The Bad Judgment Series: The Complete Series (20 page)

“Excuse me,” Walker said to him, not meaning it.

“No worries,” Norris said, not meaning it, either.

“You’re right. No worries. Not anymore,” Walker said, flashing a brilliant, angry smile at them. “You are fired. Nicole is the only one I want representing me now. Will you continue to represent me?” he asked, his eyes searching my face. I gave him a brief, confused look. And then I found my big-girl panties, even though I was afraid to wear them.

“Of course I will,” I said, my voice shaking. I made myself stand up.

“So, gentlemen, considering these recent developments, please accept my resignation. I’m no longer an associate at Proctor
.
” I could hear my bank account weeping somewhere out in the distance but I ignored it, concentrating instead on David’s face, which was watching mine closely. “I’m going to represent Walker on my own. You need to forward all of his files to me, immediately.”

“Are you fucking kidding me?” Norris Phaland asked, in his cold, haughty voice.

“No, I am not fucking kidding you, Norris,” I said. “You want to talk about this in the ladies’ room?”

“Not particularly,” he said, and began inspecting his nails. “I don’t like to be surrounded by a bunch of cunts.”

“Are you fucking KIDDING me?” I shrieked. “What is it with you misogynists and that word? Is that really the best you can do?”

He looked up at me idly and shrugged, but I could tell he was in full-on crocodile mode, taking his time, plotting a way to get his ugly jaws around me. So that he could snap me in half at his leisure.

I looked back at him defiantly. “Anyway. I’m resigning. You just lost your billion-dollar account. File your Withdrawal with the Court.”

“Why are you doing this?” David asked, now looking at Walker.

“Because based on this information, I don’t trust you, now,” he said. “I trust her.” He jerked a thumb at me. “I don’t trust Lester Max now, and I never trusted your buddy Norris, here. So I’m done.”

“This is a mistake,” David said. “At least let me look into it.”

“You can feel free to look into it,” I said, my chin jutting out at him. “But Walker and I have to move forward with his defense. We have to convince the court that he’s innocent. Because he is. And all of this is just a sideshow to what’s really going on.”
A dangerous sideshow,
I thought.

“Gentlemen, this conversation is over. We’re done,” Walker said, and he grabbed my hand. My heart thudded in my chest. Norris and David just stared at us, jaws open, at this latest, most unbelievable development.

“You’re going to get disbarred, young lady, and I’m going to enjoy every second of that hearing,” Norris said, but when Walker turned to face him, he shut his mouth.

I pulled on Walker, trying to get him to stop moving towards Norris. “He’s just protecting me,” I said to Norris, lamely. “We’ve sort of been through a lot.”

Walker looked at Norris fiercely. “Don’t say a word about her to anyone,” he said, ferociously. “Or I will make sure that you regret ever seeing my face. Getting disbarred will look like a fucking cakewalk compared to what I’ll do to you.”

“So now you’re threatening me,” Norris said, assessing him. “You’re clearly in violation of your detention. You’re out of your house, you’re holding hands with your lawyer, and you’re criminally threatening an upstanding member of the bar. Who, up until about a minute ago, was one of your Counsels of Record.

“I don’t think he’s mentally stable right now,” Phaland said, turning to David. “I think we need to call his detention officer and have him brought in for an assessment.”

“I don’t think you want to do that,” Walker said. His voice was lethal.

“I don’t like threats, Mr. Walker,” Norris said, raising his heavy head and making full-on eye contact with Walker for the first time.

“Well, I don’t like threatening you, because then I have to think about you, which I don’t particularly enjoy,” Walker said.

Norris sighed and turned to David. “This is ridiculous. I don’t know what they’re talking about, and it sounds like they don’t, either,” he said. “And you’re going to let our client go, in this sort of state, a few weeks before his trial? This is insane.”

“Let them go,” David said, and waved his hand vaguely in the direction of the door.

Norris gave him a disgusted look and headed towards the door. “I’ll be back later, David,” he said. “I’m going to go get some actual work done for clients who appreciate my integrity. Not an over-built gym rat masquerading as a CEO and his slutty lawyer friend.” Walker reached out to grab his shoulder — to yank him back and do God only knows what to him — but I reached out and stopped him.

“Let him go,” I said. “I don’t want to look at him anymore.”

Walker released him, and Norris shot me one last filthy look before he was gone.

David looked up at us. “Nicole, I’m going to need to speak with you alone for a minute. You’re going to have to sign some forms and I’m going to need to get your identification and your keys. You’ll have to meet with HR briefly.”

