by Annie Jocoby
To think that Slade almost completely gave this up, when he was determined to go to prison to protect his mother and me - that was an almost inconceivable thought. I shook my head, wondering how all that ever could have happened.
Of course, in the back of my mind, I knew just how that happened. The tangible after-effects was ever paramount on my mind, as I was going to have to not only deal with Maggie's issue, but my own.
We finished up in the shower, both of us getting clean and fresh.
Then we went to sleep in his bed, his body tightly wrapped around mine.
In the middle of the night, I felt his hardness, and he silently spread my legs and entered me slowly. I felt the familiar tingles as he did this from behind, while he wrapped his arm around my waist tightly. He kissed me and turned me over as he hovered above me and plunged into me deeply again. "Sorry for another night of no sleep," he said. "But goddamned, I just can't be around you without wanting to fuck you at every moment. What are you doing to me?"
"The same thing that you're doing to me," I said, wanting to tell him that I was branded as his. I was melded to him, so that I hardly knew where I ended and he began. As much as it terrified me to feel that way about any one person, I knew that there was no escaping it. Slade had somehow managed to quiet not only my inner demons, but also the spirits that used to haunt me all the time. I no longer felt their presence, even though I had been afraid that communicating with Sam would open that door.
In short, I finally felt at peace.
Chapter 3
The next day, I knew that I had to face what was happening at my work. I wanted to see if Derek was really going to be there when I got there, and then I would have to figure out how to handle his presence. My plan was to ignore him, of course. It was a large enough firm that I really shouldn’t have to interact with him, unless he was on one of my teams. I had been informed that as soon as I got my bar results back, assuming I passed, I would have my own legal teams for cases. I would just exclude him from all my teams and pretend he didn’t exist.
I shook my head. That sounded like a good plan, but one that probably wouldn’t work. Derek was going to be a problem. As much as I wanted him to not be a problem, I knew that he was going to be. Just his presence in the office was going to throw me off my game completely.
I went into the office, and Cindy, who was one of the partners there, greeted me immediately. “Oh my god, Serena, you’re here. Sit down. I need to talk to you about some things.”
I beckoned her to my office. I didn’t like Cindy, nor did I trust her. I had this feeling that she was about to lay some bullshit gossip on me, and I wasn’t at all sure that I wanted to hear it. Regardless, by the look on her face, I knew that there was a possibility that her news was serious.
“Sit,” I said, gesturing to the chair in front of me. “And I hope you don’t mind if I eat this muffin while you talk to me.” I had picked up some healthy muffins at a Jamba Juice, and I was preparing to eat one of them.
“Okay,” she said, sitting down. “I have some awesome news for you and some terrible news as well.”
I simply nodded my head, knowing already what had happened. But I let her speak anyhow. Try to act surprised, Serena. Do your best acting job.
She took a deep breath. “Well, I think that you should know the good news first, that way the awful news might not seem so awful.”
“Go on.”
“Slade’s charges are going to be dropped. I just spoke with the prosecutor on the case, and he’s calling an emergency hearing next week to formally drop them.. That’s great news, isn’t it?”
I forced a fake look of surprise on my face and clapped my hands with delight. “That’s wonderful news!”
She furrowed her brows. “I thought you would be more excited that this. I mean, he’s your boyfriend, isn’t he?”
“I can’t get excited about anything until I’ve had my morning muffin,” I said. “But, yes, that’s fantastic news. Now, what’s the bad news?”
She still looked slightly mystified that my reaction was so low-key, but she proceeded on. “Well, apparently, Malcolm was the guilty party. The prosecutor’s office was getting ready to charge him, I guess, but he…”
I raised an eyebrow, waiting for her to go on. Malcolm met his demise, there was little doubt about that. I wondered how Charlotte managed to off him and make it look like an accident. Or a suicide.
“He?”
