Revenge: A Bad Boy Romance (43 page)

The end was in sight when I came across an email that stopped me in my tracks.

Over the course of reading thousands of emails, I’d learned a lot about the inner workings of the company, including the fact that it had recently completed an investigation with the Department of Labor relating to diversity in recruitment.

The company had a decent mix of men and women, and all races were represented, but during a random inspection the DOL had discovered that the women and ethnic minorities were primarily placed in non-management roles.  

At the end of the audit, the company—which essentially meant the three white male directors—had promised to improve its selection procedures and actively work to get more women and minorities in the top roles.

None of this was part of the case at hand, so I didn’t have to flag any of those emails. I probably shouldn’t even have been reading them, but I knew a bit about employment discrimination and found it interesting. Anything to get through the day really.

The email that caught my eye today was between the three directors. The email chain was one long conversation between the three men who sounded like they were still immature frat boys and not in charge of a multi-billion dollar company.  

The way they talked about female employees was frankly disgusting, and their attitudes to anyone who wasn’t white was even worse, but the parts that jumped out at me were the references to the DOL audit.

The email chain made it clear that the directors were actively falsifying the information going to the DOL to make the company look like it was hiring women and minorities in positions of influence.  

The scam involved selective interviewing for positions that didn’t exist. The company could say it had interview women and minorities, and chosen not to hire anyone. It looked better than always choosing the white male instead.  

I might be just a law student, but I knew fraud when I saw it. The law firm might even be an unwitting accomplice in the company’s reports to the DOL. I had to tell Foster.  

His office door was closed, but then it always was. I walked over and was just about to knock when I heard a women giggling inside. It was Foster’s paralegal, a cute young Asian girl who had a ‘butter wouldn’t melt’ look about her. I stayed by the door for another second until I heard her laugh and say “I can’t do that here.”  

At least if Foster had moved on to someone else, it meant we could now talk about work without him making a move on me every five minutes. That seemed like scant consolation next to the mental image of him screwing his paralegal on his desk. I knew he wouldn’t have done that during the middle of the day—probably not, anyway—but I couldn’t shake the look of her on her knees, taking him in her mouth while he sat at his desk writing me an email.  

I’d never sucked him off that night, even though he had gone down on me plenty of times. Foster probably thought I was a selfish bitch who just let the man do all the work. I could’ve shown him that wasn’t true, but it was too late. I’d played hard to get for too long. If I’d given in right away we could have kept it fun and casual. Now it would be a big deal, and my head couldn’t take that kind of pressure.  

I ran back to my desk, and emailed Foster requesting a few minutes of his precious time. The paralegal left his office ten minutes later, straightening her skirt as she walked out. A few minutes later Foster let me know he was available, so I headed over with the incriminating emails in hand.  

“Yeah, come in,” he said casually from inside his office. He sounded relaxed. Why would he be relaxed after having his paralegal in here? I tried not to think of that as I walked inside and sat down.

“What is it?” he asked.  

Foster had one more shirt button open than usual, but he didn’t look particularly disheveled. What did that mean? Had they just been flirting?  

“I found something doing doc review.”

“You’ve been doing it for a week. I should hope you’ve found quite a few somethings by now.”

“Something bad,” I explained.

Foster raised his eyebrows and relaxed back in his chair. My eyes flicked down to his crotch which was just visible over the edge of the table. His zipper wasn’t undone. Another positive sign.

“Like what?”

“Do you know about the Department of Labor audit the company went through last year?”

Foster nodded. “I know about it.”

“But we didn’t help with it?”

“No, they handled that one with different counsel.”

“Good.”

“Why is it good that tens of thousands of dollars went to another law firm instead of mine?” Foster asked.  

“Because the company is filing false audit reports with the DOL. Look at this email.”  

I handed Foster the email chain and gave him a few minutes to flick through it. I kept waiting for his face to change as it dawned on him how bad this was, but he remained emotionless the entire time.

“I agree, this doesn’t look good,” Foster said as he placed the emails down on his desk. “Fortunately this has nothing to do with the case, so we don’t need to disclose these emails.”

“I know that, but what are we going to do about it?”  

Foster frowned. “Nothing of course.”  

“They’re committing fraud,” I said incredulously. “We can’t keep working for them.”

“We fucking well can,” Foster replied. “Do you have any idea how much we bill them each year? They’re my biggest client.”

“They’re discriminating against women and minorities, and then lying about it to the federal government. Do you want clients like that?”

“Yes,” Foster replied casually. “Clients who do bad things often need lawyers to help them when they get caught doing bad things. If everyone in the world treated each other with respect and acted honestly all the time I’d be out of a job.”

I simultaneously couldn’t believe what I was hearing, but also believed that he did mean every word. Foster only cared about the money. I knew becoming a corporate lawyer wasn’t exactly about defending liberty, but that didn’t mean you had to turn a blind eye to things like this. My mom would never have stood by and let this happen.

“We have to tell someone,” I pleaded.

“No, we certainly do not. We owe our clients a duty of confidentiality. That means you don’t go ratting them out to the government. For fuck’s sake, April, you need to learn to remain detached from the more unsavory side of this profession.”

