Chapter
Eleven
Kate assembled her team of junior and midlevel attorneys who would be reviewing the documents. Much to her surprise, the first batch that Ethan sent over had been about a hundred thousand pages.
Even though that was a lot of volume, she assumed it would be junk. They were the types of documents that needed to be produced but wouldn’t hold any particular significance to her case. But despite what she thought, she couldn’t afford to act on those assumptions. In a case like this, where there might be foul play and a cover-up, she needed to be extra careful about examining every single page that Ethan turned over on behalf of MPC. And that was a message she had to convey to the team without telling them everything she knew.
Years ago, attorneys would have been locked in a room with tons of boxes, going through paper documents, but now in the digital age, it was a completely different ball game. Everything was electronic—the documents and the method of reviewing them. Thankfully, she was comfortable with technology, but she wasn’t nearly as good at it as the junior associates.
She’d reserved one of the firm’s largest conference rooms as their war room. It was fully set up with everything her team would need to review all the documents and start preparing for the Wyman case.
As the associates filed into the room, she waited for them to get settled. She’d also asked Adam and Bonnie to attend this kickoff meeting. She could only hope that Bonnie would be well behaved.
“Thanks to everyone for gathering on short notice. As most of you know, I’m Kate Sullivan, and I’ll be leading this litigation. MPC dropped the first document production on us today, and our staff has been hard at work loading the data into our review platform. I know that all of you have been trained in our database and the document review tool, so we won’t cover that ground again. I would like to make sure that everyone on the team knows the other two partners working the case with me.” She looked over at Bonnie and Adam. “This is Bonnie Olson and Adam Fox. Both highly experienced litigators who will be doing a lot of work with our experts, but they can also serve as a resource for other aspects as well. Bonnie, Adam, do you have anything to add?”
Bonnie shook her head, but Adam stepped forward. “I’m managing all our expert efforts, so if any of you have a specific interest in doing work on the expert reports, I’d love to work with you. And for everyone here, my door is always open, so feel free to reach out if you want to discuss anything about the case.”
Tellingly, Bonnie didn’t make the same offer, but that was fine. It was enough just to have her on board. Kate would need her help at some point. She was thankful Adam was such a positive force for the group. Hopefully between Adam and her, they could balance out Bonnie.
“Well, then, let’s get down to business. I circulated the document review protocol to the group a while ago. Hopefully everyone has had a chance to read it. I won’t bore you with those details again, as each of you has had the case briefing. But I do want to take a moment and bring your attention to one thing.”
She paused a moment to think through her words. She wanted to make sure they were extremely thorough, but she couldn’t explain all of the reasons there was so much on the line here. “All of you have been on review teams before, and I know you’re always told that you have to be on top of it and pay a lot of attention to detail. But I can’t stress enough how important that is in this case. I believe there will be documents showing that MPC knew of the connection between Celix and the brain tumors, but it might not be as simple as spelling it out. I’ll need each of you to read these documents with a critical eye toward our case—the central contention we need to prove is that MPC knew or should have known about the tumors. We can’t afford to miss anything. It could be the difference between winning and losing the case. Anyone have any questions?”
One of the associates raised her hand.
“Yes, go ahead.”
“As far as workflow, is this case our top priority right now? What if we get pulled onto other matters?”
She’d already cleared all of their schedules with the partners they reported to. “You shouldn’t get pulled onto anything else. If you’re sitting in this room right now, it’s because you’ve been approved to work full time on this. I can’t afford to have people popping in and out of the review.”
The associate nodded. “I assume we should come to you if someone tries to get us to work on something else?”
“Absolutely,” she said.
Another hand went up. “Are you saying we can’t do any substantive work like writing briefs or memos while we’re on this case?”
By the sound of his voice, he wasn’t happy about being put on document review.
Bonnie stepped forward. She was tall, and her commanding presence filled the conference room. “Let me answer that. I know document review is looked at by a lot of you as grunt work, but it’s absolutely critical to understanding the case and developing the strategy. All of you were selected because your managing attorneys thought you would bring value to this team. So if you’re not in it to be a team player, you should walk out of this room right now.”
Kate hid a smirk. Bonnie clearly had no trouble playing bad cop.
“It’s just that I would hate to lose out on other opportunities,” the associate said.
“What’s your name?” Bonnie asked.
“Phil Gentry,” he answered with a shaky voice. His initial show of confidence had been sapped by Bonnie’s response. Kate didn’t think this was going to end well for Phil. He should have just let it go and not challenged Bonnie.
