Fourteen
I had no idea how long I’d slept. I’d drifted off after our lovemaking, worn out emotionally and physically, falling into a fitful sleep punctuated by nightmares in which I was chasing after Devon. The faster I tried to run, the ground beneath me gradually turned into mud, pulling me down, while Devon got further and further away.
I became aware of someone holding on to my arm, and when I looked back, I saw that it was Rick, his face stretched into a terrifying smile, his teeth filed to points. I woke up with a start, my heart pounding, and for a moment, I had no idea where I was. All I could tell was that it was dark outside and Rick was no longer lying beside me.
“There you are, sleepyhead! I thought you were going to sleep through until morning.”
I sat up and saw Rick sitting at the table, working. I tried to cover my disappointment that it was him sitting there and not Devon. “Hey.”
“I would have woken you, but you looked just so darned cute lying there that I decided to let you sleep. Anyway, I wasn’t doing anything important. I’m just going over some of the minor amendments Charles wanted me to make to the proposal, making sure I’ve covered all the points he wanted to counter. Nothing you need to worry your pretty little head about.”
“What do you mean? What points?” I got up and crossed over to him, taking the paper he was working on to have a read. Looking at just how much he’d crossed out and annotated, it didn’t look like there was anything “minor” about this at all, and I could see that he was including some complex points of employment law that would give Joe at least the illusion of security. I’d need a good few hours to go over them in detail and make sure that they were truly in Charles’ best interest.
Rick took the paper back from me, politely but firmly. “Charles called me while you were asleep. He had a few ideas about how he wanted to work with Joe’s demands, so I said I’d make sure they were incorporated into the new contracts. I have to say that some of his suggestions were genius—Joe won’t know what’s hit him by the time we’ve finished with him.”
“What a minute—Joe’s demands? I thought you said that he’d refused to discuss any details until he’d had a chance to look over the contracts. That’s why you were out of the meeting so early.”
“He did.” Rick waved his arms around vaguely. “But he did have a brief glimpse at the proposal and made a few passing comments that Charles wanted me to work with. I’m sure you can appreciate that he wants to wrap this up as quickly as possible—we all do—so I figured that I’d make the most of the time while you were asleep to get ahead on our preparation for tomorrow, so I could focus completely on you when you got up. And now that you are up, you have to admit that there’s more interesting things we could do than work…” He stood up and seductively put his arm around my waist. “What say you we go out somewhere? Or did you want to go back to bed again? I could get some more champagne sent up, order some dinner. We don’t need to go anywhere if you don’t want to. We could have our own private little party right here.”
I pushed him away, irritated. “What do you mean, Charles wanted you to work with his comments? I’m your boss, remember? It doesn’t matter what Charles says. Any changes need to go through me before he sees them. It’s not just his company that’s on the line here—how this case turns out also has implications for Caesar and Krause. If it got around that we allowed ourselves to be stiffed by a disgruntled employee who’s representing himself, we’ll be a laughing stock. It wouldn’t matter what Devon said—Grayson would have us kicked out faster than you can say ‘litigation.’”
“Oh, Becky—”
“Rebecca.” I spoke through gritted teeth, restraining the urge to scream, throw something at him, anything to stop him being so… so… Rick. “How many times do I have to tell you?”
“Rebecca. I just figured that since I’ve been dealing with the case almost completely by myself since we’ve been here, because of your… ill health, it made more sense for me to carry on doing it.”
I blushed. We both knew that I’d just been seriously hung over and it was entirely my fault I’d missed the meeting today.
“Charles won’t notice any difference—if anything, he prefers working with me to you, anyway. You’ve seen what a traditionalist he is. In fact, I don’t know why Devon sent you here. I can handle this perfectly well by myself. What’s more, I’m going to tell him just that when we get back—that way he can deploy you in a way that uses your skills more effectively. You always were better suited to a certain type of client, one who appreciates your ample… assets.”
