Page 9 of Insidious Threats
“Splendid, no doubt,” Caroline agreed before turning to leave the room.
Amanda stirred a generous dollop of cream into her coffee and rested the used spoon on a ceramic tray. She took a cautious sip, then bobbed her head, surprised and impressed. This stuff was actually decent. She probably hadn’t needed to doctor it.
She turned to Gabe. “Can we peel off and talk for a minute or two, seeing as how Mr. Collins is delayed?”
Gabe looked at Naya.
“There’s nobody in the breakout room next door,” Naya told him, waving her hand toward her left. “Have at it.”
“Thanks,” Amanda said.
As she followed Gabe out of the room, she was acutely aware of Maisy Farley’s eyes on her back, tracking her progress. They walked in silence the few feet to the smaller room next door, and Gabe held the door for her. Once inside, he gestured toward the table and chairs, but she shook her head.
“What’s up?” he asked.
“Your Southern belle seems pretty frosty, Gabe. I thought you said she was a pushover.”
He pursed his lips and drew his eyebrows together. “Did I say that? If I did, I shouldn’t have. Maisy’s charming—well, usually—but she’s no pushover. She’s sweet, but strong.”
She took a sip of coffee and eyed him for a long moment. “Sounds like you’re sweet on her.”
Dusky color rose on Gabe’s cheeks.
“Wow, you are. Noted.”
He cleared his throat. “It’s nothing like that, Amanda. My relationship with Maisy is strictly professional.”
“Why do I sense a ‘but’ coming?”
“But, she’s a good person and, frankly,legally,I don’t see what the station’s end game is here. You know, eventually, you’re going to have to pay her.”
“I’m aware,” she said more testily than she’d intended.
He raised an eyebrow. “So …?”
Amanda sighed. “Look, Gabe, my client—ourclient—wants to drag this out. That’s his call.”
“Respectfully, my client is the station. It’s not in WACB’s best interest to get involved in a drawn-out battle with a woman who was once the most popular news anchor in the city and is now the darling of the podcasting set.Yourclient’s interests don’t seem to be taking the station’s reputation into account.”
He was right, and she had no valid response. So she trotted out Leith’s favorite truism, even though it made her skin crawl. “He who makes the gold, makes the rules. My client pays your client’s bills, including your legal fees. So he calls the shots. End of story.”
Gabe scrubbed his hands over his face as if they hadn’t been over this a half-dozen times on videoconferences in the past several months. Then he shrugged, resigned. “Well, I hope Mr. Delone knows what he’s doing.”
So do I,Amanda thought.
“Mr. Delone always knows what he’s doing,” she told him.
“Great. Good to know. Is there anything else we need to discuss?”
He seemed to be in a hurry to get back to the conference room, and she wondered how much of his eagerness was due to the lovely Maisy Farley’s presence and how much of it was a burning desire to get away from Amanda before he said something he regretted about their questionable legal strategy.
“One more thing. You’re sure this neutral mediator is neutral? It sounds like those lawyers know him pretty well.”
“Mickey Collins is an extremely successful plaintiff’s attorney. He made his reputation and makes most of his money doing class action work. His ex-wife is Judge Dolans—she’s on the federal bench. He was a decent draw for us.”
“Even though he’s obviously pro-plaintiff?”
Gabe sighed. “Yes. It hardly matters anyway. The entire city of Pittsburgh is pro-Maisy Farley. But the way I hear it, Mickey and Sasha have a history. It all went down before my time—I would have been in high school then. Anyway, the year Sasha was up for partner at her former law firm, she first-chaired a class action defense that Mickey brought against an airline company that crashed a plane full of people into the side of a mountain.”
