Legal Ease (Sutton Capital Series) (4 page)

“
I need it for law school. I got into Yale but I can’t pay for tuition. I need that amount to cover three years so I can get my J.D.” Kelly said. Jack noticed that she raised her chin just a hair as she told him that she had gotten into Yale. As she talked, she began to look more like the confident woman who had claimed his office as her own an hour earlier.

Hmm
m
. If what she said were true, then she wasn’t an idiot and – all evidence of mood swings aside – she probably was a fairly bright, normal person to have made it into law school, much less Yale Law School. Well, that showed she wasn’t completely psychotic, anyway. And she wasn’t looking to take him for millions. His rough net worth was a matter of public knowledge so she had to know that the amount she was asking for was chump change to him. She could have demanded millions and it wouldn’t have put a dent in his bank account. He wondered why she hadn’t asked for more.

Watching her now, he began to think that they just might be able to pull it off. He’d have to teach her about negotiating, though. I mean, really, what was she thinking only asking him for tuition? She
’d had him over a barrel when she walked in this room. She should have held out for more.

Jack made a mental note to have a full background check done on Kelly. He’d have the results back tomorrow and if that panned out, he would go through with the marriage certificate thing the next day, as she suggested. If not, he’d just send her packing.

While Jack was busy thinking, Jennie came into the room. She looked appropriately embarrassed, trying not to make eye contact with her boss and Jack figured she was probably wondering if she would get fired from the temp agency or just from this particular assignment.

Jack glanced up at Jennie. “Call the temp agency and tell them you quit. You work for me no
w. Go down to Human Resources and tell them you’re joining Chad’s team. Chad runs our security and investigations department. I think that’s a good fit for your…
skills
. HR will get you set up.”

Jennie just stood there
with a stunned look on her face and Jack wondered if she’d ever been caught at any of her little games before.

“Oh, and Jennie,” Jack said.

“Yes, sir?”

“Keep the deal between Kelly and me quiet. Don’t mention it to anyone, including Chad or you’re fired and Kelly won’t get a penny.
That goes for anything else you’ve overheard. And tell maintenance to get that damned intercom fixed.” He had known the light didn’t work right on the phone but hadn’t thought it would be an issue. Hell, usually his company was the one investigating other people. But Jennie had been eavesdropping on him, in his own office. He should have been more careful to protect himself. But at least he could put her to work for him from now on. Jennie had managed to fool him and look so damned innocent this whole time, he was sure she’d be an asset on Chad’s team.

As Jennie
skittered out of the room, Andrew walked in and looked at Jack and Kelly. “Hey, Jack,” he said slowly, “what’s going on?” His head whipped back and forth from Jack to Kelly as if he were watching a tennis match.

“Did you find anything?” Jack ignored Andrew’s question, asking one of his own.

“I found a friend of Chad’s from prep school that owed me a favor. Says Bryan and Chad knew each other. They weren’t close but they also didn’t hate each other. Hung out with some of the same people so it might be a gamble hoping that he wouldn’t back Chad for CEO.”

Jack shook his head as Andrew finished his explanation. Andrew probably knew Jack didn’t have it in his heart to ask Chad to do that to his mom. To Jack, family was family and he would lose
everything he had, for his family. The irony was, in this case, it was his own family that was attacking him so he was in a catch twenty two.  Still, he wanted to do all he could not to hurt her as he defended himself.

Jack faced Kelly again. He was now fully back in his element and he took control of the negotiations now that he had made the decision to run with this. He didn’t really have any other option and she didn’t appear to be a lunatic. In fact, as he watched her quietly come to grips with what she had done and get her confidence back, he marveled at her. It had really taken guts to walk into the room and pull off what she had. And she’d done it with such grace and confidence. She had owned his office as if it were hers and there weren’t many people who could pull that off. He found himself a little in awe of the gorgeous creature who now sat quietly on his couch.

“Okay. One year of marriage. You’ll sign a prenuptial agreement. You get your law school tuition and you’ll have a credit card for expenses while we’re married. You’ll ha
ve to attend occasional dinner parties and fundraising events, that sort of thing, so you’ll need appropriate clothes. Some of them will be black tie. Put anything you need on my card. After the divorce, I’ll get you a condo in New Haven and some spending money for the three years you’ll be at law school and after graduation you’ll be on your own. You’ll move into my house in Fairfield while we’re married. At the end of the year, we cite irreconcilable differences and end the marriage.”

“I hadn’t really thought that I’d need to move in with you. I-I thought this would just be on paper,”
Kelly stammered while Andrew watched the scene play out, with a look of shocked amusement on his face. It was more than obvious that Andrew didn’t know who this woman was or how Jack had found her – and that he couldn’t wait to hear the details.

Jack shook his head. “
Uh uh. My Aunt Mabry and my board of directors will need to be utterly convinced that this is a real marriage. We need to live together. Don’t worry, there are nine bedrooms so we won’t need to sleep together. I have a housekeeper who lives in an apartment over the garage but she’s very loyal and discreet. She won’t say a word if we aren’t sharing a bed. The house is on the water so you can spend the summer relaxing and hanging out before school.”

Kelly blushed at his mention of
shared bedrooms. Jack found himself intrigued as he watched Kelly’s cheeks flame red. She was gutsy and courageous one minute and then sweet and innocent the next. It was a captivating combination.
Wait
. Jack shook his head to clear his thoughts
. What am I thinking? Focus on the big picture, Jack. She’s a means to an end. Nothing more.

Andrew piped back in. “I left you alone for three hours and you found a wife?”

“She found me,” Jack answered in a distracted manner, not bothering to elaborate.

