The Red Eye 3 (The Red Eye Erotic Romance Series) Page 8

  When the phone finally stopped, my cell phone started ringing instead. Someone was clearly desperate to get in touch with me.

  Whoever it was, they could go to hell.

  I rolled over and switched off my cell mid-ring. The number was withheld, but I was guessing that it was probably Jennie, worried that I hadn’t shown up for work.

  I ran through my options. I could fly to New York, beg Devon to take me back. That was never going to work, not after the look of disgust on his face. I’d hurt him enough. I wasn’t going to humiliate myself any further trying to save a relationship that had been doomed from the start.

  I could stay in Boston and work my way up the ranks. In some ways this was appealing. They say the best form of revenge is to live well, and I could be a thorn in Grayson Caesar’s side, each success reminding him of my existence. But revenge wasn’t really my style. I was more the “cut ties and move on” type, and anyway, Grayson wouldn’t have been able to do anything if I hadn’t given him the ammunition. I couldn’t blame him for protecting his son from women like me.

  I could turn my back on Caesar and Krause and set up my own practice. I was a good lawyer and there were clients I knew would follow me, no matter where I went. I didn’t doubt my ability to pass exams whatever state I was in, and it wouldn’t take long to set up in practice. I was sure I could persuade Doug Leeson to bankroll me. Yet the law had lost its appeal. My work hadn’t been great recently. I’d been too distracted by my personal life. I wasn’t exactly in the right headspace to set up my own business and make it succeed.

  I chose D. None of the above.

  On impulse, I pulled myself out of bed and starting throwing clothes back in my suitcase. I wasn’t going to stay in Boston, that was for sure. I was heading straight for the airport to get on the first flight out of the city. Wherever it was going, that was my new home.

  There was a knock at my door just as I was zipping up my case. I ignored it as I started to throw things into my carry-on.

  The knocking continued, turning into a banging.

  At last, I stalked over to throw the door open. “What?”

  If Angela was taken aback by my hostility, she didn’t show it. The girl was good. I expected as much, given that she’d taken on—and won against—some of the most powerful men in business.

  “So you’re still alive, then?”

  She pushed her way past me into my hotel room. Noticing my case, she stood next to it, folding her arms and indicating it with a jerk of her head. “Going somewhere?”

  “Yes. Not that it’s any of your business.”

  “I disagree. You are, after all, my new boss. If you’re not going to be around, I need to know how to contact you in case of emergency. Like the one that’s come up this morning.”

  I considered telling her that it wasn’t my problem anymore, but I couldn’t help but be intrigued. “What’s happened?”

  “We’re being sued.”

  “What?” I couldn’t stop the laugh that burst out. “Don’t be silly. Who’d sue us?”

  “Irvine Pilkington.”

  “Who?”

  “Exactly.” Angela sniffed. “He’s a trumped-up little nobody who thinks that he’s going to get a multimillion payout just because his feelings got hurt.”

  “Tell me more.” I sat down on the edge of my bed while Angela made herself comfortable on one of the chairs.

  “He was a junior attorney working with us last year. Straight out of law school, he was your typical overachiever who thinks the world owes him everything because he’s got a law degree. It didn’t matter that so did the rest of us. His degree meant more because it came from Yale.”

  “Like yours.” I remembered reading it in Angela’s staff file. She’d graduated top of her class.

  “Like mine.” She smiled wryly. “Anyway, he was put on a document review project and he didn’t like the work he was given. He claimed that he was being discriminated against because he was a white male, so was being given twice the workload of anyone else, and then when he needed time off for a medical appointment, meetings were scheduled for the same time, so he couldn’t get the care he needed.”

  “Is there any merit to his claims?”

  “Not really. Sure, he could probably build a case, but normally we’d be able to tear it to pieces without any problems.”

  “Normally?”

  Angela sighed. “And therein lies the problem. It’s not just Irvine who’s filed suit. There are three other men, all young, all white, all claiming that their skin color and gender have resulted in their being discriminated against. On their own, none of them would stand a chance. Put them all together…” She shrugged. “It begins to look like Caesar and Krause have been practicing reverse discrimination as a matter of policy.”

  “I see.” I was torn. On the one hand, I’d packed my things. I was ready to leave the world of corporate law behind. On the other, even if it was the Boston office, any successful claim of discrimination would impact on Caesar and Krause as a whole, opening the floodgates to claims across all our offices. I didn’t want to see Devon’s family business suffer like that, even if Grayson did have the money to pay them all off and then some.

  “What are your suggestions, Angela?”

  “In the first instance, I’d be inclined to settle. Throw a bit of money at them, slap a gag order as a condition of acceptance, and quietly make sure they never practice in this city again.”

  “But…?”

  “There is the little matter of the company policy of never settling. We only use it as a last resort for our clients, so it’s not something we rely upon for ourselves. If word got to head office that we’d just caved without even attempting to fight, heads could roll.”

  She looked at me meaningfully. I didn’t care about my job, but it didn’t seem fair that others might lose theirs as collateral damage. Angela was likely to be out as well, and she didn’t deserve that kind of black mark against her name, especially since she was at the age when she needed to be gearing up for partnership.

