Nine Lives - Danielle Steel Page 0,66
stress that went with it. She hadn’t counted on his playing his life-and-death games with his taxes and the IRS too. There was so much to worry about with him, but he was good to her, she loved him now, and she knew he loved her too. “Will you meet me in Paris?” he asked her gently, and she hesitated.
“Let me think about it.”
“Everything will be calm. We can go to Gstaad if you want to get away. We won’t be able to use the Lady Luck for a few weeks, but she should be released pretty quickly, and everything will be back in order.”
“You’re a force to be reckoned with, Paul Gilmore,” she said with a sigh. “What happened to the boy with the skateboard who raced motorcycles?” He had been scary enough, but the grown-up version was a man of epic proportions, a Mount Everest of men.
“He grew up, got smart, made a lot of money, and learned how to take care of himself.”
“And risk his life in every way he could think of.”
“I’m not risking my life with the IRS. We’re just squabbling over money, like kids playing marbles in the backyard. I told you, this is all a negotiation.” She couldn’t conceive of how much money was involved, but it was a lot more than marbles. Winning was all that mattered to Paul, no matter what it took or what it cost him. And maybe he would win this time too. She hoped so, for his sake. If he was wrong, and he went to prison, she would be devastated for him, and herself.
She wanted to think again about what she was signing on for, and get some advice from her own lawyer. She had Aden to think about, and couldn’t take crazy risks herself. “Take your time,” Paul said calmly. “I’ll be waiting in Paris when you want to come over. I love you, Maggie. I’m sorry if you got scared by all this bullshit. It’s just a lot of noise.” He sounded so convincing and she wanted to believe him, but she was scared anyway. It was a long way from her peaceful life with Brad. “Call me whenever you want,” he told her. “You’ll be able to reach me now.”
She hung up, thinking of everything he had told her, it was a lot to absorb at once, and she wanted to believe him, but she wasn’t sure she did. She left a message for her lawyer, who called her back in the morning. Maggie told her the whole story, as much as she knew of it. There was always the possibility that Paul hadn’t told her everything, or was lying to her. Anything was possible.
Her attorney listened carefully to everything she said, without interrupting, and then said that she didn’t know enough about tax laws at that level and referred her to an expert in the field. One consultation with him was going to be very expensive, but Maggie thought it was worth it to assess how much trouble Paul was in. She called the expert and got an appointment for a phone conference with him that afternoon.
Maggie gave him all the details she knew and Carson McGregor listened attentively. He said that he couldn’t give her an accurate assessment of Paul’s situation without the files, but “rough and dirty,” in his experience highfliers like what Paul had become often overshot their reach, intentionally or not. They overestimated what they could get away with, with offshore corporations, properties, and investments, and sooner or later the IRS caught on to them, and went after them to the degree they could. He said the tax laws changed constantly, hoping to catch guys like him. But often men like Paul and their lawyers stayed a step ahead.
“He probably has some very smart attorneys to protect him. It sounds like there’s a lot of money involved, and the IRS doesn’t give up easily. Is he a gambler?” he asked, curious about him.
“Yes, he is.”
“I’m not surprised. He probably expects to win. And he may. It’s all a game. He’s right about that, and often a negotiation. If the IRS gets riled up enough by his fancy footwork, they may take a big bite out of him, wherever they can get it. But in the end, they’ll probably come to terms with him. He knows what he’s talking about. It’s almost always negotiable, and he and his attorneys are probably good at that.”
“Could he go