The Law (The Dresden Files #17.4)(20)

“Indeed not,” Inverno said. His eyes went to Maya. “What your client should be worried about, in addition to the expenses of the trial, is how her own customer base will react when the nature of her past professional life comes out in court.”

Tripp Gregory smirked. “Yeah, baby. Court is a terrible place for that kind of thing to happen.”

Maya pressed her lips together and her face went a little pale. She didn’t look at anyone.

I crossed my legs the other way in a creak of leather coat and smiled. “I’m fantasizing about punching you in the face,” I told Tripp Gregory pleasantly.

Tripp’s smile faltered.

“You aren’t going to touch my client, Dresden,” Inverno said easily. “I think you can imagine the sort of fallout if you crossed that line.”

I beamed at Tripp and then said, toward Inverno, “Just making observations.”

Maya squared her shoulders and said, “Go ahead.”

Everyone stopped and looked at her.

“Go ahead,” Maya replied. “I made the choices I made, and I’ll live with the consequences. You can out me in court, and it might mean that I lose my ability to continue working. But there are thirty-eight other women who need this job. I’ll still fight for them.”

Inverno smiled briefly. “And how will you renumerate your counselor afterwards, with no income of your own?”

“That’s hardly your concern,” Max said calmly. “We’re here to talk about possible solutions short of going to open trial.”

“Sure, sure,” Tripp said, giving Maya a nasty look. “You can buy me out of the business if you want. I’ll take half a million.”

Maya blinked and gave Tripp an incredulous look. “That’s more than twice as much profit as we’ve made in seven years.”

Tripp shrugged. “If I’m getting cut out of my ongoing half, I’m getting something out of it. That’s just business, baby.”

Inverno’s eyes flicked aside to Tripp, just for a fraction of a second, and he did not look amused.

“That’s… not even insane so much as inhumanly asinine,” Maya responded calmly. “If I don’t have a quarter million to give you, I certainly don’t have half a million.”

“That’s my fuckin’ price,” Tripp responded, his tone nasty, his reptile eyes focused on Maya. “You little whore.”

I came up out of my chair.

Inverno rose to hold out a hand toward me, his tone warning. “Dresden.”

I held up my own hand to Inverno, a placating gesture, but I didn’t look away from Tripp. “Please advise your client,” I said in a very calm voice, “that if he continues in such insults against Maya, I’m going to consider them fighting words and I’m going to hit him in his big, fat mouth.”

Tripp scowled at me. “The fuck does that mean?”

Inverno stared at me for a moment, and then a little malicious smile barely touched the corners of his mouth. “It means that if you insult the lady like that again, he will consider doing so viable grounds for physical attack, and will presumably follow through,” Inverno replied.

Tripp laughed. “In front of my attorney? That’s a fuckin’ slam dunk assault charge.”

Inverno didn’t like Tripp any better than me. That wasn’t how fighting words worked in law, but he let it play out. “While true, there’s at least some chance that he can get away with it legally afterward.” Inverno glanced at Tripp calmly. “Given how you present yourself, I’d say he has a better than average chance. Perhaps you should moderate your tone where the young lady is involved.”

“I got the right to speak,” Tripp said stubbornly.

“And he has the power to strike you if you continue in the vein you have been,” Inverno replied with a sigh. “Which is, admittedly, an egregious one.”

Tripp didn’t look like he understood the word ‘egregious,’ and maybe that was what made him subside. “Fine. We’ll pretend she’s a square and not a… what she is.”

Inverno eyed me and lifted an eyebrow.

“Thank you,” I said. We exchanged a small nod, and I sat down again, slowly.

Max cleared his throat, bringing the conversation back on course. “Your client’s offer is not a reasonable one.”

“No,” Inverno said. “It isn’t. However, it is his prerogative to decide what to offer. Perhaps you have a counteroffer in mind?”

“Ten thousand,” Max said calmly, “for which your client will be expected to sign a document quitting any further claim of any kind toward my client or her business. Live and let live.”

Inverno took this in with a nod and glanced at Tripp.

“Ten thousand,” he scoffed. “I know she made more than that.”

“That money is gone, Tripp,” Maya said in a calm, steady voice. “We spent it on kids who couldn’t afford to pay for services.”

“Your fuckin’ mistake,” Tripp replied. “The money got made. I want what’s mine.”

I glanced up and saw Ms. Lapland standing in the doorway. She came in with coffee in a cup and a look of disgust on her face and gave them both to Tripp. He leered at her openly, patted her utterly inappropriately, and said, “Thanks, baby.”