Power Lawyer 2 Page 2

  Sofia nodded as I went through my list. “I’ll also take a look at the brother.”

  “Good. I’m really curious about his spending habits. If he’s as free-spending as Anna suggested, then he may end up being our biggest problem. A wildcard like that can change everything.”

  “What do you think?” Sofia asked as I moved towards my office. “Does she have a good case?”

  I thought about Anna’s story and the cast of characters that had somehow become a part of her life. “I think she can get control of the company,” I replied. “I just hope we can do it without blowing it up.”

  “That’s good.” Sofia nodded. “I hate to think that these pendejos could steal her company like that.”

  “Yeah,” I agreed. “We’ll do what we can to help her.”

  “Yep,” Sofia said with a nod, and then she leaned back in her chair, smirked, and wiggled her eyebrows.

  “What?” I asked, even though I knew what she was about to say.

  “Anna was pretty hot, eh?”

  “Come on,” I groaned. “You know I don’t judge people by their appearance.”

  “Like super-hot,” Sofia continued as if she hadn’t heard what I just said.

  “Maybe I just like working with beautiful women,” I said as I gestured to my paralegal.

  “Oh, you are such a charmer, Vince,” she cooed in a pretty convincing imitation of Marilyn Monroe.

  “Yeah, and you’re blushing,” I laughed.

  “Is it hot in here?” Sofia laughed again as she pulled at the collar of her blouse. “I think you’re distracting me from working.”

  “Wouldn’t want to distract you,” I teased, and then I gave her a wink as I walked back into my office.

  The rest of the day passed quietly as Sofia and I turned to our tasks. Occasionally, I would hear Sofia on the phone, sometimes talking in English but mostly in Spanish. I knew better than to ask too many questions. Sofia was working her network, and it would probably produce far more useful information than anything sitting in the files of the Secretary of State of California.

  My own time was spent plowing through various finance schemes to find the best method to leverage Anna’s own takeover bid. I had never fully appreciated just how many ways people had concocted to move money from one place to another. Not to mention how many of those schemes seemed to land someone in jail. I quickly decided that any search result that included Milken, Madoff, or God’s Money was to be ignored entirely. Of course, that still left another entire treasure trove of bad money men to sort through but at least it was more manageable.

  By the end of the day, and after a phone call to an old classmate who now works for an investment firm, I’d decided the best option was to use Anna’s own shares as collateral for a loan. That loan would then be used to buy Leo’s shares. If the company remained profitable, the loan would be paid off and Anna would own eighty percent of the company free and clear. It may not have been the most ideal solution, but it left the family home untouched and gave Leo the one thing that he wanted most of all: cold, hard cash.

  Near five, Sofia stepped into the office holding a slim folder.

  “I have some feelers out,” she said. “I should be getting some answers back tomorrow.”

  “Great,” I replied as I stretched my back. “Anything interesting yet?”

  “Tucker Watts was brought into the company on the recommendation of the company’s attorney, a man called Joseph Kurzak. Watts was only there about a month before the company announced that two of the board members were leaving ‘to spend more time with family’. The other two followed shortly after. I haven’t had it confirmed yet, but I would guess Watts handpicked the new members.”

  “That would make sense,” I replied. “He’d want to stack the board with his own people in case Bernardi recovered.”

  “I’m heading out,” Sofia said as she set the folder on my desk. “I’m sitting with my grandmother tonight.”

  I nodded. This was Sofia’s way of letting me know that she would be in late tomorrow. “We’re good,” I replied. “We don’t have anything scheduled for tomorrow morning.”

  Sofia blew me a kiss before returning to her own desk. I could hear her shuffling the papers on her desk and the little tune that indicated she’d powered her computer off for the day. There was a moment of quiet, and then the front door opened. Sounds of laughter and music drifted up from the burrito place as Sofia stepped outside. Then the locked clicked into place and the office was officially closed for the day.

