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Chapter 29

"So when's Lindsey getting here?" Max Chambers sat back in his seat and
looked around at the three females sitting in the room. They were all
beauties, pure female that would make any male hard.

"He's not." The blonde purred. "He hasn't lived up to my expectations;
you'll be dealing with us."

Max considered his options. He usually contracted out for Lindsey McDonald
alone. He may not trust the young man completely, but he knew what to expect
from the lawyer. He'd only met Lilah a few times, and admired her
ruthlessness. The blonde looked fine enough, but the other brunette was as
loopy as they came. "Let's see what you all have to say before I make any
decisions."

"It's about this book." Darla pushed the book she had taken from Lindsey's
office toward the man. "I asked for the book of Ansuz, and you gave me this."
Max looked down at the book, and smiled at the memory of how he had obtained
it. The book itself had been hard to find, but after a few persistent calls,
he had gotten a lead.

"Listen girl, this is the book. I don't know what you thought you were
getting, but here it is. Job done." Max shrugged, and watched as the blonde's
eyes registered her fury. Lilah placed a hand on Darla's arm and shook her
head.

"Perhaps we're going about this the wrong way. What we were expecting was a
book the contained great healing spells, for humans and demons alike."

Max chuckled, 'Women.' he thought. 'Always the same. They hear about
something, they want it then demand to have it without knowing exactly what
it is.' "Let me guess you heard about this almighty book through the
grapevine and thought it would swell to own. Did you do any research? Did you
hear that the book was bonded to the witch that owned it? The only way I
could get that damn book was either to kill the bitch, or bind her powers. I
almost did both, if her damn little friend hadn't shown up. It's a book
ladies, nothing more. You need the witch *and* the book to get anything done."

"So the witch is alive still?" Lilah questioned.

"Yeah. Her freaking name was plastered over every newspaper in the country.
That's why I took a job as far away from the U.S. that I could get." Lilah's
eyes nearly popped out of her head.

"Douglass, you're talking about Douglass MacArthur." Max nodded his head
wondering why Lilah was acting strangely.

Darla laughed. "This is *too* easy. If we get you the witch, is there a way
you can rebind her back to the book?"

Max looked at her in confusion. "It's possible; you know where she is?"
Looking at the expressions on their faces he got his answer. "What are you
going to do? Just go and grab her?"

Darla shook her head. "Oh no, that's no fun. I want you to tell me what
exactly happened to Douglass the night you took the book. Then we're going to
come up with a plan."

"How much? I'm not doing this for free."

"Don't worry, I'm sure we'll figure something out." Lilah looked over to Dru
who was talking to a plant in the corner of the room. Soon she'd be able to
have a conversation with the lunatic that didn't include ramblings of the
stars, or the insight of some old doll.

************************

"I'm telling you all that the guy is full of crap." Douglass slumped back in
her chair, and threw the papers she had been reading onto her desk. "He
reminds me of someone."

"I'm with Douglass." Willow turned from her computer. "There are no previous
records on him. I've checked the DMV, L.A.P.D., as well as UCLA were he said
he attended ten years ago."

Angel walked over and picked up Douglass's discarded research. They'd been
through this for days now, ever since their new client showed up. It was
girls vs. guys. The girls didn't like the guy on sight, not believing a word
he was said. They'd been hard at work trying to prove that their client, Mr.
Turner was trying to pull one over on them. The guys had been working to get
proof that their client wasn't lying.

"We can't just not help him, what if you girls are wrong and he dies. An
innocent's blood would be on our hands." Wesley looked up from the book he
was researching to find information on the demon that had been terrorizing
Mr. Turner.

"So by blindly trusting him, we may be falling into some trap. Does this make
sense to anyone?" Cordy asked.

Gunn put his hands to his ears. "Oh my god we're back to where we started.
Can we give this damn argument a rest? I swear I'm going to hurl myself off
the building if this doesn't stop."

"Can I watch?" Spike asked as he and Aria entered the room. Gunn gave him the
finger and Spike returned the favor. "Are we still deciding if we take on
that new bloke?"

"I don't like him." Aria stated and joined Douglass who was looking through
files that would help give them a lead as to who this guy really was.
Douglass handed Aria a few folders that hadn't been looked through.

"You don't like anyone Pet."

"We're wasting time here." Wesley groaned. "Are we taking the case or not?"

"Yes." Deep male voices answered.

"No!" Shouted the females.

"Why don't the guys take the case, and we'll work on something else?" Aria
asked the group who sat back and thought about it.

Douglass stood and stretched; "I'm with her. Seeing that I'm the non-case
working team I'm going to take a nap." Willow and Cordelia nodded and
followed her up. Aria smiled over at Spike and left him with the other males.

"I hope we're not wrong on this, they're never going to let us live it
down." Gunn went to the computer Willow abandoned and started to tap the
keys. "She makes this seem so damn easy." He grumbled, hitting the machine
when the screen froze.

Angel sighed. This was going to be a disaster. He just had a feeling that in
the end they were going to get a big fat I told you so from the girls. Hoping
that he wouldn't have to deal with that he went to work.