Legal Desire

by Lisa Childs

  Now she knew why Trevor had been so interested, though.

  “Don’t,” he said as if he’d read her mind. He had come out of the bathroom without her even noticing. He pressed his fingers to the furrow on her brow. “Don’t even think about it. I have no doubts anymore about you. And I shouldn’t have had any. You’re right. Making us look bad makes you look bad.”

  She nodded. “Do you have any other suspects?” she asked.

  “Besides you?”

  She glared at him now. But she knew he was only teasing. She felt as if he really did believe her. Her sabotaging them made no sense. She’d worked too hard to make them as well-regarded as they were.

  He shook his head. “I don’t know.”

  “It’s been going on for months,” she said—since it had started with his last class-action case. “And you don’t have any ideas?”

  “Bette, Muriel...” He shrugged. “It doesn’t make sense.”

  “There’s nobody from your past or the partners’ that might come after the practice?”

  He shook his head again. “Not anyone with access to our case files.”

  Only her...

  She could understand now how she had looked guilty. But their staff was large. “What about a worker?”

  “Bette—”

  “Bette was obviously proven to have nothing to do with it.” She’d seen the managing partner out and about with his former assistant. They were very involved.

  But then so were she and Trevor, and he’d suspected her of being the saboteur.

  “What about Miguel?” she asked. And she shivered even as she suggested it.

  Trevor laughed as if the thought was ridiculous.

  “I came there today to see you,” she said. She touched her bra through her dress. “To show you my new outfit. Miguel brought me back to Simon’s office. He opened the door.”

  As if he’d wanted her to overhear their discussion about her...

  Had he been trying to help her? Or hurt her? She couldn’t read the receptionist any better than people claimed they were able to read her.

  Trevor’s brow furrowed now. “That is weird.” Then he shook his head. “But Miguel has always been so loyal. He appreciated us giving him the job too much to risk it.”

  She shrugged. “I don’t know. Maybe he’s jealous that you all started out in the same place but you and the partners made a lot more money.”

  His brow furrowed again.

  “And you said the opposing counsel for that pharmaceutical company got something from your case notes,” she remembered. “I’m sure they paid dearly for it. Maybe this person—”

  “Mole,” Trevor said.

  “Maybe this mole is just about making some extra money.”

  He shook his head. “No. Muriel didn’t pay for those forged documents that she turned over to the bar association. And Hillary Bellows certainly didn’t pay for anything from Stone’s case files.”

  “So it’s about a grudge, then.” Miguel made sense to her since he probably went back with them as far as the partners did with each other. She would have suggested that it could have been one of them, but she remembered how furious Trevor had gotten when she’d told him to distance himself from his friends. If she accused one of them of having betrayed him, she had no doubt that they would be over.

  They should be over—whatever it was that they had.

  After knowing he’d been keeping secrets from her, she wouldn’t entirely ever be able to trust him again. Not that she’d really trusted him.

  She’d learned a long time ago never to trust anyone. But her grandfather...

  Unfortunately, she’d begun to think Trevor was more like her grandfather than her father. She’d been wrong.

  He was staring at her again as if he was trying to read her mind. And she wondered if he truly believed she wasn’t the mole or if he was still trying to play her.

  He’d told his partners that he would come up with something new to try to get the truth out of her. Was this it? Pretend to believe in her innocence?

  She shook her head. “I don’t know.”

  “It’s not your problem,” Trevor told her.

  And for a moment she was confused—then she realized that he thought she was just saying that she didn’t know who the mole was.

  “We’ll figure it out,” he said. “And I’ll let you get back to work.”

  Fortunately, she did have other clients because no matter if his partners and he believed her or not, she was no longer going to work for Street Legal.

  “I’ll see you later?” He said it as a question. He must have sensed her withdrawal.

  She wasn’t certain if he would or not. She wasn’t certain she trusted him or herself enough to be with him again. Maybe it was better to end the personal relationship along with the business one.

  She just offered him a short nod as she walked back behind her desk. She wanted it between them. But he rounded it, too, and leaned down to press his mouth to hers.

  “I will see you later,” he said determinedly.

  The penthouse wasn’t the only property her grandfather had owned in the city. She could go someplace else, someplace he wouldn’t find her. And she just might, to protect herself.

  At the thought of not being with him, that hollow feeling spread in her body—in her heart. She nodded again.

  He must have been satisfied with the response because he headed toward the door. It had only been closed behind him for a few moments before it opened again.

  She glanced up from her desk, hoping it was him, hoping that he could somehow convince her to trust him again. But it was Edward.

  “You didn’t knock,” she pointed out. And she was glad he hadn’t just walked in earlier—when she and Trevor had been having sex.

  But that was all it had been.

  They didn’t make love. They weren’t in love...

  But then what was that ache in her chest?