I stared at him, open-mouthed, as he leered at me. “Oh. My. God, Rick. So that’s what this has been all about. It’s nothing to do with getting back together with me and everything to do with wanting my job! All this time, you’ve been doing your best to undermine me, put me off my game, because you hate the fact that my career’s doing better than yours.”
“No, no, no! It’s nothing like that, I promise.” Rick ran his hand through his hair. “Jeez, Rebecca. You always did like to look for the worst in people. Well, you know what they say—if you look for the worst, you’ll always find it.”
“And you know what else they also say? How do you know a lawyer is lying? His lips are moving. You can hardly blame me for thinking you’re a lowlife, cheating douchebag when you were screwing all my friends, can you?”
“They couldn’t have been much of a friend, then, could they?”
“That’s not the point!” I turned away from him, pacing up and down the room to try and restrain the urge to throttle him. “If you had ever been serious about getting back together, Rick, there had to be complete and utter honesty between us. It’s been, what, a day? And already you’re lying to me. It’s like it’s in your DNA. You just can’t help yourself, can you?”
“I haven’t lied—”
“All right. Haven’t told me the complete truth.” Every word was dripping with sarcasm. There’s a reason why they say never argue with a lawyer, especially one as slippery as Rick. He always had a clever comeback, and in the past, I’d always given in to him. It was easier than trying to get one up—even if I had him completely painted into a corner, he’d never acknowledge it, and we’d been known to argue from dusk till dawn, just because Rick refused to back down.
“Either way, we’ve got a major deal going down, and it looks decidedly like you’re trying to cut me out of it so you can look good in front of Devon.” I shook my head sadly as the final piece of the puzzle fell into place. “In fact, I don’t believe you ever really wanted to get back together with me. All this was just a façade to split me and Devon up, spoil the one decent relationship I’ve had since I kicked out your sorry ass. The horrible thing is that it looks as though you succeeded. All I can say is that I hope you’re happy.”
“Rebecca…” He moved toward me, trying to embrace me, but I folded my arms and backed away, shaking my head. How could he even think that he’d be able to talk me around? Some wounds cut too deep to heal.
“No, Rick. This was a mistake. I should have known better. You had your chance with me and you blew it. Twice. This time, there’s no going back. We’re done. Get out.”
Rick looked at me for a moment, a calculating look in his eyes.
“Fine. Of course, if I leave, then you won’t be able to find out what Charles’ new conditions are. You’ll be completely unprepared for tomorrow’s meeting and I’ll do an exceptionally good job of making you look like an idiot. You might want to think twice before chucking me out.”
“You know, Rick, I really don’t care anymore. Just go. Take your things, head back to your room, and stay away from me unless we’re at Andrew Clifton’s offices. Whatever it is you and Charles have concocted together, I’m just going to have to roll with it. I’m sure I’ll pick it up quickly enough with your expert help.” The glare I gave him made it perfectly clear that I wasn’t in the mood to be played any longer.
“We’ll see.” For a moment,
Rick looked as though he was going to say something else, but the tiny bit of common sense he had won out, so instead, he gathered up his things and walked to the door.
Just as he was about to leave, he turned to me, acting nonchalant, as if we were speaking about how pleasant the weather had been today. “Of course, you do know that now I’m going to have to be completely honest with Devon about your past, don’t you? You haven’t left me with any choice, not if we’re not together so I can shield you from the worst. After all, it would be highly unprofessional of me not to let him know everything about you, not with the concern over Caesar and Krause’s reputation. I mean, do you think he would be happy knowing that his star lawyer used to be a stripper? What do you think the tabloids would do with that juicy little bit of information? It’s only fair that I tell him… before the press gets hold of it, and you know it’s only a matter of time before they do.”
I could feel the blood rushing from my face. I swayed on my feet, feeling as though I was going to faint. “You wouldn’t,” I whispered.
“Oh, trust me, Rebecca, even if you’ve never trusted me before.” A wicked grin spread across Rick’s face. “You know that I would.”
