“Do you want me to take over calling the embassy and checking on Ashley?”
“That would be helpful, and text me if you get an update.”
“I’ll do it. Anything on Waller?”
“Royce and I spoke about an hour ago. Waller is going down. Tara is not.”
“That’s good news. Have you talked to her?”
“It’s too early over there, but Savage has his wish. He’s going to give her a full update.”
I laugh. “I can actually almost see those two together.”
“Oddly,” Cole says. “I can, too. They kind of deserve each other.” He glances at his watch. “I need to get going.”
“Anything else you need me to do?”
“Plenty,” he assures me, his eyes glinting with mischief, “but not now. Work on your Stanford curriculum until you get the files.” He stands up and heads for the door, leaving me alone in his office.
I wonder if he leaves other people alone in his office and I think not. He’s private. He doesn’t even let go of his files. I quickly stand and exit into the corporate lobby, and as I pass Maria, she gives me a little smirk. “Good morning.”
The smirk is my answer. Cole doesn’t leave people in his office alone and the fact that he does me is more evident now that he is here, in the office, and I’m the only one with this privilege. We have to be more careful.
I hurry into my own office, and call the embassy, shocked when I end up actually talking to Ashley. “This is Lori, Cole’s—”
“I remember,” she says. “And oh, Jesus this is embarrassing. I didn’t know he was getting you involved.”
“Don’t be embarrassed. I want to help, and this doesn’t go beyond me. He had to go into a meeting and we were both worried about you.”
“Tell Cole thanks for the generous amount of money he sent me, I’m seeing a French attorney today. I’ll have him connect to Cole. Damn it. They want me to hang up. Take down this name.” She gives me the attorney’s name and then that’s it. She gives me a hasty goodbye.
I text Cole the update. He doesn’t reply, but I don’t expect him to. Not in his meeting. I get busy finding a temporary secretary and I do phone interviews this time. By noon, I find someone I might just like, and have her lined up to try the job tomorrow. My cell phone rings and it’s Cat. “Hey,” I say. “How’s the book?”
“It’s turned in and my editor loves it.”
“I told you. That’s great news.”
“I heard you’re back in town,” she says.
“We got back late last night.”
“How was it?”
“Interesting. Crazy. I learned so much.”
“Your voice has excitement in it,” she says. “I love it. So, when are we having coffee?”
“We’re not, because you just want to find out what is going on with a certain person.”
“I do. You’re right. Put me out of my misery and tell me now.”
“I don’t even know what to say to that.”
“You just said enough. I was right. You couldn’t fight it.”
“I can’t do this here.”
“Then let’s have coffee. Tomorrow morning?”
“I need to get my footing here first. Let me call you later in the week.”
“You better.”
“I will,” I promise, disconnecting the line just as Cole appears in my doorway.
“Maria ordered us lunch. We have a case. I need you in my office.” That’s it. He disappears.
I stand up and hurry to follow him, relieved that he’s left me behind. That’s what a boss does. I think. I don’t know. It feels appropriate. “I have the food,” Maria calls out from behind me.
I turn and meet her a few steps away, taking the bags she’s holding. “Thank you. I have a temp coming in tomorrow to help Cole so you aren’t stuck with this stuff.”
“Oh good, I hope that person works out. Remind Cole that his team is still doing overflow work. They’re his. He’s just going to have to trust them to do the work.”
“I’ll definitely remind him.”
I head to his office and enter, food in hand, to find him on the phone. “Don’t be a pussy,” he growls. “Tell your client that he doesn’t run up a marker with a casino and expect not to pay. That’s a good way to end up six feet under. Then tell him to get a security guard, not a law firm. He’s going to need one.” He hangs up. “Jesus,” he growls, standing up and walking to the door to shut it. “I hate wet behind the ears attorneys with no balls.” He sits down in front of me. “And who runs up a marker with a casino and doesn’t pay?”
“My father,” I say, before I can stop myself.
“Holy fuck. You’re kidding me?”
“Forget I said anything.” I reach for the takeout bags.
He moves them out of reach. “Talk to me.”
“I’ve handled it. I was just remembering why I’m so pissed at my father. That call brought it back.”
“I need the name of the casino and the details.”
“You will not pay my bill.”
“Did you have representation of any kind?”
“You just said I needed a bodyguard, not an attorney.”
“Consider me both. Name and amount.”
“A dive place. Double Down, it’s called.”
“Fuck. Those places are the worst. How much?”
“Now? Only twenty-five thousand. I paid off a hundred and fifty thousand with life insurance.”
“I’m paying it off.”
“No. No you are not.”
“I am and if that makes you hate me, hate me, but I am not leaving you like this. And Reese and Cat wouldn’t either. If you need a reason to agree, they could come at you here. They could come at your mother at work. I’m shocked they haven’t. End of topic. Moving to work.”
“We’re talking about this later.”
“We have a new case,” he says. “We’re going to visit him in the holding facility he’s at this afternoon.”
I force aside the personal and try to focus. “What’s he accused of doing?”
“College professor accused of killing several students.”
“You don’t believe he did it?” I ask.
