Rockwell Agency: Boxset

by Dee Bridgnorth

  “Is this all you do?”

  Liam’s fingers didn’t slow, as he looked over at Hannah, who was sitting in one of the chairs his clients usually occupied, her legs crossed and her hands on her lap. “What?”

  “Is this all you do?” she said, gesturing toward his double-computer-screen set up. “Type?”

  Liam’s fingers still flew over the keyboard. “As it happens, I’m writing up a statement for a sentencing hearing that should never take place because my client is innocent.”

  “How do you know?”

  “Because I know,” Liam said, returning his gaze to the computer screen to double-check what he had just written. “He’s only guilty of being naïve and trusting. He’s not a murderer.”

  “So, do you normally just do defense work, then?”

  Liam shook his head. “No. I have a client base, and I take care of their legal needs. A lot of those clients are business people—people entering into and maintaining contracts on a regular basis. People who get sued a lot. Most of my cases are civil rather than criminal, but this particular client is the nephew of the first client that I ever secured for myself. He’s a special case.”

  “But you lost the case?”

  Liam pressed his lips together, turning back to his computer screen. “Yes.”

  “And you think you should have won?”

  “It was a slam-dunk case,” Liam said. “You don’t understand. Taylor …you can just look at him and know that he’s not a murderer, for God’s sake. He wants friends. He wants to be liked. He got in with a bad crowd—cliché as that sounds. They tricked him into driving them to a robbery, and he waited outside, thinking that they were just stopping in on a friend to pick something up before they went barhopping that night. When they ran out of the house and jumped in the car and told him to drive, he panicked, and he did it. One of the robbers shot someone through the window of the car, and that person died. Now Taylor is going to prison for felony murder. It’s …complicated. There’s a strict liability for any murder committed during the commission of a felony. All people involved in the felony can be convicted of murder. It’s bullshit.”

  Hannah was looking at him curiously, and he sat back in his chair, staring back at her. “What?”

  She shook her head. “Nothing. I usually pride myself on not being quick to judge people, but perhaps I did judge you a little too quickly. I didn’t think you would be the kind of man who would sit up here in this office all day …caring so much.”

  “Don’t give me too much credit,” Liam said, kicking up his feet on the desk just to prove that he wasn’t too earnest. “Taylor is a special case, like I said. A lot of what I do is finding loopholes in my clients’ contracts that will get them what they want—whether that’s protecting themselves or going after someone else. It’s a job. You think quickly on your feet, and you pick apart people’s words, and above all—you know how to work a client, a jury, and a judge. I’m good at it, and it pays well. I’m not a bleeding heart, and I don’t pretend to be. But at the same time, it’s bullshit that Taylor is in prison, and it’s bullshit that I’m the reason he’s there.”

  “You’re not the reason he’s there,” Hannah said, shaking her head. “I might not be a lawyer, but I know that prosecutors decide when to charge someone with a crime.”

  Liam nodded. “Fine. But if I had done my job properly, a jury of Taylor’s peers would have seen that the prosecutor had made a mistake. And I did do my job properly, Hannah. There’s no doubt in my mind about that. I know that I walked through all the paces. I struck all the right chords. I built all of the evidence, and the circumstances, and the testimony into a perfectly balanced tower of find-this-guy-not-guilty. And it didn’t work.”

  “Which means that you’re cursed.”

  Liam turned back to his computer screen. “I thought that’s what you were here to determine. So far it seems like you are more adept at distracting me than anything else.”

  “Well, it’s difficult for me to assess you or any curse while you sit there and work,” Hannah said. “I can’t really tell if your ability to type ninety words a minute is being impaired by supernatural forces.”

  Liam smirked. “Well, come here and look.”

  “Look at what?”

  “Come here.”

  Hannah got up out of her chair, walking towards him warily. She approached him and gave him a skeptical look as she peered down over his shoulder to see his Word document.

  In the middle of the statement he was working on, Liam began to type: It’s not my job to help you do your job, now is it? What do you want me to do so that you can tell me if I have a curse?

