Black Rainbow (7 page)

P R E S E N T

“Well look what we’ve got here, someone is five minutes early.”

There was only one person with that annoying accent, and he was the very last person I wanted to deal with in the morning.

“What do you want Atticus?” I pressed the elevator button two more times, willing it to come faster.

“I do recall Professor Black choosing the both of us for this case,” he replied, stepping inside with me. “Anyway, I think we should introduce ourselves and be professional while we’re here. Who knows, we might be working here in a few years’ time. I’m Atticus Logan.”

He held out his hand for me to shake.

“Thea Cunning.”

“I hear every year Professor Black takes a student under his wing. You should know right now; I ain’t losing to you, or anyone else. So don’t get in my way,” he stated, stepping out when the doors opened.

Do no harm. Do no bodily harm to the ass in the cowboy boots.

“So, you guys are the fresh meat,” a voice chimed.

I turned, searching for its owner. That voice, it was so familiar...

As I turned, I found myself face to face with none other than Tristan. Tristan, the man who’d served me drinks at the bar, the man who had worn the top hat and guy liner. In the clear light of day, he looked completely different. His hair was styled perfectly, his shoes shined to the point where I could see my reflection in it, and he wore a suit that likely would have cost me my entire life savings. A point which said a lot about my current financial state of affairs.

“Mr. Knox, it’s a pleasure sir. I was fascinated by your work in the Dreyer Case,” Atticus said, already kissing ass.

“Where are you from?” Tristan asked him.

“Greenville, South Carolina,” Atticus replied with pride.

“I was born and raised in Mauldin.”

“You’re kidding me.”

“I never kid about my hometown.”

Atticus looked back to me and winked— “A small world. You're my new found hero.”

So this is the old boy’s club people talked about.

“I heard you worked for
The Shark
at one point in your career,” Atticus grinned.

The Shark? My mother, The Shark?

“Mr. Knox,” I said interrupting Atticus, “it’s a pleasure to meet you,
again
.” I stepped forward extending my hand.

I was not going down with a fight.

“Again?” Atticus questioned, looking at me with a frown.

“Yes, Mr. Knox worked for my mother, Margaret Cunning,” I lied.

Well, it wasn’t a complete lie. I
had
met him before, and he had worked with my mother at one point, right?

“Yes, of course. I’m quite sorry to hear about her passing.” Tristan smirked at me.

Atticus’ mouth dropped open, and this time, I was the one who turned to wink.

“You’re all late,” Levi scolded, coming towards the elevator.

“We’re five minutes early.”

“You
were
five minutes early, but you spent those minutes,
my minutes
, may I add, chatting about your personal lives, right Tristan?”

“I couldn’t get them to shut up.”

They’d fucking set us up.

“Anyway, in this office, if you aren’t a half hour early, you might as well not show up. So far, I’m rethinking the both of you,” he responded, as the elevator doors closed.

“You were supposed to be on that elevator with him,” Tristan said from behind us. “If you don’t make it to the car before he does, believe me, he will drop the both of you on the spot.”

Atticus and I glanced at each for a second, before I took off my heels and bolted towards the stairs.

“Are you insane? There are at least 60 flights of stairs!” Atticus yelled after me, but I ignored him, running as quickly as I could.

As I reached the 49
^th
level, I pushed open the door and dashed towards the elevator, pressing the button over and over again, as if my life depended on it.

“Ma’am?” a security guard asked, coming towards me. Fortunately, the doors opened, and sure enough there was Levi reading his paper.

“I work for him!” I shouted, pointing to Levi, as I jumped inside.

He looked up at me, confused as I entered gasping.

“I would have been more impressed if you’d ran down all of the stairs,” he said, no longer interested in me. As I stood there trying to catch my breath, he continued reading.

“Fuck you.”

“Excuse me?” he turned back to look at me, his eyes narrowing.

“Achoo,” I sneezed. “Excuse me,” I lied and he knew it, but I put my heels back on anyway.

“Where’s Atticus?” he asked as the doors opened.