He blew me a kiss and wiggled his fingers at me to wave goodbye before he left, closing the door behind him. My legs felt as though they’d turned to jelly, and I sank into the nearest chair, too numb to feel anything. The one thing I dreaded happening ever since Rick had walked into my office was finally coming to pass, and if I was honest with myself, one of the reasons why I’d agreed to give us another try was in a desperate attempt to prevent this very thing from happening.
But now the time had come and there was nothing I could do. Very soon, not just my relationship but my career was likely to be over.
Fifteen
The next day I picked out my fiercest outfit for my meeting with Charles. If I was going to go down, I was going to go down fighting. Rick wouldn’t know what had hit him by the time I was through.
For the first time, I was in reception before him. “Glad to see you could finally make it.” I raised an eyebrow sardonically as Rick sauntered toward me, a couple of minutes after we’d agreed to meet. “I don’t appreciate tardiness, as I’m sure you know.”
“Calm down, Becky. It’s only a couple of minutes. It’s no big deal.”
“If you’re going to play that game, it’ll be Ms. Bevan to you.”
Rick was wise enough to recognize when not to push it, so he meekly followed me out to the cab.
I snapped my fingers at him. “I want to see the finalized contract.”
Rick pulled it out of his folder. “There’s nothing in there you need to worry about. It’s all pretty airtight.”
“I’ll be the judge of that.”
I started reading through his notes, my eyes narrowing as I took in his amendments. Rick’s work was sound, but there were a couple of clauses that had me twitchy.
“What’s this bit here?” I pointed to one of the sections.
Rick craned his neck over my shoulder to have a look. “Oh, that. It’s nothing. It just gives Joe the right of veto over his work.”
“Nothing?” I couldn’t believe what he was saying. “I thought better of you than that. You of all people should know that we can’t concede that. It gives Joe the power to completely sabotage any project he works on. All he has to do is decide at the last minute that he doesn’t like his work and that’s it. It’s shelved. There’s no way we can let this pass.”
“Well, Joe said he wouldn’t sign without it.” Rick shrugged. “I don’t see the big deal. We’ve got the gagging orders in there, so he’ll never be able to badmouth Andrew Clifton, and he also signs away his right to sue if he changes his mind a few months down the road. We still come out ahead.”
“Only an idiot would see this as any kind of victory.” Slowly, deliberately, I tore up the contract right in front of Rick’s eyes.
“Hey! I was up half the night working on that!”
“Then that explains why you look so awful this morning. You wasted your time and reminded me why it is I should never have let you go into those meetings without me. Well, I’m back now and things are going to be different.”
“I think you’ll find Charles Daily sees things my way,” countered Rick.
“And I think you’ll find that by the time I’m finished, he’ll realize that my way is the only way forward.”
Rick sank back into his seat, folding his arms and staring mutinously out of the window. Inwardly, I was cheering my victory. It might have been petty, but I didn’t care. I was back on the case and I was going to win it.
#
When I walked into Charles Daily’s office, he swiveled in his chair, clearly looking me up and down. “Rebecca. How good to see you after all this time. I was beginning to think you’d skipped out on me.”
“I’m terribly sorry, Charles. As I’m sure Rick explained, I’ve been a little under the weather, so I’ve had to leave you in his capable hands.” The look Rick and Charles exchanged told me that Rick had been rather more honest with our client than was really professional. Still, I wasn’t going to let that deter me. “However, I’m fully recovered now and I need to go over our plan of attack before our final meeting with Joe.”
“Rick already sorted it out.” Charles waved a hand dismissively. “He rewrote the contract in accordance with our discussions and I’m happy to trust him with it.”
“Much as I’d love to have the same level of faith in my subordinate”—I put a slight emphasis on the word, just to remind Charles who had seniority—“Rick has made a fundamental mistake in judgment.”
“I don’t believe you.”
