Love Proof (Laws of Attraction) (37 page)

She had negotiated a good salary with Calvin.  And had been frugal with
it, not spending wildly just because she had money again, but instead dutifully
paying down her debts.

But now she would be back to the bare bones again.  Trying to budget
for her rent, car expenses, groceries, utilities.  Forget any of the
Flourish
like workouts with Angie or sending money to her parents.  Sarah would have to
draw in tightly now, defend her borders, and not let a single cent out of her
fortress unless it was absolutely necessary and she could justify it.

She mentally reviewed her bank accounts.  How much did she still have
in savings?  She had depleted the fund substantially over the six months she
was out of work, and had only put back a little in these past two months.  How
much longer would it last?  And if the money ran out before she found another
job—then what?

If
she could
find another job.  What were the chances now?  It wasn’t as if Calvin would
send her off with a glowing letter of recommendation . . .

“Ms. Henley?”

Sarah didn’t realize how far she’d drifted away until she heard Joe say
her name.  “Do you have any questions?” he asked.

She startled back into action.  Smiled at Joe’s client, went through
the motions of asking her a few handfuls of questions.

Once again, they were finished much earlier than if Chapman had been
running the deposition.  Sarah had at least three hours before she had to
return for the one in the afternoon.

She repacked her laptop, then left the room without saying anything to
anyone.  She needed to make lists.  Plan.  Think through how she was going to
live now, from the moment her plane touched down at LAX tonight.

Change her flight, too—she needed to do that.  She wouldn’t be going on
to Spokane tonight.  A whole list of actions she could tick off one by one.

She unlocked the door to her room and stood just inside for a few
moments, wondering which task she should tackle first.  But a lethargy had
already begun seeping into her bones, and the tiredness overwhelmed her.

Sarah pulled back the covers on the bed, pried off her shoes, then
slipped between the sheets still wearing her expensive wool suit.  It had been
easy to be brave and principled last night when she explained all her motives
to Joe.  But now that she was alone again, she had to wonder whether she had
done the right thing—for her.

“I’m not going to be one of those people who pretends
the law doesn’t apply to me,”
she’d
told Joe
.  “Look what happened to the partners in our firm—is that the kind
of lawyers we want to be?”

She knew what kind of lawyer she wanted to be—what she’d wanted from
the moment she ever decided to become a lawyer in the first place.  Back then she
had an image of her future self wearing fancy clothes just like these, feeling
strong and smart and capable, feeling confident and in charge of her life, unafraid
and in total control.

And she had experienced moments just like that, Sarah thought—enough
that the young dreamer inside her felt proud of all she had been able to
accomplish.

But that young woman hadn’t factored in Joe Burke.  Hadn’t factored in
love.  Hadn’t realized that at some point Sarah might have to make a choice
between her personal life and her professional one.

Well, now she’d made the choice.  And her dream of being a happy,
successful lawyer might have disappeared in the bargain.

Sarah indulged in that melodramatic, self-pitying thought for one
whole, luxurious minute before groaning and making herself sit up.  She got out
of the bed and went to her laptop case to retrieve a legal pad from the side. 
Then she sat back against the pillows, pulled the sheets over her cold legs,
and began to make her list.

Change plane reservation.

Schedule meeting with Calvin.

Prepare final report and case analysis.

Sarah heard the dings of two text messages in quick succession.

The first was from Mickey:

I assume you warned him?

The second from Joe:

It’s happened.

Thirty-nine

Sarah quickly checked one of the law blogs she always read.  There it
was, the featured story:

AL MILTON, KENNETH FEINBERG, OTHERS INDICTED

The United States Attorney’s Office for the Central
District of California announced this morning the indictments of Albert Milton,
Kenneth Feinberg, and other lawyers within the Milton Feinberg law firm for
charges including racketeering, mail fraud, and bribery, stemming from alleged illegal
payoffs to clients.  Attorneys for Mr. Milton and Mr. Feinberg deny the
charges, but indicate their clients will cooperate with authorities by
surrendering to law enforcement within the next 24 hours.

The indictments follow several months of investigation
. . .

Sarah quickly texted Joe her room number.  Within minutes there was a
knock on her door.

He strode into the room, a curse on his lips.

“How bad is it?” Sarah asked.

“Bad.  A buddy of mine from the firm called, said it’s World War III
over there, everybody pointing fingers, people cleaning out their desks,
calling clients, trying to take as much business with them as they can before
the whole place folds.”

“What are they saying about you?” Sarah asked.

“As far as anyone knows, I’m off here in the wild blue yonder and don’t
know anything.  Luke—that’s who called—asked me if I wanted him to box up my
desk, too, and send me a list of all my clients’ phone numbers so I can start
siphoning off the business.”

“Joe . . . maybe that isn’t so stupid.  Have you thought about it?”

“Taking clients with me?”  Joe sat down hard in the upholstered chair
in her room and ran a hand over his short hair.  “I told you, I already
transferred my cases over to other lawyers.  This is the only one I’ve kept.”

“Well?” Sarah pressed.  “I’ve seen you with your plaintiffs.  I’m sure
a lot of them would rather go with you than have to find someone else and start
all over.”

“Maybe,” Joe said.  “But do you know how much it costs to run a class
action suit?”

Sarah shook her head.

“It’s expensive as hell, and the firm has to front all the costs—expert
witnesses, travel expense, all of it.  I have money, but not like that.  And it
takes more than one lawyer to work it.  Maybe if I joined another firm I could
convince some of the plaintiffs to come with me there—”

“Well, wouldn’t that make you more attractive as a hire?” Sarah asked. 
“Tell some other firm you can bring, I don’t know, thirty or forty plaintiffs
with you?  How many could you get?”