  “Okay. So level with me. Just how strong a case do they have? Enough that we need to be worried about bad PR?”

  “Let’s just say that if we could persuade them to walk away before the media hears about it, it would be better for all concerned.”

  My mind was made up. “All right. Let me shower and freshen up and I’ll join you in the office. In the meantime, I want you to get together a team of our best minds and strategize various options for me. I want a concrete plan of action by the time I join you.”

  “You got it.”

  Angela crossed to the door, pausing before she opened it. “Look, I know that I wasn’t exactly welcoming when you came down here, but I know that you’re an amazing lawyer. I don’t know why you’re down here, but I do know that if anyone was going to give us the best chance of winning this thing, it’s you.”

  “Thanks.”

  She closed the door, leaving me unsure whether she’d heard me or not.

  I pulled out a suit from my bag, leaving the rest of my things still in it. I hadn’t changed my mind about leaving Boston, but I could at least oversee the planning phase of this case. If things went the way that I wanted them to, we could have this sorted out quickly and I could still be on my way.

  Angela hadn’t said anything about my appearance, and, looking at myself in the mirror, I was stunned that she hadn’t at least raised her eyebrows at how I looked. My eyes were all puffed up from hours of crying, with big, dark rings underneath caused by too much alcohol and not enough sleep. What was worse, I smelled of sex. Goodness knows what she must have thought. She wouldn’t have known that Devon had been to see me.

  To the outside world, I looked like someone who’d had a night of cheap alcohol and even cheaper hookups. Not exactly the professional corporate image the new boss was supposed to project. If I wasn’t careful, Angela would be launching her own discrimination suit.

  I lingered in the shower, enjoying the se
nsation of the steaming hot water pouring over me. I didn’t want to get out and face the world, but I knew that I had to eventually, so, reluctantly, I reached out and shut off the water.

  A shower went a long way to helping me rejoin the land of the living, and once I’d dressed and applied some makeup, I felt more like my old self again. Nobody looking at me would know that there was a gaping wound where my heart used to be.

  I picked up my purse, made my way downstairs, and grabbed a cab.

  Irvine Pilkington had chosen the wrong time to piss me off. He was about to learn what it was really like to feel pressure.

  Sixteen

  “Right. What have you got for me?”

  I looked at the serious faces gathered around the table. Maybe they were too intimidated by me to want to speak up, but silence greeted my request.

  At last, a lawyer whose name I didn’t know cleared his throat. “Well, ma’am—”

  “Oh, please. You can cut that crap right away. My name is Rebecca Bevan and I’m not old enough to be anyone’s ma’am.”

  “Yes, ma—Rebecca. Well, we’ve gone over the suit and we have a few ideas about how to handle this. It’s not as straightforward as we would like. It would appear that some of their claims do have merit.”

  “Oh really?”

  He blushed and adjusted his tie to cover his discomfort. “Yes, I’m afraid so. It seems that in our zeal to promote Caesar and Krause as an equal-opportunity employer, we have inadvertently been discriminating against certain members of staff in the mistaken belief that this was acceptable, indeed, encouraged by the law as it currently stands.”

  “So should the case come to court, we’ll lose? Is that what you’re saying?”

  “Not exactly.” Angela took over, casting her colleague a dark look. “If we can demonstrate that we were already in the process of overhauling our policies, we can argue that the plaintiffs are attempting to cash in and are nothing more than bitter opportunists, angry because their incompetency was exposed, and attempting to salvage their careers by the only means open to them.”

  “Go on.”

  Angela opened the case notes in front of her. “Many of the claims center around one member of HR personnel, a Josie O’Connor. She left by mutual agreement not long after the plaintiffs. We can argue that as soon as we became aware that she was overstepping her bounds and abusing her position to pursue her personal agenda, we disassociated ourselves from her and her actions.”

  “What else?”

  “There’s also the fact that none of the plaintiffs’ work was of a particularly high quality. We can produce multiple incidences of carelessness, poor judgment, and sheer incompetence. They may well find that if this case were to come to court, their ineptitude would be brought to light, which would have the opposite effect of what they were hoping to achieve.”

  “So your recommendation is?”

  “Get them in for a meeting with you. Your reputation for negotiation is second to none, so we believe that if you were to sit down with them and explain the futility of their claims, you could persuade them to drop the charges before they go to the press with their side of the story. So far, the case is nothing more than a footnote in the business pages, but it has the potential to become front-page news, and we want to stop it reaching that point.”

  “Fine. When’s the soonest you can haul them in?”

  “Leave it with me.” Angela snapped shut her case notes and the meeting was over, leaving me to go up to my office.

  “Rebecca! I’m so glad to see you. I didn’t think you were coming in today, and I was so worried that something had happened to you.”

  More like worried that something was going to happen to your job. I thought it, but didn’t say it. It would be unfair to blame Jennie for trying to cheer me up.

  “Yes, well, I wasn’t exactly feeling my best when I woke up this morning.” Jennie didn’t need to know that that was because I’d seen Devon for the last time. Let her think that it was because I was hung over.

