Chapter Thirty-Two

Evelyn

 

The law degree that hung on my office wall shook as I slammed the Italian leather chair into the walnut desk. I cursed under my breath as I shoved paperwork into my briefcase for my next case. My mind wasn’t where it needed to be, and even though the case was simplistic in nature, and required little effort to win, I still couldn’t guarantee success.

My mind was wrapped up with James, the ranch, the corruption that took place in that courtroom that day, and with hurt, anger, worry, and regret.

What I wouldn’t give to take it all back.

“I was half-afraid to knock,” Axel poked his head into my office, his body guarded safely behind the door.

I blushed with embarrassment, my behavior far less than becoming. My briefcase dropped to my side, my fingers clutching it with a fury, and my heart thumping loud against my chest.

“Everything okay in here?” Axel asked.

“Yes, c’mon in,” I smiled as politely as I could, just like mother taught me.
“I’m sorry, I-I, I uh, was just,” I stuttered at the attempt of lying, something I was never any good at, surprising for a lawyer.

“I think I’ve got something,” Axel beamed as he entered my office unguarded.

I wanted to be excited, but I couldn’t. Why am I even doing this if James doesn’t care? He told Axel to tell me to stop, and that he was thinking of me. What a load of horse shit! If he was thinking about me, he’d call, or at least answer one of my many attempts to contact him.

“Great,” I sighed, pushing back my chair so I could take a seat, my energy used up on my earlier hissy fit.

Axel took the seat across from me, pushing a stack of papers in my direction on the desk. I picked them up and scanned through the documents that actually linked John Jasper and the judge.

“This is great, but it’s not enough to hold water,” I sighed.

“What do you mean? The kid was a gambler, and I found where he still owes the judge a hefty sum that he promised for his campaign,” Axel groaned.

“Yeah, and there’s not much I can do with this,” I sneered.

“There’s proof the kid was paying him off little by little, right there on your desk. Not to mention the fact a personal e-mail between them that shows John planned to use a portion of the sale of the ranch to finally clean the debt, along with plenty of other gambling debts,” Axel argued.

“None of this is public record, so how did you come across this information?” I glared at my cousin as he started to squirm in his seat.

“What difference does that make?” he mumbled.

“All the difference,” I chuckled anxiously.

“Well, we know what’s going on, so how do we get this information legally?” Axel pushed.

“I’m afraid, we don’t,” I breathed.

Axel leaned back in the floral low-back chair I hand selected to give my office clout. Now that I looked at it with Axel’s large frame squeezed into it, the backrest too low to offer him any support, I was ready to find something new.

“I don’t get it,” Axel lamented.

“I can’t demand records to be obtained, financial and personal, from a well-established and high-powered judge with simply an accusation of foul play. I’ll immediately be deemed a crybaby for pointing fingers on a case I lost, and soon after, I’ll be investigated, and while the e-mails and the financial records you found will be long gone, those pictures of James and me will magically resurface. That would be the end of my career, not just here, but everywhere,” I declared.

“So, we just do nothing and let James lose his ranch, and the Jasper kids get away with their deceit?” Axel groaned.

“I didn’t say that,” I smiled.

“Okay. I just really would hate to see James lose that place,” Axel sighed.

I nodded.

Axel changed the subject to another topic, one that wasn’t much better than the one we were discussing: dinner with my parents that evening. I wasn’t looking forward to their sneers about the lost case and their high hopes that I was ready to tuck my tail between my legs and run back to New York. I wasn’t tucking anything.

“I’ll meet you there,” I promised Axel as he left.

I headed to the courthouse, demanding to see the judge just as court was letting out. The clerk pushed her glasses down on her nose and narrowed her eyes on mine as she told me no, for the third time since I’d arrived.

“Get him on the phone right now, and tell him Evelyn Pierce is here to discuss newly discovered information about his connection to John Jasper,” I growled, slamming my clenched fist down on her small counter.

Her body jolted from my outburst, but her eyes still filled with disinterest as she picked up the phone, repeating the words I screeched to the judge on the other end.

“Go on in,” she nodded in the direction of the judge’s chamber door.

I grabbed my belongings and huffed across the floor, my heels snapping a wild echo as I approached the door. I paused to take a deep breath, and then pushed the door open.

The judge sat at the same walnut table where the mediation took place, disrobed and wearing a tacky checkered dress shirt that looked more like pajamas than something a man would wear in public.

