I Take You by Eliza Kennedy Read Free Book Online Page A

something funny is going on with their financial reporting, the DOJ and the SEC will be all over them. Add that to the ongoing PR nightmare of the botched cleanup efforts, the protesters, the lost business? Forget it.”
    I watch a couple of windsurfers skidding across the surface of the water. Looks like fun. “Why doesn’t EnerGreen just settle?”
    “Because they’re rich Texas assholes who don’t want to pay twenty billion dollars to a bunch of shrimp-boat captains.”
    “Urs isn’t an asshole,” I point out. “Or Texan.”
    Urs is the EnerGreen in-house counsel assigned to our case. He’s a transplant from the company’s European division, which is based in Geneva. He’s supposed to be supervising our work, but he’s terrified of Philip and has no idea how American-style litigation works. Another sterling example of our client’s negligence—assigning a foreign regulatory attorney to a $20 billion lawsuit. Not that it matters, in this case—they have Philip.
    “Just keep it simple, okay?” Lyle says. “You need to prepare Hoffman to deal with aggressive questioning by skilled opposing counsel. Youneed to teach him how to listen and how to answer without actually saying a damn thing. He needs to sound calm, friendly and credible. After you do all that, you need to help him explain those e-mails. Maybe they were a joke. Maybe he was hacked. Maybe he accidentally took his wife’s Xanax instead of his Lipitor and spent the day writing schizo e-mails to the entire office. Whatever. He needs a coherent story that establishes why the e-mails aren’t relevant to the lawsuit. Philip will take care of the rest at the deposition itself.”
    “Gotcha,” I say.
    “Good. Don’t fuck this up.” Then a click, and he’s gone.

5
    I walk back inside the room and flop onto the bed. I’m drifting off when my phone pings with a text.
    —here thirsty come now
    I find Freddy and Nicole sipping frothy drinks by the pool. Freddy is wearing a yellow muumuu and cat’s-eye sunglasses, her shiny black hair in a knot at the top of her head. Nicole is slouched across from her, texting, of course.
    “Bridesmaidens!” I cry. “How was the drive?”
    “Heaven!” Freddy gushes. “Ninety miles of shell shops and tacky souvenir stands. We stopped at an amazing state park for a swim.”
    “I got stung by a jellyfish,” Nicole mutters.
    “Poor Nickie!” I rub her arm sympathetically, but she barely looks up from her phone.
    “We had conch fritters for lunch,” Freddy says. “Delicioso!”
    “A little less grease would have been nice,” Nicole remarks.
    “This hotel is fantastic!” Freddy adds. “We’re right down the hall from you.”
    “You guys are sharing a room?”
    “Why not?” Nicole replies. “This wedding is costing a fortune. And it’s not like I’m going to meet anyone here.”
    She gazes gloomily at the happy people splashing in the pool. Freddy catches my eye and mimes hanging herself, then shooting herself, then stabbing herself in the face.
    Nicole finishes her drink and hauls herself upright. “Early flights kill me. I’m going to take a nap.”
    We watch her shuffle into the hotel. “Was she like that the whole way down?”
    “She was worse,” Freddy replies.
    “Sorry.”
    “It was okay. I spent most of the drive planning a nice little murdersuicide scenario for us.”
    The bartender arrives. “Another pink squirrel?” he asks Freddy. She nods.
    I smile up at him. “Make it two, Lloyd.” We watch him walk away. “After a lot of thought, I decided to bust through a guardrail and drive off a bridge,” Freddy says. “It was going to be like
Thelma and Louise
, except less about female empowerment and more about Thelma just wanting Louise to shut the fuck up.”
    “What stopped you?”
    “Your wedding dress. It was in the trunk of the car.”
    I pat her hand fondly. “The sacrifices you make.”
    She shrugs. “We’re driving back together. I figure I have another