Chapter 19

MARIAH

“I didn’t do anything, Dad. I seriously just suggested that he either apologize or make a statement against the allegations. Now, he won’t return my calls at all,” Mariah said as she sat down with her father.

As much as Mariah wanted to show that she had control over everything, she had finally decided to reach out to her father and get his help. If anyone knew how to deal with a moody client, it was her father. Mariah looked up to him for his ability to calm an agitated client or convince someone to do something that was in their best interest. He had always been able to handle her so well, even through her horrible teenage years.

“Something must have happened. His entire life is going down the shitter, and he’s not even communicating with his public relations firm. It doesn’t make sense.”

Mariah and her father had been going round and round discussing River and his press all morning long. It certainly wasn’t helping them figure out a good solution. But without River being involved, or approving them going forward, there wasn’t much else that Public Waves could do for their client.

“I’m sorry, Dad. I don’t know. Maybe it’s all just too much for him? I know he didn’t assault that woman. She was here in our office. She sat next to him and talked kindly to him. It’s just a newspaper’s version of the truth. It isn’t the actual truth. But he absolutely refuses to make any sort of statement.”

William Waves had dealt with hundreds of difficult clients over the years. Yet it still baffled him when a client wouldn’t take part in repairing their own image. It was like they gave up before there was even a fight.

Clients sought his company out. They knew that the press was going to be bad for them, and they knew that they needed a team on their side. But when things got tough, many clients just wanted to put their heads in the sand and pretend like they could get themselves out of trouble. But the truth was, most people didn’t really know how to handle bad publicity. That was the whole reason companies like Public Waves even existed.

“What’s the truth?” Mr. Waves asked.

“What do you mean?”

“I mean if you know the truth, leak that to a newspaper and let them run with that. It’s important to at least get another version of the truth out into the public so people can evaluate it.”

“But River won’t agree. He has a son with Kimberly and doesn’t want that son hurt.”

Mr. Waves paused as he thought about what would be best to do next. He knew that coming out and going against his client was risky. But he also was paid to do a job, and that job didn’t stop just because the client had become too overwhelmed to participate. That was why they hired a company to help them in the first place.

“Write down the truth for me. I’ll decide what to do next,” Mr. Waves said as he left Mariah.

Mariah needed to find River more than ever. She didn’t know what to do. If she told the truth to her father, he was going to leak it to the press, and River would have to explain things to his son. Everything was a disaster, and Mariah felt herself becoming more and more overwhelmed with each passing minute. She had never dealt with a case all on her own before. All of her work over her first year at the firm had been under the direction of her father or another senior associate. It was much more stressful when she was responsible for the outcome of a case.

“Mariah, there’s a call for you,” Jennifer yelled from the front desk.

“Take a message.”

“Um, it’s the chief of police in Atlanta, Georgia. He insisted that he talk to you.”

Mariah had no idea why the chief of police in any city would want to talk to her. She hadn’t broken any laws, and she certainly didn’t intend to start. Then it hit her; perhaps the alleged incident between River and Kimberly had happened in Atlanta. Maybe he was calling to let her know that they were going to file charges against River for the assault.

Wait … No. The incident had happened in Portland, Oregon. Mariah had absolutely no idea why the police were calling her, but she decided there was only one way to find out.

“Hello, this is Mariah Waves.”

“Hello ma’am, my name is Chief Balkan, and I have a young man here who requested his one call come to you. I thought it would be best if I handled it to help avoid any further press on the matter.”

“Press? What kind of press has there already been? Who do you have?”

Mariah took a deep breath and swallowed hard as she waited in anticipation for the man to tell her who had been arrested. Mariah had abruptly remembered that the first time River had called the office after hours line, he had been in Atlanta.

“I’ll let you talk to him.”

There was a long pause as the chief handed the phone to the person who was there with him. Mariah looked at her phone to check one last time and see if River had returned any of her calls. There were no text messages or calls from River; there were several calls from a number in Atlanta, though.

“Mariah, I need you to come bail me out without telling April or Edward,” River said in a soft tone.

He spoke so softly that Mariah could hardly tell it was River. When it sunk in that it was River, she wanted to yell at him. He had seriously gotten arrested only days after getting out of jail. Oh, he really had not learned his lesson at all while he was in jail.

But Mariah felt like there was something wrong with River, and she wasn’t about to deny him when he had reached out to her. She could go and help him as his publicist. That is what a good publicist would do.

