Animalistic Galley Fin (2 page)

She knew the day was going to suck when she woke up in the morning and found the toilet tank had leaked water all over the bathroom floor. The flush handle had been broken for almost two weeks and the building caretaker hadn’t fixed it, even though she had complained to him several times. And now this shit happened. What a way to start the day.

So she shut off the main water and wasted her morning mopping the bathroom floor. Everything got soaked and had to be dried. As she tossed dirty towels in the washing machine, she looked at the time and startled. It was already 7:45am.

She was freaking late.

She rushed through her shower, then got dressed. She skipped breakfast and headed straight to the courthouse to file some papers. The line was unusually long and just her luck, she got a particularly bitchy clerk who liked making the relatively easy process as painful as possible. When she was finally done, she stopped at the coffee shop to buy a cappuccino and a slice of cheesecake for breakfast.

And then she got robbed.

Thanks to Superman, she got her wallet back. But her suit was scuffed and dirty, and she smelled like cappuccino and garbage. Her only good briefcase was completely ruined. Luckily she didn’t have her laptop with her, she had forgotten it at home, and she only carried some case files in her attaché. It’d be a headache if she lost her electronics too. She had been saddled with her mom’s medical bills, so she had to be extremely frugal until the bill was paid off, or she found another job.

It was a little after noon when she entered the law office of Hoffman, James, and Associates. The building occupied a corner street in Lenox Hill. Immediately, her only friend in the office, Emma the receptionist, noticed her disheveled appearance.

“What happened to you? Are you okay?” Emma asked.

Arielle nodded. “I got mugged. That’s all.”

“That’s
all
? Did you get hurt? What did the police say?”

“I didn’t report it. I got my wallet back. That’s all that matters. Is Sabrina here yet?”

Emma’s demeanor changed abruptly. She shuddered visibly, like a wet dog trying to shake off the water from its fur. “She’s been on your case since this morning. She wants to know where you are. I told her you’d be at the courthouse filing the papers. Why didn’t you answer your phone?”

“My phone is on my desk. I forgot to bring it home yesterday because I was charging it.”

“You’re the only paralegal I know who isn’t permanently attached to their phone, Arielle. She was convinced you’re avoiding her.”

“That’s ridiculous. Why would I avoid a call from work?”

“I know, right? I wonder why she didn’t hear your phone ringing. I took a peek earlier and she was in and out of your office multiple times.”

Arielle thought on it for a second. “I think I put it on silent. I didn’t want to be bothered with phone calls while I prepared for that deposition yesterday.”

“Well, good luck.” Emma gave a mock salute as she smiled in sympathy. Sabrina Hoffman was the infamous goddess bitch who ruled the office and she did so with an iron fist, so if she was angry with you, it was best to hide under your desk.

Ever since her dad, Robert Hoffman, the founder of the firm, retired, she inherited the company as the chairman and had been running the ship, but not in a good way. Edward James, the other founder, was only a partner on paper and never showed up at work, nor did he make any decisions regarding the firm. As long as his check deposited regularly into his bank account, he was a happy camper.

Sabrina was a mediocre lawyer at best, but she won many of her cases via her good looks and feminine wiles. She was also known as man-crazy, and greedy for attention.

Arielle would need more than just good luck to face Sabrina.

She got into the elevator and rode the two floors up from the main lobby. The moment the elevator doors opened, she saw her boss was strolling down the hallway. She was a leggy blonde swathed in Yves Saint Lauren from head to toe. Sabrina spotted her and quickly launched into her usual berating. But she finally paused when she saw Arielle looked like hell.

“What happened to you?” There was relish in her tone.

Arielle only waved a hand, as she didn’t feel like telling the story again, when she’d just recounted the whole thing to Emma. “Long story short: I’m having an epic bad day.”

“Did you file the papers?” Sabrina wanted to know.

“I did.”

“How come you didn’t pick up the phone when I tried calling you this morning?”

“Sabrina, I left my phone on my desk yesterday.”

“Oh.”

