Equalizer

"Good deal," I smiled, admiring his forethought on the whole mess. "Mr. Turner, what time tomorrow evening is Gordon supposed to be there?" I could probably catch him off-guard before he left his house if I knew his itinerary.

"Not sure, but she set it up for tomorrow that I was to take the kids to the sitter around 6 pm."

I smiled. "Good to know. When you get home from work tomorrow, break your key off in the ignition. Pull it out halfway, then tug sharply back so it snaps clean. I know, it sounds strange, but we're going to have to make this as difficult for them as possible."

He smiled genuinely for the first time. "I like it! My wife and the asshole won't be able to do anything with the kids there, unless she takes them to the sitter herself! She has her own car, and never lets anyone else drive it, including me."

He was whispering low, so nobody else could hear him. I checked around, and nobody was paying us any attention. After his initial outburst, everyone in the bar went back to minding their own business.

"Mr. Turner, I have to ask you something. Has your wife been the one in charge during your entire relationship?"

He looked down for a moment, then back up before answering. "Yes, she has. She came onto me, if you can believe it," he chuckled.

I nodded. "Sir, I think that as soon as this is all over, you should Divorce her. Are her parents still alive?"

"Yes, but she said that if I told them or anyone what was going on, I'd never see my kids again," he said with pain in his eyes. "I believe she'd do it too. She would probably take them out of the country where I couldn't find them."

"That isn't going to happen," I promised him. I just hoped I could keep that promise. Then I thought of something that would be very hard to ask. I noticed in the photo of the children that they didn't look much like Turner. They looked more like his wife. That started bugging me, so I went for it and asked the hardest question of the conversation.

"Mr. Turner, are you 100% certain that your children are actually yours? Please don't take this the wrong way, but with the way your wife has been acting, is it possible that she had an affair and had her lover's children instead?"

Turner visibly paled at that. He got a haunted look in his eyes that said that he wasn't sure, and now feared the worst.

"Get a DNA test, Mr. Turner. Make sure," I basically ordered him. "If they aren't yours, you might be able to sue for back child support from the actual father. Failing that, you might be able to sue both your wife and her lover for fraud, in that you were led to believe that the kids are yours. If they turn out to be your children, you'll still at least have some parental rights as their father."

I broke it to him as gently as I could. I'd actually toyed with the idea of becoming a lawyer at one point, so I'd studied some of the Law. I'd sampled several different fields of Law, and Family Law was one of the more convoluted areas. The part I really hated about it was trying to translate Legalese into plain English. So I gave it up as a lost cause.

He was just shaking his head. "I'm sorry, Mr. Shepard. I should be stronger for what I'm going to have to do. I love my kids, and I loved my wife until she started this crap. Sure, she was kind of domineering before, but she was also loving and caring in our relationship."

"I can kind of understand where you're coming from. My ex-wife traded me in for a richer model. Luckily, I wasn't that in love with her, and I was gone a lot of the time. I realize now that I wasn't ready to get married. I'm hoping that I find the right lady and settle down, but I won't let her run all over me."

"I see what you're saying, but Candace was my Heart and Soul. I worshipped her," he said as a tear streaked down his face.

"And she betrayed you for it. Mr. Turner, in any future relationships you have, don't give in to every little thing she wants, unless it's what you want, too. If you feel strongly against something, put your foot down. She'll respect you more for that than just saying 'yes, dear' to everything." I also had a friend that went through a bitter Divorce because his wife cheated on him due to lack of respect. He had tried to give her everything, and she'd stabbed him in the back for it.

He smiled and nodded, a look of understanding on his face. "I see what you're saying, and you're right. Maybe if I'd done that a few years ago, I wouldn't be stuck in this situation right now. Thank you, Mr. Shepard."

"Ok, Mr. Turner, my name is Declan, by the way. Everyone calls me Deck. Mr. Shepard was my Dad," I smiled.

"Declan, I'm William. Good to meet you, and thank you in advance for helping me," he said, reaching across the table to shake my hand. "Oh, and I never got used to nicknames, so I go by William."

"Good to meet you too, William, and don't thank me until it's over. Now, as to my payment..."

"Of course, I have a bank money order here for $25,000, and it's all yours. You'll get the other half when you finish whatever it is you're planning... as long as my wife can't follow through on her threats."