  “Turn on the TV,” Edward directed her. But he didn’t wait for her to find the remote on her desk. He found it himself and turned on the flat screen that was on the wall across from her desk.

  “It’s no secret,” a local television reporter said, “that the Street Legal law practice has been having some difficulties lately. What has been strange is that the PR firm that has helped make Street Legal a household name has not been issuing any statements to address those difficulties. Now we have learned why. A source close to both the law practice and the PR firm has informed me that McCann Public Relations has actually been sabotaging the practice.”

  The reporter was a young woman with whom Allison had often had drinks. While the ambitious reporter always pumped her for information, she also spoke candidly with Allison about her own life—her love interests, her goals. She’d thought they were friends. How could she have reported this without talking to her first?

  It was just another reason Allison had to trust no one, especially not Trevor. Had he been here, distracting her while his partners had been feeding these lies to the reporter?

  The young woman continued, “We don’t know yet her motivation for trying to take down the practice she helped build up, but given the reputations of the four partners, it could be the case of a woman scorned.”

  It hadn’t been. But Allison felt scorned now.

  Trevor had to have known about the report. And still he’d had sex with her.

  She had been such a fool.

  “Are you okay?” Edward asked with concern.

  Allison stood up and for the first time since she’d overheard that meeting at Street Legal, she felt as if she’d found her footing again. She wasn’t okay. She was furious.

  And no matter how the hell sexy Trevor Sinclair was, he wasn’t going to seduce her out of doing what she was about to do.

  As she stormed from
the office, Edward called after her, trying to stop her. But there was no stopping her now.

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  TREV COULDN’T SHAKE the bad feeling he’d had since leaving Allison’s office. She’d grown so quiet after they’d made love, as if she’d regretted it.

  And she’d been so distant when he’d left.

  He couldn’t help but feel that he might not see her again. Fingers snapped in his face, drawing his attention back to the meeting he’d called in his office.

  “Where were you?” Simon asked.

  “Like you can’t figure that out,” Stone said with a snort. “I can smell her on his clothes.”

  Allison did have a distinctive scent: a combination of a crisp-smelling cologne and rain. She smelled like an ice queen might. But Allison was all passion and fire and heat. Or she had been until he’d hurt her. He knew that he had with his suspicions.

  “Did you learn anything new?” Ronan asked.

  Trev nodded. “That it’s not her.”

  Stone snorted again. “Is that your head or your dick talking?”

  Trev glared at him. “C’mon, you all heard what she said. It makes no sense for her to sabotage us. If we look bad, she looks bad.”

  Simon sighed. “That’s true. But if not her, who?”

  They’d been racking their brains for months trying to figure it out. While no one had really wanted it to be her, it would have almost been a relief if it had been so that they would finally know. So that they could finally stop the sabotage.

  Trev glanced at the closed door of his office. Was their receptionist like hers? Did Miguel listen outside their door?

  Edward hadn’t been at the door this time when Trev had left her office, which was good considering what he would have overheard. He’d been busy at his desk—on the phone and computer. He’d barely glanced up as Trev had passed him.

  Miguel hadn’t looked at him at all either time Trev had passed him since their receptionist had let Allison into that meeting. Did he feel guilty? Regretful?

  Trev lowered his voice, just in case there was an eavesdropper outside the door, then he said, “Allison suggested that it could be Miguel.”

  Simon uttered a sharp laugh.

  And Stone snorted yet again.

  “He let her into that meeting,” Trev reminded them.

  “You know Miguel,” Ronan said. “He has that weird sense of chivalry. Maybe he thought she deserved to know that we suspected her.”

  “And she repays that by casting the suspicion on him,” Simon said.

  “How did he know we suspected her?” Trev asked. And a chill chased down his spine. “Did any of you tell him that?” Because Miguel hadn’t known when he’d tried pumping Trev for information about the meeting he’d called the week before.

  Simon tensed, his blue eyes widening. Then he shook his head. “No. It’s not possible. There’s no way in hell Miguel would ever betray us.”

  Stone had represented him when he’d been brought up on gang-related charges. He’d gotten him off on probation, which Miguel had served at an after-school program he still worked at despite having completed his hours many years ago.

  Trev didn’t want to believe it, either. It didn’t make sense. He uttered a ragged sigh. “I don’t know who the hell it is.”

  “You know,” Stone said, “you just don’t want to face the fact that you’re falling for the mole.”

  Trev tensed now. “No,” he hotly denied. He wasn’t falling for anyone. Ever...

  “It has to be her,” Stone continued, almost gently. “She probably took your notes to help out her father—”

  “No.” He shook his head.

  “You don’t even know who it is,” Stone said. “She could have.”

  “But then why go after the rest of you?” Trev asked.

  “Cast suspicion elsewhere,” Ronan offered.

  Trev knew she regretted helping smear Muriel. He suspected that was why she’d started buying Bette’s Beguiling Bows. The lingerie didn’t seem her style—although she looked hotter than hell in it. But since she felt bad about hurting Muriel, she certainly would not have tried to frame her for office espionage.