Walker stepped towards the desk. “She’s not meeting with you alone, David,” Walker said.

“I’m not gonna hurt her,” David said. He exhaled and looked at Walker pleadingly. “You can stand outside with Linda. It’ll take five minutes. I’ll leave the door open. But I need to speak with her without any outside influence. I’m sure you can understand — as the partner who assigned her to this case, I feel I have some personal responsibility in all of this.”

Walker looked at me. “I’m fine,” I said. He frowned at me but nodded, and went out the door.

“You’re also going to have to turn in your laptop,” David said. He grabbed a pack of cigarettes out of his desk and held one, nervously jiggling it between his between his fingers.

“You’re not actually going to smoke that, right?” I asked, looking nervously over my shoulder at the open door. I couldn’t handle any more rules being broken right now. Walker holding my hand in front of two managing partners and firing my law firm all in the course of a few minutes were already more than I could handle. I wanted some normalcy. Not a dead delivery man, a client who insisted on holding my hand in public and my former boss smoking in his office. All before ten-thirty in the morning.

“My laptop is at Walker’s,” I lied, picturing it in the back of the BMW. “But I’ll get it to you this afternoon or tomorrow.”

“Fine.”

“And I can turn in my keys and any other files I have at home in then, too.”

“Fine.”

“What about Walker’s files?” I asked. Typically, when a firm was fired, everything was boxed up and sent to the new law firm. But this was me. And as of about four minutes ago, I no longer had a law firm.

“I’ll have everything sent over to your house,” David said. I nodded at him. “You’re going to have to notify the Bar about your change in circumstance,” he said, “and you are going to have to get gap coverage for your malpractice insurance. Not that Walker is going to sue you, anytime soon.”

He sank back in his chair and continued to tap at his unlit cigarette. “I’m afraid I’ve failed you,” he said, and smiled at me wanly. “First of all, I didn’t expect that you would be vulnerable to Mr. Walker’s charms, of which there are many. You’re a brilliant young woman, but I should have known that your brilliance wouldn't make you immune to him.”

I just stared at him. I could feel my brow furrow. “Walker’s hotness is not the problem,” I said.

“I just said that was first. And his ‘hotness,’ as you refer to it, isn’t helping, either,” he said. I shrugged.

“Second, I didn’t inform you about all of the measures that Blue was taking to protect Walker’s assets, in the event that he had to go to prison. I don’t know about the Miami sub-corporation in particular, but I suspect that was what it was set up for, Nicole. I guessed that you would trust the firm’s approach to handling things and come and see me first, instead of blowing this up with Lester Max and Walker himself.”

“If this is for his benefit, why are Lester Max and our firm getting the lion’s share of the revenue?” I asked.

“I can’t speak for Lester Max. But any extra income coming into this firm, from any source related to Blue, is going into a trust for Walker’s benefit,” David said, pinching his eyes shut. “So that some of his funds are protected from government seizure.”

“Isn’t that completely illegal?” I asked.

“It can be. But the way Lester set it up, it circumvented the statute.” He opened his eyes and shrugged. “It was one of those things. Doing what needed to be done in the client’s best interests.”

“Lester Max didn’t seem like he had Walker’s best interests just now,” I said. “And frankly, neither did Norris.”

“Norris is an asshole,” David said and sighed.

“A dangerous asshole,” I said.

He nodded. “I can see how you’d feel that way, Nicole. He
is
a little scary. But he’s never done anything illegal. I wouldn’t practice law with him if he had.”

“He hid in the ladies’ room in the stall next to me, and then jumped out to scare me and yell at me,” I said, shrugging. “And he just used the c-word.”

“That’s just gross. It’s not illegal,” David said.

I gave him a disapproving stare. “It’s so gross it ought to be illegal,” I said.

“You’re going to have to trust me on this, Nicole. I’ve been practicing law — high-end law, with big dollars at stake — for almost three decades. I’ve never had a professional complaint filed against me. That’s saying something. I’ve always been meticulous with my work. And I’ve always put my clients first. Including Walker.”

I almost believed him. I wanted to believe him. What I
didn’t
want to believe was that he and Lester Max had somehow colluded to rip off Walker. What I
didn’t
want to believe was that the government had falsely accused Walker of criminal charges so they could have a monopoly on his patents and his intellectual property. What I
didn’t
want to believe was that we were surrounded by people we couldn’t trust, being followed and watched, people being hurt around us, with nowhere to turn.

