Chapter Sixteen
“SO WHAT DID you think of that one?” Miguel asked from where he leaned against the jamb of Simon’s open door.
He glanced up from his desk and focused on his employee, his favorite one now that Bette was gone. He just shook his head.
“She’s not Bette?” Miguel wasn’t the one who asked this question. Trevor had replaced their male receptionist in the doorway. The two of them were too big to share the space. And Simon could hear the phone ringing at the front desk.
Simon sighed and admitted, “Nobody will be.”
“So go get her back,” Trevor advised him.
“She has a new job,” Simon reminded him. “In the field she always wanted to work in. Hell, she has her own damn line. She’s not coming back.”
“I didn’t mean to the office,” Trevor said. “Get her back to you.”
Simon shook his head again. “She’s damn well not coming back to me, either. Not after Ronan told her I was only sleeping with her to get evidence against her.”
“Ronan was upset,” Trevor defended their friend. “He ran his mouth when he shouldn’t have.”
“He doesn’t regret what he said,” Simon reminded Trevor. “He still thinks Bette was the mole.” Which left them vulnerable to the real mole. But Simon already had some other potential suspects—the women who’d been trying to take Bette’s place—in his bed more than her office. He had no intention of seducing the truth out of them, though.
“You don’t think she is?” Trevor said.
“I did for a little while,” Simon said. “That’s why I got close to her in the first place.” Why he’d seduced her. He hadn’t been able to defend himself against those accusations because they’d been right. Then Bette had defended herself. “But no, she’s not the mole.”
Trevor nodded. “I trust your judgment.”
“Bette will never trust me again,” he said. She thought everything had been a con. And they could never build a relationship—a real one—without trust.
For the first time in his life, Simon wanted a real relationship. And for the first time in his life, Simon knew that his charm and his drive wouldn’t get him what he wanted.
No matter what he did or said, he wouldn’t get Bette back.
* * *
Bette jumped as her doorbell rang. But she shouldn’t have been surprised. It was probably Muriel. She lived in the same building and was the one who recommended Bette find an apartment in it. And since she’d learned Bette had nothing to do with those notes from Street Legal, she’d felt so bad over using them that she kept apologizing.
Bette had forgiven her friend. It was Simon whom she couldn’t forgive. Sure, he hadn’t known her very well when he’d suspected her of betraying the firm. But once he’d gotten to know her, he should have been honest with her. He should have made sure she wasn’t blindsided at her own going-away party the way Ronan Hall had blindsided her.
At least she never had to see the sleazy divorce lawyer again.
But then she wouldn’t ever see Simon again, either.
Her heart dropped at the thought, hanging low in her chest. She missed him so much, even though she saw him everywhere in the apartment: in the closet, in her bed, in her living room.
She passed through it on her way to the front door. And as she reached for the knob, she allowed herself to hope that when she opened the door, it would be to him. But when she opened the door, Ronan Hall was the man she saw first. He wasn’t alone, though. The other two partners from Street Legal stood on either side of him.
Only Simon was missing.
God, she missed him.
“What do you want?” she asked the men. Were they serving her with papers? Suing her for breach of something or other? Not that she’d done anything wrong...
Ronan Hall had been scary mad when he’d confronted her at the party, though. Maybe he’d pressed charges against her or filed a lawsuit.
“We’d like to talk to you.” Trevor spoke for the three of them. Usually Simon spoke for the four of them. He was more than the managing partner of Street Legal. He was the gorgeous face of the law practice.
“Talk?” she asked, allowing her skepticism to creep out. “I already told you that I had nothing to do with those notes Muriel sent to the bar association.”
At just the mention of the model’s name, Ronan’s mouth twisted into a grimace of distaste. Hopefully, he wouldn’t run into the model on his way out of the building.
She held tightly to the door, prepared to swing it closed in their faces, as she added, “So we have nothing to talk about.”
But Stone pressed his palm against the door, holding it open. “Simon. We’re here about Simon.”
He didn’t have to push his way inside then. She hurriedly stepped back to allow them to enter her apartment.
“Simon!” she exclaimed as her pulse quickened with fear. “Is he all right? Has something happened to him?”
He dealt with trusts and wills and such, not the kind of clients or cases the rest of them handled. So she doubted a client had hurt him. But a jealous ex-lover might have. Or some random criminal. He could have been mugged. Or run over on the street.
Her heart pounded fast and fiercely with panic at the thought of all the horrible things that could have happened to him.
The three of them stared at her. So she prodded them, “What is it? What’s wrong?”
Ronan sighed. “Damn it.”
And more panic clutched her heart. If something had happened to him... “What?” she asked. “What is it?”
“Simon was right,” Ronan said, his voice gruff with disappointment. “You’re not the mole.”