  A knock sounded at the door.

  Since it was his office, he called out, “Come in.”

  Miguel opened the door.

  “Thanks for not walking right in this time,” Trev said.

  And Miguel’s face flushed. “I shouldn’t have brought her to Simon’s office,” he admitted.

  “Why did you?” Trev asked.

  “Because I don’t believe she’s the mole,” he said. And now he met Trev’s gaze, and his eyes were dark with reproach. “And she deserved to know that you suspected her.”

  He wasn’t the only one who’d seen through Allison’s ice queen facade to the vulnerable woman she really was.

  “How did you know?” Trev asked.

  “I wouldn’t have survived the streets if I wasn’t aware of what was going on around me,” Miguel said. Then he looked at all of them. “And neither would any of you.”

  It was true. But Trev still felt uneasy.

  “Why do you think it’s not her?” Stone asked. He seemed the most determined to think it was her now.

  Miguel reached for the remote sitting on Trev’s desk. A TV rose from the middle of the conference table. Miguel clicked it on and reversed footage to a breaking news report from a local station.

  His stomach lurched. And he turned toward the others. “Which one of you called her?”

  Each partner shook his head. They all looked as shocked as he was.

  He turned to Miguel.

  “Not me,” the receptionist said. “But doesn’t this prove to you that it’s not her?”

  Trev had already believed her. But now he worried that he wouldn’t be able to convince her of that, not after she saw this report. He hoped like hell she didn’t, or he had no doubt that he would never see her again.

  But the thought had no more entered his head than the sound of heels striking hardwood echoed from the hall. The door opened this time without a knock. It opened so hard that it struck the wall behind it.

  Allison stood in the doorway, shaking with fury. There was no doubt she had seen the report that played yet across the television screen. “Gloating?” she asked.

  Trev tensed. “What?” He had never bragged about being with her. The others had just assumed.

  She gestured at the television. “Which one of you talked to that reporter? Fed her those lies?”

  They all stared at her, dumbfounded.

  Miguel must have realized he’d left the front desk unmanned, or the burly former gang member was scared of her, because he rushed out of the room.

  “It doesn’t matter which one of you did it,” she said, but she glanced at him as she said that. And he knew that it did matter—if it was him.

  But he’d been with her. Surely, she had to realize that he’d had no time to talk to anyone let alone a reporter. Hell, none of them ever talked to reporters without her present.

  “I’m going to sue you all for slander,” she threatened them. “How dare you drag my company down with yours!”

  “We had nothing to do with that report,” Simon told her.

  “What?” she asked. Her voice had gone so shrill she sounded nearly hysterical. “Are you going to blame me for that, too? What the hell do you think I’m doing—committing career suicide?”

  They were all silent. Like Trev, they had to be realizing how off base they’d been about her. She was definitely not an ice queen or a fool. There was no way she would have risked damaging her own reputation to damage theirs.

  “I’ve got this, guys,” he told the others and walked toward his door to gesture them all out.

  “You’ve got this!” she shouted. “Hell, no, you don’t g
ot this! I’m not going to be sweet-talked or seduced out of suing Street Legal! I’m going to bring your damn precious practice down for real!”

  Stone and Ronan hurried out with not even a glance at him. They were letting him take this one for the team. And he understood why. He’d been the one who’d suspected her in the first place.

  But he knew now if she had been the mole, there would have been a lot more damage done to the practice than had already been done. She wouldn’t have just hurt them. She would have destroyed them just as she was threatening to do now.

  Simon, as the managing partner, paused in the doorway. “I should handle this,” he told Trev.

  But he shook his head. He knew her better than the others. Now was not the time to argue with her, not when she was as angry as she was.

  Her face was flushed, her body tensed. She bristled with fury. No. Simon would not be able to charm or threaten her out of a lawsuit.

  Hell, Trev wasn’t sure what he’d be able to do, except wait for her to calm down.

  Simon glanced at her. She stood right in front of the television, watching the report again. And he shook his head. “You shouldn’t be alone with her...”

  Just how dangerous did he think she was?

  Of course, Edward had warned him that she’d try to kill him. She hadn’t at her office. He wasn’t so sure that she wouldn’t try now.

  “I’ll be fine,” he lied to his partner. He had no idea if he’d survive another passionate encounter with Allison McCann. But he closed the door behind Simon and locked it, locking them inside together.

  “Allison...”

  She’d gone curiously quiet after all the threats she’d shouted. But now she turned back toward him, and he saw the tears running down her face.

  Panic clutched his heart. He’d never done well with tears. Even knowing how his mom had been able to turn them on and off, he’d still let them manipulate him into agreeing to things, like working when he was too young, like letting her leave him to pursue her career...like telling her not to worry about him when she should have worried.