  “I must admit that you don’t look all that great. Can I get you anything? Some Alka-Seltzer? Pepto?”

  “Just some coffee, thanks. Black and strong.”

  “That’s how I like my men.” Jennie grinned, but I didn’t return her smile, and she soon realized that now wasn’t the time to be making any jokes. “I’ll get you that coffee.”

  I went through to my office and booted up my machine. It was amazing how many emails could build up after just a couple of days when you were the head of a department. I scrolled down and my heart skipped a beat when I saw an email from Grayson. What could he want?

  My finger hovered over my mouse. I was unsure whether I should open it or not. It couldn’t be good news.

  Jennie knocked on the door with my coffee, saving me from having to read it just yet. “I brought your mail in as well,” she told me. “I’ve sorted them into the ones that need immediate attention and the ones you can sit on for a while. Also, Bernard from finance wanted to sit down with you and talk about your financial projects for the next quarter. I scheduled a meeting for this afternoon before I realized you weren’t coming in until late. I can cover for you if you like, reschedule it for later in the week.”

  “No, no, it’s fine.” I didn’t care what I did. If anything, the idea of losing myself in boring accounting for a few hours held a certain appeal. It was as far removed from my love life as possible and would be a welcome distraction.

  “Okay, well, if you need anything else, you know where to find me.”

  “Sure, Jennie. Can you hold my calls for the time being? Oh, and fetch me a copy of today’s paper. I don’t care which one.”

  “Of course.”

  Jennie left, closing the door behind her. I started sifting through my mail. The letter on the top was about one of our ongoing cases, and I could tell that it needed careful handling, but although I opened up Word and started trying to draft something, I couldn’t stop thinking about the mail from Grayson and what it might contain.

  In the end, I stopped pretending to work and clicked to open it.

  Ms. Bevan,

  It has come to my attention that you have broken our agreement. As I’m sure you are aware, your job offer was conditional on a certain level of discretion and non-disclosure. It has subsequently come to my attention that particular details have been disclosed to third parties, third parties you were under express orders not to contact. As such, our agreement is to be considered null and void.

  I’m afraid that you leave me with no alternative but to terminate your employment with Caesar and Krause with immediate effect. Caesar and Krause will cover your hotel expenses until the end of the week, at which point our obligation to you shall be considered at an end.

  Further, should I discover that you have contacted any of our existing clients with a view to luring them away from Caesar and Krause, I will have absolutely no hesitation with not only prosecuting you to the full extent of the law, but also releasing information to the media that I’m sure you will agree would be best kept private.

  I will be notified as soon as you have read this, by which point you will be escorted from the building. Should you be found entering any of Caesar and Krause’s premises after this point, you will arrested and charged with trespassing.

  Grayson Caesar

  There was a knock at the door. Jennie opened it, a concerned expression on her face. “Rebecca, there’s a couple of security guards here to see you. They say that they’re here to see you out. What do you want me to do?”

  “It’s all right, Jennie. Let them in. I never wanted to work here anyway.”

  Two large, burly security guards pushed their way past her and stood menacingly in front of my desk.

  “Ms. Bevan. You need to leave with us now. I’m sure you don’t want any fuss, so we’d advise you to come with us and we’ll escort you out with as much discretion as possible.”

  “Escort you out? Don’t you know who this is? Rebecca is the he
ad of this department. You can’t treat her like this.”

  “It’s all right, Jennie.” I waved her off sadly. “I’m not your boss anymore. I don’t even work here now. Thank you for your support and friendship in the brief time we’ve known each other, and wish Angela the best of luck from me. I’ve no doubt that she’ll make an excellent department head.”

  I got up and walked over to the security guards. One walked in front of me, one behind, as they took me over to the elevator and then out through the lobby.

  Staff members stopped and stared as they saw me leaving under guard, but I held my head high. I was past caring what people thought of me. The irony was that I’d only come back to the office to help preserve Grayson’s precious reputation.

  I was surprised that Devon had spoken to his dad so soon. Even on the red eye, I didn’t think that he’d have had time, but then maybe he’d called from the airport. I’d never thought that he’d confide in Grayson about his love life, but then I’d never known about Cindy either. Maybe I hadn’t known Devon half as well as I thought I did.

  As I climbed into a cab, I reflected that I was glad I hadn’t unpacked my things. Looked like I was leaving town after all.

  Seventeen

  I looked out of the window of the plane, not taking in the landscape below.

  The pilot’s voice came over the loudspeakers. “Ladies and gentlemen, we will soon be arriving in New Orleans. We hope you enjoy your time in this beautiful city, whether you’re here for business or pleasure, and we’d like to take this opportunity to thank you for choosing our airline.”

  There was no reason for my choosing to come to New Orleans except for the fact that I’d never been there and had always wanted to. I had heard all the wild tourist stories, but I had done my fair share of research and discovered there was so much more to the lush jewel of the bayou than just Mardi Gras revelers and parades. I couldn’t wait to see the unique architecture and meet the interesting people.