Page 61 of Take the Bait

“I can find out for you—” Zoey started.

“Forget it. I’m just going upstairs to confront whoever’s here, now.” She scooped up the affidavits and files she’d compiled from all the former women associates and rushed out of her office.

“Dani!” Zoey called after her. “Stop and think about this!”

“I love him, Zoey. I’m not wrecking his life!”

“But you’re wrecking yours?—“

The elevator door closed on her friend’s protest. Which was just as well. She knew what she had to do and exactly how to do it.

17

Dani barged past Mr. Whitney’s secretary into his office. Her continued employment at this firm could be measured in minutes, anyway. Who cared if she ticked off the guy’s secretary? Whitney was not in his office, but she heard voices coming from the attached conference room. She thought she heard Pinter’s voice in there. Perfect. At least some of the partners were together.

She stepped into the conference room boldly, and dead silence fell in what turned out to be a full house. Not only were all the senior partners there, but most of the junior partners.

She gulped. Do not chicken out. This is for Cam.

She took a deep breath and sashayed further into the room to stand at the foot of the long conference table.

“Let me guess,” she said breezily. “The topic of conversation just busted into your sanctimonious, holier-than-thou bullshit meeting.”

Various degrees of shock, anger, and disgust blossomed on the all-male collection of faces around the conference table.

“Here’s the thing, boys. I’m on to you. I can’t believe it took this long for a female attorney to put it all together and nail you bastards.”

“You are not invited to this meeting, Miss Wellford. Kindly leave,” Whitney declared stonily from the head of the table.

“Kindly…no. And kindly…stuff it,” she said back, mimicking the man’s condescending tone exactly. “I went to all the trouble of assembling these files and affidavits from dozens of former female employees of this firm, and you’re telling me you have no interest whatsoever in knowing what’s inside them?”

She deposited the tall stack of files and papers on the corner of the conference table, giving everyone a moment to take in the size of the pile and estimate that something like two-dozen detailed dossiers were complied.

“In that case,” she continued, “I’ll just take my files and head over to the courthouse with them. You can see them when they come to you in a discovery document from my attorneys.”

She made a production of gathering up the files, adding cheerfully, “Won’t this be fun?”

She was blatantly bluffing, but what the partners didn’t know wouldn’t hurt them. She always had been hell on wheels over a stack of pennies playing poker with her cousins.

She turned around with her armful of folders and made it all the way to the door before Pinter folded and called out, “Wait.”

She turned around slowly, for dramatic effect. Great legal arguments always contained an element of theater in them.

No sense giving up her tactical advantage by being the first to speak. She waited in expectant silence, staring around the room like a stern mother waiting for a guilty child to confess.

If only she had Raspy Voice’s name from Cam. Then she truly would have these assholes by the short hairs. As it was, she only had their amorphous fears and not quite enough evidence to convict them.

This time it was Whitney who couldn’t take the heat and blurted, “What affidavits?”

She waved a casual hand. “I contacted several dozen former female associates of the firm, all of whom only worked here for a year or two and rather abruptly and inexplicably left the firm. I inquired about the specific circumstances of their departures from the firm after such a short time here.”

The tension level in the room exploded. Jaws all around the table went tight, and several of the less-disciplined partners shot furtive glances at other partners.

Gotcha.

Now to play out the hand, finish out the bluff, and rake in the pot.

She said, “It was fascinating how similar their stories were. You wouldn’t believe how many of them included detailed anecdotal accounts of various…challenging…and disappointing…experiences they encountered in the work place here at WMP. It makes for riveting reading.”

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