Chapter 23
Chapter Twenty-Three
M ax
I leave Lila at her desk and head toward Kingston's office. I can tell that she's slightly annoyed with me, and I'm not really sure why. We'd had an absolutely fantastic evening and an even better morning, but maybe she was starting to wonder if I was going to think about her differently.
"Hey, morning," I say, as I walk into Kingston's office without knocking. "You left a note on my desk."
"Yeah, it's 11:30 AM," he says, frowning.
"Okay, and?"
"I'm just going to cut to the short of it. Max, did you have contact with Mrs. Whittington last night?"
"What?" I stare at him in shock. How could he possibly know?
"Did you or did you not have contact with Mrs. Whittington last night?" He shakes his head. "Close the door, dude."
"What's going on?"
"Jack called me this morning. He's been having her followed. There's a private detective taking photos and videos of her twenty-four-seven and sending them to Jack. He saw you in some photos at some gym with her and then at a smoothie place." Kingston crosses his arms. "Jack is pissed, dude."
"He's having me followed as well?" I say. I'm fucking pissed.
"He's not having you followed, he's having?—"
"Yeah, he's having his wife followed, fine, but when I get caught up in the mess, it’s not okay. That is not acceptable, Kingston. I don’t need him reporting my movements to other people. I understand why he’s following his wife and I understand that he would find out that I had contact with her, But he’s crossing the line reporting my actions to you. He either trusts me as his lawyer and comes to me with his findings or he doesn’t.”
"I know. Look, I'm just saying that because of the cheating, he's already upset."
"He's the fucking one that set it up, Kingston. She's not cheating on him because she wants to, he wanted to spice up the fucking relationship and he brought another man into it. He set this whole fucking thing up so he can take her down without having to pay her a penny."
Kingston stares at me for a couple of seconds.
"That's what you think?"
"That's what I know. Lila?—"
"Lila?" Kingston growls. "How does Lila know any of this?"
"It doesn't matter. I'm just saying that I don't think I'm interested in representing Jack Whittington in his divorce case. I don't want his business."
"But—"
"But nothing."
"What the fuck is going on, Max?"
"Who do we want to be, Kingston? Do we want to be a firm that's going to represent any scum for money, or do we want to stand on principle?"
"Ah, fuck." He looks at me. "You sound like you did on the first day of law school. I thought the law got into your thick head. The law is not about principle, it's about upholding the black letter of the law. It's about ensuring that?—"
"You're not going to play professor to me, Kingston. I don't want to be the guy who takes on any client with pockets deep enough to afford me. What are we going to do, take on the mafia and drug lords next?"
Kingston presses his lips together.
"Obviously, I don't want us to take on any and everyone, but is this about Jack Whittington, who you didn't even really know of until a couple of days ago, or is this about that girl?"
"What girl?" I say, folding my arms, pretending that Lila hadn't gotten into my head.
"Your new assistant. Look, Max, forget the bet, okay? You don't have to turn her into the best assistant. You don't even have to have her as your assistant anymore. Fire her, get yourself someone good, and let's move on."
"I'm not going to fire her. She may not have the most experience in the world, but she's not that bad and she really cares about upholding?—"
"Upholding what? Is she a judge?" Kingston barks, looking pissed. "Come on now, Max."
"Look, I don't think that you are?—"
"Do you think I didn't notice that you both walked in this morning at eleven AM, looking at each other like the cat that got the fucking cream?"
I just stare at him.
"I saw the smile you gave her, and how you whispered in her ear. Is some pussy worth?—"
"Max?"
There's a knock on the door a moment before Remy walks in.
"Oh."
"Hey, Kingston, Max. I was just coming to see…is everything okay?"
"I was just telling Max that he needs to figure out his life, because he's hired some chick that doesn't know shit about the law, and somehow she's put it in his head that we should not represent Jack Whittington, who owns freaking Jack’s Shacks. This is a company that could make us a shitload of money."
