by Alora Kate
I raised an eyebrow at her and opened my briefcase. “Now you’re in trouble?”
“I don’t know.”
“Then why do you need a lawyer?”
She thought about it for a few minutes while I pulled my files out of my briefcase.
My first briefcase.
I had work to do.
So many people.
She crossed her legs.
It started to bounce.
“I’m bound by the attorney-client privilege or whatever.”
She was serious.
She was in trouble.
Mediation.
“You paid a retainer.” I reminded her.
“I sure did.”
“Talk.”
She didn’t.
She crossed her legs again.
The other leg started to bounce.
Blue jeans and multicolored running shoes.
Black tank top.
Braces.
Blood.
Focus.
I put my files in order.
Pictures in one.
Papers in the other.
“I’m not sure what I should tell you,” she finally said. The more she talked, the less I thought. The less shit in my head to confuse me.
“Start at the beginning,” I told her.
I grabbed a clean piece of paper for her.
“Well then,” she smiled, “I was born on April tenth, nineteen-ninety—”
“You’re twenty-seven?”
I’m thirty-two.
Five years.
Five years I’ve been married.
Not one of them good.
“I am,” she confirmed.
I smiled.
She made me smile.
“The beginning of your troubles, Miss Nicolson; not the beginning of your time.”
“Please just call me Ki.”
Ki.
Beautiful.
Simple.
Ki.
“I think someone’s following me,” she blurted out, her leg still shaking.
“Why?”
“They told me.”
“Someone told you they were following you?”
“Yes.”
“Then wouldn’t you know someone’s following you, not think someone’s following you?”
She pointed at me. “You’re good. That’s why you make the big bucks, huh, Mr. Bale?”
“Observation.”
My paper was still clean.
“The person who’s following you, is it a man or woman?”
“Both men.”
My eyebrows rose. “Both?”
Shit.
What did you do, Ki?
“I’m working on a case. A woman called and said her son stopped talking to her six months ago and that his phone was off. It wasn’t like him. She was worried. She asked if I could find him. Paid us a lot of money to do it.”
Money.
The mattress.
The mattress was new.
The money was dirty.
There was so much money.
Millions.
“Mr. Bale?”
I glanced up. “Names?”
She sat forward. “Are you sure I’ve covered—”
“I’m your lawyer.”
“I think he’s in trouble. This Lucas guy.”
“Why?”
“He said he was protecting me.”
Jealousy.
I could protect her.
“Protecting you?”
“Yes, we watched a movie together.”
My pencil snapped in half.
Movie.
Date.
Mattress.
Money.
“You’re strong,” she said with a laugh.
I dropped both pieces of the pencil into the trash and grabbed another one.
It was new.
The mattress was new.
She had no idea why I broke the pencil.
Completely unaware.
“Names, Miss Nicolson.”
“You call me Ki, and I’ll call you Prescot. Seems fitting now that I’m your client.”
“The check. Have you cashed it?”
“Oh um, yeah, that’s on my to-do list. I’ve been busy.”
“Identity theft is huge, Ki. Please cash it before you lose it, or someone else steals it.”
“Yes, boss.”
I looked at the clean piece of paper.
“I have a meeting soon, Ki. I need names.”
“Lucas Hills. And I took a video of the second guy who I thought was following me, which is also the reason why I ended up under your desk. It’s all very confusing, and I wish I had more information or names, but this is all I know.”
“How exactly did that happen?”
“I didn’t want him following me back to my home and place of business, so I went where I felt most safe.”
Safe.
With me.
Shit.
Ki was simple.
Kind.
She felt safe where I was. She came back. To me.
“By the time I got to the building, he was gone. I came up here, and Molly said you were in a meeting but that I could wait for you.”
“So, you thought you’d hide under my desk.”
“Yep. If you haven’t noticed, you have a rather large desk. It’s pretty roomy under there. So, I got comfortable and watched the video a few times. Then I started reading. It’s a really good book. I was able to read a few chapters before you scared the shit out of me.”
I needed to see the video.
What we were up against.
I had to protect my client.
He was innocent.
Ki was innocent.
I watched the video.
It was a bad angle, but I wrote down the details I saw.
I listened.
I wrote.
Her voice was soft and sweet.
The mattress was new.
Millions of dollars.
Call the investigator.
Mediation.
“Shit.”
“What’s wrong?” she asked softly.
“Mediation.”
“Oh?”
“Vicki.”
“Your wife.” She retrieved her cell from my desk and slipped it into her back pocket when she stood. “Have fun with that.”
“You need to come back Monday morning.”
She glanced at the empty desk. “You sure you’re free Monday morning? I remember putting something on your calendar.”
“You remembered?”
“OCD.” She leaned over my desk, grabbed the pencil, and wrote on my piece of paper. “Email me your calendar. I’ll see how much damage was done.”
She was so close.
She smelled so clean and like something else.