“I don’t know maybe he just isn’t hungry for—” I stopped, seeing Atticus already standing at the car door. ‘

Levi looked back to me. “He wins.”

He allowed Levi to enter before cutting between us both and climbing into the spot next to Levi, which forced me to take to the front seat.

“We are going to see the Archibalds,” he said. “Keep your heads down, don’t talk to anyone, especially not the reporters, don’t even breathe into their mics, and don’t under any circumstance, make eye contact. The same goes for the Archibalds themselves. You are nothing more than flies on a wall, you take notes, and you keep out of my associates’ way, because they sure as hell won’t be paying attention to you. If you have questions, keep them to yourself. If you have thoughts and opinions, keep them to yourself, unless I ask from them. Understood?” We both nodded. “Good.”

This was the first time I had ever seen him dressed to the nines. When he had been with me, it was always a variation of jeans, and a button down shirt, or just his boxers, or sometimes, nothing at all. At school, he was semi-casual. But no matter what he wore, he looked good in everything.

No, Thea no! This is work. Think about the case, not him!

When we made it to the Archibald’s Multimillion-dollar Boston Brownstone, it was worse than I realized. The press was being kept at bay by a wall of guards on the stairs.

“If either of you screw up my case in any way, I will make sure that you won’t be able to study law, let alone practice it,” he warned.

Opening the door, the media crowd swarmed, and began shouting questions at us. As we began our trek to the front door, dozens of flashbulbs went off in our faces.

“Remember, keep your head down,” Atticus whispered to me as we walked forward.

“Mr. Black, do you truly believe in light of the new evidence that Richard did not intend to kill his ex-girlfriend?”

“Mr. Black, do you think this be your first loss since opening your firm?”

“How do you think this case will affect race relations?”

The wall of guards parted, and we crossed over the threshold, finally safe from the prying eyes of the press. Moving into the house, it was madness. Files, papers and coffee cups were everywhere. His associates had been arguing with each other, however, they stopped their bickering the moment he entered.

“Where are we?” he said, taking off his jacket and throwing it onto the chair as if he owned the place.

“Mrs. Archibald is in the kitchen looking through photos, Richard is upstairs in his room, we check in every ten minutes, and…” the girl who was speaking froze.

“And?” Levi snapped at her.

“And Mr. Archibald took a flight into New York this morning,” another one of his associates replied. “We’ve tried calling, but all his phones are off.”

Levi’s nostrils flared, and he clenched his jaw, as he stomped into the kitchen.

Atticus and I followed, while the rest of his associates went back to their case files.

“He’s in New York?!” Levi really yelled for the first time since I had met him.

The older woman was dressed in a navy tailored suit dress with a strand of pure white pearls around her neck. Her red hair was neatly combed back, and pinned up, and as Levi stormed into the kitchen, she jumped slightly— “He said he had a meeting—”

“His son has been charged with murder.
Two counts
, I may add, and he goes off to a meeting in New York?” he snarled, his voice only one octave lower.

“You have to understand—”

“No.
You
need to understand. I told you both that the only way I was taking this case was if you gave me your complete and utter trust, your loyalty, and your commitment. Which means you do what I say and I said
not to leave the bloody house
! The moment the press gets word of this, it will be spun one of two ways; one, that your husband is not taking this seriously, or two, that he is so distressed at his son’s actions, that he could not bear to be near him. Which way do you think helps us?”

“Neither,” she said, staring at the floor.

“Exactly!” he yelled again, turning from her and back to the living room. “Smoke signals, carrier pigeons, I don’t care what or how, someone get in touch with Mr. Archibald before the five o'clock news. And you two,” he said, pointing to two of his associates, “come with me.”

The two associates all but jumped out of their seats as they went back into the kitchen.

“Thing one, Thing two, stop standing around like mannequins, and start dialing,” another associate called, throwing us a stack of phone numbers.

Nodding, we dropped our stuff and started making calls.

“Everything you ever dreamed of, right?” Atticus whispered with the phone at his ear.

I snickered, before remembering who I was talking to.

“How did you get down to the car so fast?” I asked.

