The Bad Judgment Series: The Complete Series (19 page)

W
e weren't
positive that someone followed us to Proctor & Buchanan, but we figured as much. We stayed quiet in the car. Walker brushed my knee with his hand twice while he shifted gears, and even though I didn't think it was an accident, he didn't acknowledge it. My blood raced through me hotly — at his proximity, and my memory of him brushing his lips against me — as I tried to organize my thoughts about Miami, what Lester Max was up to, and what David Proctor might think about all of this.

Walker was prudent enough to not hold my hand when we pulled up to my firm, except to help me out of the car.

“Hi, Mr. Walker," said Toby as we came into the lobby. Walker smiled warmly at him and threw him the keys.

“Just leave it on the curb with the hazards on. It might not be safe to drive. If someone comes to tow it, just give them this and tell them to wait five minutes,” he said, handing him a large amount of cash. “We won’t be that long.”

“Yes, sir,” Toby said and smiled.

We went up the elevator in silence. The firm, which had been my refuge from the world for so long, was no longer a sanctuary for me. The image of Norris jumping out in the bathroom flashed in front of me and I shivered. I could not wrap my brain around the full extent of the bad situation that I was in.

Maybe it was a blessing that Walker was so hot. I couldn't think straight because my hormones were so out of control, and therefore, I could not see how dangerous and desperate our situation actually was. It all sort of worked out great.

I looked over at him and found him studying my face. He smiled at me, just before the door opened, and reached over and squeezed my hand.

Of course other parts of me squeezed when he did that.

"Let's go to my office, first," I said, suddenly nervous, and from more than just Walker’s touch. When we went into the lobby at Proctor, everyone from the front desk receptionist to Stan, who ran the copy room, said hello, but they also stared at us. Like we were a rogue celebrity couple, which I suppose one-half of us sort of was.

“Hi!” I said, when I saw Tammy sitting at her desk. I reached down and hugged her; I hadn’t realized how much I missed seeing her every day.

“Hi, honey," she said, squeezing me to her tightly. She pulled back and I noticed that she looked pale underneath her tan. “I’m so glad to see you. I was starting to worry — it’s been a little while since we talked." She looked up at Walker and her face stayed tense. "Mr. Walker," she said, and they nodded at each other.

"There're a few notes on your desk," she said, motioning for us to follow her into the office. "You might want to take these old time sheets with you when you go. You're behind and I've been getting nasty emails from the Office Manager about updating your time."

"I'm sorry, Tammy!" I said. I was one of the few lawyers in the office who religiously turned in their time early. When associates failed to turn their time in, their assistants bore the brunt of nastiness from Emily, our Office Manager, who loved to issue threats. "I've been so wrapped up in this case, I totally forgot."

“It’s my fault, Tammy,” Walker said apologetically. Tammy looked over at him and he gave her a sheepish smile. "I'll stay on top of her from now on," he said, and even though she looked pale and a little tense, Tammy burst out laughing.

I blushed furiously and looked at her, horrified.

"Oh, honey, I’m sorry," she said, looking at me and clucking her tongue. "We all know what a good girl you are. It's just hard to not get a visual, with him so good-looking and all," she said, motioning at Walker.

She looked at me and sighed again. Not only did she look pale, but her face looked drawn, like she’d been binging on caffeinated diet soda and hadn’t been sleeping. “There’s been a lot going on here. A lot of the partners have been checking in — they want to know when you're coming back to the office, when you're going to be able to work on their files."

"David said I'm off-limits until this trial is over," I said.

"I know," Tammy said, gently. "But I just think that people are worried about you. You practically lived here before this case. Now your office is always dark. People just miss you, is all. And they don’t like change. They fear it.”

I nodded at her. "Thanks, Tammy."

"I left that bronzer for you," she said. "Make sure you take it. You look a little pale. But you need to get going now — David’s waiting for you. And Norris Phaland will be, too, as soon as he figures out you're here." She tapped a makeup bag on top of my files and then came over and hugged me again. "Don't forget that compact. But don't get it now," she whispered quickly.

"I'm going to run some errands," she announced in a louder voice, nodding at Walker. "Always nice to see you, Mr. Walker."

"I know," he said, and they both started laughing again.

