‘Carter, I think we should take a moment to consider our options,’ Tom suggested quietly.
‘Take all day,’ Sam drawled. ‘It won’t change anything.’
‘I don’t need a moment,’ Carter barked. ‘Give me a figure.’
Ruby named a fairly meagre sum that their clients had agreed upon, even though she had informed them that they were due a lot more.
‘Is that all?’ Carter Jones laughed incredulously. ‘You mean to tell me that I’ve been fighting this dog of a case for a pittance? I’ll accept your resignation forthwith, Roberts.’
‘That’s not all we want,’ Ruby added softly.
Carter’s bull neck swivelled to meet her direct gaze. ‘We also want you to make a yearly donation to refugee centres around the country.’ She named a figure and this time it was much more substantial.
Carter gave a hacking cough. ‘You’re pushing your luck, lady.’ He passed his gaze to Sam. ‘You going to just sit there and let her get away with this, Ventura?’
‘And a public apology,’ Ruby continued as if he hadn’t spoken. ‘In writing to each and every plaintiff.’
Carter’s thin lips were pressed so tightly together they looked like a jagged surgical scar. ‘No deal.’
‘I was hoping you’d say that.’ Ruby smiled. ‘I can’t wait to meet you in court, Mr Jones.’
‘Fine. I’ll do what you want.’ A thick white line of spittle collected at the corner of Carter’s mouth as he called her a derogatory name under his breath.
‘You call my associate that again—’ Sam said with such lethal softness it was scarier than waiting for a bomb to go off ‘—you and I will have a talk in a closed room.’
Carter’s beetle-like gaze sharpened as it moved between her and Sam, and Ruby felt her face turn pink as his upper lip curled unpleasantly. ‘Like that, is it?’
‘It’s not like anything,’ she interjected forcefully, knowing immediately that she should have kept her big mouth closed.
Carter started to laugh and Sam cut him off with a look.
‘We’ll have the contract on your desk within the hour,’ he said, taking over while Ruby could do nothing but inwardly curse her own ineptitude.
‘It’s in his inbox as we speak,’ Grant murmured, typing on his computer.
‘Dipping the wick a bit close to home, aren’t you, Ventura?’ Carter said snidely.
Having finally pulled herself together, Ruby gave Carter a quelling look. ‘You keep going, Mr Jones, and you’ll have a defamation suit launched against you as well as a class action. If that’s all, gentlemen—’ she cast a glance around the room ‘—we’ll be on our way. Sorry you lost your job, Tom.’
Physically vibrating with tension, Ruby thought she might snap in half as the three of them entered the lift and pressed the button for the ground floor.
‘I think we just won,’ Grant ventured softly into the heavy silence.
They had, but Ruby was still so fired up on humiliation at Carter Jones’s slur that she couldn’t even bring herself to enjoy it. There was no way she could bring a defamation case against him because what he had said was true.
‘Ruby—’
‘I’m fine, Sam,’ she said, wanting to shut him down so that she could deal with her emotions alone.
Unaware of the tension radiating between the two of them, Grant shook his head as if he was coming out of a long daze.
‘I can’t believe Jones caved in like that. Well, I can, but...’ He cut Ruby a curious look. ‘What was with the fifty extra potential clients? I thought we’d only picked up one more.’
‘I might have embellished a bit with that,’ Ruby admitted with a half smile.
‘Genius,’ Grant murmured as they stepped out into the solid wall of the oppressive Sydney humidity. ‘You are officially my new hero, Ms Clarkson. So?’ He gave them both a broad grin. ‘Drinks at Mickey Dee’s? I’d say we’ve earned it after that.’
Going to their local haunt was the last thing Ruby felt like doing. So much harder to hide and lick her wounds in a public space. ‘Not for me,’ she said. ‘I’m going back to the office to call our clients and let them know the outcome.’