“I agree,” Marcus says.
“What do we do?” Tully says. “Right now. Tonight. What’s the next move?”
“Tomorrow I make two calls,” Marcus starts. “One to a federal prosecutor I?—”
“I’m going to fire him,” Tully says.
The office goes quiet.
“I’ll tell him that Lola told me the truth.”
Wade sets his pen down. “He’ll panic.”
“Yes,” Tully says. “He will.”
Marcus is quiet for a moment. I can see him, running it forward and backward, gaming out every possible response. “I like it,” he says slowly.
“A panicking man goes to the journalist,” Tully says.
“And hands us Northmark,” Wade finishes.
“Keep the termination letter clean,” Marcus says. “‘Representation is no longer required, effective immediately.’ No explanation. Send it first thing tomorrow.”
“I’ll text him tonight,” Tully says. “Let him know it’s coming. We’ve been closer than a letter. I can’t believe this guy I trusted has been skimming from me this whole time. If he wanted more money, he could’ve just asked.” He glances at me apologetically because he said the same thing to me. “The guy annoyed me plenty, but I trusted him.”
I run my hand over his back. I’m so glad Daniel’s going down, but I feel bad at all it’s cost Tully. I’m not the only one who’s suffered at Daniel’s hand.
He picks up his phone. I watch him type, and it takes maybe thirty seconds. He reads it back to himself once. Then he turns the phone so I can see the screen.
Daniel, I’m sending you a formal termination of representation letter tonight. Our professional relationship is concluded effective immediately.
“That will definitely freak him out,” I say, laughing softly. “Send it.”
He sends it, and we watch the screen.
The delivered notification appears. And we can see when he’s read it. Three dots appear.
Daniel
What the fuck, Tully?
Tully’s phone dings more, but he turns it off.
“I won’t be responding to that,” he says.
“It’s about to get interesting,” Marcus says. “I’ll call the FBI’s Minneapolis office tomorrow. We’ll get this guy. Rest easy.”
“I don’t think I’ll rest easy until it’s done,” I say, making a face. “But thank you. It helps to know we’re this close.”
We fill everyone in when we get back to the house. They’re as floored and outraged as we are. It helps to vent and hear the way his family has our backs. I appreciate the way they talk through things. Growing up, I didn’t do that with my parents. But maybe if I’d been open with them about this from the beginning, we could’ve stopped Daniel sooner.
Later, when we’re in bed, Tully brushes my hair away from my face.
“Even with all this crap going on, it was a really beautiful day,” he says.
I snort. “I know. It really was. This has been the longest day ever, though.”
“Wanna make it a little longer and climb on my face?” he asks.
