Legal Ease (Sutton Capital Series) (2 page)

“If Chad stands up to her and sides with me, she may think he’s abandoning her too and I can’t do that to her. I know it’s crazy but I just can’t.” Jack crossed to the window on the other side of his office and stared at the view of the Yale campus while his commitment to what was left of his family warred with his drive to protect his position as CEO.

“I don’t understand why she’s focused on hurting you,” Andrew said as he shook his head.

Jack sighed. “She went after my dad, before me. When my uncle left her, she wasn’t able to lash out at him because he just took off. He left her almost all of their money so there was no fight that she could throw her anger into. I think she needed to lash out at someone and my parents were happily married. That seemed to make her angry so she began to attack them. Now that they’re gone, she’s moved on to me.” Jack shrugged, knowing his aunt’s anger made no more sense than his need to protect her in the face of it.

“All right, but let’s walk through this. Even if she gets the board to vote you out, Chad will say no to being CEO, won’t he? He doesn’t want the job, right?” Andrew reasoned.

“You’re probably right, but at that point the board’s confidence in me may be
wavering. If my own aunt takes me out, they’ll likely lose confidence in me, so even if Chad refuses the position, they could go outside of the company for a new CEO instead of coming back to me. If that happens, the business my father built will be lost.” Jack couldn’t see any way around the mess he was in. And he knew he didn’t want to ask Chad to confront his mother.

“
I told Aunt Mabry I was getting married, for God’s sake. She’ll be here at three o’clock to meet my fiancé. I planned to tell her that there was no fiancé but that she would be powerless to oust me as CEO with the votes we had behind us. Now it doesn’t look like I have those votes. There’s got to be a way for us to fix this,” Jack fumed.

“Well, that’s three hours from now. Let me see if I can find out more about Bryan Barton or pull so
me other solution out of my hat. I tried tracking down Chad earlier so I could casually mention Bryan and see if they were friends, but he hasn’t been in his office yet today.” Andrew said.

“
Okay. Let’s just work the problem. We can’t exactly call Bryan Barton and ask what his vote would be since he’s burying his father tomorrow, but let’s try to talk to other alumni we know to see if Barton and Chad were tight in school. And, keep looking for Chad to see what you can get out of him, without letting him know what’s going on.”

“Why not just tell him what’s going on?”

Jack shrugged. “Why tell him if I don’t want him to solve the problem.”

Maybe he’ll have an idea. Another way out?”

“Can’t chance that.” Jack turned back to his desk.

“I’ll let you know what I come up with. In the meantime, start running through your little black book and figure out which of your booty calls may be looking for something more permanent,” Andrew said as he strode out of the office.

“Oh God, that isn’t funny,” Jack groaned.

***

Jennie quickly hit the intercom button as Andrew came walking down the hallway. She ducked down and pretended to rummage for something in a drawer as he walked by. Stunned, she grabbed her purse to head out for lunch. Boy did she have a juicy story for Kelly!  

Kelly sat at the café table waiting for her friend Jennie to arrive. She usually loved lunches with Jennie –
Jennie always had great gossip and funny stories. Kelly could never get over how gutsy and, well frankly, ballsy, Jennie was. She was the queen of espionage when it came to getting the scoop on things and Kelly was never sure why her friend wasn’t in journalism or something like that. But Kelly couldn’t get in the mood for lunch and gossip today. With no real job prospects in sight, it was beginning to look as if her bachelor’s degree in political science was every bit as useless as people said bachelor’s degrees were nowadays and she had just received the last of the results of her scholarship applications for law school.

It was hard to believe that though she had finally fulfilled her dream of getting accepted into Yale Law School it didn’t matter in the end because she didn’t have the money.

Kelly looked up to see Jennie coming toward the table and pasted a smile on her face for her friend. She didn’t want her bad mood to ruin their lunch and she didn’t want Jennie to feel sorry for her.

“I have juicy gossip today! You won’t believe what I just overheard,” Jennie started off but then slowed down when she saw the look on Kelly’s face. “What’s wrong? You don’t look like…well, like you.” Jennie frowned at her friend.