"Laugh it up," I said to Walker. “Because now we get to go see David. We'll see how long your sense of humor lasts."

"Let's get this over with," Walker said. "And, Nicole, I'm going to let you do the talking. For now. You seem to know what you’re doing.”

I have no idea what the fuck I’m doing,
I thought. But I smiled at him. “Works for me," I said, feeling shaky.

We walked quickly down the hallway; everyone nodded and said ‘hello’ but the stares continued. Maybe it was our appearance: Walker in his cargo shorts and tee-shirt, his muscles rippling; me with my hair down, long and wild, in my clingy dress. We must have been quite a sight.

I stuck my head into Mandy’s office on the way. She looked up from the file she was squinting at and jumped up. She smiled blearily at me. “Nicole! You look so pretty,” she said, and it was obvious that she’d pulled an all-nighter. She had mascara stuck in the dark circles under her eyes and her silky hair looked like it was conducting a fair amount of static electricity. “How’s it going? I have a bunch of docs to send to you guys today. I’m assigned to screen everything so you only have to review the important stuff…”

“Please send me everything,” I said quietly, cutting her off. “It’s all important.” She looked at me and then just nodded. That’s one thing I always liked about Mandy. She knew when to keep her mouth shut.

"We'll be back in just a minute if you want to pull some files for us now," Walker said.

"Of course, Mr. Walker," she said, and I could see a blush creep up her neck. Poor girl. If only she knew what it was like to work with him twenty-four hours a day, to have a full-time hot flash.

“David’s waiting," Walker said as we headed down the hall.

I looked over at him and squared my shoulders, getting ready for Linda, David's snotty secretary.

"Well, hello," she said to us, looking up primly from her desk a moment later. She beamed at Walker. His appeal really knew no limits. Linda didn’t even bother to glance at me.

Walker gave her a wolfish smile. “We’re here to see David,” he said, smoothly.

“Of course, Mr. Walker. He’s just on the phone," she said. She quickly tapped a text out to him to let him know we were here.

"Linda, would you mind terribly if I asked you for some coffee? We were just at a meeting and the coffee was terrible. So was the assistant, unfortunately. I asked for coffee and she practically spit at me.”

“She probably just spit in your coffee. Or maybe just mine,” I said, looking at Linda. Linda continued to completely ignore me and instead, looked at Walker like he was a wounded puppy that she wanted to swaddle, cuddle, and coo over.

"People don't know how lucky they are to have their jobs," she said, clucking her tongue and vaguely looking in my direction with disapproval. “I'd be happy to get you some coffee, Mr. Walker. It’s my pleasure.” She clicked off down the hallway in an immaculate pencil skirt.

"I'd like some, too,” I called, lamely, and received no response.

"Check her computer," he said suddenly, still looking down the hall. Linda was only fifty feet away, her back turned towards us.

"Are you out of your fucking mind?" I hissed back, as quietly as I could muster.

"You have three seconds," he said. "Take a look."

I stood over her monitor and looked at the open files.
Michaels Acquisition, Zero Tire Cross-Purchase, Wolfowitz Merger.
There was nothing about Walker.

“Nothing,” I said, looking up nervously.

“Check the trash,” he said. I watched as Linda put the cup on a saucer and straighten her back. I clicked anyway.

Advent Portfolio
was all I read before I closed the folder and stepped away. I looked up and Walker was standing in front of me, his hands in his pockets, watching Linda as she came towards us.

“Here you go, Mr. Walker,” she said and smiled.

Just then David poked his head through the door. I startled and jumped. Linda staggered a little with the coffee but managed to right herself. She gave me a scathing look.

“Seriously, Nicole?” David asked. He was chomping on a toothpick. He must have desperately wished he had a cigarette. “Am I that scary?”

“Sometimes,” I said, trying to sound casual and failing miserably. “You just surprised me. I thought you were on the phone.” I didn’t look at Walker; I could feel him next to me, wondering if it was just David that had me spooked all of a sudden — David and the dead pizza guy, Lester Max, Norris Phaland and the various individuals who were following us.

Advent.
That’s what had me spooked. That was the name of the file that Lester Max had asked his secretary for, right before we went into his office. That was the name of the file in Evil Linda’s electronic trash.