“You mean I should just ignore discrimination?”

“No, you can call it out, just not when you’re being paid to defend a client.”

“This is ridiculous.”

“It’s life. Get over it.”

I growled. I couldn’t help it. The noise sounded pathetic, like when Simba tried to pretend he was a grown-up lion in
The Lion King
.

Foster stared at me and then burst out laughing. “What on Earth was that?”  

I laughed as well, and rubbed my face with my hands. I’d just growled at a senior attorney. Okay, so we’d done a lot worse, but I’d been the one insisting we act professional. I couldn’t just growl when I didn’t get my own way.  

“Sorry, I don’t know what came over me. That wasn’t appropriate. I think I’m just tired.”

“I don’t mind you being inappropriate,” Foster replied. “I encourage it in fact.”

“Like you do with your paralegal?” I asked, the question slipping out of my mouth before my brain could stop it.

“Jealous?” Foster said, grinning that stupid, sexy grin of his.  

“Only of her ass,” I replied. “I’d kill for an ass like that.”

“No, it’s too small. I’m all for a slim figure, but I need something to sink my teeth into. Now,
your
ass is just right. Did I ever bite your ass that night?”  

“No,” I replied, suddenly feeling like I’d missed out on something special. “Not my ass.”

“That’s a shame. Well, maybe next time.”  

There won’t be a next time.
Those were the words that should have come straight out of my mouth the second he’d finished speaking. Instead I stayed silent.  

There
would
be a next time. I knew that now. I didn’t know when, but it was inevitable.  

“You should go home,” Foster said, breaking the silence. “You’ve been working late a lot, and I need you refreshed before you get started on that memo.”

I nodded, and headed towards the door. I knew he was looking at my ass, but this time I didn’t care.

“April?”

I turned around as my hand was on the door handle. “Yes?”  

“My paralegal flirts with everyone in the office. You don’t need to read anything into it.”

“Okay.” I shouldn’t care. He could fuck whomever he wanted, and I’m sure most nights he did. I grabbed my purse, and headed out the door, not making any effort to hide that I was leaving early.  

Foster had gotten in my head, and I didn’t know how to get him out of there. I didn’t know if I wanted to; I was enjoying the company.

April was undoubtedly a woman of many talents. Despite her timid demeanor, she’d been a live wire in bed that night nine months ago, and judging by this memo, the girl had some legal writing skills as well. There wasn’t much sexier in life than a girl who was a good fuck, and could bill $400 an hour. Not for the same thing, of course.  

April had earned a place in the meeting today, so I had my secretary send her an invitation. The whole point of the meeting was to discuss the findings of the memo, so who better to be there than the person who wrote the damn thing? Unfortunately, that meant introducing her to Jacob. He was an ass. A very rich and successful ass, but an ass nonetheless. He loved himself and thought he was God’s gift to women.  

We probably should have been best friends, but something about him rubbed me the wrong way. I never left these meetings in a good mood, and this one wasn’t likely to be any different.

My secretary let me know Jacob was waiting in the large meeting room, so I swung by April’s office to collect her. She’d been sitting there, waiting with her trusty pen and pad of paper, looking nervous as all hell. This must be her first client meeting. It would likely be a baptism of fire.

“You ready?” I asked.  

“Yes,” she said eagerly, standing up and following me down the hall.  

“No need to be nervous,” I said.

“Do you need me to do anything in particular?”  

“Just introduce yourself, and present the findings of your memo and your legal conclusion. I need you to lead the meeting because I haven’t read it.”

I kept walking but noticed that April was no longer following. I turned around and saw her standing still, staring ahead, looking frightened. Frightened and beautiful.  

“You haven’t read the memo?” she asked nervously. “What if it’s all wrong? I can’t lead the meeting, I don’t know—”

“Relax,” I said, interrupting her as she spoke faster and faster, the panic audible in her voice. “I’m kidding. I’ve read the memo, and I’ll lead the meeting. Just sit there and look pretty.”

She breathed a sigh of relief, and resumed walking. “You’re a complete bastard, you know that?”

“You wouldn’t be the first woman to call me that,” I admitted. “Come on, let’s get this over with.”

I opened the door and let April walk in front, although she didn’t introduce herself to the client until after I had shaken his hand. Jacob appeared to be in one of his pleasant moods today. With any luck we would get through this meeting without him being a complete shit.  

Just before the meeting started, the partner technically in charge of Jacob’s business came in and insisted on staying. Alan hadn’t done any actual legal work for the client in years, but he still got all the credit when things went right, while passing the blame onto me if the outcome was ever less than ideal. Typical partner, really.

There was a slightly awkward moment where Alan and April had to pretend they already knew each other, despite the fact that they clearly hadn’t met before. April thought on her feet and greeted Alan the way a summer associate would treat a senior partner—friendly, but with respect.

“Here’s my card,” Jacob said, handing his business card to April.

“Thanks. I don’t have any cards yet. I’m just a summer associate.”  

I cringed. So much for pretending April was an actual lawyer and not just a law student. It was my fault, I should have mentioned it before the meeting.