Taste of Passion (Madaris Novels) (28 page)

She stood and watched the two enter her office, a power couple if ever there was one. Before marrying, they had been successful attorneys in their own right, and since forming the partnership of Madaris and Madaris they were even more so.

Mackenzie could vividly recall the first time she had seen them and had immediately thought they definitely belonged together. Clayton was such a handsome man and Syneda was truly a beautiful woman. And although their disagreements could rattle some of their family, the attorney in her always enjoyed listening to them offer different viewpoints.

She couldn’t help but wonder about their position on the Whitedyer case and was eager to hear what they had to say after she filled them in on the latest developments. Standing, she moved around her desk to embrace the couple.

“This is a wonderful surprise. I wasn’t expecting you until later in the week,” she said, smiling.

“We thought it best to come now,” Syneda was saying. Although she was smiling, Mackenzie picked up her serious tone.

“Alex is parking the car and will be joining us,” Syneda added.

“Alex?” Mackenzie’s gaze shifted between Syneda and Clayton. “Does that mean he’s found something?”

It was Clayton who responded. “Alex can always be depended on to find
something
. But how you’ll want to handle what he’s discovered is another matter.”

Mackenzie lifted a brow. But before she could ask anything further, Priscilla escorted the very handsome Alex Maxwell into her office.

Once everyone was seated Mackenzie sank back into the chair behind her desk and glanced over at Alex. “So, what did you find out?”

“More than I really wanted to,” Alex said, shifting in his chair. “There were some things that concerned me about this whole case, things Christy brought up. First, why were you the one being harassed not Mr. Coroni, and then, since he is an elderly man, who would be inheriting all that property upon his death.”

Mackenzie nodded. “I wondered about that too, but figured the culprit couldn’t do anything to Mr. Coroni because he was confined in the hospital at the time of both incidents. And as for who will be inheriting the property upon his death, it will be the petitioners—his supporters who founded the Coroni Foundation—so they can continue the fight after his death if need be. It’s the Coroni Foundation that hired me to represent him.”

“But you’ve never seen a copy of his will, right?” Syneda asked.

“Right. I’m not Mr. Coroni’s personal attorney so I had no reason to be privy to that,” Mackenzie responded.
“The reason that Mr. Coroni came to me instead of using Lamar Perkins, his personal attorney, was because of a conflict of interest. Lamar Perkins’s stepmother is on the city council.”

“That definitely would have been a conflict of interest,” Alex said, nodding.

“And the reason Mr. Coroni wasn’t included in the harassment makes sense, but can we be absolutely sure that his will says what everyone assumes it does?” Clayton asked.

“I believe the Coroni foundation would have made absolutely sure and might even have a copy of it,” Mackenzie said. “Besides, why would Mr. Coroni lie about something like that?”

“He’s not lying if he doesn’t know any differently. What if his attorney made changes without him knowing it? Have you ever met Lamar Perkins?” Clayton wanted to know.

“Yes,” Mackenzie answered. “The local attorneys get together quarterly as part of a networking group here in town. It’s my understanding that Lamar moved to town a year or so before I did to be close to his dad. His parents divorced when he was young and he never established a relationship with his father. His dad died a few months after he moved here but he has a close relationship with his stepmother. Lamar is in his middle thirties and is quite popular with the single ladies around town.”

Alex sighed deeply and then he said, “Through my investigation, I’ve verified all that you’ve said. However, there are some things that have thrown a monkey wrench into this case.”

“More like a crowbar,” Syneda said, shaking her head.

Alex chuckled. “Be that as it may, I have reason to believe that Lamar Perkins might be up to no good.”

Mackenzie regarded him curiously. “And why would you say that?”

“For two reasons actually,” Alex said. “First of all, I had someone check, and I learned that the will the foundation
has in their possession isn’t the most recent one that was drawn up by Mr. Coroni. And the next is because Lamar Perkins is having a secret affair with someone who works at Whitedyer. Not only does she work there but she is someone close to the Coroni negotiations.”