My brain clicked along, and I tried desperately to keep up.

“Well, come on in,” David said.

Walker took his coffee from Linda. “Many thanks,” he said, giving her another appraising smile. I could practically see her knees knocking in excitement. If I hadn’t been positive that he was only flattering her for his own purposes, I would have been totally pissed.

“I just got off the phone with Lester Max,” David said, shutting the door and motioning for us to have a seat. “He wasn’t very happy with you two.”

“He’s part of a larger trend,” Walker said, putting his coffee cup squarely in the middle of David’s desk and then taking a seat. He hadn’t touched it.

“A trend of being unhappy?” David asked, raising his eyebrows and sitting down. He picked up the saucer and cup, looking slightly annoyed, and moved it to the side. “With you two? I can’t imagine such a thing.”

He sounded as though he could very easily imagine it. Somehow, that corner office and fat partnership bonus seemed further and further away, every second.

Good thing my almost-boyfriend was a billionaire.

“How far along is Mandy with the next group of documents?” I asked, inserting myself into the conversation.

“She’ll have them to you tomorrow morning.”

“Great,” I said. I paused for a beat. “In other breaking news, Lester Max is refusing to cooperate with my discovery prep. He told me he wouldn’t talk to me without his lawyer.”

“You don’t say.” David sounded noncommittal. He chomped on his toothpick.

“No, it’s true,” I said, keeping my voice neutral. “He refused to elaborate on some questions we had for him. Questions about a subsidiary corporation he set up in Miami. I originally thought it was some sort of tax shelter, but when I dug a little deeper, it appeared to be some sort of shell-corporation that processes salaries. Salaries to a select few individuals.”

“And Lester Max was one of the individuals?” David asked. I nodded. He turned to Walker. “Did you know about this?”

“I knew the company existed. I thought it was strictly for tax purposes,” Walker said. “I didn’t know that Lester was receiving additional funds from it. Not until right now,” he said, looking at me. “I’m disappointed, but I can’t say that I’m really surprised. Lester made a ton of money from me, but he has a lot of expenses. He had beautiful girlfriends that he couldn’t afford, vindictive ex-wives that he couldn’t afford, and a bunch of kids that need boarding schools and sailing lessons.”

I cleared my throat. “Lester Max wasn’t the only recipient of funds from the Miami corporation,” I said, quietly.

Walker and David just looked at me.

“Who else?” Walker asked.

“Proctor & Buchanan,” I said, watching David.

David didn’t say a word. His face was a mask, hiding any thought that might be going on inside, any semblance of recognition.

“What the fuck?” Walker asked.

“I’m pretty sure you know this stuff…” I said, still watching David, “actually I know you know it, because you’re very familiar with the solvency of any company we take as a client. I know you would have reviewed the company’s financial records before we took on Walker, because Proctor & Buchanan does not accept clients who aren’t solvent.”

“Of course we knew Blue was solvent,” David scoffed. “That doesn’t mean we were getting paid illegally from one of its sub-corporations. I know nothing about this. I swear, Nicole. This is the first I’m hearing of it.”

“You might not know,” Walker said. “But someone here knows.” David flinched visibly; Walker was all tendons and anger bubbling right below the surface.

“You’re not making sense,” David said, weakly. “I think you’re under too much pressure. I think this case is taking a mental toll on you, on both of you…”

“THE FUCK IT IS!” roared Walker, and I’m pretty sure I stopped breathing. I could see the cords standing out on Walker’s neck. In a different setting, this would be quite attractive, and I would want to run my hands down his taut throat, but right now I just wanted to pee my pants because I was so afraid of him. And afraid of what he was saying.

There was a knock on the door. Linda peeked her head in. “Norris is here to see you,” she said, her eyes never leaving David’s face.

“That’s fucking perfect,” David said, leaning back in his chair. “Send him in.”

“Walker?” I asked, as Norris slithered in, glaring at me. “I think it’s time to get going!”

“I agree,” Walker said, moving past Norris and bumping into him on purpose. Norris adjusted his glasses and took a quick look at Walker; I was pretty sure he wasn’t used to encountering someone as scary as himself, but Walker definitely qualified at the moment.