He handed me the money order, and I took it with a nod. "It won't be a matter of 'can't' follow through. By the time I'm finished, she won't want to follow through. Oh, do you know where Gordon works?" I asked with a raised eyebrow.

"He doesn't work. He's from Old Money, or so he says," William said with a sneer.

"Old Money means he's probably going to have security around him at all times. That might be a slight problem," I pondered.

He laughed at that. "No way! He's so arrogant, he says he's the only security he needs!"

Ok, this was going to be fun, I thought as I chuckled along with him.

"Ok, enough of this. Get home and act normal. It might be tempting, but do NOT gloat when he doesn't show up tomorrow. Act like you have been, and don't give your soon-to-be ex-wife any ammunition to make her believe that you were behind anything. Just remember the key in the ignition trick. Got it?"

He just nodded with a look of determination on his face.

"Good. Now, it's Thursday afternoon. Does your wife suspect that you're here?"

"No, she thinks I'm at work as usual. I own my own Accounting Firm."

I came very close to laughing and shouting "YES! I CALLED IT!" when he said that, but kept my face neutral and restrained myself. It took a supreme effort of will on my part not to laugh.

"Good deal. Let's get out of here," I nodded and rose to leave. We shook hands one last time and I was out the door. I had the Asshole's name, address, and 25K to deposit in my account.

Once the deposit was done, I drove over to Gordon's place and staked it out. He wasn't there yet, but soon a Lamborghini Diablo pulled into the driveway through the wrought iron gate. I was parked across the street from his house and down a ways, so when he gunned it and drove up the driveway and out of sight, I slipped quickly from my car and through the gate before it could close all the way.

The house was barely visible from the road, so I made my way through the small forest between the house and street. When I reached the edge closest to the driveway, he was just getting out of his car with a very attractive black woman in a business suit and skirt. She reminded me of Lupita Nyong'o, the Best Supporting Actress Oscar winner. Except this lady wasn't anorexic looking like the actress. Same short natural hairstyle, though. Same dark chocolate skin tone, too, as well as similar facial features. I caught a bit of their conversation while they were walking from the car to the front door.

"I told you, Gordon. You are opening yourself up to a lawsuit from Mr. Turner. You should never threaten anyone like that, and if he can get his wife to corroborate what you said to him, you could go to jail!"

"That's what I pay you for, Tabitha; to keep me out of jail! Besides, she knows what's good for her, and she loves me. She won't rat me out." he snarled back at her. She was his lawyer. That explained it.

"Mr. Smith, you are a client, but I CAN fire you," she stated as they reached the door. "Your... activities are becoming more of a hassle than you're worth."

"If you fire me, I'll make your life a living hell, bitch!" he barked, turning on her and raising his hand for a backhand slap.

That was all I needed to see. Plan be damned. I wasn't about to let this asswipe hit her! I jumped up, broke cover, and was running for him at a dead sprint before he even finished pulling his arm back. Tabitha had already backed up a step, but I wasn't about to let him close distance with her and hit her.

The surveillance op was officially a bust.

His eyes caught me coming at him, and a look of surprise came over his face just before my fist impacted with his nose.

The blow staggered him, but he recovered quickly and dropped into a combat stance, shaking the blood and tears from his eyes.

"That's it, Gordon! You're fired!" Tabitha yelled at him as I snapped a kick into his knee, staggering him back a bit more.

The air rushed out of him as I slammed my fist into his gut, and the air left him in a whuff. He dropped to one knee, and I turned to Tabitha.

"Are you ok, ma'am?" I asked.

"Now I am, thank... Look out!" she said/shouted. I ducked reflexively, so his fist only caught the top of my head and grazed me. I stomped on his foot and kept dropping, then spun and came up with an uppercut to the point of his chin.

Gordon Smith dropped like a rock, unconscious.

"Come on, let's get out of here," I said. "Where is your car?"

"Back at my office. He gave me a ride here and promised me a ride back after he gave me some paperwork."

"I'll give you a ride, then. I'm parked across the street," I nodded, and we headed down the driveway before Dipdunk could regain consciousness.

I hit the button inside the inner gate house to open the gate, and we were out and gone before he regained consciousness.

Once we were in my car, she gave me directions back to her office.

"Has he ever done that before, Tabitha?" I asked as we drove.

