Adam put his arm around Trever’s shoulder and spoke in a low voice. “Our good fortune is getting noticed too. My cock-sucking brother called me last week to see if he could invest in our firm. I was elated to inform him it’s unethical for nonlawyers to share in profits from the practice of law, but I told him I’d be happy to buy him out of the family business.”
“I bet that was satisfying for you,” Trever said, not wanting to delve too far into Adam’s family drama. Trever believed family should stick together, no matter what, and Adam’s long-standing feud with his family made him uncomfortable.
“I swear to God, Trever, I had such a hard-on after that call that I had to visit a special friend.”
Trever’s mouth and nose pinched to reveal his disdain over the turn of their conversation. “Adam, while I’m happy for your brother’s apparent need to come begging to you after years of being a raging prick, neither Billy nor I want to see you in trouble again. Remember law school and the hassle we went through to get you out of that predicament?”
“When are you going to let that go? That was more than ten years ago, and there’s nothing to that story.”
“Adam, you were charged with prostitution.”
“Yes, well. I was never convicted. You both seem to forget that. And, so what? How many other guys in law or grad school hire prostitutes? I was one in a million.”
“Adam, neither Billy nor I are aware of anyone else hiring prostitutes. You, are our one and only,” Trever said as he tipped his glass for a friendly toast.
“Well, whatever. Billy is far worse than I ever was. He screws just about every associate that walks through our doors. That’s a problem waiting to happen. I think one of the only ones that got away was Victoria.”
The smile on Trever’s face quickly vanished. “Be very careful when you speak about her. We’re in the middle of her lawsuit, and the legal community is watching. Our competition is hoping to bring us down over this. She’s one of the few matters we haven’t efficiently resolved—yet. Unfortunately, she’s not going to give up as easily as the others.”
Looking around to ensure no one was close enough to hear their conversation, Adam leaned in toward Trever. “She’s a real problem. The good doctor’s analysis on her was way off.”
“Yes, I’m aware,” Trever responded.
“Obviously, we’re not going to respond to her lawyer’s requests with the truth, and that bitch of a judge wouldn’t dare defy us. It was our money that got her elected. Nonetheless, I don’t like anyone poking around in our business. We need to end this.”
“Adam, let’s table this discussion,” Trever spoke under his breath. “It’s neither the time nor the place. Go occupy yourself with whatever slinky thing you’ve dragged in for the evening, and we’ll talk in private when we’re all present.” Dismissing Adam, Trever turned to walk out onto the balcony to enjoy a Cuban cigar and the full moon reflecting on Lake Michigan.
CHAPTER
8
SERENA HAD ONE of the worst cases of jet lag she had ever experienced. As she struggled to open her hotel room door, she rapidly shook her head from side to side like a cartoon character, trying to shed the fog. “Finally,” she muttered as the door opened. She walked in and plopped down on the bed, falling backward while fighting to stay awake and slither out of her clothes. Maybe I’m getting sick, she thought.
Over the past six years, Serena had traveled all over the world on business. She was one of the up-and-comers, or so she’d been told. A typical trip would take her to various cities in China or Thailand for a series of meetings and then back to Chicago. She was often away from home as long as a month at a time.
Pushing herself up with one hand, she moved her thick, shoulder-length, red hair off her face and tried to open her sleep encrusted eyes. I must have fallen asleep with my contacts in. I never do that. Forcing her eyes open a smidge, she noticed mascara smeared across the white bed spread. Is that mine? She heard knocking and looked around, disoriented. Where the hell am I?
“Ma’am, your dinner is here,” she heard someone with an accent say. Ah yes, Bangkok. I’m in Bangkok. Serena couldn’t recall having ordered food. But maybe she had. She felt so ill.
“Give me a minute,” she croaked, snatching the hotel robe off the bathroom door. She caught a glimpse of herself in the mirror and noticed her nose was bleeding. Grabbing a tissue, Serena held onto the wall to steady herself as she shuffled toward the door. After a bit of fumbling, she unlocked it.
“I don't recall ordering—” The door opened suddenly, slamming her against the wall. As she fought to remain conscious, she saw the outline of two men. She felt herself slide to the floor and heard the smaller one speak in a familiar accent. She slurred, “Boston,” then passed out.
Nudging her body with his custom boot, the smaller man turned to the larger. “You’re an idiot. I told you none of them are to be damaged.”
“Yes sir, but we were warned she would be a fighter. I thought it better if I controlled the initial meeting.” Shaking his head in begrudging admiration, he continued, “She should have been out cold. I transferred more than enough product onto her skin when she checked in. This is exactly why I like the good old-fashioned ways: put it in their drink, sprinkle it on their food. Works like a charm.”
Glaring at his companion, the smaller man growled, “If you ever discuss the details of your business in front of me again, I promise you’ll end up worse than they do.” Looking around the room, he nodded at her phone lying on the bed. “Get it, and have her moved to the usual location. No trace. And you’d better do something about that bump on her head. She’ll be of little use looking like that.”
