"You're not cutting my hair," Eliot said firmly. "I'll pull it back, but you're not cutting it." He adjusted his tie. "This is never going to work you know. I- I don't sound like a lawyer"
Lilah Morgan smiled and laughed almost silently. "Don't worry neither did Lindsey," she said. "His white trash roots were always showing. As for knowing what to say, you leave that to me." She held out an ear bud "You're familiar with these."
Eliot took it and glared at her as he put it in his ear. "I seriously do not want you in my head," He told her.
"We do it this way or I simply arrange for you to actually become Lindsey McDonald." She smiled at the look on his face. "Oh it's possible to make you disappear into nothingness, Eliot. Nothing would be simpler. But I don't want him around any more than you want to have your brain rewired. So we are going to have to do things my way."
This wasn't anything new to him. They operated like this all the time. "If this Lindsey guy is dead, don't you think the courts have records of that sort of thing? I'm not going to make it past the first day in any courtroom," he said, not caring about how her case went, he was worried that she would take it out on Amie if he failed regardless of the reason.
"They do but you aren't going into any traditional courtroom. Don't worry about that. You'll be fine," Lilah said. "Now, here is the file on your client. Memorize it. From here on out you answer to the name Lindsey McDonald. You don't leave your office without an escort, your phone won't get an outside line so don't think of calling for help. Don't underestimate your secretary. She could put down two of you with one hand tied behind her back. You won't be able to charm her or anyone else for that matter."
"I said I would do what you wanted. This isn't necessary," Eliot said taking the file and looking it over.
She laughed softly. "This isn't to keep you prisoner, although it does have that lovely side effect. This is to keep you alive, Mr Spencer. Lindsey didn't have many friends and even they wanted to kill him, and some would do anything to see this fail. "
"Just great," he said. "Fine, where's this office?"
"Escort Mr. McDonald to his office, and introduce him to his new secretary."
Eliot straightened his posture, sliding into the role. He had no idea what this Lindsey McDonald was like but he had an idea in his head of what lawyers were like. He adjusted accordingly. He nodded to people that walked by; some of them felt the need to say "Welcome back Mr. McDonald". A few of them looked intimidated, and others looked sympathetic.
He stepped into the office, VP in charge of special projects. Special projects? What sort of law firm had a special projects division? This was getting stranger by the minute. He was introduced to his secretary; Miss Emily Dunaway who looked like a strong wind would carry her into the next county. Lilah Morgan was either off her meds or on the wrong ones, but he nodded to her and requested coffee and someone to bring him lunch as he walked into the office and closed the door on the goons leaving them on the other side.
He figured from what he saw he could get out of there if he had to, but he wasn't going to with Amie as collateral for his good behavior. He sat down at the desk, grateful for the paper copy of the file, he didn't like computers much. Hardison was trying to teach him and some things were fun but he would rather do things the old-fashioned way. He began to leaf through the file, which read like the rough draft for a Stephen King novel. "What the hell is going on here?" he asked as the door burst open.
"I'm sorry sir, I couldn't stop him," the secretary said and looked scornfully down at the guards. "They got in the way."
The man that stood before him was tall; at least 6'2. Dark hair, dark clothes, and a black leather trench coat. "It's alright Emily," Eliot said quietly, wondering what the hell he was supposed to say to this guy. "He won't be staying long since we don't have an appointment.
"I don't know which bugs me more. Watching you breathe, or seeing you back in this office," the man said with barely concealed venom.
*Standard perpetuity clause,* came Lilah's tense voice in his ear.
Eliot shrugged. "Standard perpetuity clause," he said as if it meant something. Should mean something. It meant absolutely nothing to him but he could see something in the other man's eyes.
"Your contract was nullified. I saw to it myself." His dark eyes narrowed.
*You two hate each other. He ordered Lindsey killed, ran the company for a year, and cost a lot of people their lives. Most of them were his friends*
"Yeah, well. I guess you can see how well that worked. Just about as well as everything else you tried. How much did that cost you?"
*His name is Angel. Ask Emily to escort him out personally, by the back stairs. Make sure he knows she's a slayer.*
A what? He wanted to ask, wondering if he had woken up in one of Hardison's damned games. Instead, he kept his head in the game and never took his eyes off Angel. He sat back down behind his desk.
"Too many. But hey, at least they didn't all sell their souls for a corner office. So they brought you back for the negotiations. Gotta say I didn't think they'd go that far."
*Eliot, get him out of there now.* Lilah growled.
Eliot had other ideas. She didn't want him to hear what this Angel guy had to say. So now he wanted to hear it.
"I didn't think even you would go that far," Angel said. "Or that after all you did to get free of them you would come crawling back to them."
Eliot's blue eyes narrowed, and for a moment the illusion was broken, but only barely "You don't know me," He said lowly. "Ya' never did. There are things that are out of your control, Angel." This guy was going to be trouble. He wanted to interfere in whatever the hell it was that Lilah needed him to do. And if it came down to it... Eliot would choose Amie's safety over this arrogant son of a bitch any day.
He pressed the button on his intercom. "Miss Dunaway, can you come in here, please? I've got an Angel that needs his wings clipped and I don't have the time to do it myself."
"Right away, sir," came the woman's voice.
Eliot shrugged "Slayers. Who knew they would wind up in the secretarial pool." He smiled as the door opened. "Back stairway please," He told the woman his smile abruptly fading. "And then see what's happened to my lunch."
He turned his attention once more to the file on his desk, as Angel left the office of his own free will. And ultimately by the front door.
*I told you to get rid of him much sooner. *
"You know what, Lady, you handle the legal mumbo jumbo and leave running the con to me. Cause you don't know a damned thing about it," he growled.
Negotiations. He was here for negotiations because a specific client would trust no one but this Lindsey McDonald. Instead of using this Lindsey guy, who may or may not be free of the company, they pulled him in to replace him so that Lilah could control the meeting. What he had to figure out before game time was what was really going on and how to screw Lilah over while keeping Amie safe.
Once more the door opened and someone entered. He didn't want to deal with anyone else so he kept his eyes to the file, barely noticing a very long pair of shapely legs that could in no way belong to Miss Dunaway.
"Your lunch is ready." The accent threw him for a moment so he didn't look up.
"Just set it on the desk," he said and stretched, catching a look at the woman before him. Long legs leading up to a shapely torso, and long blond hair. Tara? He gave her a confused look.
She gave a small shake of the head and pulled at her ear, indicating they were being listened to via the earbud and likely other things. "Oh I'm sorry, the tuna not to your liking?" she asked. "I told them downstairs that there was no way a senior vice president was going to order a plain old tuna sandwich," she shrugged, "But it's what they sent me up here with. What's a girl to do?"
"Get this thing off my desk and bring me a pastrami on rye...," he told her putting a note with the sandwich. - need info. Negotiation. Praxis. Client name Neimic.
"Sheesh no need to be all hot under the collar about it," she said and nodded turning to leave the room. She closed the door behind her. "Your boss is so demanding," Tara said "Tuna isn't good enough says he. Wants a pastrami on rye says he," she rolled her eyes, "Is he always like that?"
"Nah. He isn't himself right now is all," Emily said with a smirk. "Don't worry. I don't see him lasting the week. He won't be around to give you a hard time after that."