Chapter 30 #2
The inspector got out of his truck, his shoulders hunched against the cries of fraud and bribes, of sellout and liar hurled at him. He tried insisting he was only doing his job, but his words were pretty much drowned out.
He stopped in front of River and Adriana. “I need to inspect the building. There are concerns that it’s a safety hazard and has structural failures.”
“Oh?” River asked, folding her arms. “And who raised those concerns?”
His jaw worked, and he held a clipboard like he was actually reading it. “It doesn’t say. But I need you to move aside so I can do my job.”
“I imagine you can do it from the outside.” River motioned the length of the building, most of which couldn’t be seen thanks to the crowd. “Surely if it’s structural you’d see that from out here.”
His face grew an interesting shade of blotchy strawberry. “If you don’t get out of my way, I’ll be forced to call the police.”
“Maybe you should do that. Then we’ll find out who ordered you to come on down here, and you can answer their questions too.” Adriana smiled sweetly at him.
He looked around, his eyes tight, his teeth almost visibly clenched. “Look, ladies—”
“No. Don’t say anything.” Marina stepped out of the crowd and moved to River’s side.
River’s heart sank. This would be the moment Marina sided with her client. When she told people what they wanted to hear and used legalese to get everyone to back down. It would be the moment when whatever might have been between them became what would never be instead.
Adriana turned to Marina. “Just to be clear, you’re the lead attorney for Black Pinnacle here in Chicago, is that correct?”
Marina, in her black suit and heels, her thick hair pulled back with wisps around her face, looked about as much like a lawyer as a person could.
She glanced at River, her expression inscrutable, and then at Adriana.
“No. That’s incorrect. As of yesterday, Black Pinnacle decided they no longer wanted to be represented by me, or by my firm in general. They are no longer our clients.”
There was a murmur of uncertainty in the crowd. No one knew what to do with that information, including River. But she did know it couldn’t have been good for Marina’s career.
Marina turned to the inspector, and the cameras all shifted that direction. Adriana angled the microphone toward Marina.
“My name is Marina Fuentes. As stated, I no longer represent Black Pinnacle. Not only that, but I’m here now to say that as of early this morning, I turned over a large amount of evidence to the FBI regarding Black Pinnacle’s fraud, corruption, and bribery.
Under the Crime and Fraud Exception, I was legally bound to break confidentiality in order to protect innocent people from being harmed.
My firm, in the interest of public safety, supported my decision to help the federal investigation.
” She slipped her hand into River’s and squeezed.
“The names of those people who aided Black Pinnacle’s underhanded tactics have been turned over to the authorities, and they will be prosecuted accordingly. ”
Marina looked pointedly at the inspector, who had gone from looking like a strawberry to the color of a vanilla milkshake.
He took a step back. “This is chaos, and I don’t feel safe doing my inspection today. I’ll be in touch to reschedule.”
Jeers and cheers broke out as he pushed through the crowd and got back into his vehicle.
Adriana turned to Marina once again. “What does this mean for the community of South Shore as we go forward?”
Marina gave an elegant shrug. “I can’t say, but I don’t believe Black Pinnacle will have the ability to proceed.”
The cheers around them were deafening, and the camera crews panned the gathering. Adriana’s personal camera guy zoomed in on River.
“River, how does that make you feel?” Adriana asked.
She swallowed hard and blinked away the tears that had rushed to her eyes when Marina had taken her hand.
“I don’t want to get ahead of ourselves, and there’s still a lot to talk about.
A lot of issues were raised, and we could still use someone to help us make this community what it could be.
” She raised Marina’s hand and kissed it.
“But right at this moment? It feels pretty damn good.”
The crowd roared in approval, and Adriana and her crew moved to walk among the people. River turned to Marina. “Let’s go inside.”
Marina’s expression didn’t change, but River felt the tremble in her hand as she led her in and closed the door behind them.
She kept hold of her hand as she went downstairs, out of sight of the cameras and other watchers.
The shop door opened and closed, and she heard Billy’s booming voice and Audrey’s answering one, so she knew everything would be okay up there.
She sat on a worn couch and pulled Marina down to sit beside her. “That was a hell of a statement.”
Marina let out a long, slow breath and pulled her hand from River’s.
She ran her hands through her hair and nodded, her gaze distant.
“All true. Sheila came in yesterday and threw a bunch of pictures at me. Of us.” Her gaze flicked to River and then away again.
“She went apeshit, like she’d caught me cheating on her.
She told me what she planned to do and threatened your place specifically.
” She laughed ruefully. “I threw up on her.”
River settled back on the couch. “But you didn’t call me?”
“I couldn’t.” Marina still didn’t look at her. “If I had, I would have broken client privilege. There would have been massive consequences. I could have lost my license. I might even have gone to jail.”
“Oh.” River wasn’t sure what else to say. She couldn’t expect Marina to face that kind of fallout.
“But I couldn’t just let her win. I couldn’t let her hurt you. So Cari and I started digging, started pushing. Hard. I called in a lot of favors. And at five this morning, I met with the FBI to give them everything I had on Black Pinnacle.”
She stopped talking, like all the words had been wrung out of her. She was so still, like she’d been turned to stone.
“And your job?” River asked softly. She had to know.
Marina’s shoulder moved in a tiny shrug. “I’m not sure. I refused my boss’s calls from the moment I left the office, so I don’t know what’s in store. I think it’s safe to assume I’m unemployed. And given the nature of it, probably unemployable. If I even keep my license.”
“Marina…” River tried to hold Marina’s hand, but she pulled it away. “I don’t know what to say. You did what was right, and I’m sorry it cost you so much.”
Finally, Marina’s gaze met hers. “What was right?” She stood, snapped out of a trance.
“What was right would have been keeping my mouth shut and doing my job. What was right would have been protecting my client and not shattering everything I’ve worked for into a million pieces.
You think most lawyers are concerned with what’s right? ”
River stood too, putting her hands in her pockets. “I’m sorry. Maybe I didn’t phrase that correctly—”
“It wasn’t right. It was…it was…” Marina threw up her hands and began to pace. “Stupid, probably. Juvenile. Disastrous. Na?ve. Self-destructive. A whole lot of things, but I don’t know about right.”
River felt her frustration beginning to rise, but she tried to keep it at bay. Marina was scared and overwhelmed, and she wasn’t handling it well. “It was right when it came to me. To the community.”
“And that’s going to do me a lot of good. That will definitely get me the promotion I’ve been working my ass off for.” Marina’s tone was harsh, her laugh filled with remorse.
“What do you want me to say?” River finally gave up on keeping her temper in check. “If you were going to regret it this way, and it was such a damn bad idea, then why’d you do it?”
“Because!” Marina spun to face her, voice raised.
“Because I fell in love with you and now my life is a mess! I don’t want ghosts screaming at me after the most amazing sex of my life.
I don’t want to keep going to family dinners and having to remember my sister.
I don’t want to think that I took the wrong path, and all this was for nothing. ”
River stood utterly still, staring at Marina wide-eyed. “What?”
Marina’s hand went to her mouth, and she stared back at River. Then she shook her head hard enough to loosen the bun at the back, and she pushed past River and ran up the stairs.
“Marina, wait!” River ran after her and grabbed her arm before she got to the door. “Talk to me.”
But Marina jerked her arm away, flung open the door, and disappeared into the slowly dispersing crowd.