  I settled back for a few more rounds of punching numbers. I was so lost in my calculations that the sound of my cell phone ringing startled me. I didn’t recognize the number right away, but something told me to answer.

  “Hello?”

  There was a pause and then a now familiar feminine voice said, “I wasn’t sure if you were still at the office at this hour so I called your cell phone. I hope that was all right.”

  I glanced at the clock in the corner of my computer screen and realized it was nearly seven o’clock. My stomach suddenly rumbled to life; that reminded me that I hadn’t had anything to eat since Sofia had dropped a sandwich in front of me sometime during the day.

  “It’s fine, Anna. Are you home now?”

  “I am,” she replied.

  I shook off the fog that had settled into my brain. “Was anything moved?”

  “Two of the pictures had been switched, and a lamp by my bed was turned on.”

  “Did you call the police?” I asked. I really hoped she had taken my advice.

  “The officer just left,” Anna answered, and I could hear the exhaustion in her voice. “He was very polite if a little... bored. He took everything down, though, and he promised to check on me every day or so.”

  “That’s good,” I replied while I sent a quick thank you to the nameless officer. Maybe his visits would be enough to keep the bad guys away.

  “So...” Anna trailed off. “Have you had dinner yet?”

  I had a short debate with myself. One half of my brain was jumping up and down and fist pumping while the other half was blowing a whistle and throwing a yellow flag. On the one hand, I didn’t want to get too involved with my client.

  On the other, she was incredibly beautiful.

  “There have been some developments,” Anna added. “And I need food. All I’ve had today was a piece of burnt toast for breakfast and a Cobb salad with one itty bit of chicken and a single drop of dressing.”

  “You should have returned it,” I laughed. “Or at least asked for more dressing.”

  “I tried,” she said and I could just imagine the pout she was wearing as she told me this. “But the waitress swore up and down that they were out of the dressing. Oh, and bacon and cheese and tomatoes.”

  “So, just lots of lettuce,” I surmised.

  “Yes, though they were apparently running out of that as well,” she giggled.

  “Dinner would be nice,” I admitted, as I ignored the part of my brain that was now frantically waving the yellow flag.

  “There’s a good burger place in Santa Monica called Father’s Office--” Anna started.

  “I know it,” I replied enthusiastically. The yellow flag was replaced by images of a perfect burger and perfect-er shoestring fries.

  “In an hour?” Anna suggested.

  “An hour, see you then,” I agreed and disconnected the call.

  The drive to Father’s Office was surprisingly quick. I almost believed that a holiday had been declared and I’d somehow missed the announcement. The burger gods were clearly in favor of this little expedition

  Father’s Office was originally a beer lover’s paradise known as Father’s Beer. It was a popular local hangout for years, and one of those locals was so in love with the place that he kept asking the owner to sell it to him. That deal finally went through, and the new owner, a popular chef, kept the beer and added his own menu.

  The chef’s stated mission was simple - create the pe
rfect burger. And did he ever. The dry-aged meat was always juicy and the buns just thick enough to sop up the juice without falling apart. Top it off with some stinky cheese, seriously crispy bacon, and deliciously caramelized onions with a side of hot fries and you have the perfect grease lover’s meal.

  The place was still busy when I arrived, but I managed to snag a table in a corner near the bar. It was noisy but not so loud that you couldn’t have a conversation. I spotted a celebrity chatting up one of the bartenders while an ex-boy-band member ducked outside carrying a large bag of goodies from the kitchen. I soaked up this quintessential LA vibe for a few minutes while I debated what to order. And then, the restaurant grew a little quieter, and I knew she had arrived.

  She’d changed into something pink and wispy that flowed around her body and showed off her natural grace. She’d pulled her hair up into a loose bun, and I could truly appreciate just how stunning her features were. I noticed several men follow her with their eyes, but if she noticed the attention, she didn’t show it. She gave me a dazzling smile as she sat down, and I found I’d gone mute again.