“What can I help you with, Ms. Pierce?” he grimaced.

“I just wanted to let you know I’m very aware of your connection with John Jasper, and the arrangement you two have once the ranch is settled,” I commanded.

The judge’s eyes narrowed, his cheeks rounded as his lips curled into a snicker. I watched him as he pushed a plate of chicken to the side, leaned back into his chair and placed his chubby digits across his full belly, intertwining them as they fidgeted on his hefty midsection.

“Do you now?” he mocked.

Even though he acted uninterested in my claims, his body language displayed signs of anxiousness. His left eye twitched ever so slightly, his chest lifted and fell with irregular rhythms, and his cheek bulged from his tongue pushing against it from inside his mouth. Yes, he is nervous.

My mouth watered like a lion’s that carefully stalked his meal in the wild. I wanted to leap onto the table and grip him around his thick neck, squeeze him until he confessed and I had real means to reverse his judgment.

“I do,” I insisted.

The judge leaned up. He spread his hands on the table, palms down. His eyes lowered as his head dropped, but then snapped back up quickly to display the wide grin smeared across his greasy chicken lips.

“Then what are you doing here?” he questioned.

“I thought you should know,” I hissed.

“Yes, but wouldn’t you have already scurried along to denounce me and save your little boyfriend’s ranch if you had any proof—any proof that you could actually use against me, that is,” he gloated.

My teeth clenched, grinding loud enough that I was certain he could hear them from across the room. He’d called my bluff, dropping down a hand that beat my own. Of course he knew I didn’t have anything legally; why I thought he might was beyond me as I tried to avoid swallowing what was left of my pride.

“It doesn’t matter that I cannot use what I’ve found; it only matters that I know who you are, what you are. I’ll find a way to make you pay for this,” I snarled.

“Is that a threat?” he gushed.

“It’s a promise,” I hissed, quickly exiting his chambers before he again found the upper hand in our discussion.

At dinner with Axel and my parents, I was preoccupied. My thoughts were on the judge, the clerk that had been fired, and the fact that anyone with a connection and a bank account could buy their way through the courts in the small town. It needed to be fixed, and I knew there wasn’t a line of contenders to take on the task.

“Are you ready to come home, dear?” my mother asked.

Adrenaline roared through my veins like a drug as I realized my next move.

“No. In fact, I think it’s best I stay here, fighting the corruption in the court system,” I announced.

Axel turned to me, his mouth open, jaw dropped, and eyes wide.

“Why would you do that? There’s absolutely no money in that field, and certainly no prestige or recognition,” my father growled as he suddenly decided to join the conversation and stop pushing the blackened salmon around his plate with a fork.

“I could care less about prestige and recognition, or money, I don’t need money,” I smiled, my heart racing with excitement.

The dinner wrapped up quickly, my mother suddenly the victim of a nasty migraine. I wasn’t sure if the woman ever actually had a migraine a day in her life, but I was certain she used them as an excuse to escape situations that made her uncomfortable.

I stood with Axel on the sidewalk in front of the restaurant, waving to my parents as they pulled out of the parking lot and onto the main road.

“You think they’ll go back to the hotel, or just head straight to the airport?” Axel laughed.

“You know they will be on the first flight out of here,” I giggled.

“So, corruption law, eh?” Axel questioned.

“Yes,” I nodded proudly.

“Too bad the ranch will be long gone before you get a chance to blow this town wide open,” Axel stated.

“Maybe not,” I smirked.

“What are you up to?” he asked as I started to giggle.

My cheeks reddened, and the smile on my face grew into a wide grin as Axel stared at me with confusion in his expression.

“I’m going to be the highest bidder on the ranch,” I blurted.

“Holy shit! Why would you do that?” Axel questioned.

“Because, I love him,” I gushed.

“You do?” Axel smirked in my direction, mocking my declaration of affection for his fellow SEAL.

“I do. Besides, it’s the right thing to do, for James, and the town. If anyone else gets their hands on that land, no telling what will be constructed,” I said.

“This isn’t your responsibility,” Axel cautioned.

“It will make things right. It’s the only way,” I sighed.

“James won’t let you do that,” Axel insisted.

I knew he was right. James would allow his pride to make him homeless before he’d agree to take any help from me, or anyone else for that matter.

“That’s why I’m not going to tell him,” I snickered.