Love's Verdict

by Carsen Taite

  Skye studied the color photo on the piece of paper, and then looked over at the photo of Vanessa that Landon had been studying. “He definitely has a type. Pretty, brunette, kind of all-American.”

  “And who else do we know that fits this description?” She jabbed a finger at the photo in Skye’s hand, willing her to see.

  It didn’t take long. “You’re right. There’s definitely a resemblance. Do you think that’s why he’s always deferring to Carly like she’s the lead attorney?”

  “I think his attention goes beyond lawyering. He asked Carly to dinner tonight. Carly tried to pass it off like he just wanted to talk about trial prep, but…” Landon glanced around. The courtroom was empty, and the bailiff was in the holdover closing out the jail roster for the day, but she couldn’t risk speaking her fears out loud.

  “How about I help you carry this stuff to your car?” Skye asked, reading her mind.

  Landon led the way, moving briskly through the courthouse. When they finally reached her car, she opened the trunk and shoved the files inside, and she and Skye sat in the front seat to finish their conversation.

  “You’re worried about Trevor’s interest in Carly?” Skye asked.

  “I don’t know. Yes. Maybe. Feel free to tell me I’m overreacting,” Landon said. She watched Skye’s face for some signal that she was worrying over nothing, but all she got was typical cop poker face. “You’re not helping.”

  “I’m thinking. My gut tells me there’s something off about Trevor, but I can’t put my finger on it. He doesn’t exhibit a lot of the classic signs of a domestic abuser, but two dead bodies are pretty hard to dismiss.”

  “You’re not making me feel better.”

  “Something going on between you two?” Skye asked.

  Landon’s first impulse was to feign ignorance, but if she wanted Skye’s help, she should level with her, but considering the way things kept exploding between them, she didn’t really know what to say. “All I know is that Jane has Carly and me competing for a partnership slot, and I think Carly agreed to have dinner with Trevor so she can get a leg up in the competition. I’d just hate for her to get hurt. That’s not the way I want to win.”

  “Uh-huh.” Skye narrowed her eyes, but she didn’t pick apart Landon’s explanation. “Would it make you feel better if I scouted out their date? Just make sure nothing weird is going on?”

  Landon considered the offer. Carly would be pissed if she thought Landon was having her followed. She’d think it was because Landon was trying to gain an advantage. She probably wouldn’t speak to her for days, but the thought of something happening to Carly because she didn’t speak up was too horrible to conceive. She made the only decision any rational woman who had a completely irrational crush on her rival would do. “Yes, please.”

  * * *

  Carly stopped at the office long enough to dump some files and pick up new ones before taking off to her apartment. She didn’t see Landon while she was there and was annoyed that she cared enough to wonder where Landon was and what she was doing. How dare Landon act like her dinner with Trevor was a date. Did Landon really think she would stoop so low as to flirt with the client to gain an advantage?

  Of course, she’d thought the same thing about Landon several times when she’d seen her engaged in whispered conversations with Shelby Cross. Maybe it was just that Jane’s whole idea of pitting them against each other when they were supposed to be working toward the same goal was stupid. There might only be one partnership, but making the legal work a zero-sum game wasn’t logical and it certainly wasn’t in Trevor’s best interest.

  Trevor. She never should’ve agreed to go to dinner with him. He only had one of two goals in mind: having an actual date or taking the opportunity to pepper her with questions about the case. She had no interest in either, and if they were seen alone in public together, the press would speculate that he’d moved on to his next catch. But she didn’t want to meet him at her place and no way was she going to his house because she’d never get away. She should’ve told him no to begin with and avoided this silly mental exercise about how to escape her client.

  What would Landon do, besides making the right decision in the first place? The answer came quickly. Landon would pick up the phone, call Trevor, and tell him the truth, or some version of it designed to leave Trevor feeling good about himself and supportive of her decision not to join him for dinner.

  Carly waited until she got home to make the call. The phone rang five times and she was about to hang up when a woman’s voice came on the line. “Hello?”

  Carly held the phone out and stared at the screen to make sure she’d dialed Trevor’s cell. She had. “Hi, I’m trying to reach Trevor Kincade.”

  “Who is this?”

  Not a lot of words, but enough for Carly to figure out exactly who she was talking to. “Shelby, is that you? It’s Carly.” She hoped hearing her name wouldn’t drive Shelby to hang up.

  “Hello, Carly. Can I help you with something?”

  “Actually, I thought I was calling Trevor’s number. Is he there?” She knew she’d dialed the correct number, but Shelby’s micromanaging was starting to get on her nerves.

  “He’s busy right now, but I’ll let him know you called.”