Mackenzie would pace the floor for a moment, then pause, glance down at the documents in her hand and then pace again. The three people sitting in her office knew what had been revealed in the papers she’d just read was reason enough to make a person pace . . . among other things.

Standing to stretch his muscles, Clayton felt it was time to ask, “So, Mac, what do you plan to do?”

She stopped pacing and glanced over at Clayton, Syneda, and Alex. She then glanced at the clock on the wall. Had two hours passed already? She met Clayton’s gaze and shrugged. “I honestly don’t know.”

“Keep in mind that technically, no laws have been broken,” Syneda said.

“Yes, but . . .” Mackenzie didn’t finish what she was about to say, she just shook her head. Taking a deep sigh she moved back across the room to sit at her desk. “But if we can prove an affair is going on then that means there’s a chance Lamar Perkins has been privy to information that he shouldn’t know about.”

“True,” Clayton agreed. “Syneda, Alex, and I discussed everything in detail yesterday after Alex dropped the report by the office. I think Perkins has been counseling Coroni on how to handle Whitedyer based on information he’s being fed from this woman who works for Whitedyer. Coroni has turned down three offers, yet Whitedyer returns to the table with another one and each offer increases substantially. And now, according to you, their most recent offer more than triples the first.”

“And Perkins may have convinced Coroni that since there’s a good chance if the case goes to court, he will lose anyway, he should hold out until the last and get as much
money out of Whitedyer as he can. Chances are that’s what the old man is doing since he trusts Perkins,” Syneda added.

Mackenzie nodded. “But how does that benefit Perkins?”

Alex dragged in a deep breath. “It doesn’t unless Perkins has convinced Coroni that he deserves a share of the proceeds . . . or unless Perkins has made himself the sole beneficiary in the will and hopes Mr. Coroni’s days are numbered, either for health reasons or because Perkins is working behind the scenes to assure Coroni meets with an untimely death.”

At Mackenzie’s shocked look, Alex added, “Trust me, four million dollars is a lot of money. People have killed for a lot less.”

“Yes, but won’t that swing suspicions toward Lamar since he’ll be the one to gain substantially if something were to happen to Mr. Coroni?”

“Not necessarily,” Clayton said. “Especially if it’s arranged to look like Coroni died of natural causes, and there are ways to achieve that, especially for someone his age who has medical problems. Like Syneda said, so far no laws have been broken even if Coroni takes the money by settling out of court, which we can all bank on him doing. But I think we should talk with the person who’s handling the police investigation of the incidents involving you and let them take over from there.”

Mackenzie nodded. “Detective Adams is handling the case and he’s pretty sharp.”

“In that case he probably won’t mind us giving him a heads-up regarding what we’ve discovered.”

Mackenzie reached for her phone. “I’ll give him a call right now to see if he can meet with us later this evening.”

“Glad to see you back, Luke.”

“Thanks, Jim. Glad to be back,” he responded, knowing it was a lie. It had been a week and he had yet to get
back into the swing of things and that wasn’t good. Even Cisco had picked up on it. They had won the relay race but barely.

An hour or so later he was back at the hotel. Cam and the others had decided to hit the town to celebrate but he hadn’t been interested. Nadine had tried getting his attention after the show but he had quickly gone the other way. She was definitely someone he hadn’t wanted to see and it ticked him off that the woman still thought he was interested in her when he’d done everything to show that he was not.

After his shower he got a beer from the six-pack Cam had on ice before collapsing down on the bed and checking to see what was on the television. Grabbing the remote he, began switching channels when he couldn’t find anything that held his interest, trying hard not to let his mind dwell on one particular person. But he couldn’t help it.

As much as he tried he couldn’t think of anything else and it had been that way for a while. And it was worse at night when he couldn’t get to sleep for images of her flashing through his mind. Vivid images. Heated images. He wondered what she was doing. Was she nervous about the hearing that would be coming up soon? Had Clayton and Syneda been able to help her out any?

