Page 10 of The Lawyer’s Quandary

“Of course.” She smiled and answered the phone as he hurried out of the building and to his car for the drive down to Adams College.

Unfortunately, the weather was wet and the clouds close, so he stayed with the main road, arriving at the rec center a little early.

He messaged Mark that he was there, and he met him at the entrance, taking him down to his office.

Mark said very little until they were behind a closed door. Then he kissed his breath away.

“I’ve wanted to do that for days,” Mark whispered, and Greg threw his arms around Mark’s neck and kissed him right back.

The energy in the room grew quickly, and Greg was tempted to push Mark back on his desk because, damn, he really wanted him.

The last few days had been fraught with fantasies, and he wanted to make one of them come true.

“We should probably cool it or else I’m going to bend you over this desk and take that sweet ass of yours right here. ”

Greg shivered before backing away. “Okay. Good point. What’s the plan?”

“Steven and the guys are going to meet us at the restaurant in half an hour. We’ll have dinner, and you all can talk.”

“That sounds good,” Greg offered.

“And I can report that I have been very busy here lately. I might have managed to get my hands on one of those hypothetical tiny internet cameras, and I put it in his office, pointed right at the table he uses to tape up knees and ankles. I found a really good place to hide it. He isn’t going to be back for ten days, so it’s off right now, but I can turn it on and control it through my phone.

I have it attached directly to the internet.

I figured it would be harder for him to discover it that way.

If it’s on the campus intranet, then it can be discovered. ”

“Okay. But is he going to find it? Hypothetically, of course.”

“Nope. Not unless he rips down his ceiling. The offices in the athletic department have these false ceilings with holes in them to facilitate air flow and remove all the odor and stuff that builds up. So I put the camera in the ceiling and used one of the ventilation holes. It was a piece of cake.” He grinned and checked the time.

“Come on. Let’s go to dinner and see just how far one of my coworkers will go to hurt someone else. ”

“Mark. You don’t need to be there. I can handle this on my own.”

“No, I should be there.” Damn, those eyes were gorgeous, especially when he was being stubborn.

Greg placed his hand on the back of Mark’s neck. “This whole situation is putting you in a really bad position. You could lose your job if the college finds out. If you kept a certain amount of distance, then at least they couldn’t drag you into it.”

“I’m already in it, and I know enough already that when this comes to light, we need to either hit it out of the park or they are going to come at everyone. So let’s do our best to make sure we have the strongest case possible.”

The restaurant was not a campus hangout.

It was nice and relatively quiet. The guys were already there and seated.

Steven introduced everyone, and Greg sat down with Mark next to him.

He wondered if they’d start with regular conversation, but Connors got right into it. “I don’t know if I can do this.”

“Yeah, me either,” Wilson added. They were both nervous as hell, and that was the first thing he needed to deal with.

“Okay. Here’s the deal. Do each of you have a dollar?

” he asked, and they both nodded. Greg held out his hand, and they both pulled out their wallets and handed him a buck.

“Okay. Now I’m your lawyer too. That means I am bound by attorney/client confidentiality.

Which means this conversation is absolutely confidential.

If you want Mark to leave, then he must. But if you want him to stay…

.” Greg opened his case and pulled out a document.

“Then we’ll ask him to sign this nondisclosure agreement, meaning he is being held to that same standard. ”

They each looked at one another and then at Mark before agreeing he could stay. Mark nodded and signed the agreement. “So nothing said here will go any further without your permission.”

Greg took back the signed document and put it in his bag.

“I know you’re scared, and you’re wondering what everyone is going to think about you.

That is why we need to make the strongest case we can.

And we need as many people to come forward as possible.

I know this is hard, and you would rather stop thinking about it and try to go on with your life.

But then he is going to continue to hurt other people.

Bates isn’t going to stop. Not until someone makes him. ”

“Yeah, but….”

“Let me ask you this… if it was your sister, would you want her to hide or to come forward? Or your little brother? I’d guess that if this happened to them, you’d beat the shit out of Bates and to hell with it.