“Reese doesn’t. That’s enough for me to meet him.”
We eat and talk about the case. Once we’ve finished our lunch, which ended up being sandwiches and chips, Cole looks at his watch. “We need to leave in an hour. I’m going to call that attorney in Paris. I’ll be by your office to get you on the way out the door.” He walks to his desk, grabs a file, and hands it to me. “That’s Reese’s file on our potential client. Study it.”
“I will. Cole—”
His phone rings, and he walks away, leaving me no chance to talk to him.
I stand and walk to the door and I can feel him watching me, but I don’t turn back. I’m so damn stupid. Why did I tell him about the casino? And would they really go after my mother?
I walk to my office and I don’t even look at Maria as I pass her desk on the way. I sit behind my desk, and I decide I’ll just make the same payments I was making to the casino to Cole. I’ll stick it in his damn freezer if I have to, like my mother does her fun money.
An hour later, Cole appears at my door and he’s being all business. We head to the parking garage together and he clicks the locks on a shiny black BMW.
Once we’re inside, I glance over at him. “I have never actually seen you drive.”
“In the city it doesn’t exactly make sense, but we have an hour drive to get to the jail.” He glances over at me. “It’s paid. It’s done. You can scream at me tonight, preferably naked, but you can choose if you want to be on top or bottom.”
“I don’t know if I want to cry, kiss you, or hit you right now.”
He glances over at me, those blue eyes of his piercing as he says, “Let it build up. It’ll make tonight all the better.”
“I’m going to pay the payments I’ve been paying them to you.”
“If that’s what I wanted from you, sweetheart, you wouldn’t be in my bed.”
He starts the car and ends the conversation.
***
The meeting at the jail wins Cole over and me, too. Cole takes the case, which we both feel passionate about. The man is clearly the fall guy. That night we don’t fight over the casino money, but lying naked in bed with him, we do talk. “I really didn’t want it to go like this, Cole, but thank you.”
He strokes hair from my eyes. “I don’t want your thanks. I don’t need it. What I need is for you to stop putting limits on us.”
“If that was easy for me, I’d be someone else and maybe you wouldn’t want me here with you.”
“Good point, counselor,” he says, “You do know how to make your case.”
He pulls me to his chest, under his arm, and I whisper, “So do you, counselor,” before I fall asleep.
The next morning, I take a car service home again, and when I get to work Cole and I dive into the research to defend our new client. That becomes our new routine. I stay with Cole nightly and I’m home with my mother each morning. By mid-week, Cole has our new client out on bail, and the war with the ADA on the case has begun. The good news is that Ashley’s visa release is looking promising even if we can’t get any real answers on what she is accused of doing.
Come Friday, I have yet to have coffee with Cat, and she takes the situation into her own hands, showing up at the office with coffee.
My door is shut, and she says, “Talk.”
“He’s my boss and I’m falling in love with him,” I blurt, “and I’m too busy to even freak out about it.”
“Holy wow,” Cat says. “Tell me more.”
“I really can’t. I have paperwork to file on the case I’m working with Cole, a paper I’m working on for school, and Cole’s temporary secretary is failing to the point that I’m going to have to replace her.”
“That sounds like too much. We can fix that.”
“There is nothing to fix. I’m terrific. I love this. It’s an adrenaline rush. I’m finally here doing this. This is my dream.”
She laughs. “Okay. I’ll leave now and do so knowing that I need to bring you coffee more often if I’m going to actually see you the during next six months.” She hugs me and leaves and I get back to work.
It’s seven when Cole and I leave separately, and seven-thirty when I walk into his apartment to have him greet me at the door. I’m naked in three minutes. And in another fifteen, I’m moaning Cole’s name, before we end up sated and pressed close on the couch. His kisses me and stands up, pulling on his pants while I put on his shirt. He walks to the bar and returns with champagne and two glasses.
“To celebrate,” he says.
“Celebrate what?”
“Only six months to hide like this, not nine. I got your program changed and your pay spread adjusted as well.”
I remember Cat’s comment about six months now. She knew, she let him tell me. “Oh my God. Are you sure?”
“HR is editing your paperwork on Monday.”
I can get my mother moved out of that rat trap sooner. I can pay off bills and I will have my degree three months sooner. I can—I’m going to cry. I throw my arms around him. “Thank you, Cole.”
He wraps me in his arms, and I have my Cinderella moment for real this time, but it’s kind of terrifying. I’ve been here before, in some way. A perfect mom and dad. Top of my class at Stanford. On my way to success. Then the ball dropped. The rope snapped. The blade cut. I hold Cole just a little tighter, afraid something is going to go wrong, but soon I’m back to sipping champagne with Cole, debating our new case, and I forget to worry.
Nothing is going to go wrong.
I won’t let it.
CHAPTER FORTY-SIX
Lori
The next day Cat celebrates my six-month plan by bringing me coffee. That night, my mother bakes me yet another cake. I celebrate by working twice as hard. I have papers to write and cases to manage with Cole. Three weeks fly by in a blink of an eye. I spend most nights with Cole, but stay home on my mother’s off nights, though she insists on pulling so many extra shifts that I barely see her. She even takes on a charity event at the hospital that has her gone most weekends.
