SCOTTISH ROMANCE: My Sinful Surrender to a Highlander Werewolf (Scottish Werewolf Pregnancy Romance) (Historical Medieval Shape Shifter Paranormal Science Fiction Short Stories) (74 page)

I had dusted off those contractual law skills and found that I was finally finding my niche. Word of mouth was where I got most of my clients. I would not stoop to the level of advertising on a park bench or the side of a bus. McKenzie law was now synonymous for helping those small companies to survive in this doggy dog world.

I have a client that just hired me to make sure that their interests were my main concern. They told me that they thought that this big company that wanted to merge with them was trying to pull a fast one. They had given me the contract and I had gone over it with a fine tooth comb. If I wasn’t that damn good, I probably wouldn’t have found it. There was a fine print amendment that said after the first year that if that smaller company didn’t reach a certain level of productivity that the bigger company could take it over without any monetary supplement. That was in layman’s terms and it took me a long time to unravel the legal jargon that this company’s high priced lawyers had put together.

I had a meeting with that company’s owner and I was going to unceremoniously tell him that this was never going to fly. He wasn’t going to like it, but he was going to have to live with the fact that we were going to have to come up with something that would benefit both companies and not just one.

I looked at the photo on my desk and that smiling face had always brought a tear to my eye. She was always going to be my little girl, no matter if she was in heaven or not. Her death hit me hard and I think I finally realized that god does work in mysterious ways. Her loss afforded me the opportunity to look at myself more closely. I was working my nails to the bone and for the most part, I was making the rich richer and the poor poorer. I wanted to be better than that and make Angela, my little girl proud of me, as she was looking down from her cloud above.

She would have been 10 years old today and I have this tradition of one small cup cake with boiled icing on top. It was her favorite and it was sitting on my desk, as a treat after a meal that was fit for a queen. I had to give myself credit for holding back for as long as I did. It was 10 minutes to 12, when I finally couldn’t take it anymore. By the time Brad came in 10 minutes later, I was already polishing off the last noodle.

“I knew it and I should’ve gone with my instinct and came in here earlier. At least you saved the best part for last.” I had taken him into my confidence and he wasn’t even gay. He wasn’t might type, but he was already married and I’d met his lovely bride and we had gotten along famously. He was completely void of hair and I’d heard him talk often about swimming professionally. He didn’t like shaving, but he did it because it made his body able to move through water with the greatest of ease. “I think that we should share that in the memory of your daughter, Angela.”

I cut it straight down the middle with a very sharp metallic letter opener. I passed him a piece and we raised the pieces in salute to her memory. We savored that small morsel and then we sat in silence for the next 5 minutes in silent prayer. I was holding onto my cross and I was reliving those memories that made it easier for me to get up in the morning.

“I know that I’m early, but this is the only time that I have.” I raised my head and came face to face with this giant of a man. He was wearing this charcoal suit with a red power tie that was meant to intimidate most. His dark hair was cut short and he looked every bit the professional that I was. “If you can’t do it now, then I can’t do it at all.” He was obviously trying to usurp my authority and take control of the meeting. What he didn’t know was that I had the smoking gun and I was going to lay it at his feet and see what his reaction was going to be.

Chapter two

He stood by the window with his hands behind his back, trying to get underneath my skin. It wasn’t working and yet he was still trying to play the big man on campus.

“Mr. Young, I thought it best that we meet in private, so that we could go over this contract. I use that term loosely, because we both know that it’s not worth the paper it’s printed on. You’re used to getting your own way, but I can’t in good conscience allow you to play fast and loose with this company’s future. They hired me to do a job and I have given them my word that I will make sure that everything is aboveboard. You know as well as I do that your lawyers have a way of making those that don’t know legal jargon scratch their heads. Unfortunately, I do know what they were trying to say.” He turned and I could see that he was well put together and that he was no stranger to a gym.

“Miss Mackenzie, I think that we can agree that negotiations are a bit tricky at the best of times. I’m sure that we can come to an arrangement.” He pulled out a blank check and put it on my desk in front of my beloved Angeles face. “Whatever it takes to sooth your conscience.” He was trying to bribe me and I wanted to slap him across the face, but I thought it better that I play with kid gloves.

“Do not even pretend to know who I am, Mr. Young. I can not be bribed and there is no number that is going to make me betray the confidence of my client. I would like to tell you where you can stick that check, but I don’t think that you’ll like it much.” He sat down and he crossed his leg with his two hands firmly planted on top of his knee.

“Come now, Miss McKenzie. We both know how hard it is for a woman to make it in this profession. It has to be doubly hard for an African American woman.” I couldn’t believe that he was using that card. “This would make your life a whole lot easier and all you have to do is look the other way.” With each word that was coming out of his mouth, I wanted to wrap my hands around his throat and choke him, until there was no life left in his eyes.

“Oh, I see…you thought that since I was a woman and black that you could walk all over me like a doormat. I can assure you that that’s not gonna happen and the sooner that you get that through your thick skull, the better off the both of us will be. Now, I may not like you and actually I despise everything that you stand for, but that’s beside the point. It doesn’t mean that we can’t work together. I would really like to tell my clients that you are reasonable. If not, they’ll take their business elsewhere. I’ve done my research on you and your company and we both know that you’re not the one that’s helping them and it’s the other way around. Your numbers have been stagnant for the last three years and you need this new product to make yourself a growing concern again.”

I was wearing a very tasteful black pantsuit and if he was looking to give attitude, then he was going to get it back tenfold. “Nobody has talked to me like that, young lady. I’m not sure if I should like it or hate it. Let’s say for argument’s sake that you’re right and that my company is in a financial crisis. I don’t see how that matters and if this benefits your clients, then why wouldn’t you go to bat fort them.” He was good and he was trying to turn it around and was doing a pretty good job of it.