“Phil, you should leave,” Bonnie said. “We won’t need you on this team any longer, and I’ll personally have a discussion with your managing attorney about why you’ve been taken off this case.”
“Wait a minute. I didn’t say I wanted to be removed from the case,” Phil said.
“You don’t want me to ask you to leave again.” Bonnie took another step toward him. “This little stunt will not be forgotten, either, when it comes time for performance reviews.”
Phil muttered under his breath, gathered up his things, and walked out of the conference room.
Kate needed to change the mood in the room. She didn’t want to start on such a negative note. “I’m guessing everyone else would like to stay here. You should all have your first review sets ready to go in the database. You’re all very valuable members of this team, and I appreciate your commitment. So let’s get to work.”
Bonnie pulled her aside for a hushed conference. “You have to be tough with these kids, or they’ll just run all over you. Millennials think they can have it all—a six-figure salary, a cushy schedule, and choice assignments. You have to work that out of them, and quickly.”
“You and I have different management styles.”
Bonnie laughed. “You can say that again, but I did you a favor with Phil. You don’t want someone like that on your case. He’s bad news.”
“I don’t want anyone on the team if they aren’t going to give it their all,” she said.
“As women, we have to be stronger, Kate. The soft touch just won’t get the job done. The last thing you want is to be seen as weak.”
“I don’t think anyone would call me weak,” she protested, keeping her voice firm and steady. “I wouldn’t have gotten lead counsel in this case if I was.”
“That’s the fire I like to see.” Bonnie smiled. “I’m going to get back to my other cases. You know where to find me.”
Had Bonnie just said something nice to her? Kate saw that Adam had left as well. Now that she was the only partner in the room, it was time to give the team a pep talk. Because unlike Bonnie, she felt that people did their best work when they were motivated and valued.
Landon arrived at Kate’s office that evening to escort her home. He’d worked out a schedule with Cooper. Kate had warned him that there would be some late nights, but tonight it wasn’t so bad. She’d asked him to pick her up at seven thirty.
He waited in the lobby as she had instructed, and it wasn’t long before she stepped off the elevator. Her long auburn hair was down today, and it flowed past her shoulders. When she saw him, she smiled, and that, in turn, made him smile.
What was it about this woman that made him a bit crazy? It wasn’t like she was doing anything special to try to get his attention—if anything, just the opposite. She was focused on her job, but he couldn’t help being focused on her. The danger that she found herself in only fueled his already strong protective instincts.
He walked over to her. “Thanks again for agreeing to this new system.”
“I should be the one thanking you. This isn’t the best gig in the world.”
“Being around you isn’t exactly tough, Kate.”
She laughed. “We’ll see if you’re still saying that by the time the trial is over. I’m starving. Can we pick up some takeout on the way to my house?”
“Sure. Just let me know what you’re in the mood for.”
“Thai would be great.”
“Sounds good to me.” He realized, once they started talking about food, just how hungry he was. It had been a long day, and he had skipped lunch.
“I’ll call it in right now. It’ll be ready when we get there.”
“Thai on speed dial?”
She shrugged. “I order out a lot.”
He could relate. He ate a ton of takeout too.
About thirty minutes later, they arrived at her house with a huge bag of Thai food, but his voracious appetite would have to wait. First things first. He had to confirm that Kate’s home was secure.
He turned to her before she could climb out of the Jeep. “Stay put for a minute, and lock the doors when I get out.”
“Do you really think that’s necessary?”
“Humor me.”
She nodded, and he stepped out of his Wrangler. She’d given him a key so that he could make copies for the team. Noah would be working on her security system, but that wasn’t an overnight fix.
He unlocked the door, disarmed the alarm, and cleared the house room by room. Jax darted out in front of him, but everything seemed normal and in place. No sign of any intruders. He hadn’t expected there would be, but from here on out, they weren’t going to take any chances. Satisfied that all was well, at least for now, he went back outside to get Kate.
A little while later, they sat at Kate’s kitchen table with their plates full of Thai food, including his hefty portion of spicy noodles. He looked up and found Kate staring at him.
“Uh-oh, what did I do now?” he asked.
She smiled. “I’m just wondering how quickly you’re going to get tired of this setup. Having to babysit me and make sure that I’m safe. I mean, this goes way beyond your initial job description.”
He paused for a moment before he responded, trying to gather his thoughts. “Kate, even if this wasn’t a paying gig, there is no way I’d leave you to deal with these threats alone.”