Andrew raised his eyes to the ceiling and muttered to no one in particular. “Whole industries are built on helping men and women try to find someone and Jack has women walking in off the street to marry him. Wait, why did she walk in off the street?” Andrew asked as he directed his eyes back to Jack. “She just happened to know you were in the market for a wife? This is like an episode of
I Dream of Jeannie
.”

Jack ignored Andrew’s questions and kept his focus on hammering out the details with Kelly.
“We’ll have to spend some time getting to know each other, go out to dinner and things occasionally, maybe kiss once or twice in front of the right people,” Jack continued.

Now
Jack could really see the heat climbing its way up Kelly’s cheeks. Jack was almost enjoying this and wanted to see how red he could make those cheeks burn. Her eyes had gone big and round at the mention of a kiss. What would those doe eyes do if he told her what else he was thinking of doing as he watched her now?

Jack glanced over at Andrew and saw that Andrew had one eyebrow raised as he regarded Jack and Kel
ly. He leaned a shoulder on the wall, crossed his arms, and watched the scene unfolding before him. Jack knew he was going to catch a lot of shit about this from Andrew but he needed to focus on Kelly for now. Andrew shook his head and muttered something about a bottle and Jeannie and Captain Nelson. Andrew looked amused now, but Jack knew once he heard the full story, Jack was going to catch hell for what he was planning to do.

***

Kelly watched Jack as he detailed the terms of their deal. She hadn’t really thought through a lot of the actual implementation of her plan and her palms were sweating and her cheeks flaming as she listened and considered the implications. She wasn’t a virgin but she certainly hadn’t thought through the possibility that they would need to share a bed, so she was relieved to hear that she would have a separate room.

She could handle being housemates if that was necessary, but t
he thought of kissing Jack made Kelly feel like an inexperienced 15-year-old. In a normal world, she wouldn’t dream of kissing a man like him. He was powerful and striking, with a chiseled body and eyes that felt like they could melt her with a glance. When she was with Jack, she felt like a whole swarm of butterflies had been let lose in her stomach. Her breath came faster and shorter and she felt like she might pass out when he looked at her with that steady, sensual gaze as if he could look right into her and read her thoughts.

Kelly felt a tightening in her stomach and wondered for the fiftieth time that hour just what she had gotten herself into.

When Mabry Thompson
left Jack and Kelly she walked down the hall to her son’s office. She entered without knocking and immediately dove into a tirade.

“Married, my ass. That engagement is as fake as my highlights. I don’t know how he did it or who she is, but we need to expose this marriage as a fraud
.” Mabry tossed her purse down on one of the two chairs in front of Chad’s desk and lowered herself into the other.

“Hello again, Mom. Long time no see,” Chad deadpanned as he turned away from his computer to face his mother.
Chad didn’t know quite what was going on with Jack’s sudden marriage announcement and he agreed something didn’t smell right but Chad couldn’t care less if Jack had cooked up this wedding to save his position as CEO. If it meant keeping his mother out of his hair about taking over control of Sutton Capital, he was fine with whatever arrangement Jack made.

His mother ignored his reply and continued her tirade. “They’re apparently going to be married by the end of the week, just in time to meet the terms of his mother’s will. There’s no way this is a real marriage. I’ve never even heard him talk about this girl and all of a sudden they’re getting married?”

Chad sighed. He hadn’t heard of Kelly or even that Jack was dating anyone seriously, but for him this marriage was a godsend. He had no interest in taking over as CEO and he’d told his mother as much, but she wouldn’t listen. This marriage would be just the thing to stop her plan and get her off of his back.

“It won’t matter if they aren’t in love, Mom. As long as they go through with the wedding, the terms of the trust will be met and the shares become Jack’s. Just let it go, Mom. I don’t w
ant to lead the company anyway.” He knew she wouldn’t even pretend to listen to him. No matter how many times he told her, she was determined to hurt Jack and that meant she wanted to see her son take over Jack’s position.

“Nonsense,” Mabry said harshly, once again completely ignorin
g her son’s wishes. Chad gritted his teeth and waited his mother out. She was good at ignoring what Chad wanted. She had practically ignored the fact that he joined the Marine Corps after college and she ignored him again when he came home from the military and started to run the security division of Sutton Capital. Together, he and Jack had made the security division into what it was today; a crucial part of the business rather than just a small cog in the wheel.

He knew he could press her and make her stop but he had trouble putting his foot down with her since his dad walked out on her ten years ago. That abandonment had changed her. It was like she was a different person. She was hard and unreachable sometimes and other times she was fragile and would have a meltdown at the drop of a hat. She seemed filled with anger and although she said she wanted what was best for him that certainly didn’t include listening to him. But, like Jack, Chad was afraid if he pushed too hard, and said just plain ‘no,’ she’d feel like he was leaving her too.

Mabry ignored the look of exasperation on her son’s face as he pretended to sort papers on his desk and continued to detail her plans. “If we can show the board that the marriage is a farce, we can convince them that Jack isn’t fit to run the company and outvote him. We just need to figure out how to show that those two aren’t really in love. We need to figure out who she is and what she’s getting out of this.”

Chad
began to shuffle papers. He’d learned a long time ago to ignore what his mother was doing and try to live his life, but now he began to worry that she might go too far and hurt Jack.

Two days later,
Kelly stood outside the New Haven County Courthouse on Church Street and waited for Jack. She thought about how she would break the news to her mother that she had married someone without telling her family. Without even introducing them to Jack first. She knew it would break her mother’s heart and her sister wouldn’t easily forget the fact that she missed out on being Kelly’s maid of honor, but she also knew it was wrong to have her family witness a fake marriage. She decided to ask for forgiveness after the fact instead of inviting them to the ceremony.