River was obviously out of control. Mariah didn’t know why he had gone to Atlanta or how he had gotten arrested, but it wasn’t something the man she met two months before would have done. At least, that was what Mariah thought. She had to admit, though, that she really didn’t know River all that well. She only knew him from what he had told her; maybe he had a lot more issues than she had thought he had.

“You’re in Atlanta? Is there a particular place I need to go to get you?”

“The main holding area is near the downtown courthouse. You’ll need to go to my house and get ten thousand dollars for the bail.”

“You keep ten thousand dollars in cash in your house! River!” Mariah yelled.

“Yes, it’s in my bedroom under the nightstand. Just move it out of the way, and you’ll find it.”

“What’s the alarm code to get into your house?”

“Oh, I don’t have it on,” River said reluctantly.

Mariah let her head fall into her hands at what she heard. River seriously didn’t understand anything about keeping himself safe. It was no wonder some mystery person had found out about River’s past and leaked it. River didn’t do a damn thing to keep his past private, and he sure as hell didn’t do a thing to keep his home safe.

“You didn’t even turn on your alarm? God, River, we really need to work on your home security. And let me guess. There is a key under the front mat?”

“It’s in the flower pot to the left of the door.”

“Jesus!”

“Sorry, I’m just a trusting guy,” River said with a chuckle.

“Yeah, look where that has gotten you,” Mariah snarled back at River as she grabbed her things from her office. “I’ll be there as soon as I can.”

“Thanks. Please don’t tell April or Edward. I don’t know what’s going on at my company, but I don’t want to give them any more of a reason to get rid of me.”

“They are getting rid of you?” Mariah asked.

She had heard from April that there were rumblings of getting River out of the company. But Mariah didn’t think they would move so fast. She honestly thought it was just a scare tactic to get River to spend more time in the office and participate more in the company issues. But if they were threatening to kick him out and saying it to his face, that was much more serious.

“Nothing positive yet, but the board is making some moves.”

“Alright, we can talk about it when I get there. Try not to get into any more trouble until I arrive.”

It didn’t take Mariah long at all before she was on a plane and making her way to Atlanta. Luckily, her father had entrusted her with a corporate credit card for business expenses. She certainly wasn’t about to let River sit another moment in a holding cell in Atlanta. If the press got wind of what was going on, the one-time punching incident with the governor would now be turned into normal behavior for River. Mariah couldn’t let that happen.

Her job was now front and center in her priorities, and as much as she still cared about River; that would just have to take a back seat until everything else calmed down. They needed to bring some sort of resolution to the trouble that was going on. It was impossible for Mariah to imagine anything could get better unless she could convince River to have a meeting with Kimberly and talk some sense into her.

Kimberly held the key to making everything better for River. If she had ever cared about River at all, Kimberly needed to step up and make an effort to fix things. During the flight to Atlanta, Mariah tried to think of a scenario that would make Kimberly step up and admit what really had happened. But there wasn’t anything that came to mind. Kimberly was much more protected if she didn’t say a word, and if Mariah had been Kimberly’s publicist, that would have been her advice to her client.

Mariah got a great idea. She knew that no one was going to willingly meet up with each other. But what if Mariah just set up a meeting for the governor, Kimberly, and River without any of them knowing? Maybe then things would finally get discussed.

Mariah dialed the number to the governor’s office.

“Hi, my name is Mariah Waves. The governor said he would do a story with me, and I was just trying to set up a time.”

There was a long pause on the other end of the phone. The secretary obviously didn’t have Mariah’s name anywhere around because Mariah had made up the story. But one of the things she had learned in her PR career so far was that people hated when they missed things. People inherently wanted to do the right thing, and if they thought it was their fault that something was missed, it was more likely you could get an appointment. It was just one of the tricks her father had taught her about the business.

“I’m sorry ma’am. I don’t have any information on this,” the secretary said.

“Oh, gosh. Um ... well, I was in there on the day the governor made his announcement. Silly me, there was so much commotion, I’m sure you don’t remember telling me to call back. But the governor said he would do my school newspaper interview.”

Another long pause was followed by the secretary putting Mariah on hold. Most likely, the woman was checking through her notes to see why the piece of information she needed was missing.

“Um, yes, here is my note. We can set something up for next week. How does Monday at noon work?”

“Oh, yes, that would be great. Will the governor want me to come to his office or was he still going to come to the university?”

“Oh, the university will be great. Is it in the communications room like normal?”

“Yes, yes, in the communications room,” Mariah said as she made herself a note to call her friend at the university and reserve that room.

