“I know that your husband and David are in California right now. They met with someone who I think convinced them that we are a good destination for him. Other top recruits have had similar conversations, and they are now strongly considering us. All I’m asking is that he give us a chance.”
“I’ll pass your information on. If David is interested, he’ll be in contact. Now, I need to actually make money.”
“We support those who support us,” he said cryptically and then left.
The video stopped. It seemed that Fritz’s adding more security cameras to Mom’s office had been a good move.
“That last comment was a little creepy,” I said.
“Your mom agreed. I forwarded the video to both Ms. Dixon and Mr. Morris. I told Ms. Dixon to get with Lexi and set up a time when we could all discuss what to do about this. She and I had a long talk, and I’m worried about what could potentially happen with your eligibility.”
“Ya think?”
“Ms. Dixon will have someone on the call who handles this type of law to watch for possible legal pitfalls.”
“I can’t play college ball if I’m in jail,” I said.
“It might play havoc with a lot of things. That’s why we’re paying her and her team,” Dad assured me.
“Did you tell her about our meeting with Cal?” I asked.
“Yep. She didn’t seem all that surprised that he didn’t want her watching him. Ms. Dixon said it was for the best that we look elsewhere if Cal wanted complete control. She trusts him about as much as we do,” Dad assured me.
“I made a mistake on that one. If I could do it over, I would never have allowed Cal to be involved. In my gut, I knew we shouldn’t have hired him.”
“It’s on me too,” Dad said to help share the guilt. “I didn’t say anything because I thought you were trying to mend fences for Coby’s sake.”
“No. The truth is I wanted the meanest, most evil SOB I could find to punish Zander. The only reason I agreed was that Ms. Dixon was going to watch him. When Cal wanted to go it alone, I knew he would do whatever he wanted and not follow our directions. He wanted to blow this whole incident up for his own benefit. If it were just me involved, I might be okay with that. But I don’t need Halle to get blackballed because my lawyer decided to start going after studios for more once we got what we wanted from them. A few dollars more would have just pissed them off,” I reasoned.
Lawyers tended to have bad reputations for a reason. Cal could be the poster boy for your worst nightmare. There was no doubt in my mind that if turning on me benefited him, and he could get away with it, Cal wouldn’t hesitate. Ms. Dixon was well aware of that. That was why she had insisted that Cal report to her before he did anything. When he pushed back, I couldn’t allow him free rein.
I was sure most lawyers were decent human beings. It only took a few to sully the whole industry. Then again, most politicians were lawyers. If that was the case, I started to wonder how many good ones there were.
◊◊◊
We were let go shortly after midnight. Manaia was terrible security. It scared the shit out of him when I knocked on the car window for him to unlock the door for Lexi and me.
“Working hard, I see,” I teased him.
“I didn’t expect you for …” he said, checking his watch, “another hour at least. I set my alarm to wake me.”
In truth, I didn’t mind because he’d worked too many hours so far. Fritz had promised that he would take up some of the slack, but he had other clients who needed attention and couldn’t always get away.
“Are you running tomorrow?” Manaia asked.
“I think I need to, with me getting home early.”
I’d been a total slug over the weekend, and then again this morning. It would be easy to make excuses and not run.
“Okay, I’ll be here at 7:30.”
“I need to run, too,” Lexi said.
“I won’t take it easy on you,” I warned.
“Good. I need to be pushed.”
When we got to the house and stepped inside, it looked like the place had been cleaned. Checking my dresser, I found I had clean underwear. Score! The room smelled a little of perfume, and some of my things had been moved around. I wondered if someone had been searching through my stuff.
Then I realized that the drone was in a different spot. I smiled when I saw that the camera was pointing toward the room. I’d purposefully positioned it so the camera didn’t capture the bedroom. Teenage boys need their privacy sometimes, and I didn’t plan on recording anything.
I pulled the memory card and plugged it into my tablet. My video editing software asked if I wanted to download it, so I said yes. It had a better way to scan video quickly than simply playing back the entire recording. I powered through, fast-forwarding while looking at the recording of the wall until the drone moved.
When I saw who our new cleaning lady was, I about swallowed my teeth. It was the younger version of the woman I’d lusted after Saturday night. I had debated whether they were sisters or mother-daughter. They were a big part of the reason I’d turned the drone toward the wall.