  Hannah straightened up, rolling her eyes at him. “Very funny. You just wanted me to walk over here.”

  She wasn’t wrong. He turned his chair, so that he could face her, his eyes gliding up her slender frame. Her outfit was simple and straightforward, and it hardly hugged her figure, but it was still flattering, and her face had a soft, warm beauty that, frankly, enchanted him. Hannah didn’t put on a lot of makeup or do her hair up or make sure that her clothes hugged tightly across her breasts. She was exactly as she appeared—lovely and authentic. It was more interesting to him than he ever would have expected, and part of him wanted to reach out and put his hand on her hip to draw her closer to him.

  With another woman, he probably would have done that. Another woman would have already made it clear that she found him attractive, and all that he would have to do is slide his arm around her and pull her down into his lap, and they would get lost in an afternoon of kissing and so much more.

  The thought of doing that with Hannah had a surprising effect on his body. His pants started to feel tight at the crotch, and he could feel his arousal growing. His hands itched to reach for her, and he felt oddly like a young boy again. It had been a long, long time since he had this kind of reaction to a woman, and he wanted to explore it more than he cared to admit.

  But he wouldn’t because he sensed that Hannah was not the kind of woman who was interested in just exploring things, and he wouldn’t try to convince her otherwise. He had an instinctive respect for the woman, who was not only authentic but perfectly capable of putting him in his place when she felt he needed it.

  “I have an idea,” Hannah said, seemingly unaware of his perusal of her body and his reaction to it. “You said this curse on you was that you would remain mediocre and never succeed, right?”

  “Right.”

  “And your theory is that you’re now mediocre.”

  “Well,” Liam said, flashing a wide grin. “I don’t know that I would go that far. But …yes. I’m not performing as well.”

  To his surprise, Hannah’s eyes dropped to his crotch.

  “Not in that way!” Liam said, forcefully, actually flushing and shifting in his chair to help hide the protrusion of his erection. “I can assure you that there is nothing mediocre in that department—nothing at all, actually. And I’ve had no complaints.”

  A small smile played about Hannah’s lips. “I didn’t say anything.”

  “You looked.”

  “Well, you were looking at me,” she said. “A woman knows when a man’s eyes are on her, doesn’t she?”

  Liam narrowed his eyes and stood up, purposefully crowding her space as she leaned against his desk. “Apparently this one does,” he said, letting his body brush against hers, as he rested one palm on the desk behind her. “Maybe you’re not as sweet as you seem, Hannah Reese. I think you might have a little bit of spice in you.”

  Her cheeks flushed, and her eyes hazed over with desire, as she parted her lips, drawing in a soft gasp. “Oh, Liam—.” Then, just as he started to get excited by her reaction to him, it was all gone—the flush, and the haze, and the soft, breathy words. She laughed, placing her hand against his chest and pushing him backward. “Come on. I need to get out of this office, and we need to actually make some progress. How am I supposed to know if you’re cursed if all you’re doing is sitti
ng there?”

  Liam watched in amazement as Hannah slipped away from him and walked over to grab the bag and the purse that she had with her. She stooped to pick them up, and Liam dragged a hand through his hair. No woman had ever appeared so totally immune to his charms. If he had backed any other woman up against his desk with that look in his eye, she would have melted.

  Hannah had laughed.

  Was she really not attracted to him? Or …was the curse on him starting to affect his love life, too?

  Chapter 7

  Hannah

  God, she’d had to get out of that office. Sitting there in that rigid, structured environment with white walls and sharp-lined furniture had been too much for her. She felt starved for nature, and connection, and warmth. Plus, when Liam had gotten so close to her, she had thought her heart might pound right out of her chest.

  Good God, the man was gorgeous. And he smelled like the woods. And his hands were so …with fingers that were long and shapely …and when he ran his hands through his hair …

  Hannah almost shivered as she walked, pleasure racing down her spine.

