Caught: In A Case by C.M. Steele
Chapter 12
I sent my girl off to school and warned them that it would be her last day. Then I gave my parents a call, as I was driving in to the office. I wanted to make sure they had not started making wedding plans yet, and I was glad that I didn’t give them her full name because the wedding invitations would be done already. I spoke to my father about what was going down. He planned to pull some strings and get some info on possible enemies I had made in my climb to the top. I pissed off a lot of people, but I never really stepped on anyone’s toes, and the females I dealt with knew the score. This was all leading to the people in Seattle, and nothing from home. I knew that they knew I was branching out to Seattle, as that was in the works for the last year. Thompson handled all the real estate and business information for the branch. We were handling big cases when he made the suggestion to expand. He had gotten an offer for us to move across country. I have to talk to him about the people he spoke with here. Somebody saw an opportunity to come at me or my guy Caleb.
I got into the office and met with Caleb to go over the office schedules and dockets. He said to me, “Hey man, I got a call at my house this morning. I have already asked Duke to look into it for me. It was a woman calling, to see if I was interested in taking her and her little sister for a ride on my cock.”
He was sweating this, and Caleb was the straightest arrow. A boy scout all the way, except for when it came to the ladies, but never had he been into paid whores. He dated chicks of the higher classes, and it was never more than a few dates; he didn’t want to raise any expectations.
“This all has to do with that bitch, Laney Homan. I’m sure of that shit. Did Duke fill you in about my drama?”
“Yeah, he did, and this is getting out of control. What are you going to do about your girl? When this shit goes down, she is going to be hurt. Her family is lousy as shit.”
Caleb and I were close as fuck. It was hard to watch him come undone when his folks died. He was still recovering from the loss and used work and boxing as his outlet. He didn’t need extra stress, but it seemed Miss Sophia Rinaldi was stressing him out in an unethical way. He wanted her. I saw it from the start, and it was a big reason that I hired her.
I called in our new attorney, the one who caught Caleb’s eye. She was getting acquainted with the processes here and the staff, but some of the other lawyers were giving her a hard time; according to Kristen, who spotted it right away. Her observations, when given, were always taken seriously. Kristen was married to Caleb’s brother, Malcolm, who was a new lawyer in our firm. She was a godsend ever since we hired her, but she was going to be on leave soon. They were having a baby in a several months.
“Sophia, Caleb and I are wondering how things are coming along for you? It’s been only a few days, but we’ve noticed that you’ve been singled out by some of the employees since you are our first female lawyer in this office. Are you having any problems?”
She blushed as she looked up at Caleb, then spoke directly to him. “Nothing but guys being guys. They have been having their fun, seeing which one of them I would take home. I had some of this kind of flirting back home, but I ignored it, for the most part.” I tried to brush off the insults and rumors. They were making up something about Caleb and me, but it wasn’t true. Well, he was gorgeous, but we weren’t involved.
“That’s intolerable. You tell me who has been bothering you, and I’ll make sure they’re so busy for the next year they won’t have time to call their mommas.”
I hid my grin behind my hand. Caleb was truly pissed about the issue. Sexual harassment was something most lawyers thought they could get away with because well, they were lawyers and knew how to skate the fine line, but hell if Caleb was going to let this shit go. “I’ll handle this. Sophia, let me know if you are not being welcomed by anyone, and I’ll deal with it.”
“Please, Mr. James, you don’t need to worry. I don’t want to ruffle any feathers. I would rather you not bother.”
“It’s Caleb, and I won’t worry, I’ll plan. I’ll listen and walk in on one of their conversations and straighten this out. I’m partner here, and my word is only superseded by Jackson’s. So, I won’t let these jackasses act like teenage boys.”
He put his hand on hers, and I thought I ought to warn him that he was getting close to crossing the line himself. But I looked at her, and she was blushing as she looked at their hands.
“I have to go, Sophia. You let me or Caleb know if you need anything, and welcome again. Caleb, I’ll see you this afternoon.” I caught him grip her hand a little more as I exited; interesting, very interesting.