Monday, four weeks from the day we left LA, Cole and I are in his living room watching the news, drinking coffee, and working on the murder trial, when the headlines flash: David Curry’s death has officially been ruled a suicide.
As if on cue, Cole’s cell phone rings. “Tara,” he says answering on speaker. “You’re on speaker with myself and Lori.”
“Did you hear?” she asks.
“I just saw it on the news.”
“Aspirin and Benadryl,” she says. “He took a whole bottle of aspirin and Benadryl. You know they knew this before now. That bastard Waller. I hope he gets his.”
“He will,” I promise. “He will.”
“So I hear from Savage. I cannot wait.”
“Wait,” I say. “Are you dating Savage?”
“I’m fucking him. We’ll see where it goes. Ciao.” She hangs up.
“What is happening with Waller?” I ask Cole.
“From what Royce told me, they were letting him hang himself a little tighter before they arrest him.”
The next morning, I walk into work, and Cole calls me into his office. “Waller and the police chief, as well as three additional members of the force, are under official investigation.”
“Finally,” I say, perching on the arm of his visitor’s chair. “I know it’s crazy,” I say, “But this feels like my first big win. Something that in some small way, I helped make happen.”
“It should. You did. It’s a big deal. And more good news,” he says. “Ashley is going to be on her way home soon, though I think her attorney in Paris tried to hire her away from me. Bastard.”
“You’re on temp number three,” I say. “Apparently, you’re nicer to me than them. Or so Maria claims.”
“Maria is full of crap.”
Maria pokes her head in the door. “Maria is not full of crap. Maria knows you can be a bastard. Another temp just quit.”
“What do you do to them?” I demand.
“Not a damn thing,” Maria says. “That’s the problem. He barely speaks to them and intimidates them all. Be nice.”
“How about I just pay you extra until Ashley gets back?”
“How about the temp for you reports to me?” she counters. “And I get a bonus.”
“Fine,” Cole says. “Done.”
I laugh and follow Maria from the office. I’m feeling at home here. And I’m really feeling at home with Cole. Life is good.
Later that day, a trial date is set for our professor client, and a new whirlwind begins. For another full week, I can honestly say that watching Cole prepare for it is magic. He assembles a team, and night after night, we work tirelessly at the office preparing to win. I have never been so challenged or learned so much as I do working with him. We’ve become investigators looking for a real killer, or at least a way to establish reasonable doubt by way of suspicion. I’m addicted to this case and solving it.
My second month of my six-month internship starts at Cole’s place, where I hide the fifth payment on my father’s gambling note in his freezer because he has refused my money. I actually find this game rather amusing for no good reason. Perhaps because he’s taking care of me, but I’m taking care of him, too, and he just doesn’t know it yet. But I know, and it feels right and good. After that I’m off to my apartment to change, and back to trying to solve a crime.
It’s late afternoon when my mother calls as she often does this time of day. More and more she slides in details of her new male friend, and even hints that I might get to meet him.
“Hi, honey,” she greets.
“Hi, mom. Everything okay?”
/> “You always ask that,” she says. “Every single night. I’m okay. Stop worrying. I’m off work tonight. I’m going to make dinner and I want us to talk.”
“About what?” I ask, my heart thundering in my chest. She either knows about Cole or she wants to move out again. “Am I meeting your new man?”
“Oh no,” she says. “Not yet. Soon maybe. Are you working late?”
“Cole, my boss,” I amend quickly, “he has a partners meeting tonight, so our team is off early. I can bring my work home.”
“I’ll see you at seven, then?”
“Yes,” I say and when we disconnect I feel a warning in my belly. Something is up with her. I’m on my feet with that thought walking toward Cole’s office. His temporary secretary, Mia, is on the line and disconnects.
“Is he alone?” I ask.
“Yes. You want me to buzz him?”
“Please,” I say, when I really want to barge into his office, but I’ve been doing this whole formal thing since she arrived.
She buzzes Cole. “Lori is here to see you.”
“Send her in,” he says.
I walk to the door, open it, and shut it again. “I have to stay at my apartment tonight.”
He sets his pen down. “Why?”
“My mother wants to have dinner and talk. She brought up moving out to make things easier on me a month ago, and now I’m afraid she knows I’ve been gone. Maybe she thinks I’m avoiding her.”
He stands up and rounds the desk, and I lean on the door. “What if she thinks it’s about her?”
He steps in front of me, his hands coming down on my shoulders. “She doesn’t. That isn’t this.”
“I’m never home.”
“Maybe it’s time to let me meet her,” he suggests.
“I don’t even know what this is. I’m not going to present you as my excuse for not going home. That could make it worse.”
“Or better.”
“I just need to be with her tonight and you have a meeting anyway. Okay?”
“Okay. Text me after you talk to her. I’ll call you as soon as I’m out of my meeting.”
“Okay.”
He does then what he never does at work. He pulls me to him and kisses me. “Come home to me tonight if you can.”