He reached for his cell phone and then drew his hand back. The last thing he needed was to hear her voice. The way his mind had been playing tricks on him, he thought he heard it sometimes anyway. The only connection he had with her was through Theo. He called the man practically every day to make sure all the men at the ranch were keeping an eye on things. It was important to him that Mac be safe.

He rubbed his face in frustration. Hell, if he’d known it would be this hard to sever their relationship he would never have touched her. No, that was a lie, and he knew it. There was no way he could not have touched Mac.

Closing his eyes, he dragged the details of that night
from his memory. He’d thought then, just like he thought now, that she was the most beautiful woman he had ever seen.

He inwardly sighed and opened his eyes. It was time for him to move on and try to put her out of his mind. It wouldn’t be easy but he was determined to do it.

“So, Detective Adams, what do you think?”

The man glanced around at the faces of the four people who had requested a meeting with him, before turning to Mackenzie to answer her question. “As Ms. Madaris said, aside from ethical issues, no actual laws have been broken. However, due to the amount of money involved, I agree with Mr. Maxwell that I need to be on my guard and make sure nothing happens to Mr. Coroni. He’s already proven part of your theory is correct by deciding to settle out of court.”

No one was surprised when, prior to leaving her office, Mackenzie received a call from Mr. Coroni saying he couldn’t take any more pressure and would accept Whitedyer’s latest offer. “But how can you make sure nothing happens to him once he gets the money?” she couldn’t help but ask.

“We can’t. I’m banking on the idea that if Perkins is thinking about something so devious, he’ll let things ride for a while and do nothing. But before I assume anything, I would like to know who is the beneficiary of Coroni’s will in case we’re barking up the wrong tree. Unfortunately, I don’t even have a reason to pay Perkins a visit, at least not one that wouldn’t raise his suspicions. But I will visit Mr. Coroni under the pretext that I’m still investigating those incidents involving you, and wanted to make sure he hadn’t been the victim of similar threats himself. Then, as subtly as I can, I’m going to plant the seed in his mind that maybe he needs to watch his back. I’m hoping he gets my hint. In the meantime I’ll keep a close eye on Perkins’s girlfriend, Camille Yeager, who happens to be Lewis Farley’s assistant. She might be the greedier one in
all this. I have reason to believe she’s been sharing Farley’s bed as well and that might be where she’s gotten her information to share with Perkins. Farley is such an egomaniac that if he ever discovers she’s betrayed him, all hell is going to break loose.”

“And there’s no way that we can expose her?” Mackenzie asked.

“No, because legally she hasn’t broken any laws. And although we can only guess at what information she might have passed on to Perkins, we don’t have any proof that she actually told him anything.”

Mackenzie paused and considered everything that had been said. “It’s really kind of frustrating to have all this information and not be able to do anything with it.”

Alex regarded her with understanding. “Yes, and now since Coroni has decided to settle out of court that technically ends your involvement in the matter, Mac, as well as that of the foundation, and I’m sure they aren’t going to be happy with Coroni’s decision. They were depending on him to stick it out and they expected a long court battle. Technically, he used them.”

Mackenzie noted that everyone was nodding. Yes, Mr. Coroni had used the foundation but he had also used her firm. “In all fairness to Mr. Coroni, I think in the beginning he wanted to hold on to his land but somehow Perkins convinced him that he didn’t have a snowball’s chance in hell of winning so he gave in.”

“That might be true,” Clayton was saying. “But come next week the man is going to be four times richer than he would have been had he not listened to Perkins. For all we know, all three of them, Perkins, Coroni, and Yeager, might be in this thing together.”

Syneda shook her head. “And if that’s the case then there’s still nothing we can do because everyone is happy. They’re getting the amount of money they were aiming for and Whitedyer gets the land it needs to expand their operation. The only one left holding the bag is the group that supported Coroni in the cause, the foundation,” she said.