"What? Try and hit me? No. He's become more and more unstable lately, though. He thinks his money can buy his way out of any kind of trouble he gets into." She was shaking her head as she said it.

"Well, he won't be doing that again," I said with conviction.

"Who are you, anyway? I know you weren't there just to save my ass," she said with a nervous chuckle.

"My name is Declan Shepard, and I'm working for a client," I answered her.

"Are you a P.I.?" she asked.

"Not as such. I'm helping a man with a problem, and Mr. Smith is central to that problem. Unfortunately, my original plan didn't survive first contact with the enemy. Murphy's Law, of course."

"Let me guess... William Turner hired you?"

"I can't tell you who my client is," I hedged. I didn't want to give William's name to a seemingly grateful, yet still unknown attorney who until a few minutes ago, had been working for the enemy.

"It's ok, hon. With the way Gordon's been going lately, I was already a half-step from firing his Richie Rich ass," she said with a smirk.

I just nodded, confirming what she already pretty much knew.

"I thought so," she said with a genuine smile this time. "He can't physically do anything against Gordon, so he hired someone who can. Right?"

"Something like that. I wasn't going to do any lasting physical damage to him, but Mr. Smith left me no choice in the matter." Then something else occurred to me. "Do you think he'll file a police complaint against me?"

"Nah, I really doubt it. Even if he did, you were acting in defense of another, and I was his lawyer. I'll back you up if he does, but I can pretty much guarantee right now that he won't. His stupid pride won't let him. He'll come after you himself, first. Honestly, he ain't that damn smart," she said with a small smile and a shake of her head.

I smiled back at her as we pulled into her law office parking lot. "Williams, Stanton, & Keller" was what the plaque said beside the door. It wasn't that big of a place, but it was clean and nicely decorated inside. There were two other female lawyers working in there, but they stopped when they saw us come in.

"Tabby, where's Gordon?" the first lady asked. She was a cute brunette with her hair in a pixie cut.

"He's been fired, Shelly," Tabitha replied. "Do me a favor and have his files boxed up and mailed to his residence please?"

"You got it, Tabs," Shelly replied with a look of relief on her pretty face.

"Who's this hot hunk of man, Tabby?" the other lady asked. I had to chuckle at that.

"Down, girl," Tabitha said. "Declan, this is Shelly Stanton and Maggie Keller. Shelly and Maggie, this is Declan Shepard," she introduced me to the brunette and the redhead. Maggie was a hellaciously hot redhead who could probably win a court case on sex appeal alone. She was turning on the Flirt full tilt as she looked me up and down like a side of beef.

Fortunately for me, Tabitha grabbed my arm and hustled me into her office. Once the door was closed and locked, she turned to me and smiled. "Maggie would eat you alive, hon. Trust me on this. She's a fuckin' tiger shark in the courtroom, and in the bedroom too, from what I've heard."

"I could handle her, but I'm not really interested in her, to be honest," I smiled.

She just nodded and sat in the chair behind her desk. She motioned me to sit on one of the chairs before her, so I did.

"Declan Shepard, you're a good man," she smiled.

"Thanks. I try," I flirted back. "So, Tabitha..."

"I prefer Tabby with my friends. You count as a friend for saving me from that nutjob," she smiled warmly.

"I heard Maggie call you that. It suits you," I smiled back. Yes, there were definitely signals being passed back and forth between us.

"Thank you. So what's your story, Declan?" she asked eventually.

"Well, everyone calls me Deck, and why do I have to have a story?" I smirked back. She gave me a raised eyebrow look that said she wasn't going to take any shit, and wouldn't let up until I told her about my life.

So I gave her the short version. Something about her made me want to tell her everything, but we didn't have time for that.

"Well, my mother and father were killed in a plane crash when I was six, so I was sent to live with my aunt and uncle. They are my Godparents, and my cousin Cara became my sister, sort of. We were pretty close growing up, but after I left the Army and went into Private Security, my family almost stopped talking to me. It wasn't until after I left Red River that they forgave me. During my time with that outfit, I got married, but she Divorced me a year later to trade up. In all honesty, I got tired of being a thug, which we pretty much were after a while. Now I'm living off the cash I made working for them, and looking for any job that I can find where I don't have to shoot someone or break their neck. I've been approached by some really shifty characters, but I'm not going back to that life. Unfortunately, my skillset isn't the most peaceful." I paused to see that she was listening intently.