“He should have been told, David,” I said, and I sounded resigned to my own ears, distant. “Even if you were doing it for his benefit, which I’m not sure I believe, he should have been told.” I stood up to go. “I appreciate everything you’ve done for me. Please make sure Tammy gets to work for someone nice.”

David stood up. “I’ll have HR get the paperwork ready while you grab your personal things from your office. You’re going to have to have security escort you — and I want you to know it’s standard, you’re not being singled out.”

I snorted as I walked out the door. “I could certainly use a little security,” I said. “Although it may be a little late.”

“Goodbye, Nicole,” David said.

“Goodbye, David. Please don’t start smoking again. You look like you’re about ready to pop.”

Walker was waiting outside. Linda was beaming up at him. I clenched my hands into fists. “Linda, I’m leaving the firm,” I said, and she looked at me with a hint of surprise and a whole lot of distaste. “That means your boyfriend’s out of here, too,” I said, jerking my thumb towards Walker. “So say ‘bye-bye.’”

“Bye?” Linda said, clearly stunned.

“Bye-bye,” Walker said. “We may be in touch, Linda. Thanks for the coffee.”

I
stuck
my head into Alexa’s office on my way. Walker stood by me, calmly eyeing the large, beefy security guard who’d met us two seconds after we’d left David’s office.

“Well, look what the cat dragged in,” said Alexa. “Or at least the managing partner.”

She lit up when she saw Walker. “Hello, Walker,” she said and grinned at him wildly. “How’s it hanging?”

I turned bright red. “Can you not…talk like that?” I asked. “Ever again?”

She shrugged at me and raised her eyebrows. “I don’t make promises about the future.”

“Oh, I know. Just for the moment,” I said.

She shrugged again and Mandy came in, breathing hard. “Nicole?” she asked, looking at the security guard. “Is it true?”

Well, that was fast. I hadn’t left David’s office two minutes ago.

“It’s true,” I said, and noticed Alexa looking at me with her brow furrowed.

“You’re
pregnant
?” Alexa shrieked, clearly horrified.

Walker laughed and disguised it as a coughing fit as I glared at her. “Hardly,” I said. I put my chin up. “I’m leaving the firm.”

“You’re
fired
?” Alexa screeched, and I glared at her some more.

“I
quit,
” I said. “David, Norris and I had a disagreement about how Walker’s case should be handled. So he fired the firm. And hired me. So I quit.”

It sounded strange to my own ears. I hoped that I’d get some other clients, eventually. Being a one-woman firm with one client was a little daunting. Then I looked at Walker, his thin tee-shirt outlining his pectoral muscles, his very large biceps visible, and suddenly, it didn’t seem so bad.

“So you’re going to handle his representation by yourself?” Mandy asked, and I could see the worry behind her eyes. “It’s a lot, Nicole. I’ve been going through the documents and it’s complicated.”

“I know,” I said, and for a second the enormity of what I was about to undertake weighed on me. “But I’ll just give it everything I have. That’s all I can do. And it’s always been enough, so far.”

“You’ll be fine,” Mandy said, and came over and hugged me. “Dinner,” she said. “You and me. Soon.”

I nodded at her and I turned to Alexa. “Alexa, it’s been a pleasure,” I sniffed, but she barreled over unexpectedly and hugged me, tightly.

“You be careful,” she whispered into my hair.

“You and Mandy be careful,” I whispered back. “I mean it. Remember our liquid lunch. Look out for each other.”

She pulled back and nodded at me. Then she turned to the security guard, checking him out.

“Hey, big boy,” she said to him flirtatiously, and he looked stunned. She turned back to me and shrugged. “Gonna need to ratchet up the excitement around here, now that you two are leaving.”

I turned around then and left. Walker and the guard followed me. I didn’t want to look back. I didn’t want to cry. I was relieved that Tammy was still out when I got to my office; I grabbed the makeup bag she’d left for me and my time sheets, which I would still need to complete so the firm could be paid for my time to date. I scooped my toiletries and change of clothes into a bag and then met the HR woman on the way out. Walker held everything while I signed my separation agreement, not letting myself think, not letting myself feel, not letting myself comprehend the full extent of what this meant. No more cushy office. No more six-figure paycheck. No more of the firm paying my bar dues, my malpractice insurance, my continuing education classes. I briefly thought of Richie, and my brothers, and then my student loans, but I made myself stop.
Enough,
I thought. There was being responsible and then there was doing what was right. To date, I’d always thought they were the same thing.