“I don’t know, Sarah.”  He gave her a tense, tired look.  “I thought I
was prepared for this, but from what Luke was saying, the firm is going to
split apart much faster than I guessed.”

“Well, maybe that’s good,” Sarah said.  “If everyone is scrambling to
get out of there, you’ll look like you’re just one more of them.  The other
firms in town are going to be watching for people like you they can snatch up,
don’t you think?”

“Is that how it worked with your firm?” Joe asked with just a hint of
sarcasm.

“Not exactly,” Sarah admitted.  She wasn’t the only attorney from her
firm who had to wait several months before finding a job.  “So what are you
going to do?”

“Go back tonight,” Joe said, “get into the office if no one has changed
the locks yet—”

“I hadn’t thought of that.”  Once she left her office on April 6, she
never tried to return.

“Yeah, well somebody probably will,” Joe said.  “But assuming I can get
in, I’ll clear out all my stuff, then hole up for a while and figure out the
next step.”

“I’m going home tonight, too,” Sarah said.  “They found my replacement.”

“You might want to tell whoever it is to hold off,” Joe said.  “I
talked to Felix, and I doubt he’s coming up here—he doesn’t even know if he has
a job anymore.”

“But
you’re
not—”

“No, I’m not staying on the case,” Joe said, reading her mind.  “No
matter what.  I can’t—not after yesterday.  But I think I should ask Sollers to
postpone any more depos until we sort out who the lawyers on this case are
anymore.”

“My guy’s going to be getting on a plane soon,” Sarah told him.

“I think you’d better call him.”

***

Sarah dialed the law firm and asked for Bingham.

But someone else picked up his line.

“Sarah?  What the hell are you doing up there?”

Mickey
,
Sarah mouthed to Joe.

“I need to get a message to Bingham,” she said.  “Tell him we’re going
to postpone any more depositions—”

“No one’s taking orders from you anymore,” Mickey interrupted.  “Do you
not get that you’re fired?  Calvin tore my head off this morning—wanted to know
how much I knew about you before I recommended you, what I thought was going on. 
I stuck my neck out for you, Sarah.  And this is how you repay me?”

“I’m sorry,” Sarah said, and she meant it.

“Tell your boyfriend he’s finished, too,” Mickey said.  “His law firm
is officially in the toilet.  That place looks like it’s been hit by looters. 
Couldn’t happen to a nicer guy, as far as I’m concerned.”

She didn’t know if he meant Al Milton, or Joe.  Probably Joe, she
guessed.

“Mickey, I have to go.  We still have one more deposition.”

“For who, Sarah?”  He laughed grimly.  “Do you not get it?  You’re
gone.
 
Finished.  You don’t represent Mason anymore.  Stop playing lawyer and go ball
your boyfriend.  The two of you will never work in this town again.”

Mickey hung up the phone.

Sarah stood where she was for a moment, trying to steady her nerves. 
She could deal with confrontation, but fury like Mickey’s required an advanced
level of self-control.

Joe was still studying her face.  “What did he say?”

Sarah attempted a smile.  “They love us in L.A.”

***

“You’re not having a very good week, are you, Joe?” Sollers said.

Sarah would have gladly paid for the privilege of ripping the grin
right off his perfect beach-boy face.

But Joe was calm, as usual.  “On the record,” he told the court
reporter.  “Due to circumstances involving my law firm, there is currently a
question about who will be working on this case in the future.  I ask counsel
for both defendants to stipulate to a postponement of any further discovery.”

“Not all discovery,” Sarah said.  Mickey might be right about her not
representing Mason anymore, but she still had to protect the company as well as
she could.  “Mason Manufacturing reserves the right to continue any discovery as
it sees fit.  We’re only agreeing to postpone depositions of the plaintiffs.”

Ryan raised his eyebrows as he looked from Sarah to Joe, as if he were
watching some sort of lovers’ spat.  But Sarah wasn’t angry, just firm.  She wanted
to make sure Calvin and the rest of the team could still request whatever
documents they needed to prove her theory about the counterfeit parts.

“Ryan?” Joe asked, waiting for Sollers to agree to the postponement on
the record.

“What about this afternoon’s depo?” Sollers asked.

“I’d like to postpone that, too,” Sarah said before Joe could answer. 
She knew his client was already waiting outside, but she also knew she shouldn’t
be the one taking the deposition anymore.

Sollers shrugged.  “So stipulated.  All the currently-scheduled
depositions are hereby postponed.  Guess we can all pack up and go home.  Off
the record.”  He waited for Wendy to stop typing before adding, “Actually, this
might be a lucky break for you after all, huh, Joe?  You get to leave tonight
and no one knows why.  No one except a few of us, of course.”

Sarah glanced at the court reporter.  Wendy was clearly curious about
Ryan’s comment.  Which was just what Sollers wanted, Sarah thought:  to remind
both Sarah and Joe that he held all the power and could expose them at any
minute.

Further proof that she’d made the right decision.

“Sarah, I’m sorry I won’t see you for a while,” Sollers said.  “I was
looking forward to working with you.”

“Oh, me, too, Ryan.  It’s a shame.”  She knew he would find out soon
enough that she had been fired, but she felt no need to fill him in.

Besides, Sarah thought as she left the conference room, if the work she
had already done in the case resulted in Mason Manufacturing being dismissed
some time in the future, she would at least have the private satisfaction of
knowing her fingerprints were all over that weapon.  She would have beaten both
Paul Chapman and Ryan Sollers in the most honorable way:  by working harder and
ultimately outsmarting them.

Now if only she could translate that private victory into some sort of
career for herself in the future, Sarah thought.  From what Mickey had said, it
wasn’t looking good.