Like a mixture of soap and a fresh fruit salad.
Soap.
Clean.
The mattress was new.
Do not look toward her tank top, which was hanging a bit low.
Do not look down.
Maintain eye contact.
Shit. Do not look down.
I saw the roundness of her breasts, I couldn’t stop myself.
Soft.
Mattresses are soft.
Easy to cut and hide money inside.
Millions of dollars.
She smiled, pushed the paper back, and set the pencil down.
I slowly leaned back.
It was best.
“Right.” She stood. “Well then, I’ll email you.”
She started to walk out but stopped to smile over her shoulder. “Have a great weekend, Mr.—I mean, Prescot.” Her cheeks turned pink before she rushed out.
Did she know?
Did she know that I thought of her?
Or how I thought of her.
I took the pencil and put it in the top drawer and grabbed a different one.
Mediation.
Shit.
I re-packed my briefcase.
I got my keys and locked the door behind me.
It wouldn’t be a great weekend.
I pulled my cell out and put it to my ear.
“Need more information on Miss Nicolson.”
“Sure.”
“Someone is following her. Look into the name Lucas Hills.”
“Okay.”
“Call me whenever.”
“Sure thing.”
Mediation.
The elevator dinged.
Molly waved goodbye.
I liked Molly.
She reminded me of Ki.
Ki.
Not Vicki.
My biggest regret.
Chapter 10 - Ki
From the minute I walked through the door, she started. And by the way she was pacing, it didn’t look like she was going to stop anytime soon. Frustrated, I sighed and repeated my statement for the fifth time. “I took a cab home, Lex; stop stressing.”
It was like she didn’t even hear me. She didn’t look up; she didn’t stop her pacing in the kitchen. She scrolled through her phone and held it up to me. “I’m calling my detective friend and getting them to protect you.”
“I’m fine.”
That made her stop. It was like everything froze for a minute, and Alexa looked at me like I had three heads. “Clearly, you’re not, or you wouldn’t have hired a lawyer.”
“I gave him two dollars, one for each of us. We should have a lawyer anyway with the type of business we have.”
“You didn’t tell him that money was for the both of us, but you’re right.”
“I did what I thought was best, besides I’ll explain to him on Monday that it’s for the two of us. That it’s for us personally and for the business.”
“I’m pretty sure fancy-pants retainer fees cost more than two dollars.” I opened my mouth, and she kept going. “You’re still getting a bodyguard.” She wiggled her phone. “I’m calling him now.”
“I’m not getting a bodyguard!” I slammed the cupboard shut and poured myself a glass of wine.
“It’s too early to drink.”
“It’s Friday, who cares what time it is.”
“Okay, let’s talk about this.”
“We have been, for hours.”
She looked at her phone. “Not hours.”
“Long enough and I already told you everything.”
“People are following you, Ki! How can you be so calm about something like this?”
“I went and hid underneath his desk! Does that scream, I’m calm!”
She walked around the counter and stood next to me. “We’ll figure it out, Ki, we always do, but in the meantime, we’re asking for help. I know if I were being followed, you’d be freaking out.”
I couldn’t answer her because I knew she was right. I didn’t know what I would do if anything happened to Alexa; she’s my rock, all I have. If someone were following her around, of course, I would be freaking out. I’d probably be worse than Alexa is being now, but I couldn’t tell her that. Instead, I drank half my wine. “God, it tastes so good.”
“It always does when you need it.”
“You got that right.”
“Tomorrow’s Saturday, which we both know is the best day of the week because our favorite hot dog vendor two blocks down will have fresh bagels. I’ll get us some in the morning, along with some coffee from Max’s. My treat.”
“Sometimes you’re too good to me,” I said, finishing off my glass of wine.
“I know. I wish we were attracted to each other; we’d be together forever.”
I snorted. “I have a feeling we’ll be together forever, regardless of the attraction thing. We have several years left on our lease.”
When we first came to New York, we crashed with a friend of ours for two weeks. We thought we were set since we knew what we wanted to do, but I don’t think we knew how hard it was to find exactly what we wanted in a place. We had researched different buildings coming up for rent, and this one came out of nowhere. It was almost too good to be true, especially after the nightmare buildings we toured for ten days straight. Some were missing fixtures, had broken walls or tiling, some had bars on the windows. I even saw what looked like a hoard of bugs stream out of a bathroom at one building, and the owner just shrugged and said, ‘Hey, you get what you pay for,’ as if that explained away the infestation. When we looked at the space we are in now and were told about the adjoining apartment upstairs, I nearly peed my pants in excitement. The price was a bit more than we were budgeted out for, though we rationalized that we would save money in commuting to work every day and put in our application. Alexa somehow really hit it off with the owner and scored a deal for us. He would charge us considerably less for the rental if we signed a ten-year contract, and we were responsible for any minor repairs that were needed. Without even blinking an eye, we signed and paid our first two months’ rent in advance. It was the best thing that could have happened to us.