She narrowed her eyes. “Yes. You don’t look at all surprised that Malcolm was guilty. All of us in this office were absolutely shocked to hear that. We were all shocked that one of our own was apparently the one who did this horrible thing.”
“Well, you know, Cindy, I do have the gift of intuition. I kinda knew that there was something off about Malcolm.”
She cocked her head. “Oh? And why did you come to work here if you thought our boss was so off?”
“I came to work here because this was an excellent opportunity. If I refused to work for every man who I thought was a bit of a jerk, I never would be able to work anywhere at all. Now, go on with your news about Malcolm.”
“He’s dead,” she said. “He hung himself on a tree by his house.”
Come on, Serena. Give her an Academy Award performance on this. She’s dying for it. I dug in deep, and surprisingly enough, I was able to come up with the right emotion for hearing that Malcolm had died. It was genuine, too. I was sad, extremely sad, that it had come to this. He was a father and a husband, and I always got along with him. He did something extremely despicable, of course, and I knew that he wasn’t going to have any other choice but to spend the rest of his miserable life in prison. Even so, I felt genuine sadness.
I shook my head, trying to dispel the tears in my eyes. “That’s so awful,” I said.
“Not so awful. I heard about what you did, throwing Malcolm under the bus to save the hide of your boyfriend. After that happened, it was only a matter of time before he would off himself. I think that you knew that when you did what you did.”
“You’re blaming me? Tell me that you wouldn’t have done the exact same thing if you were defending an innocent man and you had exculpating evidence. If you’re going to tell me that, then I have an ethics review that will have your name on it. That’s pretty much criminal defense 101 – zealous advocacy for a client, any client, dictates that all exculpating evidence must be brought up in a timely manner. Even if that evidence implicates somebody else that you know.”
“I know that. But, still, you could have given him a heads-up. Time to get his affairs in order.”
I didn’t say anything to her about the real reason why I couldn’t possibly have given him any kind of heads-up. If I would have done that, then the first thing that Malcolm would have done would be to roll on Charlotte. If that would have happened, I would have been dead within the week. Cindy didn’t know all the complicated transactions that went into my actions regarding Malcolm, and she really didn’t need to know. She was, by far, the biggest gossip at the firm, not to mention the biggest pain in the ass.
“If I would have given him a heads-up, he probably would have fled. Now, could we please drop this? I have an entire roster of cases that I need to be attending to, not to mention several appellate briefs.”
“Well, okay. I have some other news, too, if you would like to hear it.”
I drew a breath. I was hoping against hope that the news that Cindy was about to tell me wasn’t the news that I was expecting, although that didn’t seem likely. “What’s your other news?”
“There’s a new guy who just started working here,” she said, fanning herself. “And he’s really cute.” She put her fingers to her mouth in mock shame. “Did I just say that? I meant to say that he’s a hot prospect. Worked in New York City, prosecuting Wall Street crooks. Now, here he is, on the other side. Former prosecutors are the best criminal defense attorneys, because they really know the system and how it works.”
I swallowed, hard. “
Is his name Derek, by any chance?”
“Yes. Derek Ripley. How did you know?”
My heart sank. It wasn’t that I was taken aback by this news. It was quite the opposite – I had been bracing myself for it, ever since I saw that he was my new next-door neighbor, and that Charlotte had some evil plan to torment me. I had no idea, no clue, on how Charlotte had found out about what had happened between Derek and me, but it was clear that she knew everything. “He’s living next door to me. His live-in girlfriend, Maggie, told me that he moved out here for a lucrative position. I guess I’m putting two and two together.”
“Well, we’re all going to lunch today to welcome him.” She paused. “And I guess that Malcolm’s funeral will be on Thursday. We’re closing the office that day, so we’re all expected to attend. I’m sure you don’t want to, considering you’re personally responsible for his demise, but I thought that I would give you a heads-up.”