  “Have you ordered?” she asked.

  “No, I just sat down. I’ll place our order whenever you’re ready.”

  Anna was clearly a regular. She dictated her order without even glancing at a menu. We ended up splitting an order of the chorizo fritters then gorged ourselves on burgers and fries in a basket. I topped off my feast with a dark brew, and I was one happy dude. Anna kept pace with me and yet somehow managed to remain pristine, a trick I had never quite mastered. We were just starting on our donut fries when I realized that she hadn’t told me about the latest developments.

  “You said you had news,” I mentioned as I dipped a donut in raspberry sauce.

  “You first,” she said. “Did you have any brilliant ideas?”

  “We may have a few options, but I think our best bet is to take out a loan using your shares as the collateral. The upside is that we’ll protect the house and your other personal property. On the downside, if you can’t pay the loan back, the bank will be the majority owner.”

  Anna scowled while she swirled her donut in the sauce.

  “It’s not ideal,” I added, “but you’ll have the shares you need to take back control now.”

  “I hate the idea of taking on more debt,” Anna sighed, “but I don’t have any choice. Every other option leaves the house vulnerable.”

  “Or leaves Watts in control,” I added.

  “Well, I suppose the bank would be better than Watts,” Anna noted with one of her happy little laughs.

  “Your turn,” I said just as she took a bite.

  She gave me a playful scowl, and after a long and deliberately slow exercise in chewing, she said, “I had a call from Watts this afternoon.”

  I placed the donut fry I had just picked up back on my plate. “And what did Chairman Watts have to say?”

  “Two things,” Anna began, “First, he made another offer for my shares.”

  “And the price?” I asked out of curiosity.

  “Still too low,” Anna said. “Assuming he called Leo and made the same offer, then we can definitely beat his price and that’s all Leo cares about.”

  “And the second bit of news?” I asked as I picked up my donut again.

  “He wants to call a board meeting to discuss the future of the company,” she replied. “I’m guessing they’ll vote for the new chairman as well. I told him I would be there. We’re just waiting on word from Leo on how soon he can be here.”

  “So he’s trying to consolidate his power,” I mused. “He must be worried about your activities.”

  “I hope so,” Anna hissed. “I don’t want that snake getting comfortable.”

  “Does he know you hired an attorney?” I asked.

  Anna’s gaze shifted towards a point over my shoulder, and she tilted her head to one side. “I didn’t actually say that I had hired an attorney,” she said after a moment. “And I definitely didn’t give him your name.”

  “Well, something’s spooked him,” I noted. “Why else would he suddenly want to call a board meeting?”

  “Did they follow me to your office?” she wondered aloud.

  I thought back to the Chevy that had followed her out of the parking lot. “Maybe,” I said.

  Anna gave a dramatic shiver. “This is so… bizarre. What could they be doing that they have to follow me around and try to scare me away from the company?”

  “We might have a better idea after the meeting. In the meantime, you might want to call Leo and make your offer, before Watts has a chance to pressure him into accepting his offer,” I suggested.

  “Tomorrow,” she said. “He’ll either be asleep by now or too drunk to make any sense.”

  “Wow, that’s just charming,” I observed. I did manage to keep the snark out of my voice, just barely.

  “Believe it or not, Leo is actually a smart guy. Maybe too smart,” Anna offered in defense of her wayward brother. “When we were kids, he was always far ahead of the other kids his age and he was always bored in school. Mom managed to keep him busy, though, working on things like Fermat’s theorem or the Riemann hypothesis. After mom died, Leo just, sort of, fell apart. Dad didn’t know what to do with him. When he finally left for college, the two of them just reached some sort of agreement. Dad would pay for whatever Leo wanted and Leo would stay out east and away from the company.”

  “But you obviously got along with your dad,” I pointed out.