Well, that’s what we’re going to do. We are going to take away his job and his reputation, and once we’ve done that, we’re going to file criminal charges, and we’re going to take his freedom.

Steven was brave enough to tell me his story, and I need you to do the same.

I’ll take notes, which will also be confidential, and then we’ll figure out the way forward. ”

Steven leaned forward. “Greg has a plan—a good one. And we need to be strong. We kick ass on the field, and we need to take that same grit and determination and do this too. I know I was the first to come forward, but we’re a team, and we back each other up.”

Connors was turning pale, but Wilson nodded. “Yeah… okay…,” he said. “I’m in.” Then he turned to Connors, who nodded as well.

“I hate even thinking about this. It makes me feel like less of a man… you know?”

And Greg knew that was the heart of an issue.

“I’m gay. Am I less of a man?” he pressed, and Connors looked down at his lap. “No. It doesn’t. Because we all know that being a man is not who you’re with, but how you behave.”

“But I should have stopped him… I should….”

“We are going to stop him,” Steven said.

“If you had punched him, you’d have lost your scholarship.

You know that. I wanted to hit him too. But real men don’t use their fists.

They don’t hit. Instead, we use the law, and we hit him where it will hurt for years to come.

” Dang, Steven was impressive. “Are we all together in this?”

“Yes.”

“Yes,” Connors said with more force.

“Good. Now I have a tough question for both of you.” Greg watched all three players.

“You know it’s not just you. Who else?” He waited as Connors and Wilson looked at each other.

“I know there is plenty of talk in the locker room. Did anyone say anything about not being alone with Coach Bates? Or teased you about him?”

Wilson was the one who cleared his throat. “Walenski,” he said. “Remember how he hurt his ankle and refused to see Bates? He said he’d figure out how to tape it himself. Real stubborn about it too.”

“Yeah, I remember,” Steven said. “I didn’t think anything of it at the time, but now that I do, there are a lot of guys who steer clear of him.”

“So what do we do?” Wilson asked.

“For now, nothing, other than tell me what happened. I’m hoping that if we provide enough statements to the board, they will understand what’s going on and take action.”

“I already told the guys that we aren’t looking to sue or get money, that what we want is to make sure that he can’t do this any longer,” Steven said as their server came to take their orders.

By the time they had eaten, Greg had a very good idea of exactly what had happened to Connors and Wilson.

He’d made notes about each story and let them see them to ensure they were accurate.

“I’m going to have these written up and then I’ll send them to you.

I want you to feel free to make any changes that you need to.

I don’t want these to sound like legal documents, but stories…

your stories. Once you’ve reviewed them, I’ll add yours to Steven’s. ”

“But how do we really make sure he’s caught? They may believe us or not….”

“Mark is working on that,” Greg said. “But we aren’t going to discuss it at the moment.”

All three players looked at each other. “Do you want one of us to try and set him up?” Wilson asked.

“No. We can’t put you in that kind of position.”

“Then how are you going to get him? He isn’t going to just perform on demand.

You can’t just go up to him and ask him to let someone tape what he’s doing.

There is going to have to be someone willing to go in while someone else can see.

So I don’t….” He paused, his mouth forming an O . “You put something in his office.”

To his credit, Mark gave away nothing.

“He isn’t going to tell us for our own protection,” Steven said.

“And it’s best that we don’t know. But if he did—and I appreciate him doing it—then we need someone to catch, because we can’t just wait.

I have this ankle that has been giving me trouble for a while.

It’s been a lot better, but he doesn’t know that. ”

“It’s not a good idea,” Mark said as he shook his head.

“I agree. Even if what you say might or might not be true, it’s putting yourself at risk, and it’s not worth it. Giving him a chance to get to you is not what you hired me for.”

Steven pushed his plate away. “I just told these guys about standing up for what’s right and that we’re a team.

Well, it’s my turn to stand up and do what I know is right.

So when he gets back, I’m going to ask Bates to tape my ankle just like before.

If he takes the bait, then it will be a hundred percent on him.

” He leaned over the table. “And whatever you might or might not have done had better work.”