I threw down the pen that was in my hand and glared at Cindy. “Would you please stop saying that I’m personally responsible for Malcolm’s death? How about saying that Malcolm is responsible for his own death? If he wouldn’t have done what he did, then he wouldn’t have been in the position that he was in – facing life in prison, if not the death penalty. All that I did was show the prosecutor that Malcolm was the one, because I refused to let Slade take the fall for what Malcolm did. Anybody in my shoes would do the same. Anybody with ethics, that is.”
“Okay. But I wouldn’t have done what you did. I’m more loyal than that.”
“So, you would let an innocent man go to prison, just because somebody you knew was ultimately to blame? Read the book The Count of Monte Cristo and tell me how well that kind of scenario goes over with the innocent person.” That was one of my favorite books growing up, and it told the tale of a boy who was railroaded into prison by various people, and how he got revenge upon them, one by one.
“I’m not familiar with that story,” she said. “All that I know is that Malcolm is dead, and he wouldn’t be if it weren’t for you.”
“Please leave my office,” I told her. “Now.”
She made a face and groaned. “Okay. Listen, you’re expected to be at this lunch that we’re having for the new guy. It’s going to be at The Fish Market, and a table has already been reserved. I think that we’re going to be talking about succession as well. Now that Malcolm is passed, we’re all going to have to vote on who is going to be the next managing partner, and, quite frankly, there’s been talk that this firm might be in trouble financially. That’s just the rumor, but I’ve heard that Malcolm has been cooking the books because he has some serious gambling debts. We might all be looking for another job soon, and that will be on your head as well.”
I nodded my head. It didn’t surprise me – that Malcolm had gambling debts. It would actually explain a lot of things to me. Things that had nagged at me all along. Such as why Malcolm would resort to murder, and how did he get involved with Charlotte in the first place? Could it be that he owed her family money, and Charlotte just had him do Sam’s murder in lieu of paying them? That would be something that would make sense to me. If that was the case, I suddenly felt badly for Malcolm. Maybe he killed Sam out of sheer desperation, knowing that it was either Sam’s life or his own. I never did quite buy the story that Malcolm only did that to Sam because he was up Charlotte's ass. That was part of it, no doubt, but I always thought that there had to be something more.
“Well, listen, if this firm was built upon a house of cards, which it certainly seemed to be if the managing partner had serious gambling debts, then it would have collapsed eventually anyhow. So, again, you can’t blame me if this firm goes under. It would have only been a matter of time.”
“You go on telling yourself that, if that’s what you need to believe in order to sleep at night. In the meantime, I suggest that you try to be a part of the solution, assuming that there is one.”
At that, she left, and I picked up the phone to call Slade. He picked up on the first ring.
“Serena,” he said. “What’s going on?”
“I have to attend a luncheon today to welcome the newest member of the firm.”
“Let me guess. The new firm member’s name is Derek.”
“Damn, you’re good. Listen, there’s something else, too.”
“What’s that?”
“There’s a rumor going around that Malcolm might not have been solvent. He possibly has some serious gambling debts. Can you find out something about that? I have this suspicion that another piece of the puzzle has been resolved.”
Slade was quiet for just a few minutes. “That makes sense,” he finally said. “Maybe he got involved with Charlotte because he needed money, and her family lent it to him.”
“That’s what I was thinking. Anyhow, find out for me.”
“I will.” He paused again. “Nothing has happened with my mother, although I’ve called the station, and, apparently, Hugh’s case has been reopened. That’s the word with the detective on my case, anyhow. He told me that the prosecutor is getting ready to drop the charges against me, and he also wanted to warn me that my mother is the prime suspect now in Hugh’s disappearance. Just brace yourself.”
“I will. I would imagine that, if she’s arrested, you’ll bail her out immediately, and then we’ll go to work. In the meantime, I’m getting some experts lined up for her. I want to be ready to hit the ground running. Maybe we can even work some kind of deal with the prosecutor, if the evidence from the expert will be strong enough. We’ll just have to see.”
