The recent down time combined with more resources than I was used to meant I’d had time to start rebuilding my magical arsenal. I had my force rings back, four on each hand, braids of silver that were made to store kinetic energy, as well as a proper shield bracelet again. I had them all out in plain sight, since now I knew that both Inverno and Lapland were practitioners. They’d know I had walked in armed for bear.
Lapland got up and sashayed to the meeting room performatively. Even Maya noticed, probably. She opened the door for us and asked politely if any of us wanted coffee. We didn’t and filed in to sit in a small meeting room, its walls again filled with books and filing cabinets, a long table in the middle with three chairs on each side. The bookshelf had the occasional oddity on it: a stand holding a cruel-looking curved dagger. The white skull of an enormous bear. What looked like a walrus tusk carved with heavy scrimshaw of a Viking warrior fighting some kind of serpent.
Talvi Inverno, in his all black suit, sat in the center seat, and his eyes narrowed as Maximillian Valerious entered.
Max stopped in the doorway and beamed at him. I’d told Max who Talvi was, in the spirit of full disclosure, but if the old lawyer was nervous, it didn’t show on his face. I’d also spotted half a dozen protective charms on him on the way over, a couple of them actually bearing enough power to make a difference against someone serious. For a guy who didn’t want anything to do with the supernatural, he’d evidently been able to prepare himself against it better than most.
“Who the hell is that guy?” blared Tripp Gregory. He sat next to Talvi in a suit of his own, looking like a respectable businessman.
“That,” the nameless son said, “is Maximillian Valerious, Esquire.” He inclined his head to Max, a fencer’s gesture, and Max returned it in kind. Then Max stepped forward and seated himself in opposition to the nameless son, his movements brisk and businesslike.
I held out a seat for Maya so that she wouldn’t have to sit across from Tripp Gregory, and then I settled down in front of the guy myself.
“I’ve looked over the contract in question,” Max said to Inverno without preamble. “You have a case, but not an unbeatable one.”
Inverno smiled with his lips alone. “I will have experts lined up to establish damages who will convey otherwise.”
Max smiled as hollowly in return. “Do you honestly think any judge is going to look at the particulars of this case and rule in favor of your client?”
“It lies firmly within the four corners, and I believe my experts will lend us weight. But I think that isn’t the question at hand,” Inverno replied. “I think the question is whether or not your client can afford the depositions and fees for experts of your own to counterbalance me.”
Maya glanced nervously at Inverno and then at Max.
Max patted her hand reassuringly without ever looking away from Inverno. “I wouldn’t worry about that, if I were you,” Max said.
“Indeed not,” Inverno said. His eyes went to Maya. “What your client should be worried about, in addition to the expenses of the trial, is how her own customer base will react when the nature of her past professional life comes out in court.”
Tripp Gregory smirked. “Yeah, baby. Court is a terrible place for that kind of thing to happen.”
Maya pressed her lips together and her face went a little pale. She didn’t look at anyone.
I crossed my legs the other way in a creak of leather coat and smiled. “I’m fantasizing about punching you in the face,” I told Tripp Gregory pleasantly.
Tripp’s smile faltered.
“You aren’t going to touch my client, Dresden,” Inverno said easily. “I think you can imagine the sort of fallout if you crossed that line.”
I beamed at Tripp and then said, toward Inverno, “Just making observations.”