  She really needed to get ahold of herself. Thankfully, she’d had the sense to laugh at him and push him away, so that he didn’t know just how much heat had rushed through her when he had leaned so close to her. The man was far too used to having women fall all over themselves for him—that much was obvious. She wouldn’t fall in line.

  “You know, not all of us had a pair of jeans and a t-shirt in our bag,” Liam said, the distance of his voice indicating that he was falling further behind her. “Maybe we could slosh through the bayou a little more slowly so that our—goddamn. Well, nevermind. No sense in trying to stay clean now.”

  Hannah turned to look at back at him, seeing that there was mud splattered all over his pant legs and one shoe was soaked and muddied. Apparently he had slipped off the path they were walking, and his foot had plunged into the marsh. Hannah scrunched her nose. “Oh dear.”

  “Indeed.”

  “You should have taken me up on my offer to swing by your house first to get you a change of clothing.”

  Liam gave her a look. “I didn’t think that you were serious when you meant that we were going out to the bayou, for God’s sake. I thought you meant we were going to a …park or something.”

  “When I said I wanted to go out to the bayou, you thought I meant a park,” Hannah repeated, shaking her head. “I thought it was a lawyer’s job to listen to every word and respond in kind.”

  “Yes, but sane people do not go trekking through the bayou,” Liam said, “and I was still under the impression, at that point, that you were sane. Clearly I was—oh God. Oh God, oh God, oh God …”

  He had gone pale, and he was looking past her. Calmly, Hannah turned to see what he was looking at behind her, and she was unsurprised to see a boar there, staring back at her. Hannah smiled. It was a female boar, and she caught sight of two boar cubs hanging back in some of the brush.

  “Hello there,” Hannah said, greeting the animal. “Sorry. Did we disturb you? Don’t worry—we’re just walking through.” She held her hand out, and the mother boar came closer, sniffing Hannah’s hand and then relaxing as Hannah petted her head just as though she was a pet dog or cat. Animals often had positive reactions to dragon shifters, sensing a kindred connection between them. But animals were particularly receptive to Hannah’s nurturing nature. “There we go,” Hannah said, scratching the boar’s ears. “Do you want to let me say hi to your babies?”

  “Hannah—I’m not sure that’s a—oh God.”

  Hannah chuckled as the boar moved past her to see if Liam was equally as interesting. Ignoring Liam’s concern, Hannah bent down and petted the two babies, picking one up in her arms and scratching its head. “Hi, darling. Yes, I’m talking to you, my love. How are you?”

  The baby boar wriggled in her arms, nosing her face, but the moment was cut short as Hannah heard the mother boar snort in anger. She quickly put the baby down and turned around, finding the boar bearing down on Liam, who was backing away, his hands in the air.

  “Okay, okay,” Liam was saying. “Hannah? Maybe a little animal magic here, please?”

  Hannah walked over, sweeping her hand down the boar’s back and patting gently. “It’s okay, Mama. He’s harmless. Go on now. Take your babies and head out. You’re all fine.”

  The boar snorted again, but she turned and shepherded her two piglets away, leading them through the bayou until they were out of sight.

  Only then did Liam let out the breath he was holding, his hand pressed to the tree he had been bracing himself against. His eyes were wild when they landed on her. “You know that those boars are wild, right? You know they regularly gore people?”

  Hannah nodded, biting her lip to keep from smiling. “I do.”

  “But you just talked to it like it was a pet animal.”

  “Yes,” Hannah said. “I have a way with animals. An understanding, if you will.”

  “I will not …”

  Hannah had to laugh now, shaking her head. “You’re awfully skittish for a man in a black leather jacket, aren’t you?”

  “I like to think that I’m aware of real and present dangers,” Liam said, letting go of the tree and walking towards her. His arms crossed over his chest, straining that black leather jacket over his muscles. “Now, what exactly are we doing out here, Hannah Reese? I don’t see how this is helping at all, unless your true test for determining if I’m cursed is whether or not a wild boar will threaten me. If that’s the case, then I think we can establish that I’m cursed.”