“That’s sweet of you, Landon, but the firm is definitely paying you for your time.”
“But I’m not on the clock right now.” He wanted her to understand that this wasn’t about obligation. Far from it. “We’re having dinner, and it was my choice to stay. I could’ve just secured the house, made sure you were fine, and left. But I wanted to have dinner with you.”
She cocked her head to the side. “I appreciate the company. I’m not going to lie. This entire situation has taken me out of my comfort zone. I’ve never dealt with security threats before.”
“Which is exactly why I’m here, and why we now have extra help with Cooper’s team.” He took a bite of noodles and then continued. “Also, Noah will be here tomorrow to work on the security system.”
“That’s great. Will you make sure to warn him about Jax? I don’t want him getting out. Post-surgery, he’s purely an indoor cat.”
“Yes. I’ll do that.” He pulled out his phone and shot off a text so he wouldn’t forget.
“Did I sense some sort of tension between the two of you?”
“Me and Noah?”
“Yeah.”
He really didn’t want to have this conversation, but maybe he’d feel better if he opened up just a bit. “It’s a long story.”
“I have nowhere to go and a plate of noodles to get through.”
Instantly, without even trying, Kate had disarmed him once again. “I met Noah and Cooper in the freshman dorms. We got an apartment together sophomore year and were very tight throughout college and over the years since then. But I had a falling-out with Noah last year.”
“About what?”
Once he told Kate this, it would probably lower her opinion of him, but he wasn’t in the business of being dishonest. “A woman. And he totally had the right to be mad at me. He was seeing someone but said it wasn’t serious. Little did I know that he had completely fallen for her. Well, let’s just say I made some extremely bad choices where she was concerned when I got back from my final deployment. He still hasn’t forgiven me, and I can’t really blame him. I was in an awful place and acting out in every possible way that I could, including moving in on his girlfriend. My bad decisions were just that—bad decisions. And I own up to that.”
She moved her chair around the table to sit directly beside him. “We’re all imperfect, Landon. I can’t begin to tell you some of the things I did that I regret. I engaged in so much self-destructive behavior that I often looked in the mirror and was disgusted by the person I’d become. But once the Lord came into my heart, I was able to approach things with a different perspective. It’s all a process, though. I still face ups and downs.”
“Your faith shines through, Kate, but I don’t know how I’d ever get back to a relationship with God, especially after the things I’ve said and done. The pain I’ve lived through. We’re not talking about small bumps in the road here. More like life-altering detours.”
“It’s not that you doubt God’s existence, then?”
“No, but I doubt that He has any real interest in me.”
Kate slipped her hand into his. Her soft touch impacted him more than it should have.
“That’s not true, Landon. God loves you, and He’s there for you even when you don’t think He is. You’ve shut Him out, but it only takes small steps to change and open back up to Him.”
Listening to the longing in her voice hurt him, but she didn’t understand the full picture. The horrors he experienced in the Sandbox—the pain, death, and destruction. And he wasn’t sure he could bear to try to make her understand. “It’s so messed up. Where I’ve been, what I’ve been through, how I’ve reacted. It’s all just too much.”
She moved even closer to him and didn’t break eye contact. “You don’t have to tell me everything. But know this—I’m praying for you.”
Her words, spoken with such conviction, were like a punch to the gut. If only she knew just how broken he was. “I can’t stop you from praying for me, but I should probably tell you not to waste your time.”
“It won’t be a waste. That much I know with all of my heart,” she said quietly. She was still holding his hand.
The room was completely silent as he looked into her eyes. So many different emotions raged within him. Including the urge to pull her into his arms and kiss her. But he had to check himself.
He pulled back. “It’s getting late. I should get out of your hair.” He stood and threw his plate in the kitchen trash can. “I’ll double-check everything once more before I go.”
He walked out of the kitchen, needing a moment to gather his thoughts. Kate had a lot more faith in God and His ability to be there for him than Landon ever had. While he wanted to believe her impassioned positions, his past experience made him wary. And even if he had experienced that reoccurring tugging at his heart, that small voice in his head, what was he supposed to do with it?
He didn’t even know how to begin to approach God again. It was easier to just bracket off that part of his mind, but he also knew faith was central to Kate’s life. If he wanted to know her better, he would have to understand her ability to connect with God in a way he hadn’t been able to.
Kate affected him unlike any woman ever had, but his feelings worried him. He was scared he would let her down.