“I got my acceptance letter to Yale. I got in,” Kelly said, quietly.

“What? That’s fantastic! Oh my God, Kelly, that’s great. Wait, I don’t get it. Why aren’t you happy about this?” Jennie asked.

“I didn’t get enough scholarship money to cover half of the tuition there. I thought I had a shot at more grants but they’re getting really tight nowadays. And if I take out that much money in loans, I’ll be paying for the rest of my life.”

“Oh, Kelly, I’m so sorry. It must feel good to know you got in, though, huh?
Uggh
. That’s sounds so ‘hey it’s an honor just to be nominated,’ doesn’t it? I’m sorry, Kel.”

“I know,” Kelly
shrugged and tried to smile but she knew it probably came off somewhat sad.

“How much more money do you need?” Jennie asked hesitantly.

“Well, it costs $52,000 per year for three years. I managed to get about $22,000 per year in grants and scholarship so when I say I’m short, I mean I’m really short. Even if I defer for a year and work the whole time I’m in school, there’s no way I’ll have enough,” Kelly explained.

“Wow!” Jennie frowned at her friend. “I’m so sorry. I know you had your heart set on Yale, but maybe you can apply to other places? Maybe the state law school?”

Kelly raised her chin. “You’re right. I’ll apply at University of Connecticut next year and just save my money until then. UConn is a really good law school, too. Top fifty. It was really stupid of me not to apply there as a backup school this year, but I’ll apply next year. It’ll be fine…. So now, distract me.” Kelly pasted another bright smile on her face for Jennie. “Tell me your latest tidbit. What have your secret spy skills found today?”

In hushed tones,
so no one around could hear, Jennie launched into the story of the infamous Jack Sutton’s desperate need for a wife. As Kelly listened to Jennie talk she wished she could sometimes be as brash and brave as Jennie. I mean, really, who had the guts to listen in on their boss’s conversations like that? Sounded like her boss would have to find someone. Fast. In fact, she was surprised Jennie hadn’t just marched into the room and proposed to Jack right then and there – just for the fun of it.

Propose to Jennie’s boss
, Jack…? What if I proposed to Jack? What? Whoa! Where did that thought come from?

Sure it was a crazy idea, but why not? If she married Jack Sutton for one year, he’d get his shares, his job and his company would be secure. She’d get the money to go to Yale for the three years and then they
would go their separate ways at the end of the year. Voila!

Oh. My. God. I can’t believe I’m actually sitting here thinking about this
. Kelly shook herself and tried to get rid of that crazy idea. But the more she thought about it, the more it sounded like a good one. A reasonable idea. The kind of idea she could pull off if she just took a page out of Jennie’s playbook for once.

“Is Jack nice?” Kelly suddenly interrupted Jennie.

“What?” Jennie asked. “Oh, well, yeah, I guess he’s a nice boss. Scares the hell out of most of the people he does business with and God forbid you cross him or try to cheat him in a deal, but he’s actually really good to the people that work for him. It surprised me at first, actually. I always thought he would be a real ball breaker.” Jennie leaned forward in a conspiratorial whisper.

“He has a whole division that he calls his security division and they do some security but they’re really mostly there to investigate his competitors, any companies he’s going to invest in, or anyone he’s going to negotiate against. They say he never goes into a deal blind. If you enter a deal with Jack Sutton or walk up to the negotiating table against him, he’ll already know what color underwear you have on that day.”
Jennie prattled on, not understanding where Kelly was headed.

“Well…but I mean, is he a
nice
guy? Like, would you date him or would he be a total jerk?” Kelly clarified.

“Noooo, he’s not that bad,” Jennie said slowly,
looking at Kelly as if she were trying to figure out what Kelly was thinking. “I’d date him…. Oh my God! What are you thinking? Oh my God! Don’t answer that. I know what you’re thinking.” Jennie dropped her voice down to a stage whisper. “You’re thinking you’ll marry him!”

