Chapter 67 Chapter 0067

Chapter 67 Chapter 0067
•VALERIE•

When I woke up in the morning and reached for Tank on the side of his bed, I found it empty.

The moment I opened my eyes and realized he wasn't in the room, I sat up on the bed and reached for my cell phone on the pedestal counter.

I dialed Brian's number and got out of bed before I pressed the call button. I checked outside the door and locked it when Brian answered the call.

"Hey," he answered. "I tried calling you last night, what happened? We agreed to talk about the lawsuit."

"Yes, about that—" I sighed, tucking my hand under the other and sitting on the edge of the bed. "Tank insisted that we get the best lawyer we could find in town and I went ahead with it. He is willing to fight nail and tooth to win this case, but there's something we can do to make sure that he loses it."

"Your lawyer called me."

"What?" I gasped, getting up from the bed. "What are you talking about?"

"Sloane Vale."

My heart almost stopped. "What did she say to you?"

"She told me that she wants to help me win the case," he answered, chuckling. "We met yesterday and she told me that she wants you to lose for exploiting people. But I—" he chuckled again. "What's going on, Valerie? And what do I do with her?"

I shook my head and couldn't believe the shitty lawyer was already planning on betraying us. She wanted to be against me, and I didn't even know why.

"You must take her on, Brian," I answered. "If she wants to help you win the case, then let her. This is what we wanted anyway."

"You want me to use the lawyer who was hired to work against me?" he scoffed.

"She came to you," I answered. "Which means she has already chosen a side and it isn't ours. So yes. Use her. Let her think she's in control of this."

Brian was quiet for a moment before he replied. "She's good. I looked her up last night after our meeting. She hasn't lost a case in three years."

"I know how good she is," I replied. "Tank found her."

"Then why is she calling me?"

"That is exactly what I need you to find out." I leaned toward the dressing table, keeping my voice low. "She said it was personal, Brian. Find out what she meant by that. Find out who she is and where she came from and whether she has any connection to either of us before this case."

"You think you know her?"

"I think she knows me," I replied. "There's a difference."

He exhaled. "And if I find something?"

"Then you call me before you do anything else. We will handle her before she has enough time to prepare anything that could damage us in court. Once she starts building a case it becomes much harder to stop."

"And the lawsuit?"

"The lawsuit continues exactly as planned," I replied. "Twenty-five million is what we agreed on and that doesn't change. But if this woman is coming after us with something personal behind it, we need to know what it is before it walks into a courtroom."

"Alright," he sighed. "I'll reach out to her today and confirm I want her on board."

"Good. And Brian—" I stopped near the mirror and looked at my own reflection. "Don't tell her anything she doesn't ask for. Answer her questions and nothing more."

"I know how to handle lawyers, Valerie."

"You know how to handle ordinary lawyers," I replied. "Call me when you have something."

I ended the call and set the phone face down on the dressing table.

I looked at myself in the mirror for a moment and thought about where I might have met a Sloane Vale, but my mind was blank.

I sighed and went to the shower before going to find Tank in his office.

His office door was slightly open when I approached it. I knocked once before walking inside.

"You're up early," Tank muttered when he lifted his eyes and saw me.

"I've been up for a while." I closed the door behind me and sat in the chair across from his desk. "We need to talk about Sloane Vale."

He set his pen down. "What about her?"

"We need to move the court date."

He frowned. "We just filed. The date hasn't even been formally set yet."

"Which means now is the time to push for something sooner rather than later," I answered. "Before Brian has enough time to get organized. If we push the date forward, he won't be ready."

Tank took his glasses off and set them on top of the papers. "That strategy only works if we are ready."

"We have the documentation," I replied. "You said so yourself yesterday. The audit trail is complete and everything Brian signed off on is already compiled. Our position is already solid. And his position is not."

He sighed. "And you want me to call Sloane?"

"Call her and tell her we need a meeting here at the house. Today if possible. Tell her it's important and that the timeline has changed." I folded my hands in my lap. "She agreed to take the case, so she will come."

"And at the meeting?"

"We will tell her we want to accelerate. That we have reason to believe Brian is moving faster than anticipated and we can't afford to give him time we don't have to give." I kept my voice steady. "She's a lawyer. She will respond to urgency if it's framed correctly."

Tank was quiet for another moment. Then he reached for his phone. He scrolled to her number and pressed call, then put it on speaker and set the phone on the desk between us.

It rang three times.

"Sloane Vale," she answered. "How may I help you?"

"Ms. Vale, this is Tank Hale. I apologize for calling without advance notice."

"Not at all," she replied. "What can I do for you?"

"Something has come to our attention this morning that changes the timeline of how we'd like to approach this case," Tank responded. "I'd like you to come to the house for a meeting. We need to discuss moving the court date forward and I'd prefer to do it in person."

There was a brief pause before she answered. "I have availability this afternoon. After two o'clock."

"That works perfectly," Tank replied. "I'll send a car for you. Just text the address to this number."

"I'll send it now," she replied.

"Thank you, Ms. Vale. We'll see you then."

She ended the call.

Tank set the phone down and looked at me.

"She agreed."

"That's good." I stood up and straightened my jacket and walked to the door.

I didn't know what she had against me, but I intended to find out this afternoon.