“I’m sorry, but it’s true. I am of the understanding that you were willing to allow Joe Clark the right to veto any project he works on. Is that correct?”
“It is, but he’d never have the guts to see it through. We’re just throwing him a bone to keep him sweet. If he actually tried to pull any of that bullshit on me, I’ll be down on him like a ton of bricks.”
“The problem is, Charles, is that you cannot put a clause in a contract and then disregard it. If you do that, then Mr. Clark would be well within his rights to do exactly the same—which would include spilling all those little secrets you want hidden, as well as dragging you through the courts. And make no mistake—he’d have you for breach of contract as well as everything else, so we’d be right back where we started, only deeper in the hole.”
Charles’ face paled. “So what can we do? He said he wouldn’t sign a contract unless it contained that clause.”
“We go back to my original advice—we call his bluff. Tell him he can either sign a very generous contract with you, offer him a hefty pay rise to sweeten the deal, or we’ll sue him for dragging Andrew Clifton’s name through the mud.”
“That’s all very well and good, but what about the plagiarism charge? The whole point of you being here was to get us out of that, and I don’t see how what you’re suggesting is going to solve it.”
I shrugged. “I’ve looked into the claimants. They haven’t got a leg to stand on. A single guy working out of his home with legal representation from his brother-in-law? Any similarity between your work and his is purely coincidental. There’s no way Andrew Clifton pays any attention to what he does. I think you’ll find he was trying to sue in a bid to get free advertising for his services. We call his bluff too. He’ll back down.”
“What if he doesn’t?” Charles looked belligerent. “You’re relying on your having bigger balls than they do.”
“Oh, Mr. Daily,” I purred. “You have no idea.”
#
Although he confidently strutted into the room with his chest out and a smug smile on his lips in a display of bravado, Joe Clark was no match for me. The minute he entered the boardroom, I smelled the uncertainty rolling off him like a heavy smell of cologne and knew that he was mine.
“Mr. Clark.” My smile was deliberately cold, the way t
hat a shark smiles at its prey before lunging. “How good to meet you at last. My name’s Rebecca Bevan and I’ll be speaking on behalf of Mr. Daily today.”
“Ms. Bevan.” He nodded curtly and shook my hand. His grip felt limp and clammy, with no real power behind it, and I could tell that he wasn’t anywhere near as confident as he was trying to pretend. “All I want to do is sign the new contract and then we can all be on our way. I’m sure you’ve got much better things to do than hang around with me all day.”
“Oh, Mr. Clark.” I leaned forward subtly, knowing that it gave him a good view of my cleavage, just enough to make him wonder what I might look like without my clothes on. “I’m happy to spend as long as it takes to make sure we all leave this room happy.”
“Yeah, well, give me my contract and I’ll be happy.” He made for a pathetic-looking figure, with his fuzz of mousy brown hair and sagging skin. I’d be willing to bet that he wasn’t anywhere near as old as he looked and that he still lived with his mother. He might be all bluff and bluster in front of schoolyard bullies like Rick and Charles, but against me, he was defenseless.
“Ah, well, you see, there’s a slight problem with that. I’m afraid we cannot agree to your request for veto. The contract we propose contains everything else you asked for, but that clause will not be included.”
“In that case, I’m not signing.” Joe shrugged and leaned back in his chair, folding his arms defiantly.
“You might want to reconsider that stance.”
“I don’t care. I’ll sue.”
“Be my guest.” It was my turn to lean back, but I was relaxed, where I could see beads of sweat breaking out on his brow. “However, I’m curious as to what you think taking us to court will achieve.”
“Well, my bank balance will be a lot healthier, for a start.”
I laughed. “Ah, yes. Let me guess. You consulted your good friend Mr. Google, and he swore, hand on heart, that you’d get millions.”
Joe said nothing, but he didn’t have to, his flushed complexion giving him away.
The Red Eye (The Red Eye Erotic Romance Series Book 2) Page 8
