Hollywood's Baddest

by Susan Westwood

  “But he got arrested! Lexi, he went to jail!” I’m so upset about this. I just can’t believe it. I just adore him. I can’t believe he did it. This can’t be real. He’s too good a guy for it to be real.” She sighed in exasperation, sounding resolute in her defense of Lucas Ryan.

  Alexis spoke to Abby as she picked up her keys and walked out to her car, getting ready to drive to work. “I know it’s exciting. Just try to calm down and wait to see what comes of it. There’s no sense getting all worked up about it now; it’s just the beginning. This will definitely be a long road for him and all of his fans, so just wait to see what happens.” She thought about it for a moment and added another thought.

  “Abby, why don’t you try to give your attention to something else today, so you aren’t so worked up about this, okay? Yeah. Why don’t you try to get outside today and leave your phone at home? You know, just for some fresh air and a break from the media. What do you think, would you do that when you get home from work?” Alexis knew full well that her sister wouldn’t do it; that she would be glued to social media and news agencies until she had nearly drowned herself in the ongoing story of it.

  “I’ll try, but… god… I just can’t believe it! What a nightmare!” Abby’s voice conveyed the stress she was already feeling over it all.

  Alexis knew that it was pointless to try to talk any sense into her sister at all until things had calmed down some. “Okay, okay, just… promise me you’ll try to take some time outside without your phone… at least at some point.”

  “I promise.” Abby replied resolutely. Alexis didn’t know whether to believe her or not, but she was headed into work and didn’t want to be on the phone. She told her sister goodbye and ended the phone call so that she could concentrate on the road and on her work when she got to the office.

  She could not have cared less what was going on in the world of entertainment that day, least of all what scandalous news might be going around about Lucas Ryan. He’d made a few movies that she liked, but she wasn’t about to spend a moment of her time worrying about what he had going on in his life. There were much more important things for her to think about and focus on than some druggie actor who had been busted with illegal substances in his home. She had a job to do, and a promotion to keep her eyes on.

  She parked her car in the garage beneath the law office building and took the long elevator ride up to the third floor from the top of the building. She had been so excited to be able to work at the Nolan Law Firm, and she had done her best to rise up through the company quickly. She had been rewarded for it many times over, and one of those rewards was that she had earned herself an office three floors from the top of the building, overlooking the city and the Pacific Ocean in the distance. She was two floors down from Anderson Nolan’s own office, and one floor down from the offices of the other partners.

  She often looked at the last two numbered buttons on the elevator control panel, promising herself that she was going to be using the button for the next floor up in the very near future. She eyed it like an achievement to be reached whenever she was in the elevator, and that morning was no exception. She told herself that it would be hers.

  The doors of the elevator slid open and she stepped into the lobby on her floor. It was decorated in dark woods and fabrics, giving it a cozy and secure feeling, as if even secrets would be safe there. There were a few leather bound chairs and some small tables, and at the far end of the room was a receptionist desk where one of the secretaries worked. She was a polite older woman who never repeated anything she heard, and Alexis strongly suspected that the woman knew so much that she might actually have the answer to every question in the universe.

  She nodded and smiled at Alexis, greeting her with a good morning. From her desk there were two hallways; one leading off to the right behind her, and one leading off to the left. Alexis’ office was down the hallway to the right. She passed a few doors before she reached a more open area where another secretary’s desk was set against the wall, and at that desk was Alexis’ own personal secretary, Bea.

  Bea was an older woman, like the secretary at the front of the office, but the similarities ended there. Bea had a tendency to share office rumors and things she heard, which Alexis didn’t like, but it was a fact that had come in useful more than once.

  It was for that reason that she found out that Bryant had been cheating on her. Bea had told her that the word in the hallways was that the new temp had been seen with him in his office, and that it wasn’t for work purposes. Alexis had been shocked and had hoped with everything in her that it wasn’t true. She’d gone straight to his office and when she walked right in, she had caught Bryant and the temp right in the act.

  They’d at least had the decency to be horrified at being caught, but she had walked straight back out of his office and gone to her own, and he had followed her there a few minutes afterward. He’d begged and pleaded with her, telling her it was just a moment of weakness and that she had come on to him and he’d felt sorry for her. It was a mistake and he didn’t mean to do it. He told Alexis that he cared for her and wanted to be with her, and she looked him in the eye and told him that it was over and he didn’t have any reason to speak to her again other than for business.

  He’d left, miserable and disappointed, and she had wondered if he was ashamed of himself, but she felt deeply that there was no true remorse in him. It had turned her cold to him from that moment on. In her heart and mind, there was no chance that there would ever be anything between them again, but he kept trying, reaching out to her, doing whatever he could at every chance, just to convince her otherwise.

  That morning proved to be no exception. He was waiting for her in her office when she opened the door and walked in, and she knew in an instant that it was only because Bea wasn’t at her desk. Bea had become extremely protective of her after the sex scandal, and wouldn’t let Bryant in to her office for any reason.

