CHAPTER FORTY-FIVE
Lori
I wake the next morning at five in Cole’s bed, lying on his chest, his heart thrumming beneath my ear. He smells good. He feels good. We feel good. We make love despite the early hour, and when he insists on driving me home, I refuse. We settle on a car service and he walks me downstairs, kisses me thoroughly and shuts me inside my ride. I arrive to my apartment with enough time to shower and start coffee before my mother arrives. I spend an hour chatting with her before I dress for work, choosing a pale blue suit dress that yes, I think Cole will like.
Once I’m at work, I walk into Cole’s office to find him looking drop dead gorgeous in a blue suit with a gray pinstripe and gray tie.
“Good morning, Lori,” he greets, sounding quite formal, while giving me a hot once over that says he’s feeling anything but formal.
“Good morning, Cole,” I say, sitting down in one of his visitor’s chairs.
“Any news from Ashley?”
“Nothing,” he says, “and I started making calls early this morning.”
I notice how he avoids statements like “after you left” with great appreciation. “Are you worried?”
“Extremely. A foreign country is not where you want to get into trouble.”
“In the meantime, should I just get a temporary secretary lined up?”
“Yes,” he says. “A very temporary secretary. I have a meeting with Reese in half an hour about a case he wants me to take. I’m also coming back with a stack of cases he’s been managing through the other attorneys. I need you to review them and flag any problems for me.”
“You want me to review the other attorneys’ cases?”
“Outside eyes catch what inside eyes do not,” he says. “Don’t worry, I plan to read them all myself as well, but I don’t expect to be disappointed in your evaluation.”
“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.