“It could work.” Kelly blushed. “I go in there and ask for my tuition in exchange for a year of marriage. We head to the courthouse, then a neat and easy divorce a year from now.” Kelly had always thought she would marry for love and that when it happened to her, it would be forever, but she supposed that a fake marriage would be okay as long as it had an expiration date. It wouldn’t stop her from finding the real thing someday and it meant that she’d be able to get her
law degree.

“Besides,” Kelly said, as she
continued to justify her plan, “I might as well. It’s not like I’m going to miss out on falling in love with someone else just because I tie myself up with Jack Sutton for a year.”

“Kelly, don’t be silly. Of course you’ll fall in love some day. You just haven’t met the right guy yet.”

“Maybe someday, but I’ve dated some really great guys. I mean really, really great. But I’ve never felt more than ‘like’ for any of them – even when they said they were in love with me. I really just don’t think love is in the cards for me and even if it is, what are the chances that during the year I take off from dating for a fake marriage, I’ll miss out on the
one
guy that I’m destined to fall in love? I think the chance of that is slim. And, if it’s true love that’s meant to be, wouldn’t it somehow work out after my fake marriage?” Kelly knew just how to push Jennie’s helplessly romantic buttons to win the argument.

Jennie just stared at Kelly, shaking her head
and Kelly could just imagine what her friend was thinking. Jennie was supposed to be the daredevil. Jennie was the one who took risks. She did stupid things. Kelly was the levelheaded, kind, sweet, calm, orderly one. The kind of person who most certainly would never do
this
.

Jennie
appeared to be speechless as she stared at her friend. And if Jennie were speechless, things could not be headed in a good direction.

Kelly arrived at Jack’s office as she and Jennie had planned, a few minutes before three o’clock. She had run home to print up the marriage license application from the New Haven Office of Vital Statistics website. Then she showered and dressed in black wool slacks and a fitted ivory cashmere sweater from T.J.Maxx.

When
Jennie saw Kelly step off the elevator her jaw dropped. “I can’t believe you’re going through with this. By the time I got back to the office, I was sure you’d chicken out.”

Kelly squared her shoulders and stood up to her full height. “I’ve decided I’m not going to second-guess myself on this. I want to go to Yale and I’m going to, damn it. I think if I keep moving without stopping too long to think about it, I can go through with it, so get me in there.”

Jennie raised an eyebrow and Kelly knew she’d owe her friend big time. And this scene about to play out would essentially put her job on the line. By getting Kelly in there she’d be revealing that she had spied on Jack. She had a week left in the placement but she would most likely lose not only the placement but any chance of getting a new placement through the temp agency as well.

“Well, you may be off your rocker, but at least you look good
. Jack’s Aunt Mabry and his cousin Chad are already in the office. Just by a minute, though,” said Jennie.

“Here goes nothing.
” Kelly took a deep breath and waited for Jennie to announce her.

With a huge grin on her face,
Jennie pushed the intercom button on her phone and calmly spoke into the speaker. “Sir, your fiancé has just arrived. Shall I show her in?”

***

Jack sat in his office with his aunt and cousin and wondered just how the hell to start to explain that there was no fiancé. Andrew had sent a text at two o’clock saying he hadn’t found out anything more and that Chad still wasn’t in the office. Andrew said he was working on something. He just didn’t say what he was working on so Jack had no idea if he should stall or what.

Jack
had actually been desperate enough by then that he started calling some of the women he’d dated in the last year or so. He wasn’t exactly a ruthless player, although the tabloids tried to make it look like he was. Sure, he got around, had a few dates a month and slept with some of them but those women all seemed shallow and fake to Jack.

Two of them didn’t answer the phone, one was gushing about her new husband and the third had moved to London when she was offered a modeling deal with a London
agency. That was as far as he got in his little black book before his aunt arrived – twenty minutes early. It seemed that Chad had been with Mabry this morning because they arrived together and now they both sat, mother and son, looking expectantly at him.