CHAPTER
9
VICTORIA SMILED, LEANING back in her chair and watching two of her most trusted friends and Jenny, the newest member of their group, huddle near the head of the table. She hadn’t been sure she could pull it off. After all, as lawyers, each comes complete with a ginormous ego. But watching them work together on her lawsuit was all she had hoped for.
“Robert, thank you for agreeing to try this,” Victoria said as they began to wrap up.
“Well, the combination of too much wine last night plus you three does not a fair fight make.” He smiled. “Truthfully, when you laid out your reasons, I realized the plan has some merit. I certainly can’t dispute that we might have a better shot of getting other women to testify against the firm if there are female lawyers on the team. I’ll try to get a hearing in the next two days to get the two of you admitted,” Robert said, looking at Kat and Jenny while handing his assistant their revisions to the motion. “My bet is the Troika will argue both of you are too closely connected to Victoria, Billy or other matters their firm is involved in, and as such, she should deny our motion.”
“I hope they do,” Kat insisted. “Counsel doesn’t have to be impartial to represent a client, and if they are stupid enough to put our connections to V and their firm at issue, we’ll insist the judge hears all the juicy details,” Kat smiled as she took a sip of coffee and spit it back into her cup. “God, that’s awful!”
“That’s because you poured that cup about four hours ago,” Jenny pointed out.
Victoria flicked on the lights. The sun was setting and since it was creeping toward winter, little natural light was left by four thirty in the afternoon. “I agree. They won’t want to bring details of the Highline Insurance fiasco into their hallowed Chicago courts, especially since they’re doing their best to keep the firm from being added as a defendant in that case.”
“I think Jenny is the one the court will have the most difficulty with,” Robert said, swiveling in his chair to look at her. “Are you certain you’re comfortable with this?”
“No, I’m not, but I want to work on this case. What happened to Victoria is unacceptable, and my son isn’t named in the pleadings. Billy was Victoria’s boss. It was some of the others that were the problem.” Jenny was so glad to be pract
icing law again that she was willing to walk the fine line between allegiance to her son and commitment to her new friends. She saw the chance to get involved in what might be a precedent-setting gender discrimination lawsuit, and she couldn’t wait to get into the courtroom again.
“Jenny,” Victoria said, “I want to be perfectly clear. There’s a good chance your son was involved. We just don’t know yet.”
“I can’t see how that could be true,” Jenny said. “He’s received countless awards for being one of the foremost proponents of women in the law. I think someone at his firm is putting his good reputation at risk. But let’s do a quick hypothetical. Let’s say we find out he had something to do with having you fired. If that happens, I’ll step out immediately.”
Robert turned to Victoria. “What do you think? Are you certain it’s worth it?”
Victoria answered, “Jenny, you understand part of the reason we’re bringing you in is for shock value? We want to see if we can unnerve them enough to get a peek at what’s behind the curtain and perhaps shake out some evidence about their hiring and treatment of women. If those reasons are offensive to you—and I understand if they are—then let’s keep you working in the background and not have you make a formal appearance.”
“I’m completely comfortable with this being a bit off the middle rail,” Jenny responded, walking toward Victoria with her hand outstretched. “Deal?”
“Deal.” Victoria smiled and shook her hand.
Turning at the knock on the door, Robert waved when he saw his assistant. “Come on in, Sandy.”
“Sorry to interrupt, but I wanted to let you know before I left for the evening that the hearing is set for Wednesday. It’s sixth on the nine o’clock call.”
“Great, thank you.”
“Also, I’ve made your dinner reservations, a private room with a view at NoMi. They’ll provide any materials you need, and you’ll have Internet access as well as printing capability. Is there anything else you need?”
Robert stood and grabbed the coat he had slung over the chair that morning, “No. Thanks for getting us set for this evening. Ladies, I’ll see you in a few hours, and we’ll run through the final details of our strategy.”
“Listen,” Victoria said after Robert left, “there’s no reason both of you need to stay for the hearing on this motion. While I expect it to trigger some fireworks, Robert and I can handle anything that might come up.”
“Are you kidding?” Kat responded as she pulled her hair up into a high pony tail, slid her heels back on, and packed her papers and laptop in her designer bag. “I fully expect those assholes to create major drama, and I want to be there so the judge can see who we are and so I can personally respond to any attempt they make to besmirch us. I’ll fly out that afternoon.”
“You can forget about me leaving too,” Jenny added.
“You know you’ll likely be the center of attention, right? Are you certain you’re ready for this?” Victoria asked.
“I know what I’m doing and why I’m doing it. I understand the risks. Unless there’s an objection now that the motion’s filed, I’m going to call Billy to give him a heads-up,” Jenny responded.
“No. No objection. I think that’s the right thing to do, but what are you going to tell him when he asks why you’re getting involved in the case?”
“I’m going to tell him what I told you. It’s an opportunity for me to get back into litigation, and I want to get to the bottom of something that might ruin his and his firm’s reputation.”
“Okay then, it’s settled. Anyway, it’ll be good for you both to get a feel for this judge and the firm’s defense team.”
Victoria smiled at her friends. “Now, let’s head back to my place. I want to change before dinner tonight.”
