smile.

“Sounds good,” Yale agreed.

I opened my front door and they stepped out into the hall.

“Thank you for coming, and thank you for trying,” I said.

“Believe me,” Chrissy said. “I wish we could do more.”

“Agreed,” Yale nodded, the look on his face one of frustration and futility.

“It’s the thought that counts,” I said using his own words. I smiled wanly and he nodded slowly.

“Ball is in your civil attorney’s court,” he said.

“I’ll see what we can do.”

“Keep us posted.”

“I will.”

They turned and went for the elevator and I closed my front door, letting out a harsh sigh. Veronica sighed behind me in echo, and I jumped.

“Sorry,” she said. “Spoke to our lawyer’s paralegal. They’re on it.”

“Thanks.”

“Go get a shower,” she suggested softly and I nodded.

“I could use one,” I murmured, even though I was mostly clean from my shower at the firehouse the night before, I wanted the hot water to see if I could loosen up my muscles and my own shampoo and conditioner to get my hair under some control.

“I was really hoping there would be more they could do from a legal standpoint, you know?” she said, and I nodded.

“Me, too, but I’m not surprised. Welcome to my life and what I was accustomed to, before I fell face first into all this money.”

Veronica’s face fell and she lowered her arms from where she had them crossed over her stomach. She and I, despite having vastly different upbringings, still managed to work well together and were like two peas in a pod. Still, there were some things that her affluent upbringing didn’t prepare her for and this, unfortunately, was one of them. There was a reason she hadn’t thought to involve the police, and that was just as Yale had said it was. The rich were used to dealing with problems like this through civil attorneys and the private sector.

I guess it was a mark of how much I was changing that I hadn’t thought to contact the police either. That, or, deep down, I knew it wouldn’t have made a difference. There was a lot more gray area where the law was concerned than anyone really recognized.

“That wasn’t a knock, by the way,” I said, worried I may have hurt her feelings.

“Yeah, no, I know that, honey. I guess it was just kind of a shock. A sort of wake-up call that there are some vastly different realities out there between people.”

“Welcome to the class system, still alive and well.”

“Unfortunately,” she muttered. She sighed and said, “Go get your shower. It’s not perfect, but maybe if we try and face down some things that that still need to get done despite this sideshow, it will get you back into the groove of things.”

I nodded and slow-walked my way to the bedroom; I didn’t think I would ever see it the same way again.