"And I'm telling you," I growl. "I don't want to be a firm that only cares about the money. I want to be a firm that also cares about the people. I'm not going to screw Mrs. Whittington out of alimony and a settlement that she should receive from her husband. Yeah, she slept with another man. Yeah, technically, that is cheating. But it's not cheating if your husband can't fucking get it up and says that it turns him on. It's not cool that he then goes behind her back and takes photographs of her with these other men. Come on, Kingston. Come on, Remy. Does that sound right to you?" I slam my fists down on the table and they both look at me.
"Okay," Kingston says, holding his hands up. "I admit, it’s not exactly above board. We don't know Jack's side, but?—"
"I met the man, okay? He's not a good guy. And I met the wife. We don't want to screw her just to get his business. I don't want to do it."
"Wow." Kingston looks at me in surprise. "I don’t know if that blonde has cast a spell on you or something, but this is not the business partner who had a quarterly meeting with me last month talking about profit over everything else."
"Well, maybe that's not the right motivation. Maybe we've been approaching everything the wrong way. We've got money. We've got enough money to live more than comfortably for the rest of our lives. We've got enough money that if we have kids, they'd be set for life. We are some of the best attorneys in the country. Do we want to be the sort of people that just do this to make more money, or do we want to make a difference in people's lives?"
"I didn't get into public interest law," Remy says, shaking his head. "I mean, granted, I could take a few more pro bono cases, but?—"
I chuckle slightly. "That's not what I'm saying. Look, I don't know what I'm saying. I'm just saying that I don't want to take the Jack Whittington case, and I do not want to ever hear you talking about Lila again." I level a glare at Kingston.
"Lila?" Remy says. "Your assistant?" He looks at me. "Wait, is that why you were late this morning?" He looks over at Kingston. "Holy shit, did they?—”
"We're not discussing this right now." I say. "It's none of your guys' business."
Kingston lets out a long sigh. "I should have known. I should have known from the first time I saw that woman that she was going to be trouble."
"She's the right kind of trouble though," I say with a chuckle, and he just grins.
"Remy, what have we done?"
"I don't know, but obviously there must be something special about her if Max is giving her the time of day. I mean, remember that hottie in the barn? He didn't even blink at her."
"Guys, I have work to do. I also need to get my place ready, because my sister Marie is actually getting into town earlier than I thought, so if you will excuse me, I will dismiss myself, okay?"
Kingston nods and I head out of the room, practically sprinting toward my office. I see Lila sitting there, scribbling something on a legal pad, and all I can think is that I want to take her into one of the storage rooms and fuck the living daylights out of her.
"Get your act together, Max," I say to myself.
"Hey," I say, as I stop by her desk.
She looks up with a happy little smile, but then her expression changes.
"Yes, Mr. Spector?"
"You don't have to call me Mr. Spector." I say, leaning down. "You can call me Max."
"I think we should be professional in the office, don't you?"
I stare at her for a couple of seconds before I realize why she's upset.
"Lila, when I said that I didn't want us to discuss it, it wasn't because I regretted doing it. I just didn't want to make life complicated for us in the office. But if it's going to make you mad, then?—"
"I'm not mad. Is there anything you'd like me to do? Shall I get Mrs. Whittington on the line so that you can offer her the measly ten grand or whatever it is?"
"I'm not taking the case," I say.
"You're not?" Her eyes widen. "But?—"
"But nothing. He's not the sort of man I want to represent."
"Really?" she says, her eyes lighting up. "So you agree with me, he was a dog?"
"I want to make one thing clear, Lila. It's not for me to make any judgment calls about my clients, potential or otherwise. But that's not why I'm refusing the case. However, I have dreams and goals. I've always thought that I'd like to be a judge or a Supreme Court Justice, and, well, it matters to me the sort of cases that I'm taking."
"A Supreme Court Justice?" she asks. "Wow."
"Anyway, I need to go and take care of some business. I'm going to send you a couple of emails, I just need some paperwork sent off to the courthouse and some copies made, okay?"
"Sure. Anything else?"
"No. You have a great day, Lila."
"You too, Max," she says softly. "Thank you for last night."
"No, my darling, thank you. And thank you for this morning as well. It was…" I pinch the fingers on my right hand together and kiss the tips in the universal formation for a chef’s kiss.