Offices of Spencer White and Associates

Los Angeles, California

 

The office was quiet this Saturday morning. Stevie sat on the corner of Mika’s desk and watched him type furiously on his computer, putting into motion a plan she wasn’t sure was going to work, but was hoping it would. It wasn’t so much losing her job that worried her. It was tarnishing the reputation of someone she cared about—both Durango and Jackson. She didn’t want to be party to something that was going to make their lives unpleasant.

Andres was impressed with the idea Mika had formulated, even more impressed when Mika managed to get Jackson Chamberlain to agree to it. The bug that Stevie had placed in his office wasn’t admissible in court, but she and Mika both knew how dangerous it was for Spencer. They had him admitting to setting her up, setting Jackson up, and using Mika to do it.

Spencer was behind the mistaken attachment sent to Mika on an innocent email. It seemed the original plan had called for Mika to release the arrest warrant, or to go to the court with it, forcing it out into the public forum. But Mika was too smart for that. But that allowed for the inception of Spencer’s plan to run Mastiff out of business while promoting his battle against Jackson all at the same time. Learning that Stevie would be the one working the case was just the cherry on the top of the sundae.

Spencer admitted to all of it Thursday afternoon when he came into Mika’s office with Rueben Stanches to remove all traces of the email and its attachment from his computer. He even admitted to sending someone to Stevie’s house to get rid of any other evidence and burn the place down. The shooter…well, they still didn’t know who that was or why. But Stevie was sure they’d get that information when they were done with Spencer.

Ironic. She’d promised him she’d have a confession on tape within five days. She’d done it in three. She just didn’t know it until today.

“Done,” Mika announced, pushing the enter key on his keyboard.

Stevie crawled into his lap and kissed him gently. “Now all we can do is wait.”

They didn’t have to wait long. Spencer charged into Mika’s office forty-five minutes after the document was uploaded on the firm’s servers. Stevie sat off to one side of the room, curled up on the couch like she was in her own living room getting ready to watch a boxing match on pay-per-view. And it was going to be a good fight.

“What is this I’m hearing about? You got Jackson Chamberlain to hire us as his primary counsel?”

“I did.”

“I courted him for years, but he was loyal to Pierce Notwald. How did you get him to change firms?”

Mika shrugged. “I had an in with him. A friend is practically a family member of his.”

“A friend? Where was this friend three years ago when we told you to bring in any clients you felt you wanted to work with?”

“Out of town.”

Spencer stepped closer to Mika’s desk, towering over him in an attempt to intimidate him. “You have his signed contract and everything?”

“I do.”

“And he’s agreed to work with us?”

“He’ll send all his business over here on Monday. Open contracts, legal disputes. Anything he has over at Notwald will come here.”

“Everything?”

You could almost see the drool developing in Spencer’s mouth. He was desperate for this client.

Greed was a funny thing.

“The only stipulation was that I work for him. You can take the lead, but I’m to be on the team for all his cases.”

“That’ll take up all your time.”

“Probably. And I think it’s partner-worthy. Don’t you?”

Spencer stepped back, his eyes narrowing somewhat. “Is that what you’re up to? Vying for partnership? We told you we’d offer it as soon as we could.”

“You did. But I think I’m ready now.”

Stevie could see the struggle going on inside of Spencer. He could stick with his current clients and ruin Jackson, hopefully getting all his legal work in that way. Or he could just take it now.

What a conundrum.

“I offer you partnership, and we get Jackson Chamberlain. But I refuse, and what?”

“I offer my resignation and take my client with me.”

“You can’t do that! We have a contract.”

“And, if you’ll read it again, you’ll see that I have the right to take with me clients that I signed personally. Jackson’s the only one I’ve signed, but I’m sure he’ll keep me plenty busy wherever I choose to go.”

Storm clouds rushed across Spencer’s face. And every word was coming through perfectly over the bug that was still installed right under the front of Mika’s desk. Stevie nearly laughed aloud as she read Spencer’s words between glances at the storm clouds on his face.

Spencer turned his back on Mika, pacing the small space between the desk and the door. He hadn’t seen Stevie yet even though she wasn’t hiding. He was that preoccupied.