“Great, I’ll see him then. Thank you,” Mariah said as she quickly hung up.

By the time she had finished her call, the taxi driver had pulled up in front of the police building in Atlanta. With the flight and wait time, it had only taken Mariah five hours to get to River. She was pretty impressed with herself and how quickly she was handling his little emergency.

Before heading into the building, Mariah made a call to April at River’s office. If her plan was going to work, Mariah was going to need to convince April to bring River to the meeting. Mariah couldn’t have her fingerprints anywhere on the arrangement.

“We have a meeting at the university Monday at noon. It’s just a little information question and answer session with some students. I thought it would be nice for River to see how much people still love him,” Mariah said to April.

“That sounds perfect. I’ll put it on his calendar.”

“Thanks so much,” Mariah said, and she was about to hang up when April pulled her back in.

“Have you talked with River? I haven’t heard from him since yesterday. I’m worried.”

The true concern in April’s voice was evident, and Mariah couldn’t bear to let her worry another second longer. She wasn’t going to tell April where River was; only that she had talked to him. Perhaps that would help put April at ease.

“Yes, I talked to him this morning. I think he’s feeling a little better. He just needs some time to work things through. I’ll tell him you are worried.”

“Thank you, see you Monday,” April said as they both hung up the phones.

Mariah walked into the police building and felt her legs weaken at the sight in front of her. There were dozens of officers moving around feverishly. The place seemed like one of the busiest precincts in the world; at least, to Mariah it did.

She looked around at the different counters to try and figure out which one she should walk up to. There were long lines at a few counters and no lines at all at the others. Mariah decided to just make a guess and walked up to the first available police officer.

“I’m here for River Anders,” Mariah said to the officer at the front desk. “I think your commander or chief or somebody called me.”

The woman didn’t ask Mariah any questions but quickly left the front desk. As Mariah stood there waiting for the woman to come back, she heard a loud noise from next to the counter. When she looked over, it was River being let out from a door just on the other side of the counter.

“The other party decided not to press charges. He’s free to go,” the chief said as he shook River’s hand and then returned behind the door.

Mariah had her hands on the large amount of cash in her wallet, and she slowly released it at the news. It had been very nerve-wracking to carry so much cash with her on an airplane. Mariah was terrified someone was going to think she was a criminal of some sort.

River looked like he had the crap beaten out of him. His eye was all bloodied, and it looked to be the same eye he had reportedly had busted open when he was in jail before. There were a couple small bandages holding a small cut closed. He had dark circles under his eyes, even more pronounced than the last time Mariah picked him up from jail.

“Well, you look like shit,” Mariah said.

This time, she didn’t run up and hug him. She kept her distance and tried to remain as professional as possible. She really didn’t know where she stood with River anymore, and she wasn’t about to get her heart broken by him. Distance was her best friend.

“You should see the other guy,” River joked.

“Does he look worse than you?”

“Probably not,” River laughed. “Let’s go home. Thanks for getting me. I’m not sure where my wallet went. I think it's back at the strip club.”

Mariah winced when she heard that River had been in a fight at a strip club. That certainly wasn’t going to look good when it came out. Any sort of fighting would be bad enough, but while at a strip club, it just seemed downright lower-class.

“A strip club?” Mariah let out under her breath. “Were there any pictures taken during the fight? Any video? What are we dealing with here?” Mariah said as she went into full PR mode with River.

“I’m not sure.”

Mariah rubbed her hand on her forehead with exhaustion. River was making her job much harder than it needed to be. It would be much easier on her if River would just go to work and then go home and stay out of trouble in between there.

“Why were you in Atlanta? Did you have business to do there?”

“No.”

Mariah waited for River to give her some sort of explanation. Certainly, there had to be a reason he had flown all the way to Atlanta from Portland. If it wasn’t for business, maybe it was for pleasure. But would River really fly across the country to go to a simple strip club? There were plenty of clubs in Portland if that was what he wanted to do.

“So you went all the way to Atlanta just to go to a strip club and get your ass kicked? River you just got released from jail. How on earth did this seem like a good idea?” Mariah asked as she felt her own blood pressure building.

River didn’t even respond. Mariah had no idea why he was so far off the rails from his normal life, but she certainly wasn’t about to let things keep going the way they were. Whether River liked it or not, Mariah was going to save his company and him. She couldn’t just sit back and let him destroy everything he had worked so hard for. Her only hope was that she could help him, and he would be able to see that it had been useful. Because the alternative was that she would help him, and he would hate her for it.