“Window washers.”

My mouth popped open. “You’re lying.”

“Nope. I jumped on, and they took me all the way down.” He grinned. “Hello, this is Atticus Logan with Levi Black and Associates, can you tell me if Mr. Archibald is in?” He paused as he listened to their response. “Thank you for your time, please call us if anything changes.” He hung up and looked at me. “I told you I was in this to win, and I meant it. You’d better pick up the pace, because I’m not waiting for you,” he said, as he dialed the next number.

My mother used to say law school was just the battle, and that being a lawyer was leading a war. I never really understood that until now.

“Game on,” I replied.

“Where is Ms. Cunning?” I asked, coming out of the meeting with Mrs. Archibald.

Things were getting worse by the moment, and the plea deal was starting to look more and more appealing, but she’d refused.

“She went to the bathroom and disappeared,” one of my employees replied, without looking up from the case files.

“She probably realized that she was in over her head,” he added, more to himself than to me.

Thea, admit defeat? That will be the day I sprout wings and fly.

Sighing, I noticed the Archibald’s youngest daughter staring at us through the stairway rails whilst she chewed on the end of one of her perfect red curls. She lifted her hand and motioned me over. I crossed the floor and went to her. She cocked her finger at me, a sign that she wanted to tell me a secret.

I leaned down and she whispered, “The pretty lady is upstairs with Richie.”

“Thank you.” I petted her head before rushing up the stairs.

Damn you Thea. At least I have reason to fire you now.

“You spoiled, little, rich, brat,” I heard her snap at who could only be Richard.

“Excuse me? Do you know who you’re talking to?”

“Yes I do, a spoiled, little, rich, brat,” she repeated, enunciating each word.

“I can have you fired!” he screamed at her.

“Go ahead, but before you do, use your brain for just a moment. The only reason you’re sitting up here playing video games is because you said you have nothing to worry about, right? I mean, you have the great and all-powerful Levi Black on your case.”

“Yeah, so what? He’s never lost case, so why should I be bothered? This will all be over in a week, two weeks, tops.”

“Levi Black is an
amazing
defense attorney, but he’s not God. Even he can’t stop the people from loathing your guts. That’s why he brought me here, because I personally believe you should spend a few years behind bars. It would do people like you some good. My job is to see every reason why the state wants to throw you away, and find a counter for it. And so far, your lack of remorse, your inability to comprehend your own situation, and your superiority complex, will be the death of you. I truly hoped that I was wrong about you. I’d hoped that it was all just a stereotype I’d formed in my head, but sadly, you are worse than I imagined. So please, go ahead and have me fired, you’ll only be adding another nail to your coffin kid. And me? I’ll get to go home.”

“So you’re just going to give up? What type of crack lawyer are you?”

“What kind of human being are you? Two of your friends died, in your house—”

“Don’t you think I know that?” he snapped. “Just because I’m not sobbing all over the place, or cutting my wrists, doesn’t mean I don't know. I didn’t even want the stupid pills, but everyone stopped coming to my parties because I wasn’t
fun enough
. Hector was the one who told me where to get the pills from in the first place!”

“Richard, why didn’t you say that?” She dashed out of the room, only to run right into me, sending us both sprawling unto the ground.

Once again, I could feel every curve of her, and I fought the urge to hug her to me. But all too soon, she was gone.

“Oh my God, I’m so sorry, Mr. Black.”

“Never mind that,” I sighed, standing back up.

Turning to Richard, who looked more like his father than his mother, with his pale skin and dark eyes, I addressed him, “You said Hector, the boy that died, was the one who told you where to get the pills?”

“Don’t use that,” Richard said quickly.

He was insane.

“Are you insane?” Thea asked him.

If it was any other day, and we didn’t have the history we had, I would have laughed.

“You guys hear what they’re saying in the news, right?” he whispered, taking a seat on his bed. “Hector was my best friend. We played little league together, and he always let me win because he knew my dad hated it when I lost. He was an honor roll student, he was the star basketball player, what do you think would happen, if we say that my black, best friend, told me where to get the drugs from?”