by Tawny Weber
“Raye. Why are you still here?”
Damn!
Seventy-four hours and fifty-nine minutes a week she focused on work to the exclusion of every other thing except breathing. But the one minute she drifted off into a sexual fantasy hot enough to have her blushing?
Her boss walked in.
Darby pushed one hand through the jagged ends of her hair and tried her most innocent smile.
“Sir,” she greeted the deputy director as he strode into her office. As bosses went, the man seemed solid. But she was still new enough in the Southern California office to be nervous. “I wanted to put some time in on the Poseidon case. Given the circumstances, I thought it a priority.”
“Circumstances.” A bull-like man, Carson snorted his opinion of that. “The circumstances are heading for a cluster fuck because that idiot Thomas jumped the gun. Guy comes to us for a legal opinion, then levels charges before we’ve even had a chance to dig into the evidence.”
Carson shook his head, his expression as disgusted as his tone. He had absolutely no problem letting anyone and everyone know what he was feeling. That was one of the things Darby liked about the man.
That, and the fact that he had a reputation for being spot-on in his assessments.
“No comment?” he prodded after a few moments of silence. “No thoughts on the circumstances?”
Given that it wasn’t just her job on the line, but her reputation, as well, Darby carefully weighed her words. Admitting a conflict of interest—or in this case, conflicts—was clearly out of the question, but confessing that she was personally conflicted over whether or not she could do the case justice was just plain stupid.
“I would have appreciated a few more days to familiarize myself with the case before charges were filed,” she let herself say.
But Darby knew better than anyone that regrets were a pure waste. Regretting not having those couple of days was pointless. Better to put that energy into hoping nobody found out about her relationship with the accused.
“Our orders are to offer assistance to the judge advocate general while building our own federal case against the accused for treason.”
Darby knew it was her job to gather the evidence, to bring it and her recommendation to the deputy director so he could make that call. But she had to ask, “Sir, do you believe we have a case to bring?”
“The question is, do you?”
“So far, what I’m finding is conjecture and innuendo.”
“According to Thomas, they have unassailable evidence that will be brought forth in due course,” Carson said, tapping one thick finger on the papers stacked on the corner of her desk.
“Has Thomas indicated when, exactly, that might be? Because, so far, he’s refused to share that piece of information with me.”
“At this point, his team is claiming that as privileged information until such time as the US Attorney’s office agrees to prosecute.”
“What’s that saying? He expects us to buy a pig in a poke?”
Carson aimed his finger her way and grinned.
“We’re smarter than that. You’ll have to do your own interviews, gather your own impressions,” he ordered. “Dig deeper.”
“Yes, sir.”
Darby wondered if the reluctance in her belly showed on her face. She hoped not.
“You’ll figure it out,” Carson shot over his shoulder as he strode away. “In the meantime, plan an early night. I might not be able to access Thomas’s confidential information, but I’ll pull strings, see what I can find. In the meantime, you know the drill. Set up interviews, depositions. Try to get face-to-face time with the accused. My office, 10 a.m. tomorrow with your schedule.”
Darby stared at the closed door and thought, Lovely. Just freaking lovely.
Remembering the look on Nic’s face in the courtroom this afternoon, the knot that’d spent the day lodged in Darby’s stomach took a fast dive into her toes.
When she’d all but crawled out of his bed a week ago, she’d vowed to never see Nic Savino again. She’d known she’d have to break that vow when she was assigned this case, but she’d had a vague, unreasonable hope that all she’d have to do was see the man and maybe keep their verbal exchanges to a cross examination or two.
Like her vow, her hope was now blown to hell.
She took a deep breath and reminded herself that she had one priority and only one priority in life.
Her career.
So she’d better do a damned good job at it.
Innuendo or not, if this case was legit, it could make her reputation.
More, it could give some closure to emotional issues that’d been haunting her for years. She could finally lay her brother’s memory to rest, give her mother some peace of mind and get on with her damned life.
Rubbing her fingers over her eyes again, Darby forced herself to focus. She just needed to clear her mind and dive back into the case files.
But there wasn’t much to dive into.
A small faction within Naval Intelligence and the Judge Advocate General’s Corps had chosen to move on this case, felt they had enough to win. But a little voice in the back of her head taunted that if they had enough, they wouldn’t have solicited help from the Justice Department.
With a frustrated sigh, Darby flipped to a clean page of her legal pad and began making a list of people to call in for interviews. Starting with one Lieutenant Commander Dominic Savino. She’d face the man, she’d assess the situation and then she’d decide how to handle it. Because one way or another, this was her job. And, by God, she’d find a way to do it.
There was too much at stake not to.
But if regrets counted for anything, the regret at the very top of her personal list was having a wild, passionate vacation affair with Nic Savino.
Because nothing made it harder to prosecute a guy than great sex.
Will treason and scandal tear Nic and Darby apart?
Find out what happens next in CALL TO REDEMPTION by New York Times bestselling author Tawny Weber!
Available November 2017 wherever HQN books and ebooks are sold.
Copyright © 2017 by Tawny Weber
ISBN-13: 9781460397886
Call to Engage
Copyright © 2017 by Tawny Weber
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