* * *
Kat and Jenny insisted on staying in Victoria’s tiny two-bedroom apartment—the same one she had rented since her first year of law school, and where both she and Kat had lived together during their last two years. Even though Victoria could afford to buy a larger place in the swanky part of the city, she had no desire to leave. She loved everyone who lived in the quaint, brick four flat. It was like a second family. She felt protected and safe.
* * *
The morning of the hearing, Victoria insisted they be ready to leave by no later than eight. While that was a full hour before the motion call began, Victoria knew Kat’s predilection for being late and had no intention of adding to the stress of the morning.
“Ready? We need to leave now so we can be in the courtroom before the call begins,” Victoria said. “This judge gets particularly pissed off when counsel arrive after she’s on the bench.”
“Ready,” Jenny said, vibrating with excitement and boasting a smile that was out of line for a simple court appearance. “This’ll be the first time I’ve stepped foot in court in more than thirty years, other than to agree to the divorce settlement.”
Kat put her arm around Jenny and steered her out the door. “That’s a long time.”
“I used to be quite a prosecutor,” Jenny responded. “We’re happy to see the real Jenny find herself again, and we know you were good. We’ve seen your conviction record.”
Jenny stopped in her tracks. “You spied on me?”
“I would call it performing the necessary due diligence before we let you get involved in one of our cases,” Kat responded. “Oh, come on. You would have done the same.”
“I guess you’re right. I might have even had you investigated as well,” Jenny said, turning her back to Kat and marching out the door. “I have a few things to tell you both about the firm defending Acker, Smith & McGowen.”
“Well, tell us in the cab. We’ve got to move,” Victoria said as she pushed her friends down the sidewalk and raised her hand to hail a cab. Usually they would have walked the eight blocks to the courthouse, but it was spitting thick, lotion-like rain that threatened to turn to snow. “Even though the boys didn’t file a response to our motion, I doubt that’s the end of it. I have a feeling they chose not to put anything in writing for a reason and they’ll be in court to object. No matter what they or their lawyers say, I don’t want either of you to react or say anything. You’re to sit there and that’s it. Capisce?”
“That’s what I wanted to speak with you about,” Jenny said, opening her notebook and fighting to keep the pages from blowing around as she read. “I got a call this morning from two of my former colleagues from the Georgia District Attorney’s office. The three of us were extremely close. We handled our first felony trial together. It was a prostitution case, and you should have seen some of the evidence. There was this one picture of a guy’s hand shoved—”
“Okay, okay, can we at least wait until we have a cocktail in front of us?” Kat interrupted. “Do you have something relevant about today’s court hearing to tell us?”
“Oh, yes, sorry. I had asked if they had any information about the firm defending Acker, Smith & McGowen.”
“Why would two former Georgia prosecutors have any information?” Victoria asked as she ducked into a cab and scooted across the seat to make room.
“Because they’re not your average lawyers. They’re now well-respected, highly-connected and working at the Department of Justice. In fact, one of them recently had his name floated as a possibility for the next Attorney General of the United States. Anyway, they called to tell me—off the record, of course—that the firm representing Acker, Smith & McGowen was investigated a few years ago. Apparently, an allegation surfaced that one of the firm’s investigators used intimidation tactics to scare a plaintiff into dropping her discrimination lawsuit against a large corporation. No charges were brought as there was not enough evidence to support an indictment of the investigator or the firm.”
“What happened to the plaintiff? Did she refile?” Kat asked.
“Apparently not. I’m told she was so traumatized by whatever happened that she abandoned her marriage
and young son and disappeared.”
“What do you mean disappeared?” Kat probed.
“Exactly that. By the time the FBI began investigating, she was gone.”
“Those are some serious allegations. Why would two DOJ lawyers tell you this?” Kat added, surprised at Jenny’s high ranking connections.
Jenny held up her finger to pause the conversation. When they arrived and stepped out of the cab, she turned and leaned toward Victoria and Kat. “Because they owed me.”
“Um, okay. So what does it mean for my case?” Victoria repeated.
“It means the lawyers defending your former firm may have used some rather heavy-handed tactics to win cases. My friends are trying to identify which lawyers were the target of that federal investigation. That way, we’ll know if the lawyers representing the firm in your case, Victoria, have any potential connection to that missing woman.”
Victoria and Kat stared at Jenny, then looked at each other and burst out laughing. “Girl’s got brains and balls!” Kat said as they turned to walk into the courthouse.
“Yes, ma’am,” Jenny responded. “I believe I do.”
CHAPTER
10
“WELL, WELL, WELL. What do we have here?” Trever leaned over and whispered to Adam, who was sitting next to him in the courtroom pew, waiting for the judge to start the call.
“And the fun begins.” Adam nudged Billy, who was sitting to his right, and jerked his chin in the direction of the group that had entered the courtroom.
Billy smirked in disgust. “Oh, for Christ’s sake. Well, this is going to get awkward.”
“On the contrary, Billy,” Adam said. “This gives you the perfect opportunity to let her know how this is going to end if she doesn’t stay the hell away from our firm.”
Private Agendas: A Victoria Rodessa Legal Thriller Page 3
