Off Limits(96)

* * *



Vince came over just before dinner time, greeting me at the door with a handshake. “Good to see you again, Kade,” he said. He was dressed in jeans and a red t-shirt, casual after a day at work. “How was your drive back?”

“Hectic and rushed,” I admitted. “Come in, you’ll see why.”

Vince followed me into the living room, where he stopped short upon seeing Alix on the couch. She was heart-stopping, even wearing the cheap discount store clothes that we’d picked up the night before, giving her two pairs of things at least temporarily. “You must be Alix,” Vince said. “I’d seen you in a family photo, but it doesn’t do you justice.”

“Kade said you were his paralegal, not his paid flatterer,” Alix replied with a smile. It was a remarkable transformation from the girl I’d held sobbing on the side of the road fourteen hours earlier, and I realized that Alix was in fact a natural sub. In public, in front of everyone else, she would be confident and self-assured. But she would give herself to me if I asked for it. I was momentarily overwhelmed with the gift she was offering me, and had to clear my throat. “Are you okay, Kade?”

“Yeah, just something went down wrong,” I said, rubbing my throat. “Probably a few side effects of all that Venom Sting on the drive up from LA. That much caffeine is so going to screw with my body for a while.”

“How many’d you put down?” Vince asked as he took a seat. “My personal record was seven, but I was seeing hallucinations for twelve hours afterwards.”

“Five,” I answered. “Alix had one after a bad dream.”

“So I guess your presence here has something to do with that phone call,” Vince commented. “What did Karla tell you?”

“Karla pointed me in the direction of Sydney Hale, who I found trying to assault Alix after she paid him a lot of money in a blackmail scheme. I probably broke his nose, but sadly enough I’m out the money.”

“I’ll pay you back, I promise,” Alix said, and I shook my head.

“There’s no need. Family, you know?” I commented, hoping she read my meaning. “Anyway, Vince, because of the sensitive nature of the items Alix is being blackmailed about, she doesn’t want the cops involved. But we need this guy off our backs.”

“I’m sure,” Vince replied. “What do you have on him?”

“Would a voice recording of him threatening blackmail and sexual assault help?” Alix said with a bitter smile. “It needs edited down, but it’s leverage, nearly two hours long.”

“Why so long?” Vince asked.

“I forgot to turn it off until Kade mentioned my phone in the car,” Alix said. “So you can trim out at least the last hour or so.”

“Vince, I’ll do the initial editing, but if you listen to this, there’s going to be things on there I don’t want out in public,” I cautioned. “Think you can still work on this, or do I need to handle it myself?”

Vince was a good man, and didn’t bat an eye. “Kade, whatever is said on there, I’ll never repeat to anyone. I don’t know your reasons, and I assume the recording will give me some insight, but that doesn’t matter. I work for you, and she’s your family. Hell, that’s greater than attorney-client, isn’t it?”

“Good man.”

“I had a question,” Alix said, and I turned to face her. She looked at me and blushed slightly, but hid it well. She was so beautiful when she blushed, her creamy pale skin darkening just slightly. “What exactly can you do, anyway?”

“If we stay within the law, not much without getting the cops involved,” Vince said for me. “Kade can tell you more, but the classic step of getting a restraining order requires that you go before a judge and file a grievance, and that requires evidence. If all you can present is this audio recording, the judge is going to want to know what sort of blackmail we’re talking. He could seal whatever it is this Sydney has over you, but the guy would still probably release it before that could happen, contempt of court be damned. Same if you go to press charges, you’d need to present some sort of evidence to the cops and swear out a statement.”

“What about if you stay somewhat close but on the other side of the law?” Alix asked. “I don’t mean Italian men who walk with accents and make offers he can’t refuse types, but still not exactly letter of the law.”

I chuckled. “There’s a lot of ways,” I said. “Most would require a lot of work, but more importantly, they could be backtracked to us here. But if we wanted, we could go after him with debts, I’m sure he has some, foreclosure if we just buy that apartment complex or the note to his car, stuff like that. Credit’s a hell of a thing to play with. The next level would involve cyber harassment, get in contact with some hacktivists and turn them loose on him. He won’t be able to pay for a damn thing with anything but cash at that point, and his entire life would be open to the Net. They could even take over his computer and track everything he does.”

Alix blinked. “Damn, I thought attorneys were supposed to uphold the law.”

“I do,” I said with a smile, “but sometimes, well, the law isn’t always the best answer in the short term.”