  Enough of this mean girl shit. Carly put some steel behind her response. “Actually, I need to talk to him now. It’s important.”

  “Yeah, okay. I’ll get him.”

  Carly heard footsteps and muffled voices. A few moments later, Trevor’s voice greeted her. “Hey, Carly. Did you decide where you want to have dinner?”

  A small part of her wanted to keep her dinner date with him just to piss Shelby off, but she fought the urge. “About that. There were a ton of press at the courthouse today, and I don’t think it’s a good idea for us to be seen together or for me to be seen coming over to your house in a way that might be misconstrued.” She rushed on, hoping to keep him from coming up with some solution. “I want to answer all your questions. How about we have lunch together tomorrow? Detective Royal will be in the middle of testifying and I’m sure you’ll have a ton of questions. I’ll be all yours then.” She grimaced at her last words. She was walking the line between lawyer and perceived fangirl.

  “I’m pretty disappointed, but if you absolutely promise about tomorrow.”

  “I promise.”

  “And what about after the trial? No one will be watching then, and we can do anything we want, right?”

  There it was—proof she hadn’t imagined that Trevor’s interest was personal, not professional. Carly wondered if she was imagining the creepy undercurrent or if she’d induced it. Hating herself for it, she took the easy way out and hoped that by the time the trial was over, he’d have moved on. “You bet.”

  Happy to have the evening free to prepare for trial, Carly spread her witness files out on the dining room table and plunged in. Detective Royal would be on the stand for the better part of the day, but there was a good chance Donna would have time left to bring in the medical examiner, and Carly wanted to be sure she was prepared.

  If there was any way to knock him off his presumed time of death, she had to find it. Trevor had been in town at the time the neighbor heard arguing, although he hadn’t been spotted around the house that day, but he’d ridden with a few other team members to College Station that week. They’d stayed overnight and met with an alumni group for a school fundraiser. She needed to create enough uncertainty about the time of death to give the jury a reason to doubt Trevor’s involvement.

  After an hour of scouring the file for the dozenth time, her stomach growled, reminding her the only thing she’d eaten since breakfast had been a PowerBar. She didn’t have to look in the fridge to know there was no food, and she pulled up the Uber Eats app on her phone and ordered all her favorites from Royal Thai. Seeing the Uber logo made her think of Landon and the day they’d gone to the game. Except for running into Shelby and Landon’s father, everything about that day had b
een perfect—meeting Ian, making nachos, sharing the entire experience with Landon. It had all seemed so easy, so normal, and so not what she was used to.

  And then the kiss happened. Stoked by days of anticipation and loads of resistance, it had been perfection. If Jane hadn’t called demanding they come back to the office, she and Landon would have been undressed and in Landon’s bed within moments of that soul-shattering kiss. Just thinking about Landon, naked, slick, and ready, sent waves of arousal coursing through her, but the vision stopped there. What would have happened if they had succumbed to their attraction? How would they be able to continue this race to the top if reaching the summit meant leaving the other one behind?

  Funny how just a taste of what it was like to have a social life, to focus on something besides work and a promotion, had such a powerful pull. She’d convinced herself she’d done the right thing by pushing Landon away, but the memory of how she’d felt in Landon’s arms shadowed every thought and threatened to derail her still.

  * * *

  Landon answered her cell on the first ring when she saw Skye’s name flash across the screen. “Hey, what’s the story?”

  “Not much to report. Trevor must’ve picked her up before I could get over there. Her car’s in the parking lot of her complex, but I don’t know where they went. I made the rounds of his usual haunts, but he’s not there. I called his house, but the woman who answered the phone—I think it was Shelby—said he wasn’t home.”

  “What do you mean? You don’t know where they went?” Landon tried not to sound as exasperated as she felt, but she wasn’t succeeding.

  “They had a pretty big head start. I’m good, but I’m not magic.”

  “Sorry. I know.”

  “I could knock on her door. Maybe they decided to bail and she stayed in.”

  Landon rolled the idea around in her head. Carly would know something was up if Skye knocked on her door. Even if Carly wasn’t home, her nosy neighbor would probably report she’d been there. She tried to come up with a plausible reason for Skye to drop by, but everything she thought of could be handled with a simple phone call. Unless…

  “No. Don’t go over there, but if you get any news about Trevor, shoot me a text.”

  “Will do.”

  Landon walked over to the mirror and did a quick appraisal. She’d shed her suit the minute she’d walked through the door of the condo and put on her favorite pair of old jeans and a UT sweatshirt—perfect clothes considering her big plans for the evening had centered around takeout and trial prep. She considered changing, but the super-casual attire would be part of her cover. Before she could rethink her hastily made plan, she shoved her phone in her pocket, scooped up her keys, and headed out the door.