  “I wasn’t exaggerating when I said my father was a great dad. He always took care of us, and I don’t mean he gave us money or sent us to good schools. He went to all of our recitals and games. Leo was in the chess club, and dad would show up for those matches too. He taught us how to ride bikes and swim in the ocean. He was always there when we fell or scraped a knee. Leo just… Leo needs something else. It’s like he believes the universe owes him for something.”

  “Did he ever visit when your dad was sick?”

  “Twice,” Anna sighed. “The first visit went great. They sat and talked and actually laughed at the same jokes. Something happened during the second visit. Neither would ever tell me what but Leo never came back after that.”

  “Four years is a long time,” I said.

  “Three years,” Anna corrected. “Leo’s last visit would have been about three years before dad passed away. At first, dad didn’t tell either of us how sick he really was. I don’t think he understood it himself. He’d always been in such great health and he’d only just completed his annual checkup, and the doctor’s found nothing wrong. Then a few months later, he could barely catch his breath or even get out of bed.”

  “What did the doctor say?” I asked.

  “There were a lot of theories and a lot of medications, but nothing ever worked. The first one was your basic pneumonia diagnosis. The last one was some obscure bacteria from someplace in Asia that my father had never even visited.”

  “What do you think happened?” I pressed.

  “I don’t know,” Anna replied pensively. “I really don’t. If it didn’t sound like a cheap thriller, I’d say Watts was somehow behind it.”

  “Stranger things,” I murmured as I thought about her father’s long illness.

  We finished dessert on a happier note and shifted our conversation to a discussion about the Lakers ills and all the possible solutions. By the time we stepped outside, we’d rebuilt the Lakers dynasty and turned the Rams into Super Bowl champions. As we walked towards Anna’s car, I spotted a familiar beige Chevy parked just across the street. I couldn’t see the driver but a quick glance at the plate revealed the same paint-splattered tag.

  “You’re being followed,” I said quietly.

  Anna giggled but then realized I was deadly serious. She tucked her hand around my arm and said, “You seem very certain.”

  “There’s a battered Chevy back there. It’s the same one that left the parking lot at my office when you drove away from
our first meeting.”

  “Damn,” she hissed quietly.

  “Let’s make sure. I’ll drive you home,” I suggested. “Let’s see if he follows.”

  Anna hesitated until I squeezed her hand. “I guess it would be nice to have you there if he does follow us,” she said.

  I squeezed back. “We’ll call the police once we get to your place. That should solve the problem, at least for tonight.”

  Anna nodded then leaned against me. “Just for effect,” she assured me with a saucy smile.

  We wandered past her car and crossed the street to my car. I opened the passenger door, and she gave me a kiss on the cheek as she slid inside. I made a point of pulling out slowly to give the Chevy a chance to pull in behind us.

  Anna pointed me towards her home, the Chevy just a car behind us. A mile down the road, I took advantage of a yellow light to shoot through the intersection and made a hard left turn. I sped up with the sound of squawking horns and squealing tires following behind us.

  I made a quick right and risked a glance behind us. It took a moment, but I saw another set of headlights make the same turn at a high rate of speed. Anna had turned around, and she hissed as she saw the car narrowly miss a group of pedestrians standing at the corner. I could hear a few choice curse words over the sound of tires trying to keep their grip on the road.

  I made another turn and came to a screeching halt. Late night road crews had blocked off the road and about ten guys were milling around, while one guy was jackhammering a spot dead center in the road.

  “Vincent!” Anna cried out. She had turned around again and now she grabbed my arm. I didn’t even bother to turn around. I pulled the steering wheel hard to the left and hit the gas. We started for the opposite curb and had nearly made our u-turn when a beige blur hit just behind our rear wheel. Metal squealed in protest as the two cars scraped against each other.

  I caught a glimpse of the driver. The same Asian man was behind the wheel. He gave me a dead stare and I realized he was using his own car to try to push my car into the wall of a nearby building. The two seconds we glared at each other felt like an eternity, and the spell was only broken when Anna screamed.