You won’t have to if you settle, a voice whispered at the back of my mind. It could all be over today.
“Don’t worry about what they’re doing or saying in there,” Jacob said, pulling me out of my tempting thoughts. “What’s your bottom line?”
I frowned and realized he must’ve said something that I hadn’t heard. “My bottom line for what?”
He chuckled and arched his eyebrows at me. “What amount will you be happy settling for?”
“I would have taken the five hundred thousand!”
If he hadn’t spoken before I’d processed the shock, I’d have a check in my hand already. I trusted him, though. If he thought we could and should get more, I believed he was right.
Shaking his head, he brushed my fingers with the back of his before pulling them away. “That offer was ridiculous. Your time and work are worth way more than that, and so is the last year you’ve spent agonizing over the fact that someone stole your work.”
I turned it over in my head. “What do you think that’s worth, then? Half a million dollars isn’t an amount I’d scoff at. I mean, sure, I’d also thought it could be more, but that’s a lot of money. Think about what it could mean to Katie.”
“I’m not taking anything less than two million dollars unless you instruct me otherwise.” He crossed his arms and stood up to his full height, a mask falling back in place over his features. “It’s worth at least that, Laurie.”
For a full minute, all I could do was stare and gape at him. Eventually, I managed to swallow to get some moisture back into my mouth and remembered how to speak.
“Two million dollars?” I said the words slowly, drawing them out while lowering my chin and blinking too much and too fast.
He grinned and nodded. “Two million dollars.”
I gasped. There was no way we were getting a sum that large from them. There couldn’t be. Right?
Before I could ask if he was joking, the door cracked open and Max’s righthand woman motioned us back inside. “We’re ready for you.”
“Thank you.” Jacob put his hand on my back and guided me into the conference room, giving the woman a polite smile as we breezed past her.
Well, he breezed. My legs felt like they were made of lead and my brain couldn’t wrap itself around the fact that Jacob thought we could walk away with even half that amount.
Once we were seated, Jacob waved a hand at Max. “The floor is yours. I hope you’ve come to your senses. What have you got for me?”
The man had these sharp, ice-blue eyes that looked like they could shred a person in half with the glare he gave Jacob. Jacob didn’t even flinch, though. If anything, he looked mildly amused.
“We’re willing to offer you one and a half million dollars.” He pushed a sheet of paper across the table. “Take it or leave it.”
I hadn’t even realized that writing settlement figures or whatever down was something that happened in real life, but it did. It was also the silly thing my brain chose to focus on because HOLY FUCK.
Did he just say one and a half million dollars?
I could hardly breathe. That was more money than I could even write down without having to think about the amount of zeroes that had to go into the number.
Jacob, on the other hand, didn’t seem fazed at all. In fact, he didn’t even look at the corny piece of paper they’d handed him. He kept his eyes straight ahead and still looked nothing but amused.
When he moved, it was to roll his chair back a foot. He leaned into the padded leather and smirked while shaking his head again.
“I’m afraid that’s not acceptable.” He bent over and unzipped the leather bag he’d brought into the room with him earlier.
I gasped—again—when he extracted a paperback boxset of the series the movie was based on. He slid it across the table to Max before he pressed his point.
“Have you ever read those?” His tone was conversational, but I had a feeling he was about to break out the big guns. “You should if you haven’t yet. They’re really good.”
Max’s eyes narrowed even further. “What is this about?”
“It’s about the fact that your scriptwriter didn’t even bother to change most of the characters names, never mind what happens in the actual scenes. I’ve watched every trailer out so far, and I’ve been able to pinpoint the scene exactly. The dialogue is the same. The characters even wear the same clothes.”
“Coincidence,” he spat. “Your client doesn’t have copyright over those names or outfits.”
“Maybe not over the names and outfits, but she does have copyright in the work.” Jacob continued like that for five solid minutes.
He was a master at the table. I was completely in awe as I watched him, not to mention totally turned on. The way he was fighting for me was incredible.
I almost forgot there were other people in the room with us as I watched him dominating the negotiation. And he did it all without getting up or raising his voice.
By the time he was done, I was practically squirming in my seat. I didn’t know if he had any other meetings planned after that, but I sure hoped not. If I had any say in it, I was dragging him back to his office and jumping his bones regardless of what the outcome of our meeting was.
Going to court might not be so bad if it meant getting to watch him in action like that for a few days. Max was slightly red when Jacob stopped talking.
He gritted his teeth and shot a glance at the woman next to him. She gave him a slight nod before he faced Jacob again. “We can offer you three million dollars to settle the thing. That’s our final offer.”
Shocked didn’t begin to describe how I felt when those words came out of his mouth. My ears suddenly turned hot and then all I could hear was blood rushing.
My head spun. I was vaguely aware of Jacob replying and saw him turning his head toward me, but I couldn’t get anything else.
The tiniest hint of a smile appeared at the corners of his lips before he spoke to Max again. “We’ll take it. I’ll draw up the paperwork and send it over to you.”
It sounded like he was speaking from a different dimension instead of right next to me. I really couldn’t believe it. Three million dollars?
What on earth was I going to do with that kind of money? Obviously, Katie could have whatever her heart desired and I would definitely invest in a tuition fund for her, but the possibilities running through my mind were endless.
Three. Million. Dollars. Whoever would’ve thought a silly little thought I’d had in the shower would lead to something worth that? I hadn’t. That was for sure.
“We have the paperwork ready,” Max said. “We can sign it now and get it over with.”
“Unless your paperwork makes provision for what my client might be entitled to in the event a sequel is ever made, I’m afraid we can’t sign it.”
They hashed out more details while I sat there stunned and feeling like I was going to wake up at any moment. I pinched myself, not even caring when the righthand woman smirked when she noticed what I was doing.
After a round of handshakes, the other lawyers were gone and we had the room to ourselves. I’d managed to stand up to say goodbye, and once Jacob had closed the door behind them, he came to stand in front of me.