LOVING THE HEAD MAN (31 page)

       “You worry too much, Brianna,” Matt said with a condescending smile. 

       “But what are you actually doing?  I don’t want Robert coming back with this still hanging over his head.”

       “I’m letting the criminal catch herself.  I’m giving her the rope, and waiting for her to hang.”

       “In other words, you’re doing nothing,” Bree said pointblank.

       Matt’s smile left and his pretense to appreciate her concern was over.  “Get out of my office,” he ordered. 

       “But it’s the truth.”

       “Take your gotdamn truth and get out of my office.”

       Bree stared at
  him
.   She wanted to fight back, but she knew she’d be pushing it.  He wasn’t just anybody, but was a partner at Colgate.  Robert would probably kick her to the curve before he allowed her to lose an attorney the caliber of a Matt Dougan.  She got out of his office.

       But as soon as she made her way back into her office, she phoned Monty.  “We need to meet,” she said. 
“At Robert’s house.
  Matt isn’t doing a gotdamn thing for Robert’s case and I’m not standing by and taking it another second.”

       “Agreed,” Monty said.

       “See if you can
wrangle
Lee Clayton.”

       “Ah, you want a big boy.”

      
“The biggest that I have confidence in, yes.”
           

       “Matt won’t like it.”

       “Good,” Bree said, and hung up the phone.

***

They met around the dining table at Robert’s penthouse apartment. 
Bree, Monty, and Lee Clayton.
 

       “What we need,” Bree said, “is dirt.  Not information on Deidra, but dirt. 
And not just on her, either, but on her family, on that former Supreme Court justice granddaddy of hers.”

       “What good will
that do
?” Monty wanted to know and Lee rolled his eyes.  Although he and Robert were friends, he and Monty barely could stomach each other.  Monty saw Lee as some showboat lawyer in the spirit of a Johnnie Cochran.  Lee saw Monty as an adequate lawyer in the spirit of a yes-man to Robert.

       “You don’t understand what good that’ll do?” Lee asked Monty.

       “I’m simply asking a question,” Monty said defensively. 

       “Deidra is a very proud girl,” Bree said.  “Everything she stands for is all about her virtuous family.  That’s what she’s selling whenever she appears on these TV shows. 
Blonde hair, blue-eyed virtue.
  We’ve got to knock the shine off.”

       “But for what purpose?” Monty asked and again Lee rolled his eyes.

       “The purpose is,” Lee said, “that when we finish with her, she’ll wish she never tussled with us.”

       “She’ll know,” Bree said, to be clearer, “that if she keeps this lawsuit going she’s in for a fight.  And we’ll try to make her understand that with every fight nobody, not her, not her box office appealing, all-American family, will come out of this the same.  If she continues to put dirt on Robert, we just want to remind her that she’s going to end up with even more dirt on herself.  We need all the dirt we can round up on her, and then we’ll meet with her and lay it all on the line.”

       Monty nodded.  It wasn’t his style of defense, but given what Matt had in the offing with his hands-off, do-nothing approach, it would have to do.

***

Robert, in a pair of shorts and polo shirt and walking with a cane, was out on the grounds when Bree returned to his estate in Wyoming. 

       “Brianna!” he yelled, waving his cane, when he saw her coming up the footpath near the lake where he was standing.  Although Bree had only been gone for a few days, he had missed her terribly. 

       “Hello stranger,” he said as she approached, her jeans and silk blouse making her appear more youthful than her twenty-five years, and made him feel much older than his thirty-eight.  “Made it back?”

      
“Yup.
  Glad to be back, too,” she said as she stood before him.  Robert had never been automatically affectionate.  He first had to size you up, make sure you’re okay, before he committed to any hugging and kissing.  Bree even noticed how he checked out her attire, before he pulled her into his arms.

       “I’ve missed you,” he said as he held her.

      
“Same here.”

       Then he looked her in her eyes, and kissed her. 

       They had not had any sexual contact since Robert’s attack, but she noticed just before she left how he was beginning to get that look again.  Now there was no doubt in her mind as he kissed her. 

       But it would be another two weeks before they actually went that far. It was a breezy Wednesday afternoon, and Bree, Robert, and Zack were relaxing on the front porch when Bree’s cell phone buzzed.  When she looked at the Caller ID, and realized it was Lee Clayton, she answered immediately.

       “What’s up?” she asked, glancing at Robert.  Robert was staring at her.  “

       “They’ve agreed to a meeting,” Lee said into the phone. 