“No, of course not,” she said. “While I didn’t often agree with how you tried your cases—in the media—I wouldn’t interfere. And I wouldn’t betray the practice.” But most especially, she wouldn’t have betrayed Simon. “Now, tell me what’s wrong with Simon!”
“You,” Ronan replied, but his voice was softer now, his dark eyes warmer. “You’re what’s wrong with him.”
Her head began to pound with confusion. “I don’t understand.”
“We didn’t at first, either,” Stone said.
“Speak for yourself,” Trevor remarked. “I got it.”
Ronan snorted. “Well, I sure as hell didn’t. None of us has ever seen him like this.”
“Is he hurt?” she asked as concern overwhelmed her. “Is he sick?”
“If I had to guess,” Stone began, “and I would have to because I’ve never felt that way myself, I would have to say that he’s heartbroken.”
“What?” They were not making any sense. “This is Simon you’re talking about? Simon Kramer?”
Ronan nodded as a grin curved up the corner of his mouth. “Yup.”
“You broke his heart when you left,” Trevor said.
Even as her own heart ached, she laughed. “That’s ridiculous. Did you guys come here just to make fun of me?”
“There’s nothing funny about it,” Ronan said. “He’s miserable. And we love him too much to let him continue like this.”
“Like what?” she asked.
She couldn’t imagine Simon Kramer being miserable. He thrived on adversity and had his entire life. There was nothing and nobody that would or could ever keep him down. Not his own father and not life on the streets.
“He’s not eating or sleeping,” Trevor said.
Stone added, “He looks like hell.”
She narrowed her eyes, skeptical again of their claims. It wasn’t possible for Simon Kramer to look like hell. “I doubt that.”
“It’s true,” Trevor agreed.
“And I can’t have him looking like that,” Stone said, “not when I have a jury trial coming up.”
She wasn’t certain why or how Simon looked would affect Stone’s case, but she didn’t ask that. Instead, she asked, “What makes you think his not eating or sleeping has anything to do with me?”
Ronan stepped closer to her and studied her face. “Are you eating or sleeping?”
The dark circles beneath her eyes and thinness of her face provided the evidence he was looking for. She didn’t have to answer his question.
But then he asked another. “Do you miss him as much as he’s missing you?”
She snorted. “I doubt he’s missing me.”
“Why do you doubt that?” Stone asked.
“Because Simon Kramer goes after what he wants,” she reminded them. “And if he wanted me, he’d be here instead of the three of you.”
“That’s what makes you different than everyone else,” Ronan said as if he’d come to a sudden realization of his own. “You know him. You know him probably as well as we do, and we grew up with him.”
Again she wasn’t following the lawyer. These guys were brilliant of course, like Simon, but she wasn’t stupid. “Yes, I know him, so I know if he was missing me, he’d be here—charming me back into his bed.”
Trevor laughed. “It’s almost eerie how well she knows him.”
“Yes,” Stone agreed. “That’s why she’s scared the hell out of him like no one else ever has.”
Ronan nodded. “And we came up against some scary guys on the street. But Simon never flinched until now—until you.”
“I don’t understand,” she admitted.
“When I met Simon, he’d been living on the streets for a while already,” Stone said. “He’s a little younger than us. Back then he was a lot smaller than us.”
“And a hell of a lot prettier,” Trevor added.
“Which put him in great danger living on the streets,” Stone said. “From other street kids and from adults looking to take sick advantage of runaways like him.”
She shuddered, thinking of what could have happened to the man she...
She what?
Before she could answer herself, Ronan was picking up the story. “But Simon wasn’t the least bit scared,” he said. “He owned those streets and could outsmart everyone else on them.”
“Including you,” Stone added the verbal jab.
“You, too,” Ronan said.
“And he, younger and smaller than us, took care of us,” Trevor said.
And she had her answer. She loved him.
“Now we’re trying to take care of him,” Stone said.
“But I don’t understand why he won’t come to me himself,” she said, “if he’s really missing me.” He obviously didn’t return her feelings.
“He’s scared,” Ronan said.
“First time I’ve ever seen him like this,” Stone said. “Maybe it’s because he cares more about you than he ever has anyone else. I don’t know what it is, but he’s scared.”
“I hate seeing him like this,” Ronan said and all his frustration was back in the gruffness of his voice. It was obviously killing him that he couldn’t help his friend. Was he really the monster Muriel thought he was? “And I think you’re the only one who can give us back the old Simon.”
That was why he was here. She doubted he was convinced that she’d had nothing to do with the information Muriel had received. But for his friend, he was willing to put aside his anger and animosity toward her.
She had always wondered how four alpha dogs worked together without killing each other. It was because they all loved and respected each other. And because Simon was the alpha in charge. His being scared seemed to be scaring them, as well.
But they had no idea what true fear was. She did; it filled her now. It filled her because she knew she loved Simon Kramer. And she wasn’t sure what the hell to do about her feelings or about him.