"Anyway, earlier today, I met Mr. Turner in a bar, listened to his story, and asked some questions. I then offered to help him for what he was going to pay the P.I., before the guy turned him down," I finished.

She considered everything I said before replying. "Did he want you to do anything illegal?" she asked at length.

"He wanted the P.I. to basically frame his wife and get her ruled an Unfit Mother. I saw that wouldn't work too well, so I came up with my own plan. Fortunately, you showed up with the fucknut, and now here we are," I finished as I spread my hands out to indicate her office.

"Umm, don't you mean 'unfortunately'?" she smirked with a little chuckle.

"Nope. I can come up with a new plan, but if I hadn't acted, he would have hit you. I don't abide... men, and I use that term loosely, that hit women."

"So you've never hit a woman?" she asked with her raised eyebrow again.

"And God willing, I'll never have to," I shook my head. "I wasn't raised that way, and if I ever hit a lady without cause, my aunt would kill me."

She nodded with a puzzled expression. "The way you say aunt..." she started, referring to how I pronounced it "ahnt" instead of "ant".

"My uncle is white, my aunt is black, and my cousin, their daughter, is biracial," I shrugged.

She nodded and smiled. "I see. So judging by our earlier back-and-forth, do you like sistas too?"

"I like beautiful women, and you're one of the most, if not THE most beautiful woman I've ever seen in my life," I answered truthfully in a matter-of-fact tone.

"Flattery will get you nowhere, but I don't think you were flattering me just now," she said with a little half-smile.

"I was telling you the truth, Tabby," I shrugged. "You're gorgeous, and I'd be lying if I said I wouldn't like to take you to dinner, dancing or whatever you'd like."

"We'll see," she kept giving me that sexy little half-smile with her full lips.

"So, you know my story. What's yours?" I asked, even as I was putting the final touches on a new plan in my head on what to do about Gordon.

"It isn't as interesting as yours, hon. I grew up in New Jersey, but moved out here to go to UCLA after a short, failed marriage. Shelly and Maggie were my roomies in College, and then Law School. We paid our dues as public defenders, and when we had enough cash saved up, we opened this little hole in the wall. We're doing good now, but it was rough going the first couple or years," she said.

"Why didn't you fire Gordon before this?" I asked. "I mean, if you knew he was unstable, why keep him around?"

She sighed and looked down for a moment. "His retainer alone was enough to keep this place up and running. I'm a damn good lawyer, Deck. I've managed, so far, to keep him out of prison. Let's just say that if it wasn't for me, he might just be serving 25 to Life right now."

"He killed someone?" I asked, both of my eyebrows shooting halfway up my forehead in surprise.

"I don't know for sure. He always maintained his innocence, and the evidence was all pretty circumstantial. No DNA or fingerprints of his on the murder weapon. The fact that he was having an affair with the victim's wife actually worked in our favor. She ended up being our star witness, telling everyone that he was with her when her husband was killed. Time stamps on the security cameras set up at the Motel corroborated their stories. Since there was no DNA evidence linking him to the murder, plus her testimony and the security footage, we won pretty easily," she said with a look of anguish in her eyes. "Deck, I almost fired him after that case. Hell, I believed he could have done it. Now, I believe he DID hire someone to do it, but Double Jeopardy is in effect. He can't be tried again for murder. Even if we find the hitman who did it, it would be tough to prove Conspiracy."

"If he did hire a hitman, that means that Turner could be in danger," I said as I fished my phone out of my pocket and called his cell number.

"This is William Turner," he said, answering his phone. "What's going on, Deck? Is it taken care of yet?"

"Not yet. Something came up, but I just wanted to call and warn you that Gordon might try something before I can move on him. Be careful, and if you have a gun, keep it loaded and on you at all times."

"One moment, please," he said. It was quiet for a couple of minutes before I heard him again. "Ok, I had to get out of the room to another part of the house. I told my wife that it was Phil Decker from the work. He goes by Deck too. Now, what's going on?"

I looked at Tabby before continuing, and she just nodded with a concerned expression on her pretty face.

"William, I need you to be very careful until I tell you otherwise. I'm sitting in Tabitha Williams' office right now, and she just informed me that Gordon Smith is a very unstable individual. Do you remember anything about a murder trial some time back involving him as the Defendant?" I explained. I didn't. I'd been out of the country, most likely.