~~~~~~~
Mike was waiting in my office with Duke. It was later than expected, but they had some other things they wanted to look into before they came back.
“Guys, I’m glad you are here. So what have you got?”
Mike got the conversation going. “We met with Anthony Franchetti this morning. Jackson, your girl’s father was on the take at his company; using the embezzled money to front his wife’s whore service. When he went overboard with dipping in the candy, tasting the ladies services, and his gambling, he hit up Franchetti for a loan. What was supposed to be a spa was really an under-age whorehouse, and when Franchetti found out and wanted no part in it, he called in his loan. Homan’s gambling addiction was the worst; he had lost big, to the sum of two million dollars. They wanted something from him, and it seems the only thing he had to offer was his girl. Now, the mob boss doesn’t fuck with little girl pussy. “Sorry sir, it was his words.” According to Franchetti, there was someone else who wanted to put her in the business when she was eighteen, and be the one to break her in. Franchetti was willing to help us any way he could because he wanted that piece of shit father of hers.”
I was pissed by then. I just figured out that her bastard-ass caretakers were about to whore her off to the local gangsters. It’s fucked up that a mobster has more morals than her own father. Fuck that, Homan and his bitch were all dead. I wasn’t a naturally violent man and I’d never killed another, but Elizabeth was mine, and fuck if I was going to let anyone touch her.
Duke chimed in, or maybe he was already talking because I was out of it. All I could think about was what they had planned for my woman. I needed to talk to Milo and make sure she was safe.
“Hey boss, what’s going on?” Milo answered.
“Where is she?” I had no time for niceties, I needed to hear her.
“She is in her English Literature class right now, watching a movie. You know they don’t do anything this close to graduation. I just walked her in and can see her right now. She is okay, Jackson. I won’t let anyone touch her.” Milo could tell I was fucking tense.
“Have her call me afterward.”
“Will do.” I hung up the phone and turned to my guys.
“There is more. I think you are really going to be pissed now. We just got back from sneaking into the skank’s apartment, which has a whole shitload of hidden information. This computer geek hacked into her computer and found out that she had audiotaped all her calls with none other than our upstanding mayor. He is in on it. He’s the one who wants your woman.”
They played the last tape the bitch had made. It had been recorded yesterday before she went to the school to attack my wife. “You stupid bitch, I told you I wanted her all to myself. You weren’t supposed to let your side project get a hold of my little delight. I still want her, and if the little bitch is pregnant, I’ll kick her until that baby’s history.”
I hit the stop button on that shit. I couldn’t hear anymore. The bastard wanted my girl and would kill our baby. I was blind with fury. When they said that turn of phrase, I didn’t really think it could happen; however, I damn near blacked out with rage.
“Boys, we will pay this fuck a visit when I come back on Monday. I want my girl safe, and I’m planning to seal the deal with her when we go to Vegas. No, fuck that, I changed my mind. I’m taking her to Vegas tonight. Then off to my parents’ house, to keep her protected.”
“Sir, we are still working on what her side project means for you. It was obvious she was looking to set you up for blackmail purposes, and now we know how much financial trouble they were in. I’m betting they wanted you to pay up.”
I walked back and forth as the guys thought their ideas out loud. “Maybe we could just line them up and shoot them all.”
“We tie them up and cut off all of their fingers then bury them alive.”
“You two psychotic fucks, I want them to pay, but I can’t be murdering fuckers with carelessness. I have my girl to consider, and I can’t get locked up to leave her all alone. But I want them to pay, and I might just kill that fuck who is trying to steal my girl and kill my baby. I think these audiotapes will make the local news station next week when I get back with Mrs. Blake.”
“I’ll stay here and continue to work on all the shit they were scamming, and see how we can fuck them over. We may not be able to end the mayor, but that bitch and your father-in-law could use a bullet to the head.”
“I like the way you think, but first I want all of them to suffer.”
