Diane wanted to be the next court justice in the worst way. Okay she really wanted to be governor but that wasn't happening any time soon. The state wasn't ready for a female at the helm, not even a bleeding heart liberal dressed up conservatively. She knew at least as a justice, she'd have the backing of the powerful we're not feminist but cabal.
The money had started rolling in especially since the decision to make Alicia an equity partner. That had been a no-brainer really because even though Cary had become a much smarter, hardworking attorney, he just didn't have the connections that Alicia had to get ahead in the firm. Not that Alicia was shy about using her husband figuring he owed her since getting caught sucking a prostitute's toe.
Cary might not like it but that's how the world worked and besides Alicia proved to be so damn trusting of both Diane who mentored her of course and of her ex-boyfriend Will who played her with such finesse
Diane didn't have a whole lot of use for Will but she knew that Alicia underneath those tightly buttoned blouses and ironed skirts held a torch for him…one that time and little else had snuffed out.
She had Will on the phone right now.
"Do you think she'll do it? Take the case?"
Will had to be beaming on the other end of the phone line.
"Sure thing…we were hitting some beers at the watering hole last night and once the nostalgia kicks in…she's putty in my hands."
Diane didn't feel too sure about that but whatever Will thought…it might be true after all. She thought Alicia might still be steaming from the last time they'd used her as a prop or a Trojan horse to be specific to help out the software company that had lined their wallets during the so-called bankruptcy episode.
Alicia had sniffled and whined a bit about being double crossed by her own partners but she'd get over it. A few smoldering looks and maybe a kiss or two from Will and she'd be happy again.
"She told me she's going to do the vow renewal thing with Peter in Hawaii."
Diane hadn't known that.
"He sure works fast…only took him three years to get to that point."
"Yeah they've been hot and heavy," Will said, "but nothing to worry about…he's nothing compared to me."
"I'm sure of that but we still need her," Diane said, "Especially since we now know what Cary's been up to these past weeks."
Will sighed.
"Didn't figure he'd betray us."
"Me neither…had he always seemed like a good little boy scout… or did I imagine it?"
"No you didn't," Will said, "He had me fooled too and that's not easy but we'll handle him the same way we did with the previously invisible legal assistants that tried to rise up against us…pay the ringleaders off and they fade back with the furniture."
Diane had to admit that plan had worked out quite well. Everyone else had folded back to serving coffee and filing papers for the partners. She wondered if Cary would be that easy but then she knew how much he'd wanted to be a partner rather than just another fourth year lost in the crowd. He'd been trying to get his successful father to approve and love him most of his life…a tool to be used to keep him in line.
"I'll have a talk with Cary over beers," Will said, "See if I can rein him in quick."
Diane clicked her manicured fingers on the desk.
"And what about Alicia?"
"I'll handle her next…I reserved our old hotel suite. It'll be like old times…"
Diane clicked off her phone thinking she'd accomplished so much today. Kurt would be waiting at the restaurant tonight for a response to his proposal. She had a couple hours to come up with a way to beg off while still keeping him in her bed on occasion. Even a future justice just had to get it on sometimes and Kurt might be a fascist but he was one big hunk of burning lust.
"Diaaaaaaannneeeeeee…."
The raspy voice, she knew it was him before looking up to see the transparent figure by the doorway.
"Oh go away…back to Hell where you belong…I got our firm to run…."
Cary sat in the cubicle where he spent most of his days feeling puzzled. He'd just offered Kalinda a job as investigator for the new firm. She wanted bennies including health coverage, something Will had denied her.
Now he was smart enough to know that she always worked an angle for herself and if that meant using him, so be it. But he frowned just then…what had happened between them the other night at the bar? God, he couldn't remember now. Had they…but he still remained in the dark. She never brought it up but smiled at him a bit differently.
"Hey…"
He looked up and saw Robyn the new investigator, the one that had Kalinda a little less than cool right now.
"Hi Robyn, how can I help you?"
She sighed.
"I'm looking for Kalinda…she's supposed to show me the ropes and she pulls this disappearing act all the time."
Cary's mouth curved in amusement.
"That's just like her isn't it? I needed her this morning to do some background on a tort. No, I haven't seen her today."
He didn't like lying but Kalinda said it was important that no one knew where she went. He wondered not for the first time why he always did as she asked, came when she beckoned. Maybe it had something to do with what he didn't remember from the other night.
"I need to find her…she's supposed to show me how to work the database, the one that's tapped into Interpol."
Cary didn't know anything about that.
"I think she might be at the ice cream parlor down the street. She's been hanging out there lately."
Robyn digested that and then they both looked up to see Alicia watching them from across the room with an eyebrow arched. Cary smiled at her because he knew she suspected and that she might pass along more than she admitted.
"Okay…I'll see you later then…this job is awesome but the partners really have to do something about Kalinda being so flaky."
Flaky, Cary thought. Hardly but Robyn had already left. Alicia just stared at him and he knew he had to be very careful around her.
Zach toked up with his friends at school so tired of being the perfect son to his parents. He'd find out soon enough whether his father would be the next governor and then he'd never have a life of his own. He'd be living under a microscope unable to have any freedom at all and life would be put on hold until his father stepped down.
Of course his luck he'd decide he wanted to be president of the United States with Eli running his campaign and Zach just didn't trust that guy. He had his finger dipped into too many questionable circumstances and even his mother started paying attention to it. But Alicia was too damn busy selling her own soul to get Peter elected.
He liked it when it'd just been the three of them on their own in the cramped townhouse. His mother had depended on him to be quite the sleuth, one step ahead of older and wiser professionals who'd instead proven to be bumbling idiots.
He needed to be back in that situation again like it had been but how would he do that?
