Page 122 of The Rules Of Attraction
“I’ll give another fifteen grand.” Devon cut in just as I was about to talk. “Fifteen thousand and nothing more. It’s fair.”
“Fair?” Jude took him on. “You know it’s not. She has medical bills and loss of potential earnings. We’ll let the judge decide what’s fair.”
“Twenty,” Devon replied.
“Stop it.” I interrupted his next words.
Jude laughed. “Ridiculous. We’re done here. Seventy grand was the minimum, we’re taking this all the way with a minimum settlement of a hundred grand.”
“We’ll see you in court.” I retorted.
Mrs. Denman looked worse as they left and I saw her wipe a tear away from her eyes.
Summer gave me a worried look when she left the room too making my stomach twist into knots. She knew how I felt about the case. I hadn’t shared any of the things I’d discovered that night when I was researching, but she knew enough.
Devon twisted in his chair to face me when the door closed.
“You were supposed to keep the case out of court, Alex.” He spoke in a slow purposeful tone that infuriated me.
“What the fuck was that? Don’t undercut me ever again.” I balked. If the fool had told me before that he was willing to pay up to twenty thousand grand more I would have worked it into my argument.
It was fine though, because he’d just showed desperation which just added to my suspicions.
“You were supposed to keep the case out of court.” He blurted now, face red, and eyes blazing.
“Why are you so determined to keep it out of court?” I shot back. “What aren’t you telling me?” I decided to test and see his response.
“Nothing.” He slammed his fists down. “Just make sure this doesn’t get blown out of proportion. I’m a private man. I don’t want my company dragged through the court and the media.”
“Is that all your worried about?” I was really testing him.
His face contorted into a heavy scowl. “Look Alex, I don’t know what you’re implying or what you think I may be worried about. I simply don’t like going to court. But here we are, at the place I didn’t want to be. I know Jude, he’ll dig as far as he can to make me look bad. Don’t let that happen.”
I didn’t answer because I knew Jude too. The guy was a shark, but a little like myself. He didn’t do anything without a reason and he did what was necessary to do the right thing for his clients. Even if that meant pissing off a few people on the way.
Devon stood up, annoyed by my silence and marched out of the room slamming the door as he walked out.
I knew I’d end up feeling worse than I did before, and I couldn’t do anything about it.
Was I supposed to pretend that my suspicion wasn’t through the roof?
The door opened and Summer came back inside.
“Hi.” She walked over to me.
“Come here, angel.” I took her hands and pulled her into my lap.
“Alex, if someone walks in here and sees me in your lap their going to have questions.” She smiled.
“I don’t care, baby.” I didn’t. There was so much crap going on. Summer was my compensation.
“Alex, are you okay?” Her eyes were filled with concern.
I shook my head. “No, I’m not.”
“I didn’t think so. You gave a good argument, but you didn’t believe any of what you said.”
I had to look at her, really look at her. “How’d you know?”
