CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX
I'd cleaned up the remnants of the ruined dinner, dumped the floral arrangement Dax had sent into the trash with it and licked my wounded pride, I showered, got dressed, and headed into the office. Determined to be the consummate professional, I'd put on my least sexy, most official looking pantsuit and pulled my hair back into a severe bun.
"Good morning, Alma," I said as I walked into the office. I stopped at the desk and picked up the stack of papers that were piled on the edge of it.
"Good morning, Miss Raines," Alma said as she sized me up. "Today's weather looks like it might be a little on the stormy side, so I think your usual lovely morning will prove to be turbulent, but it should clear up by afternoon and be sunny."
"Thank you for the weather report," I said with a smile that didn't reach my eyes. "Are Jordie and Roger in yet?"
"No, I don't believe they are," she said and then added, "But they did clean up the conference room, so there's that."
As I walked back to my office, I chided myself for not being kinder to Alma who was only searching for a way to be helpful and maintain an efficient office. I'd have to do something nice for her later. On my desk there was a stack of papers with a post-it on top that read: Sorry we screwed up. Conference room is clean. Will be back in the morning for meeting. - J&R
I sighed as I pulled out the chart on top of the stack and looked at what they'd done. I spent the next two hours reading through the pile of paperwork they'd left me, and when I was done, I looked up to find both men standing in the doorway to my office.
"You ready to talk?" Jordie asked.
"Yep, let me grab my notes," I said as I opened my briefcase and pulled out the stack of papers I'd been working on the day before. I joined them in the conference room and spent the next several hours giving them the run down on how we were going to attract new clients from the central booking cells. My plan made sense, but it also required both Jordie and Roger to actually be present down in Central. After clarifying the finer points, I asked if there were any questions and when they both shook their heads and said there weren't, I turned them loose.
I hoped this plan would work, but I couldn't be certain that we wouldn't draw fire for undercutting the Public Defender. What I hoped would happen was that the PD would be so grateful that we'd taken on the smaller cases that generally wasted his time, that he'd turn more of them over to us. What we couldn't generate in several big cases, we would make up for in volume. I just hoped this would work the way I'd planned and that neither Jordie nor Roger would screw it up.
Before I called and ordered lunch, I walked down to Alma's desk and asked if I could order something for her. She looked up at me and replied, "Oh no, Miss Raines, I always bring my own lunch. You can't be too careful about what they put in the food supply these days."
I scanned her face for any traces of irony, and when I found none, I went back to my office and ordered the biggest, messiest cheeseburger and greasiest fries on the menu at the LID and asked them to have it delivered. Then, I dug back into the stack of paperwork on my desk and waited for my lunch to arrive.
#
was halfway through my greasy burger when Teddy stuck his head in my office and asked what I was doing.
"Eating lunch at my desk," I said with my mouth full of juicy burger. "Want a bite?"
"Yeah, actually, I do," he said walking in and grabbing the burger out of my hand and sitting down in the chair across from my desk. "Brooke, what's going on?"
"What do you mean?" I asked as I dipped a fry in catsup and popped it in my mouth. I knew that Teddy was going to finish off my burger, and sure enough, in three big bites, he did. "You're such a pig!"
"You offered!" he protested as he chewed. "But seriously, what are you doing?"
"And again, I will ask what it is you mean by that," I repeated.
"Billy said you were in the back room at Dooley's with Malone last night for a long time," Teddy said as he watched my face carefully. As kids he always knew when I was lying. I never knew how he knew and now, even as adults, he wouldn't let me in on the secret. Even though I'd tried to bribe him with money, goods and finally appeals to his sense of justice by telling him that if he showed me how he did it, then I could use it to catch the bad guys. He'd never given it up, and in the process I'd learned to be very careful about what I said and didn't say to my brother.
"Maybe I was and maybe I wasn't," I shrugged as I pushed another fry in my mouth and then held out the box to my brother. He took a fistful of fries and then sat back and watched me as he popped them one after another into his mouth and chewed.
"You were," he said. "Can't deny that one, too many witnesses."
"Okay, so I was," I admitted. "What's it to you?"
"Brooke, you don't want to get mixed up with a guy like Malone," Teddy said.
"And why is that? Are you afraid that I'll emasculate another of your fellow men and you'll find yourself all alone out there in testosterone land?" I teased. My words had sharp edges, though.
"No, I'm more worried about you," he said.
"Teddy, the guy is a local club owner, how dangerous could he be?" I asked. I knew Teddy was trying to tell me something without telling me, but I was sick and tired of the secrets that weren't really secrets and the innuendos that led nowhere. "Seriously, dude."
"No, not ‘seriously dude.’ I'm not kidding, Brooke," Teddy sat up and leaned forward, resting his hands on my desk. "The guy is dangerous. You need to steer very clear of him and not try to tame a wild dog like you normally do."
"Teddy, you're making no sense," I said in a bored tone as I tossed the fry container in the trash and cleaned up the remnants of my burger by wiping down my desk with a wet wipe. LID always thought of everything, and that's why I loved it.
"Brooke," Teddy took a deep breath and then let the words fly. "Dax Malone is one of the biggest drug dealers in Los Angeles. He may have had his own lawyer executed for having turned state's evidence and offering to expose his dealings in exchange for putting her in witness protection."
"You have got to be shitting me!" I burst out laughing. "Theodore Austin Raines, you've come up with some wild stories in your time, but that one takes the cake! I almost believed you, too!"
"Brooke," Teddy looked at me without smiling. There was a veil of sadness covering his expression as he continued, "Malone is dangerous. The cops are on their way to the club right now to bust him for conspiracy, intent to distribute illegal substances and pre-mediated murder. I wish I were kidding, but I'm not. Not this time, sis."
As the weight of Teddy's words sank in, I sagged in my chair. Dax Malone? A drug lord? How did this happen? I was around criminals all the time. I knew who they were. No, this couldn't be true.
"What evidence do you have?" I blurted as I went into lawyer mode. "I see zero evidence, only conjecture and hearsay."
"Brookie, don't get all lawyerly on me," Teddy said gently. "I'm not trying to ruin your life. I'm just trying to protect you. I overheard the police on the scanner at work and I wanted to come tell you before you got pulled into something that was way over your head."
"Teddy..." I trailed off.
"I know, kiddo, I know," he said nodding. "But not this time."
"Fuck," I said as I tossed the used wet wipe in the trash and rested my elbows on my desk. "Why do I always pick the ones that are completely unsalvageable?"
"You like a challenge, kid," Teddy said with a grin. "Always have."