Sabrina wasn’t satisfied unless she had a reason to chastise Arielle over an imagined mistake. She had been extremely vindictive since the day she took over the firm. Arielle had been her father’s protégé—she was on the fast track to partnership when her mother was diagnosed with terminal ovarian cancer. Arielle took sabbatical leave from work for seven months to take care her mother. When her mother passed away, Sabrina had taken over as chairman and Arielle’s position had been scrapped. Sabrina would love to be able to fire her, but Old Man Hoffman put his foot down. The firm, Sabrina decided, didn’t need any third year associates and she was offered a position as a
senior paralegal as an insult. Sabrina expected her to quit, but her plan backfired. Arielle swallowed her pride and took her demotion in stride because she needed the money to pay her mother’s astronomical medical bills and while she had applied for other work, nothing had come through yet.

That was six months ago.

Ever since that day, it seemed Sabrina had made it her mission to make Arielle’s life as miserable as she could. And Arielle had vowed she would annoy Sabrina by staying at the firm for as long as she could manage. Why would she leave the firm so she could give Sabrina a victory? She planned on staying for the foreseeable future. Once she paid off the medical debts, though, she’d look for a new position somewhere else.

Sabrina followed Arielle into her office. She pointed out a stack of documents on Arielle’s desk. “Check out the first folder. It contains a summons for Frank Darbo, the owner of the After Dark club. We need you to deliver it to him.”

“Why me? Don’t we have a process server available?”

“We do and he tried and failed. Darbo always seemed to sniff them out, so none of the process servers have panned out.”

“What about the PI? Don’t we have that in-house investigator you just hired?”

“It’s just our luck that Jessica is already on assignment in Vermont. She won’t be back until Friday. In the meantime, the summons must be delivered by tomorrow evening. Don’t screw up this job.”

“Now, you just wait a minute. I’m a paralegal. This isn’t part of my job description.”

Sabrina crossed her arms over her chest, looking triumphant. “Arielle, you do what I tell you to do. If you no longer want to follow my instructions, then feel free to look for another source of employment.” With that, she turned on her heels and exited Arielle’s office with the flounce of a peacock.

Arielle deflated instantly.

That bitch!

Someone rapped on the door. Arielle looked up and saw her on and off and on again boyfriend, Chris Rolland, by the door. He was also an attorney at the firm and worked under Sabrina. They had been going out since their sophomore year in high school, but she had known him for a lot longer than that; they had been childhood friends since kindergarten.

As a former star quarterback, Chris was tall, well-built, and reasonably good looking. Arielle had been crazy about him since the first time Chris asked her out. Chris said she was his first love. They had a bumpy ride over the years, yet had somehow managed to stay together.

But over the last few months, they had drifted apart. Arielle suspected Chris had been cheating on her, but she didn’t have any proof. With her mother’s passing, losing her associate’s position, and the mounting medical bills she needed to pay, she didn’t have time to dwell on her suspicions. She had enough on her plate already.

“Have you seen Sabrina?” Chris asked.

“I’m fine, but thank you for asking,” she answered sarcastically. She looked like shit, her hair was messy, her clothes dirty, and the broken attaché sat on her desk, yet he remained oblivious. A sympathetic, “Hey, are you okay?” would be nice. After all, he was her boyfriend, right? She remained faithful all these years. Her eyes never even strayed to any other man. Arielle had been pretty when she was younger, but she knew she had kind of let herself go the last couple of years because of stress. Food was her refuge. Sweets were her anxiety release. Still, despite gaining that weight, she was still cute. Guys still looked at her. In fact, an insanely hot and gorgeous guy asked for her number earlier. She didn’t oblige him because she wasn’t single. Wouldn’t that, at least, merit her a brownie point of loyalty? Was a simple “Are you okay?” too much to ask?

Chris’s expression darkened. “I wasn’t asking because I don’t want to get into an argument. I guess I can’t win, can I?”

In Chris’ language, that meant he didn’t want to argue when she was clearly PMS-ing.

Arielle gritted her teeth and counted to ten to calm herself. Everything was out of control and she felt like she was losing her grip on her sanity. Her crappy apartment was falling apart. Her career was circling the drain. Her financial outlook was dire and she had lost her mom, the one person who had been her pillar of her strength, to cancer. Truthfully, she felt lost. Was it, really, too much for her to ask for a little sympathy?