  He was sitting behind her desk, looking at a short stack of files that Bea must have laid there that morning. Alexis made sure that her desk was cleaned off every night, and anything he was looking at would have been meant for her that day.

  Bryant glanced up from the files and smiled at her. He had straight dark hair that was combed back to the side, and brown eyes. His skin was pale and his body was lean and built up in the chest. He had a chiseled jaw and sometimes he looked as though he might have some slight resemblance to Superman in just the right light, and though she thought that when she first met him, she realized over time that the more she knew him, the less handsome he seemed to appear to her. He was certainly no Clark Kent; of that there was no doubt.

  He looked up at her in surprise, as if he had just been caught with his hand in the cookie jar, and indeed, he had. He quickly closed the file he had been perusing and stood up from her seat, laughing a little nervously, and he walked around the front of her desk.

  Bryant adjusted his jacket, running his hands over it as he breathed in shallowly. “Well! There you are, and don’t you look beautiful! How are you doing?” he asked, cocking one brow and flashing a charming smile at her.

  She narrowed her gaze at him. “Get out, Bryant. There’s no reason why you should be in here.” Alexis meant it. She had no tolerance or patience for him, whatsoever.

  He placed one hand on his heart as if he had been mortally wounded, and he took a step toward her, his other hand out, palm up, in a gesture of openness. “Awe honey, now don’t be like that. I just came in to talk with you about the promotion that’s coming up. That’s a big deal… there’s a lot riding on the line. You know, I’ve been doing really well with all my cases lately, and the old man upstairs, well… let’s just say he’s got his ear to the ground and he knows who would be best in the position. It’s still under wraps of course, but I’ve heard from reliable sources upstairs that the promotion is going to be mine.”

  Bryant looked very proud of himself and not at all humble about his prediction. He puffed his ches
t out some and gave her a grin. “I just…” he stepped closer to where Alexis was standing in the center of the room. He was so close that he could reach out to her, and he did; running two fingers up and down her arm in a gentle stroking motion.

  “I just wanted you to know that when I get that promotion, I’m going to make sure that you aren’t forgotten down here, and that you are brought up to work under me as my assistant. Sort of like a junior. Wouldn’t you like that?” he asked in a smooth silky voice.

  She glared hotly at him and bit her tongue to stop herself from lambasting him. He leaned a little closer to her. “What we had was so… special and unique…” he said in an almost genuine tone. “I don’t want to lose that. I want us to move forward… together…” he looked at her intently and she lifted her hand and shoved his arm away from her.

  “Don’t touch me ever again, and don’t talk to me ever again, unless it has to do with business. What you are doing in here right now has nothing to do with business. You need to get the hell out of my office and I don’t want to see you in here again. If you need to talk to me, you leave a message with Bea, and I will get back to you when it’s convenient for me.

  As far as the promotion… well, there’s a really good chance it’s going to be mine, and if it is… when I get to move upstairs, you will be staying down here on your own. Now, get out of my office.” She walked around him and went to her desk, standing behind it, glaring at him as if she was a queen.

  He gave a disgusted sigh and turned away from her, walking toward the door without another word, closing it behind him. She heaved her own sigh and sank down into her chair, closing her eyes and trying to get him out of her mind completely before she started on her work.

  Opening the files on her desk, she found much of the same as what she typically did day in and day out. There were high profile divorces and custody cases, there were a couple of corporate cases, there were two lawsuits, and one environmental case.

  She went through each one and worked on it as much as she could before closing it and leaving each file at the corner of her desk for Bea to take. Just as she had gotten a little over halfway through the stack, her phone rang. It was the secretary from upstairs; Anderson Nolan’s secretary, calling her directly, asking her to come up and see him.

  Her heartbeat picked up and she could feel hot blood rushing through her as she hung up the phone and tried to calm the tingling of her nerves. Gathering herself, she paused only long enough to get a drink of cool water, and then she took the elevator upstairs two floors to go see Anderson Nolan.

  He was one of the top attorneys in the state of California, and when she had gotten her job at his firm, she’d known that it was going to be the best possible course for her career path to take. Having the Nolan law firm on her resume meant that she could take a position as an attorney anywhere she wanted, though she knew she wouldn’t ever want to leave his firm.

  A myriad of thoughts as to why he would want to see her wreaked havoc in her mind and she tried to push all of the mental chaos from her as she stepped from the elevator onto his floor. His was the only office on the top floor, except for his secretary, who had her own office as well. She welcomed Alexis and told her to go straight in to see Anderson.

  Alexis lifted her chin and hoped that all of the nervousness that she felt inside wasn’t evident on the outside. She had gotten to be pretty good at learning just how to hide everything she was thinking and feeling; it was a necessary courtroom tactic.

  She walked into his office and quietly closed the door behind her. Anderson was seated behind his desk, looking at his computer. He glanced up at her and gave her a nod. “Good morning, Alexis. Please, come have a seat.”

  He was tall and had a stocky build. He was the sort of man who emanated refinement; from his thick white hair down to his hand crafted leather shoes. His suits were tailor made, his body was kept fit with a personal trainer, and his demeanor was so cool and collected that it might have been upper crust British.

