The Lawyer (The Dalton Brothers 1)

Dominick

“You don’t have to sit in on today’s meeting if you don’t want to,” I said to Kendall while we ate lunch outside on the deck.

Forty-eight hours had passed since I’d stormed into Ted’s office, and our video chat was scheduled to begin in fifteen minutes. Kendall needed to reenter the world at her own pace. I didn’t want her to feel any pressure to face those motherfuckers.

“It’s okay,” she said. “I want to be there.”

“You’re sure?”

She nodded and took a bite of her fruit salad before setting down her fork. “I already know who’s responsible. Nothing they can say will come as a shock.”

Daisy, that fucking cunt.

She’d been on my short list when I was coming up with people who could be at fault. I wanted to be wrong about her. I wanted to give her the benefit of the doubt. But every goddamn time, she’d proven that she was a self-centered piece of shit, and this episode had taken the fucking crown.

As far as the studio was concerned, this was on the asshole who worked in the editing room. They didn’t even know about Daisy’s involvement.

But in my eyes, she was far from innocent.

I would leave it up to Kendall on how she wanted to handle her sister. If she wanted me to destroy what was remaining of Daisy’s career, I would. With a fucking smile on my face.

If Kendall wanted me to do nothing, letting Daisy rot in her narcissism, I’d oblige but not before I gave that cunt a piece of my mind.

“You do know that the studio is going to put their own spin on what happened,” I said. “They don’t want a lawsuit or for anyone to poke around in their business, so they’re going to make you an offer and hope this goes away.”

She rolled her eyes. “I figured.”

I took a drink of my iced tea. “The moment you’re ready to strike a deal, I’ll have my team draw up the paperwork.”

She traced her fork around the plate, her eyes on the food she hadn’t touched. “I still don’t know what I want to do.”

“You don’t have to decide on the settlement right now, but as far as shooting goes, you will have to come up with a plan fairly soon. They’re going to want you to report to set within a day, two at the most.”

“I know.” She sighed. “And I’m sure my new followers are waiting for a response instead of the silence I’ve been giving them.”

I reached across the table, setting my hand on hers. “In the media world, silence causes fire to spread. We want to put out those fires and speculation before anything else burns.”

Her eyes finally connected to mine. “I just don’t know what to say.”

“Don’t worry, baby; we’ll figure it out.” I checked my watch. “But we should head inside; the meeting is going to start in a few minutes.”

She followed me into the home office, where multiple monitors were set up on the large desk. I pulled another chair around, so we could sit beside each other, and I logged in to the network.

I held the mouse over the Connect button. “Are you ready?”

“I think so.” She slowly inhaled. “Yes.”

When the video turned on, I saw a boardroom, the same men as our prior meeting sitting around it, Shane there as well.

“Dominick, Miss Roy, thank you for joining us,” Ted said.

He then made the introductions, so Kendall knew the names of his team.

Details that made no goddamn difference because the result was still the same.

They had fucked up.

And now, they were going to pay.

“We would first like to offer our sincerest apologies,” Ted continued. “We understand that you must feel extremely violated. Privacy and trust are things we hold in the highest regard, and we never want our talent to be put in a situation like yours.”

“No, Ted, the situation is one you put her in,” I clarified.

I understood there were certain things he needed to say, but I wasn’t going to tolerate a single word of bullshit. Someone was going to take ownership of this, and since Ted was the CEO, it was going to be him.

“Normally, we like to conduct thorough investigations, spending several weeks interviewing staff and going over feeds and footage to pinpoint the exact nature of the circumstances,” Ted said. “Unfortunately, in this case, we weren’t given the amount of time we would have liked, so we don’t have all the information yet.”

“But you have enough,” I told him.

There was silence as Ted looked at his attorney and a few of the employees sitting around his section of the table. “We were able to draw a conclusion as to what had occurred and how the still shots had been leaked.”

I took a quick peek at Kendall, her back so stiff, her face trying to conceal her emotion.

With the camera only aimed on our faces, I reached across the chair and linked our fingers. Her palm was sweaty, and there was a tremor in her hand as she squeezed back.

“There are only three people who have access to the footage we’re currently filming and our archives. After process of elimination, we’ve been able to identify that it was Mark Hall, a senior editor on our staff. We don’t know why he released those pictures—he’s not revealing his reasoning—but he did take responsibility.”

I wondered if Daisy had paid him off to ensure he would never give up her name.

Mark couldn’t be that much of a fucking moron to think this couldn’t be traced back to him, or maybe Daisy’s pussy was so good that he didn’t care.

Something had certainly gone down.

It pissed me off that I would probably never get the answer to that.

“I assume he’s no longer working for your studio,” I said.

“We don’t tolerate that kind of behavior,” Ted replied. “Mark violated several moral codes and company-wide rules, so yes, he was terminated.” He folded his hands on the table, almost looking relieved that the hard part was over. “Personally, I’m appalled by his actions. I’m ashamed this happened at our studio, with one of our high-ranking employees, and at a property we provided for Miss Roy to live in.”

Mark was a fucking asshole, and he would never work in this industry again.

I would make sure of that.

But now, it was time for the studio to make this right.

“Let’s talk about the cameras,” I started. “Why were they on when your contract clearly stated they wouldn’t be?”

Ted looked at the attorney, who replied, “We can’t respond to that.”

“They weren’t supposed to be on,” Shane said. “And we don’t know why they were, but I can tell you that this was a terrible mishap, and I assure you, it won’t ever happen again.”

“Assure me?” I laughed. “What good does that do when the damage has already been done? You’re speaking about the future when we haven’t even resolved the past.”

“You can’t honestly believe that firing Mr. Hall and apologizing to my client are enough,” I said. “One of your employees released naked photographs of my client and myself. There are long-lasting effects to that damage. Contracts she’s going to lose now. A reputation that she’s going to have to build again from scratch. So, tell me, gentlemen, what are you going to do for Kendall Roy?”

A few seconds of quietness passed before Ted said, “We’re happy to offer the settlement that we have prepared and will be emailing to you the moment this meeting is adjourned. We would like you to review the offer with Miss Roy and have her sign it at her earliest convenience, so this is all behind us.” He glanced at the attorney, who nodded at him. “In the meantime, Miss Roy will need to report to filming tomorrow—”

“You can stop yourself right there, Ted. My client is under no obligation to return to filming. It has become very clear to me that Happy Lite isn’t a safe environment for her or any of her costars. Let me remind you, you haven’t just violated her trust and reputation; you’ve violated the terms of her contract as well. Whether my client returns to your set, that’s still up in the air. We will review the settlement, and I’ll let you know if it even comes close to meeting her expectations. I’ll also let you know her anticipated return date—if that’s what she decides.”