  Hannah sighed and shook her head. “She was just warning you off. And I told you what we’re doing out here. I have an idea. But I work best in nature, and we’re almost at the place that I’m taking you.”

  It was with clear restraint that Liam lifted a hand and pinched the bridge of his nose with two fingers, closing his eyes. “Fine, but on one condition. As soon as we’re done here, I get to change and go to my favorite bar where I will order a glass of my favorite whiskey and relax.”

  “Fine,” Hannah said, turning and continuing to walk further into the bayou, wearing sensible hiking boots with her jeans. She didn’t feel bad for Liam because she had offered to let him change.

  She hadn’t been exaggerating when she said they were almost at the place she wanted to take him. Just minutes later, Hannah and Liam emerged from the marsh and stepped onto a stretch of more solid ground that sat in the midst of a circle of trees. It was a rare stretch of green, unbroken by pools of deep water. Hannah set her bag down beside a tree and dusted her hands off, turning around to look at Liam. “Well, what do you think?”

  He was standing there, in his jacket and his dress pants, his hands on his hips. “Marginally better … Question—can you magically-tame alligators, too?”

  Hannah rolled her eyes in amusement. “You’re safe from alligators here. If anything, you’re safer from them here than anywhere else we’ve walked through.”

  “I’m safest from them in a bar,” Liam said. He rolled his shoulders and cracked his neck, loosening up after the walk. “All right, now what? How does being here help me?”

  Hannah walked to the middle of the clearing. “Jacket off.”

  Liam eyed her, hesitating for a moment, but then he shrugged off the jacket and draped it over her bag. When he returned to the middle of the clearing with her, he was just wearing his shoes, dress pants, and his blue dress shirt. And she could see just how well that blue dress shirt fit him. It hugged every line of every muscle, and it made Hannah’s heart thud in her chest.

  “I’m going to give you a series of tasks,” Hannah said. “I want you to accomplish those tasks to the best of your ability.”

  “What kind of tasks?” Liam asked, crossing his arms over his chest again.

  Hannah waved a hand. “All sorts of things. I need to observe you to see if I’m picking up anything that is hindering your natural ability. Let’s start off easy.
What’s something that you’ve always been good at doing?”

  Liam grinned immediately, waggling his eyebrows.

  “Something other than that,” Hannah said, pressing her lips together to avoid smiling at his predictable answer. “Something demonstrable.”

  “That’s pretty demonstrable, but …,” Liam said. “Oh, I can do a double backflip. Does that count?”

  Hannah nodded. “Definitely. Let’s see you do it.”

  “Well, it’s been a long time,” Liam said, looking around. “And I’m not exactly dressed for it. Hang on.”

  To Hannah’s surprise, Liam started unbuttoning his shirt, each flick of a button revealing more of his chiseled chest and sculpted abs. When he slid the shirt off his shoulders and tossed it on the ground, his rippled back facing her, Hannah swallowed hard and looked away.

  Wow, she thought, smoothing down her t-shirt. Wow. He is something. He …is …something.

  Liam walked back over, facing her, as he cracked his knuckles and his neck again. He seemed oblivious to the fact that he was showing off every muscle of his broad chest and torso, all the way down to the V muscles at his hips that disappeared into the waistband of his pants. But Hannah knew he wasn’t oblivious at all. He knew what he was doing.

  Then he kicked off his shoes and pulled off his socks, rolling his pant legs up so that the bottom of his calves, also well-muscled, were on display.

  Hannah kept her expression droll. “Quite finished with your preparations, doctor?”

  Liam grinned. “Here we go.”

  He bent his knees and sprang upward, starting to fall naturally into a backflip, as his feet soared over his head. For a moment, Hannah thought he was going to land it. It looked like he had the perfect motion and the perfect timing. But as his first foot hit the ground again, his leg buckled, and he tipped forward, face-planting in the soft ground.