“Okay.” Spencer spun back around to face Mika. “Partnership.”

“Jackson would also like for you to disassociate yourself with Colt Murphy.”

Spencer hesitated, but then nodded. “That shouldn’t be an issue.”

It was all so easy. But now came the tricky part.

“Were you in my office on Thursday afternoon?”

Spencer balked. “Why would you ask me that?”

“Someone tampered with my computer, removed a few files I had there.”

“Like what?”

“Emails I’d saved to the server. They were deleted from this computer’s memory and then from the server the following afternoon.”

Spencer shook his head. “I have no idea. You should keep your door locked when you aren’t here.”

“Yeah, well, I left in a hurry Wednesday.”

“Not my problem.”

“Rueben Stanches said he saw you in here. He said he thought you might have been looking for some letterhead you needed for my father.”

Spencer crossed his arms over his chest. “Rueben Stanches is an idiot.”

“Did you know that he had one of his assistants send me an email that had an attachment that was highly sensitive?” Mika rose and handed Spencer the document he’d printed before erasing specific emails from the server. “Do you recognize it?”

Spencer feigned ignorance. “How the hell did Rueben get this?”

“I don’t know. But if anyone else had received it, the firm would be in danger of being sued by the client.”

“Definitely.”

“Is that why you erased it from my hard drive?”

“No. I did it because—” Spencer caught himself. “This information getting out could mean sanctions for me from the State Bar. Why would I allow it to get out?”

“Because you were planning on setting someone else up for the fall?”

“I wouldn’t—”

“We both know you’d do anything to serve a client. But I’m okay with that. I understand that sometimes that’s what’s necessary.”

Spencer regarded Mika with some suspicion. “You think you’re going to get me to confess to something here, but you’re not.”

“That’s fine.”

“I didn’t do anything unethical.”

“I didn’t say you did.”

“And this…” He balled it up and threw it in the trash. “It’s done.”

“Good.”

Spencer turned, finally catching sight of Stevie on the couch. She was careful to keep her head down, make him think she wasn’t even aware that he was in the room. He turned on his heel and stormed out of the room.

Fucking incredible!

Stevie nodded. She agreed.

 

***

 

Andres arrived less than an hour later, twenty minutes after they were able to confirm that Spencer had left the building. The tech team was with him, ready to dive into Mika’s computer. Stevie stood where she could see the monitor, beginning to wonder if she’d missed her calling by shunning computer science classes in college. She enjoyed what little she knew about moving around in the dark corners of a system’s programming. She wouldn’t mind learning more.

Still quiet on the media front.

She nodded, smiling softly at Mika.

Andres downloaded the bug he’d had them place next to Stevie’s, an audio bug that could identify Spencer by the sound of his voice. He hadn’t said anything incredibly incriminating in the recording, but it was still extremely useful to them. And if the tech team could wipe Stevie’s prints from the system and, perhaps, find traces of Spencer’s electronic fingerprints on that arrest warrant, they’d be closer to proving their case.

Stevie was the first to see Dean Harris when he walked through the door. He was slightly confused by the number of people milling around the room, having expected to find only his son there. She waved at Mika, pointing toward the door.

Mika came to her, drawing her close to him before dropping a light kiss on her mouth.

“I’ll be back.”

She watched him go, then turned back to the tech who was furiously working on the computer. A thought crossed her mind as she watched him work. She gestured to him, waving her hand near his face.

“What?” he demanded, the dark look in his eyes making it clear he was annoyed.

“Can you access emails?”

“I can access anything I damn well please.”

“Can you see if you can find emails in Rueben Stanches’ desktop that might talk about the scheme he and Spencer were hatching?”

He rolled his eyes. “If the guy was smart…” He turned away before he finished what he was saying.

Stevie was afraid he wasn’t going to do as she asked, but then he began typing again, and she was able to follow his keystrokes, watching the subjects of emails pass across the screen. “There!” she cried, tapping one line that seemed important.

The tech glanced back at her, still annoyed. But he typed some more, and a proper desktop came up on the screen, an email opening in the center. She read it and squealed.

“That’s it!”