Page 28 of Contentious

“It’s not your job to personally protect her and her son or to give her a ride to a Hollywood premiere.”

“Please don’t do this.”

“What am I doing?”

“Projecting your Disney princess life onto me because you want everyone to be as happy as you are. That kind of happy isn’t in the cards for me.”

“You were losing it over her when you heard she was my client. As I recall, you wanted her phone number so you could tend to her personally.”

“I had the same reaction any red-blooded man has to hearing her name. Cresley is a client and a kinda friend. That’s all she’ll ever be.”

“If you say so.”

“I say so. What’re you hearing from Marlon? I’ve got people watching her and Ty, but that’s getting really expensive for her, and we haven’t seen him in more than a week.”

“He’s not returning my calls. The judge told him to stay the hell away from them until the custody matter is resolved. Maybe he took that to heart.”

“Do you really think he’d go away that easily? Cresley said she’s asked around, and he’s hard up for money. She says that’s when he’s most interested in his son.”

“What do you want to do about it?”

“I’d like to track him down and pay him a visit to get this situation resolved for her. How do you feel about that?”

“As her lawyer or as your brother?”

“Both.”

“As her lawyer, I’d be all for finding him and backing him into a legal corner to get this settled for her and Ty. As your brother, I’d say be careful. He’s proven to be unstable, and who knows how he’ll react when he’s cornered? He’s got dirt on her that she’s desperate to keep under wraps because of her new contract with D&G, which has a rigid morality clause. We’ve got to play this carefully.”

“What kind of dirt?” Carson asked, instantly intrigued by her having dirt that might impact a morality clause. She didn’t seem the type to have skeletons in her closet, but people never ceased to surprise him.

“That’s privileged info.”

He knew Julian couldn’t tell him anything he didn’t need to know to complete his work, but he still wanted to know her big secret. “I’ll try to find him and let him know I’ve got enough evidence from surveillance to file a police report for stalking. I’ll keep you posted.”

“Let’s coordinate the approach. I want to make sure we don’t do anything to hurt her custody case.”

“Obviously.”

“The band is playing at The Roxy Theater tonight if you want to come by.”

“You guys are moving up in the world lately.” They’d recently played at the Whisky A Go Go, another of LA’s top clubs.

“I know, and it’s stressing me out. We’re getting a lot of cool inquiries since the Whisky gig.”

“Isn’t that a good thing?”

“It is until it involves touring, which I can’t do, and neither can Denny.”

Julian had told him that Isla’s brother had kids who lived with their mother in Santa Monica, not to mention Denny owned a construction company that kept him further tethered to LA.

“I mean, you could if you wanted to.”

“How do you figure? I have a job and a life that takes place right here in LA.”

“Nothing says you couldn’t shake things up if you wanted to chase the music dream.”

“No desire for that at this point. I’ve got many good reasons to stay right here in town. Besides, if we’re going to that level, we’d have to start recording our own music, which is another thing Denny and I don’t have time for. It worries me that we’re holding back the others, who do want to chase the golden ring.”