  She sat in one of the luxuriously cushioned chairs across from him, watching him, and waiting expectantly to hear what it was that he wanted to talk with her about.

  He finished what he was working on and then turned toward her and folded his hands on the desk in front of him, looking at her with a stoic expression that did not yield one modicum of insight into the thoughts going on in his mind.

  She waited patiently, making herself appear much calmer than she felt. He spoke with a steady voice, as if he were talking about any commonplace thing; from the furniture to the weather.

  “I presume that you’ve heard the news about Lucas Ryan this morning.” His eyes held hers as he asked.

  She was suddenly profoundly grateful that her sister had blown her phone up that morning trying to reach her. She made a mental note to thank Abby later.

  “Yes, of course. Who hasn’t heard of it?” she asked with a hint of a smile. She wouldn’t have known or cared one bit, and she’d been caught off guard with her boss while she was trying for a promotion, if it hadn’t been for her celebrity loving sister. She knew she was going to owe Abby for it, though Abby had no way of knowing that.

  “Just so.” He said, pressing his lips together tightly and giving his head a shake. “Everyone knows. There is probably not a higher profile legal situation going on in this state right now. This trumps even the governor getting caught in his extramarital affair, and that was a scandal that I thought might be a pinnacle.”

  He lifted a few of his fingers off of the desk in a sort of wave. “I digress, though.” He looked intently at Alexis again. “Mr. Ryan is obviously in need of some extraordinary legal counsel. His manager, Warren Paul, contacted me this morning and after a brief discussion, Mr. Paul specifically requested you for the case.”

  Alexis stared at him and blinked in surprise. “He…. He requested me?” she asked, dumbfounded. She had done very well in her time at the Nolan law firm, and she’d begun to make a name for herself in the legal community, and in the city of Los Angeles. But not enough, she thought, that anyone needing legal representation for the highest profile case in the state might specifically ask for her.

  Anderson gave her a nod. “Yes, well… he didn’t know who you were right away. He called and we talked about the attorneys here who might be… best suited for Mr. Paul’s representation, and after I discussed a few of your colleagues and you with him, he chose you. He decided that you fit their need best.”

  His answer seemed to make more sense to her, but she was still bewildered. He seemed not to notice, or if he did, he didn’t say anything to her about it. He continued on with what he was saying. It became evident to her that it was not a conversation, it was a directive.

  “You’ll take this case and make it your first priority; everything falls in line behind this one.” His voice was firm, and she knew that it was without a doubt, about to become her biggest case. Something about it didn’t sit right with her. She didn’t care about Lucas Ryan. She didn’t want a high profile case.

  She lowered one brow slightly as she looked at Anderson Nolan sitting across from her in his dark suit and his bold power tie. She lifted her chin and took a big breath. “Mr. Nolan, I’m flattered that you thought of me for this case, and even more so that Mr. Paul requested me after you told him about me, but I feel as though I have a duty to you both to let you know that I don’t think I’m the best attorney for the case.”

  He remained unruffled, but she saw a spark of surprise in his eyes, and she knew she had caught him a little off guard. “This is a truly high profile case, as you mentioned, and I feel that there are other counselors here who would be a better fit for it. I’m working diligently on several other cases right now; cases that I feel are more aligned with my expertise and ability… cases that I feel warrant my devotion, my hard work, attention, and time.

  Cases, which I know I can win, and win well. I feel as though I could be much more effective with those than with this one, and it seems to me that
perhaps Mr. Paul didn’t realize that when he asked for me to do this case.”

  She had always felt that honesty really was the best policy, and she had no qualms about letting Anderson Nolan know just how she felt about it. He stared at her with just a hint of surprise in his expression.

  “Miss Harper,” he said using her last name, “this is one of the biggest cases that you’d ever be likely to land. This is a case of paramount importance.” He pressed the vitality of it and she tried to bite her tongue.

  It wasn’t a case of paramount importance. It was just another Hollywood big shot who had gotten so wrapped up in his life that he’d been caught with drugs at his house and gotten himself arrested. There was nothing big about it, except that he was one of the most celebrated actors in the global industry. He was at the top of the A list.

  It was a high profile case, she thought to herself, not a high priority case. The environmental case sitting on her desk two floors down, in which a city’s water supply had been contaminated by an indifferent corporation; that was a high priority case to her. Lucas Paul getting busted for drugs and needing a lawyer to get him off the hook was not, and she knew full well that her talents would be put to better use on just about anything else.

  Anderson Nolan narrowed his eyes just a fraction as he gazed at her. “This is one of the biggest cases at this firm right now. It is of the utmost importance, Miss Harper.” She didn’t like that he had used her last name twice. Somewhere in the back of her mind, where it should have mattered most, a little warning bell had begun to go off, and she knew she should be listening to it, but her heart led her onward.

  “I realize that, but I feel that my efforts would be better applied elsewhere,” she told him again in a calm voice, hoping that he would see the truth of that statement.