Arielle tried to force her face into a blank expression. “Whatever.”

Chris snorted and left.

Arielle wondered if they should have gone their separate ways months ago. They broke up, but when she lost her mother, Chris said he wanted to reconcile, since Arielle needed emotional support. But Chris wasn’t of much comfort in her bereavement. He remained distant and aloof, so what was the point of them staying together?

She drew a deep breath, her heart heavy with anxiety.

Let it go. You don’t have time for this crap.

Just let it go.

Arielle decided to get to work to distract herself. She cleaned her desk and did some light filing. Since she had been demoted, she’d lost her secretary and assistant. She now did all the legwork for Sabrina’s cases. Researching and drafting strategies, preparing paperwork, all the things that Sabrina hated to do. All Sabrina needed to do now was to look good in front of the clients. The bitch rarely even argued her own cases at trial. It gave her frown lines, she’d said.

Arielle went to the firm’s law library and did some research on an arbitration that had been dragging on for almost a year. She jotted down notes and filled almost a whole legal pad before she retreated to her office and typed a counter offer for Sabrina to present to the client. She then studied the documents that Sabrina gave her and did some research on Frank Darbo.

Frank Augustine Darbo was a twenty-six-year-old entrepreneur, but he came from old money. His father owned a few construction companies in New York, Seattle, and Los Angeles. After several failed business ventures, rumor had it that Frank had been cut from the family gravy train by his father. But Frank bounced back because he secured a financial investment in his nightclub from Anthony Caputo, a notorious Jersey Mafia boss.

About seven weeks ago, Darbo was partying with his friends, and he got so drunk that he harassed a cocktail waitress to the point that the girl fell and hit her head on the table, and she sustained brain damage from her injuries. Sabrina currently represented the woman who sued him in civil court. Her boss tried to serve the guy, but Frank was slicker than an eel when it came to avoiding the summons in person. Since the in-house private investigator was swamped, the unpleasant job fell into Arielle’s lap.

Arielle wrote down Frank’s information, then she took the letter and placed it inside her purse. The guy owned a club about sixty blocks from her office in the Bowery, so no matter what time of day she went, it would be a trek. She would get a taxi this time and Sabrina could pay the fare. She didn’t care if Sabrina grumbled; this wasn’t her job to begin with.

The afternoon traffic wasn’t as bad as before, but it still took her about thirty minutes to get to Frank’s club. Because Frank liked to consider his club “exclusive,” one couldn’t easily find its location. It was sandwiched between a hookah lounge and insurance agent’s office. Arielle checked her watch.

It was 2:30pm.

Sabrina’s client informed the firm that Frank was usually at this club around this time. Arielle wondered whether she should barge in or wait and ambush him when he got out.

It felt kind of risky just to barge in, since Frank associated with nasty individuals. So, Arielle decided to ambush the guy. She kept her eyes on the Ferrari that was parked in front of the club. She checked the plate number and it was a match with the information she had in the file. The Ferrari definitely belonged to Frank.

Arielle spotted a Laundromat across the street, so she went there and sat on the bench inside the shop, waiting for Frank to come out. She waited for over an hour, but there was no sign of Frank and she found she was getting bored.

Arielle bought a frozen cherry drink from the convenience store next door, and then went back to her stakeout. She checked her watch again.

It was 3:45pm now.

She was hungry, tired, and annoyed. She had a lot of work waiting at the office and Sabrina was wasting her time by making her do this job. It wasn’t as if she was getting paid extra for this. Sabrina just relished the concept of making Arielle miserable.

It wasn’t long before her bladder was full from the drink, and she regretted her decision to drink that much liquid. She was pondering whether she should look for a bathroom or keep watching, and that was when she saw a squirrelly man that matched the description she had on Frank Darbo exiting the club. Arielle quickly sprinted outside, the envelope containing the summons was in her hand.

The man remotely unlocked his Ferrari.

“Frank Darbo!” Arielle shouted at him.