“Okay. Well, in the meantime, we’re in a holding pattern with my mom. I’ll find out what I need to find out about Malcolm and his gambling debts.”
“Thanks.”
I hung up the phone and put my head in my hands. There was a pile of files on my desk, files that I was going to have to soon review and start working. But I couldn’t think about those. I could only think about how awful this luncheon was going to be, and how I was going to have to fake affection for this despicable Derek.
And I also couldn’t get Cindy’s words out my head. Was she right? Was I morally culpable for Malcolm’s death? Would Cindy really have let an innocent client go to prison to save Malcolm’s neck, and, if so, did she really expect me to do the same thing?
I hated that Cindy was in my head-space in the way that she was. She was such a double-crossing snake, but yet, she held some degree of power in the office.
This was going to be a long day.
Chapter 4
We all met at The Fish Market right at noon. I was there as well, even though it was the last place I wanted to be. There was a long table that was reserved for the officers and partners of the firm. The associates weren’t invited, except for me. I assumed I was only invited because everybody was going to try to pile on me for Malcolm’s death. I wasn’t going to have any of that, of course. I would just walk right out if anybody started to harass me for that.
I held my breath as I saw Derek stroll in. He seemed to be very friendly with everyone, because some people hugged him, and he was talking easily amongst everyone. I tried to avoid his eyes, but every time I looked at him, he was looking back at me.
To my dismay, he took a seat right next to me. “Hello again, Serena,” he said. “We have to stop meeting this way.”
I felt an icy chill run through my veins, as I remembered that was the phrase he had said to me at the cabin that one night. Almost word for word.
I took a sip of wine, as there were several bottles on the table, and I had poured myself a glass. “Don’t think that I have forgiven you for what you did,” I told him, between gritted teeth. “But you won’t intimidate me now. I’m not that scared Goth chick that you took advantage of. Fair warning.”
“Oh, I know. You have that beast on a leash. He does know how to throw an amazing left hook, I’ll give him that. I’ve always had problems fighting lefties. Right-handed people often do.”
“Yes. I have
that beast on a leash.” I didn’t tell him that wasn’t entirely accurate. After all, I was typically the one on the leash, not Slade. Of course, that wasn’t something that I necessarily shared with anyone, let alone my tormentor.
He smiled at me, an amused smile that didn’t show any hint of shame. Instead, it hinted of deviancy and evil. He took a sip of his wine as he continued to smile at me. I felt the icy-cold feeling in my veins, and I felt like I had to get out of that room.
I didn’t leave the room, though, because this was going to be my life. I was going to have to somehow tolerate this man’s presence if I was going to represent Margot.
“What is it that you think that I did to you years ago?” he asked me.
I didn’t know what game he was playing. Did he want me to tell him, and that would somehow turn him on? Or did he honestly not remember? That was a possibility, as he was very drunk that night.
When I looked at his face, though, I knew that he knew what he did. There was no memory loss. In fact, by looking at him, I would say that he still replayed that scene in his mind, over and over again, and got a thrill out of it. I wondered if it was the only time that he had done something like that. Looking at his face, I seriously doubted that I was the only one. He just looked like the wrong kind of pervert, the kind who got his jollies by hurting women.
Cindy was watching, looking from me to Derek, and back again. I saw that her devious wheels were turning as she watched us, and I wanted to smack her. Hard. I wanted to use all the deadly force that I knew how to use with my hands, although that wasn’t a lot. I was a runner, not a fighter, and I knew that. I had never hit another person in my life.
Maybe it was time that I learned how.
Once everyone got around the table, Harry, who was second-in-command to Malcolm, stood up. He clinked his glass with his spoon to get our attention, and everyone became silent. “I’ve gathered everyone here today to talk about the future of this firm, and to introduce you to the newest partner, Derek Ripley. Derek has come to us from New York City, where he was working for the DA’s office. I’ve seduced him to the dark side, or, rather, Malcolm managed to seduce him.” He looked sad.