“It’s the perfect set up. I could see us still here in twenty years,” she commented.
“Hopefully, we’ll be married by then.”
“And we’ll have kids, who’ll be best friends, like us.” She smiled.
“For sure.”
I poured some more wine, and she pushed a glass over and I filled hers. “We need to figure out what’s going on. It’s like Lucas knew who I was before we knew about him. He knew about my popcorn suckers. Who would know something like that?”
Her eyes went wide. “A stalker.”
“I know, it’s weird,” I replied.
“Well, we have to start somewhere. Let’s drop her and cut our losses.”
“She’ll want the rest of the money back,” I told her.
“Probably, and she might leave a bad review on Yelp.”
“I doubt it. No one does that anymore.”
“I don’t think we even have one there,” she said sipping her wine, “good or bad.”
“Okay, we’re getting off topic.”
“Distraction helps sometimes,” she said, leaning into me and I put my head on her shoulder. “Don’t worry, Ki. We know a lot of people in law enforcement, and now we have Mr. Bale. It’ll be okay.”
“Want to help me polish off this bottle?” I asked, pouring more into my glass.
She lifted hers so I could pour the rest of the bottle into hers.
“All gone.”
She laughed. “We have boxed wine in the fridge.”
“Good. I didn’t want to go back out.”
“You’re not allowed out after dark until this gets cleared up.” I knew she was serious, and a small part of me was completely okay with that.
###
The next morning, Alexa followed through on her promise of bagels, and I didn’t get out of bed until after ten to eat them. We drank most of the wine last night, and I needed to sleep it off before we got to work. We’re trying to wrap up some smaller cases and close the files. Alexa called and told Lucas’ mom that we had to drop her case. The call was short, and she never asked for the money back, but we thought it best to set it aside just in case she changed her mind.
After my shower, I tossed my wet hair up and brushed my teeth. I couldn’t wait to get these things off. If my teeth weren’t so bad, I would have never gotten braces, but my teeth were incredibly crooked, and the only way to fix them was three years of metal-mouth. I was poor growing up, and my father didn’t allow my mom to work until after I was out of the home, so we lived on one income. It was just the three of us; I had no older brother to help me with the mean girls in elementary school or to keep the bullies away during high school. I studied hard, got good grades, and received several scholarships so I could get away from my past. My mother was still stuck there with my father—a narcissist who treated her like shit. To be honest, he treated both of us like shit. I have no memories of my father ever telling me he loved me, no memories of him telling me he was proud of me.
Alexa had the music up loud and was dan
cing around the apartment while cleaning. Well, she was attempting to clean; she was doing a lot more dancing than cleaning.
“Dance with me!” she screamed over the music.
I tapped my watch, which meant we needed to get to work.
“You suck!”
It took another thirty minutes to make sure we had our list of things to do, and we headed out the door to catch some people cheating.
“We don’t split up, and we’re meeting up with Detective Barrows at four.”
“Got it.”
We followed one woman around for about an hour and finally caught her meeting up with a man who wasn’t her boyfriend. They were clearly more than friends by the way he groped her ass and sucked on her mouth. I got a clear picture, and Alexa dragged me away to move onto the next client. We followed another woman around but it didn’t lead us anywhere but her home, and I knew her husband was there because I recognized his car. We decided to grab a snack and wait for the detective to show up, so we headed to our favorite Mexican restaurant. Two margaritas and an appetizer later, Alexa had heard from her detective friend and went outside to meet him. I decided the work day was over and ordered another margarita.
“I put an extra shot in it for you,” the bartender said, pushing my drink forward.
“Oh no, I didn’t—”
“It’s on the house.” He winked and walked away to help another customer.
I’m not one to turn down a good margarita, and a free shot of tequila was even better.
“Breaking hearts, I see,” a now familiar voice said to my right. Lucas was sitting in Alexa’s chair, and I glanced behind me but couldn’t see her outside.
I stirred my straw in my glass and then took another drink. “I’m the one that’s supposed to be following people.”
“And you do.”
“Apparently, you do too.”
He chuckled softly and ran his finger over the wooden bar top. I cleared my throat to gain his attention because I was ready to stop playing his game. I needed to be direct with Lucas.
“Look, I fired your mom, so you can stop popping up.”
“Maybe I like popping up.”
I took another drink and turned toward him. I crossed my leg and got comfortable hoping he’d stay longer this time so Alexa could meet him.
“Looks like you took a shower,” I commented, admiring his black button-up shirt and dark-washed jeans. He even took the time to comb his hair. He was certainly attractive when he put the effort into it, though he still held his rough demeanor. His eyes looked haunted, his lips looked relaxed in a permanent line, and he had faint scars across his knuckles. His appearance told the sad story of Lucas Hills; I just wanted to know where my part in his story led.