Whatever It Takes Read Online Free PDF Page A

you mind too terribly if I were to escort you to my
bedroom and screw your brains out for the next few days?
    Laurie nodded and smiled at him. “Yeah, if all goes well, I’ll
be taking the bar exam in the summer.”
    Mason was impressed and said so. She blushed and let out a
nervous laugh. He looked at her three companions, noticing that they looked
hungover if not still drunk.
    “So are y’all just out partying for the weekend?”
    Laurie appeared to relax now that he was talking to her
instead of looking at her as if he was thinking of devouring her. She shook her
head and motioned toward the living room with her cup.
    “They were. I just came along this morning because none of
them was in any shape to drive. I’m not really into the whole partying thing.”
    Mason raised an eyebrow, a bit surprised. “I thought
partying was the main reason people went to college.”
    Laurie laughed and shook her head.
    “No…some of us actually go to learn. I’m really only
interested in going to my classes and getting my degrees as quickly as
possible. Who needs all the extras, with the sororities and fraternities, you
know?”
    “And here I thought you were a sorority girl.”
    Mason teased her and then laughed when she shot him a dirty
look.
    “No…really…I never went to college but I think I get what
you mean. You’re spending money on an education, not on football games and
bonfires. You just want to get in, get your work done and get out,” he told
her.
    “Yeah, without all the other nonsense I could have graduated
least a year ago.”
    Laurie smiled at him and he felt proud of himself for
understanding her perspective.
    “So what kind of lawyer are you going to be?” Mason asked,
attempting to keep the conversation going. “Are you going to be defending guys
like me or making sure we get the chair?”
    Laurie grinned and shook her head.
    “My main area of interest is family law,” she explained. “I’m
trying to stay away from criminal law altogether. There are just too many what-ifs that go along with specializing in criminal law.”
    “What do you mean, ‘what-ifs’?” Mason asked, leaning forward
to give her his full attention.
    “Well, take a guy who kills his neighbor. If I were a
prosecutor, it would be my job to convict him of killing the guy, right?”
    Mason nodded.
    “Well, what if he killed the guy for molesting his daughter?
Personally, I would feel that the killing was justified; however, as a
prosecutor, it would be my job to overlook that and only go by what the law
states, and according to the law, the guy is a murderer.”
    Mason gave a nod as she sipped her coffee.
    “So you don’t want to have to prosecute someone for killing
a bastard who needed killing, right?”
    “Exactly. I just don’t think I could live with it. Sometimes,
crime is justified. Sometimes, people do bad things for good reasons. Abiding
by the law doesn’t make someone a good person any more than breaking it
automatically makes them a bad person. Criminal law is like a rigid, black
thing in a world full of gray areas, you know? And I know I could always become
a defense attorney but that comes with a lot of worry and snares also.”
    “What kind of worry and snares?” Mason asked.
    “Well, what if I’m totally fooled by a client? I defend him
and he walks on a crime he actually committed and goes on to commit more
crimes. I mean, how do I deal with that? On the other side of things, what if I
defend a truly innocent person and lose? Maybe I worry more than I should,
maybe I’m a bit naïve, but I just don’t want someone’s life in my hands. I don’t
know if that makes sense, but—”
    “I get you.” Mason smiled, liking her more by the second.
The chick had a good head on her shoulders, wasn’t looking at the world through
an idealist’s eyes. She’d have a good chance of surviving the brutal side of
life but he hoped she never had to experience it.
    “Well, that’s why I want to stick to