“Just that. The team doesn’t think we’ll be able to help you. I’m sorry, Danny.”
He swallowed his pride and looked MacNiven in the eye. “Ineedyour help. What do I need to do to convince you of that?”
MacNiven didn’t react to any of that. He just continued to study him with his piercingly knowing blue eyes. Then he said, “You didn’t tell me the whole story.”
“I told you the crux of it.”
The man shook his head. “Not good enough. Like I said before, for us to help you, there needs to be trust. You didn’t trust us yesterday, and I don’t see how that’ll change. This is a team effort.”
He sat up, eyes narrowed. “I know how to play on a team.”
“Have you ever helped your team win a World Cup?”
He stiffened. That was a point of contention between him and his dad. The last time he’d played, he’d opted to play with Ghana and they’d tanked in the first round. “You know I haven’t.”
“You might ask yourself why that is.”
“Why doyouthink it is?” he forced himself to ask.
MacNiven shrugged. “You aren’t looking at the whole field. You do it when you play. You focus on what’s in front of you instead of what’s coming three steps ahead. It puts you at a disadvantage.”
He leaned forward, hands on his knees. “Then help me see it.”
“I can’t help you see what you don’t want to see,” MacNiven replied calmly as he stood up. “You aren’t looking to correct the right problem. Those people aren’t the situation you need help with, and you don’t see that. You’re focused on a symptom instead of the underlying issue.”
He was being dismissed. Danny stared at the man, trying to find the right thing to say to change his mind, but he could tell by MacNiven’s expression that the subject was closed. “That’s it? There’s nothing I can say to change your mind?”
“It’s not what you say. It’s what you do. You have to want it.”
It was like a door slammed shut in his face. He thought about Ortiz and all the kids he was letting down. He thought about that woman in the hallway, and how if he didn’t clean up his house, he’d have no chance with her.
Hehatedthat. “I do want it,” he protested.
“Not enough,” MacNiven said almost gently.
Resisting the urge to rip into the man, Danny nodded as he stood. Without a word, he strode out of the office. He saw Lottie peeking out from another office. Unable to smile at her, he settled for raising his hand briefly as he walked down the corridor.
His anger melted after ten steps, and his shoulders slumped as the reality of his situation hit him again.
If MacNiven wouldn’t help him, what the fuck was he going to do?
Five
Jules was having her first session with Winners Inc. today.
Jamie called her yesterday to tell her they were going to take her on as a client. “Alice will discuss the fee with you,” he’d said on the phone. “Be here tomorrow at ten and we’ll get you squared away.”
“In the morning?” She winced internally as she thought about her schedule. She hadn’t been anywhere but the office or the courtroom at that time of day since before she’d graduated from law school.
And she had the trial coming up in January. The months before a trial were a whirlwind of even longer hours, prepping everything and everyone to ensure a positive outcome. She worked a lot normally, but right before a trial she worked doubly hard.
“Is that a problem?” Jamie had asked.
She could tell he knew it was, but she also knew that this was a test as to how bad she wanted this.
She wanted it bad, so she’d just said, “I’ll be there.”
Shutting down her computer now in order to head to her session, she thought about what Jamie had said. It was obviously a test.