Scowling, she picked up her phone, took a deep breath, and answered the call.
“Hello?” she asked, keeping her voice deliberately light.
“It’s about damn time you answered the phone,” Evan snarled.
Her brows arched at his tone. “My phone literally just rang, Evan. I’m sure you’re aware that I’ve taken an extended leave. I didn’t have to answer my phone at all, and certainly not at your convenience. Now, what do you want?”
“Well, while you’re down there sitting by the pool and drinking pina coladas, the rest of us are up here working and trying to win cases,” he barked.
“Sitting by the pool and drinking pina coladas,” Charli repeated, her lips curving up. “I’ll have to add that to my list of activities.” She sighed, rubbing the spot between her eyes. “My aunt died, Evan. And I’m down here cleaning up her estate. Again, what do you want?”
“Cleaning up her estate,” he mimicked in a childish voice that made Charli wish she could reach through the phone and slap his face. “Hmmmm, must be nice.”
Charli took a deep breath.
God, he’s such a child.
“Evan, what the hell do you want?” she snapped, all semblance of patience removed from her voice.
“I want you to get your ass back up here. We have work to do. I can’t do all this by myself.”
Charli almost smiled but suppressed the urge despite enjoying Evan’s predicament. The panic in his voice was clear...and alarming. While she hated Evan, she cared deeply about her clients and his panic did not bode well for them.
“What do you mean ‘we have work to do’? The firm gave all my cases to you, so newsflash, I currently have no cases to work on.” She took a deepbreath. “And please tell me you haven’t screwed them up already. The Parker case should be closed by now and the other cases were well on their way to resolution.”
The silence on the other end was confirmation enough...he had messed something up.
“Evan?”
“The Parker case is going to trial and the client...” Evan paused as if searching for the right word. “He’s not cooperating with us any longer,” he added, his voice full of frustration.
Charli felt the blood pounding in her ears and her head became tight as she struggled to control her anger. “Of course Alan’s not cooperating, you idiot. He specifically did not want to go to trial. But let me guess, the board thought it could get a bigger settlement—and more legal fees—out of a trial.”
Evan huffed on the other end and his tone switched from aggressively confrontational to condescending in an instant. “Charli, we have to do what’s best for the firm and a summary judgement would have brought in a fraction of what we could get if it goes to trial,” he patronized.
“Don’t feed me your line of bullshit, Evan,” she shot back, her voice rising in volume along with her blood pressure. She rose from her chair and began to pace back and forth on the balcony. “The firm wouldhave received plenty in fees without a trial and most importantly, our client—my former client—would have been protected. Now you’ve put everything at risk. What if you don’t win the case? Then Alan is fucked and he’ll be after your ass.”
“But the board wanted this,” Evan whined. “We had to go this way.”
Charli mentally shrugged, and her voice became as frigid as a Boston winter. “Well, you’re the one who will go down for this, because I can guarantee that Alan Parker will destroy you if he loses his company because of this.”
“You need to come back to the office now,” Evan demanded. “These are your cases, Charli.”
Charli scoffed and replied in a voice as sharp and cold as ice. “I don’t know what makes you think that argument is going to help you. They’re your cases now, remember? You deal with it.” She ended the call and ground her teeth, continuing to pace across the floorboards.
What an unbelievable, incompetent, whining jackass!
Her heart pounded in her chest and she felt like she’d swallowed a lead weight at the thought of the firm needlessly taking advantage of her clients. They were using excessive litigation to milk as much aspossible in fees—it was unethical, and something she wanted absolutely nothing to do with.
Former clients.
Charli closed her eyes and took a deep, calming breath. There was nothing she could do about it, and that was probably the worst part. Before the board had intervened, Alan Parker had a solid case and would have won the summary judgement. Now, his entire business was at risk.
She rubbed her forehead and sighed. Why had she wasted so many years on those jackals?
“Charli?” Jack’s voice drifted up from the sidewalk below.
Her eyelids lifted and she moved over to the railing and looked down. “Yeah?”