“I would love to make this work for all parties concerned, but we’re going to have to go over this contract and make some drastic changes. There will be no flowery words and no legal jargon that’s going to make my clients look at it and wonder what the hell they are getting themselves into.” With the way that his company was floundering, it was any wonder that he hadn’t declared bankruptcy. “You can see that I can speak my mind with the best of them.” I was waiting on pins and needles to see what his response was going to be. I half expected him to tell me where to go, but his demeanor had slightly changed and softened somewhat.

I think he was using that awkward silence to see if I was going to say something, but I was not going to fall for that kind of bait. Instead, I looked at my mahogany desk and remembered it being in my father’s study. It gave me back a sense of family and even though my parents had died, didn’t mean that I didn’t think of them fondly. I had a lot of loss in the past 20 years, but I was strong and confident. I had come out on the other side relatively unscathed.

“I am willing to concede to go over the contract, but I don’t want to do it in a stuffy office. I’ll come by around six and we can go to dinner and go through this in a more pleasant setting.” I’d never been attracted to white guys, because they really didn’t know how to approach a woman. Brothers were more blunt with their intentions and you knew where you stood from the moment that you saw them playing with those gold chains around their neck.

Before I could even respond, he was already out the door, leaving me completely tongue tied and wondering what the hell happened. It started off with animosity and a back and forth exchange that was quite heated. Now we were going to dinner together and frankly I couldn’t stand the man. If that was true, then why was I staring at his ass and wondering what it would look like with my teeth imprints in each cheek. I shook myself from that naughty thought and that was the first time that I had ever tried to mix business with pleasure.

“Are you OK, Vivian? I heard what he said to you. I bet it took a lot for you not to kick him square in the balls.” Brad made me smile and then I burst out laughing with no idea where it came from.

“I will admit that I was this close, but he surprised me. I guess we’ll see what happens when I go to dinner with him and then go over this contract. If he thinks that he is going to seduce me into siding with him, then he’s sadly going to be mistaken.” I still couldn’t believe that I was going to dinner with. I do have to say that his company was unique and their service was certainly something that people could use. Unfortunately, he did not believe in advertising and word of mouth was only going to get him so far. He needed to get his name out there and I had a few ideas about using social media to make that happen for him and my client. I knew it worked, because I had done it for my business.

“You can’t be serious and going to dinner with him was the last thing that I was expecting to hear from you. You like to have home field advantage. I think that he just tricked you into a compromising position.” I hadn’t thought of that before, but it did stand to reason that he would want to change the venue. This way, he could use that to his advantage. What he didn’t know was that I wasn’t going to play that game. This would be nothing, but a professional meeting, even though I was thinking of him in a more Biblical sense.

“I hadn’t thought of that before, Brad. I guess having you around is a good thing.” I was only teasing him. “I just have to make sure that this doesn’t become personal.” I don’t think that was going to be an issue, considering that I really didn’t like him to begin with. He was a nice package and there was no denying that he had a physique that would probably be better on somebody else. He was arrogant, cocksure of himself and that was not attractive qualities in my opinion.

I was going to call him and cancel, but I thought it best that I should at least hear him out. I stood at my window, overlooking the city that I loved. It cost me a small fortune to have this office, but it was worth it to have the kind of view that greeted me every morning. I sometimes found myself getting in early, just so that I could see the sun coming over the buildings. It was enough to think that I was just a small part in this thing we call life. I would make a sigh of contentment and then I would take a deep breath and steel myself for the day ahead.

I was going to change, but that would only send mixed messages to a man that thought he had all the cards in his favor.

I waited until 5 minutes, until he was about to pick me up and then I slowly made my way down to the lobby. I was 5 minutes late and he looked quite perturbed and that made me smile inside.

“Has anybody ever taught you punctuality, Miss McKenzie? It’s very rude to make some body wait. Never mind, it doesn’t matter and our reservations isn’t until 630. That gives us plenty of time to get over there. I hope you like Italian.” Actually, Chinese was my favorite, but Italian was second to none. I often found myself making my own pasta sauce on the weekends, as a way to wile away the time. It also let my creative side come out and play. I had a delicious recipe for a Fettuccine Alfredo that would melt in your mouth. Add a few shrimp to that recipe and it became something decadent.

“I just want to reiterate that this is a business supper.” I don’t know why I had to say that, but I thought it best that we got that of the way from the very beginning. I did find that he was a gentleman. He opened my door and allowed me to slide into the passenger side. You could tell that he was trying to make up for some kind a shortcoming. This red sports car was a cry for help and most likely some kind of midlife crisis. He didn’t look like he was old enough to have a midlife crisis and what I could see of his equipment made me think that there was no reason for him to be feeling shortchanged.

We arrived at the restaurant and I had to admit that it was very tasteful and not at all something that I would frequent. It was formal and I was still trying to save every dime, so that I could go on vacation when those frigid winter months arrived. Two weeks down in Cuba was my way of recharging and then I would be able to come back and face a new set of problems and clients that were clamoring to get me to take their case.

“I’ve arranged a private table in back, so that we can have privacy and go over everything that we need to go over. Just don’t forget about the food and the chef is a personal friend. He would take offense to us not enjoying ourselves.” I shrugged my shoulders, not quite knowing how he wanted me to respond. I followed him in and it was a place with tablecloths on top of the table which was followed by the faint glow of a candle on each table. There was a server that was just going around with a bottle of ice water.