       “That’s great. 
When?”

       “Tomorrow morning at 9
am
.”

       Bree closed her eyes.  She wasn’t ready to leave just yet.  “Okay,’ she said.  “I’ll see you tomorrow.”

       When she hung up, both Robert and his son were staring at her. 

       “Who was that?” Robert wanted to know.

       “Lee.”

       “Lee Clayton?”

      
“Yup.”

       Robert studied her.  “Why would Lee Clayton be calling you?”  The young, smart, gorgeous Lee Clayton, he added inwardly.

       “He’s been helping me out, that’s all.”

       “Helping you out?  He doesn’t work for Colgate.  Why would he be helping you?”

       “It’s not related to my job at Colgate.  He’s just helping me out, that’s all.”  If she told Robert what Lee was really helping her to do, he’d put an end to it instantly and let his hero Matt Dougan handle it. 

       “In any event,” Bree continued, “I have a meeting tomorrow morning in Chicago, so I’d better book a flight online and go and get packed.”  She stood up.   “If that’s okay with you,” Bree added, unsure by the look of concern on Robert’s face.

       “Yes, it’s okay,” Robert said, still staring at her. 

       “I’ll be back.”

       When she entered the home, and the screen door slammed shut behind her, Zack took her seat next to his father.  “Want me to go with her, Dad?” he asked.

       Robert smiled, put his arm around Zack. 
“No, son.”

       “But you know how smooth Lee Clayton can be.  I mean, he’s a good lawyer and all, but he’s a straight up womanizer.”

       “I know that, too.  But I’d trust Brianna with my life.”

       “But why would he be helping her?”

       Robert ran his hair through his son’s thick mane of blonde hair.  “I don’t know.  It could be personal, concerning her family.”

       “Why won’t she just say it if that’s the case?  I think I should go with her, Dad.”

       Robert smiled weakly. 
“To keep an eye on her for me?”

       “Yes!”

       “No, son,” Robert said, his smile now gone. 
His face grim and concerned.
  “I have to trust her.”

       Zack snuggled closer into his father’s embrace and looked up at him.  “You really love her, don’t you?” he asked.

       Robert nodded.  “Yes.”

      
“Why her?
  I mean, she’s all right, I like Bree now, but . . . look like you could do way better than her.”

      
“In terms of what?
  Looks?”

       “And class and culture.  You know.”  Zack said this with a knowing look.

       “If you’re trying to infer that Bree isn’t some gorgeous rich white woman closer to my age, rather than yours, you’re correct.  She’s not.  She’s a gorgeous woman who happens to be black, who happens to be poor, and who has agreed to love your father and give him a chance.”

       Zack stared at Robert.  Sometimes his father was as hard to figure out as some enigma in molecular biophysics.  “Her give you a chance?” he said.  “Dad, I don’t think you really realize how great you look and how rich you are and how any woman anywhere in this world would be thrilled to
give you a chance
, are you kidding me?  She’s not doing you any favors.  She’s probably counting her lucky stars for catching your eye.”

       Robert looked at his son.  He still didn’t understand.  “You’re looking at it wrong, son.  It’s not about what I can do for her.  I know what I can do for her.  But what she does for me is the difference.”

       Zack, however, looked doubtful.  “What does she do for you?” 
he
asked. 
Other than let you fuck her brains out like there’s no tomorrow
, he wanted to add.  Although he had to admit he hadn’t heard any such rabbit-humping from the two of them in all of the weeks they’d been in Laramie.  “Well?” he asked again.  “What’s so great that she does for you?”

       “She brings out the best in me, Zack.  She makes me want to do the right thing, to live like the man I’ve always wanted to be, but situations never allowed me to be.  In the courtroom I’m ruthless.  I believe my clients, no matter how repulsive, have a constitutional right to fair and competent representation, and that’s what I give to them.  And I fight like a junkyard dog to get my client off.”

       “But you fight fair,” Zack reminded him.

       “I fight fair,
unfair,
I do what I have to do to get that favorable verdict.”  Robert frowned.  “And I’m not proud of that.  They call me the toughest attorney in America because of my tenaciousness, my win-at –all-cost mentality.  But when I’m with Bree,” he said, his smile returning, “I actually feel tougher, stronger, because I feel moral when I’m with her.  She brings out the best in me, Zack.  She makes me want to be a better human being.”