  Light shone through the window of Carly’s apartment, but that didn’t necessarily mean she was home. As she approached the door, she spotted a young guy in jeans, sneakers, and a hoodie approaching Carly’s door. He stopped to check a piece of paper, and then raised his hand to knock.

  “Hey,” she called out to him in a loud whisper. When he turned toward her, she crooked a finger, motioning him over, thinking fast. “Is that my order?”

  “You Carly Pachett?”

  “Yep,” she said without hesitating. She reached for the cash in her pocket. “How much?”

  He looked at the cash like he was trying to make up his mind about something, then he shook his head. “Says it was charged to the credit card on file.”

  “Cool.” Landon reached for the bag and pressed a twenty-dollar bill into his hand, hoping the tip was big enough to smooth over any trouble he might get in for giving the food to the wrong person. “Have a good night.” She waited until he was out of sight before stepping closer to the door. Hoping she wasn’t making a huge mistake, she knocked and held up the bag to the door viewer.

  The door swung open and Carly said, “Thanks for getting here so fast. I was about to starve to—”

  Her words skidded to a halt, and Landon held the bag out toward her. “Peace offering?”

  Carly shook her head slowly. “I don’t think you get how peace offerings work. I believe that’s the dinner I already paid to have delivered to me. Not sure how you got your hands on it, but it’s not going to make up for you being an ass at the courthouse.”

  Landon leaned against the doorframe. “I get it. And I apologize for being an ass, but I would like to make peace, and there’s something important I want to talk to you about.” She glanced back at the nosy neighbor’s door. “Can I come in?”

  “He’s not home,” Carly said. “You can say whatever you have to say right here.”

  Landon shifted from one foot to the other. She didn’t know how Carly was going to react to her theory about Trevor, and she wasn’t interested in being yelled at in front of Carly’s other neighbors. “Please?”

  Carly waved her in with a sigh, but she didn’t offer her a seat. Landon fished around for the right way to voice her suspicions about Trevor. “I’m sorry I made a scene at the courthouse. I have no business telling you what you can and cannot do, but when Trevor asked you out, I—”

  “You were right.”

  “Pardon me?” Landon genuinely wondered if she’d heard Carly correctly.

  “You were right. I was about to go against my better instincts and have dinner with Trevor because I thought keeping the client happy might buy me some mileage in this partnership race, but I decided against it. It wouldn’t do for him to be seen with a woman alone while he stands accused of killing his girlfriend, even if that woman is one of his lawyers. Besides, I have no interest in spending my personal time with Trevor Kincade.”

  Landon wanted to ask Carly who she did have interest in spending her personal time with but refrained. “And he was okay with that?”

  “He was the perfect gentleman.”

  Suddenly, Landon’s suspicions about Trevor setting his sights on Carly as his next victim seemed silly. More likely than not, fueled by jealousy, she’d let her imagination run away from her. “I’m glad.”

  “Are you hungry?”

  “Starving.”

  “Good, because I ordered enough for six. Never let me loose with a menu when I haven’t eaten all day.”

  “Duly noted.” She followed Carly to the table. “Looks like we’re having trial with a side of Thai. The first part doesn’t sound too appetizing, but whatever’s in this bag is making my mouth water.” The smell of food wasn’t the only thing whetting her appetite. Carly was wearing tights that hugged her well-toned legs and an oversized T-shirt that hung off one shoulder. Her hair was wild, like she’d been running her hands through it, and all Landon could think about was doing the same.

  “Don’t just stand there,” Carly said. “Grab a couple of plates out of the cabinet on the far left, and I’ll get these files out of the way.”

  “We could talk about the case over food if you want,” Landon said, hoping Carly wouldn’t take her up on it. She reached into the cabinet and selected two midnight blue dinner plates. “Where’s the silverware?”

  “Not a chopstick person?”

  “Not when I’m really hungry.”

  Carly grinned. “Me neither. And I don’t know about you, but I could use a little break from the Trevor Kincade show.”

  Landon walked the plates over to the table and wondered if she should press the point or just let Carly’s comment go. She decided on the latter and started opening the boxes of food. “This looks like pad kee mow. What are these?”

  “Crab Rangoon. Best I’ve ever had with the exception of a restaurant I know in Palm Springs.”

  “Palm Springs, huh? I thought you weren’t big on travel?”

  “Bar conference. After two days of hotel food, I wandered onto the strip to find something besides the obligatory chicken breast on rice and found this Thai place called Peppers. I didn’t have time to see anything else on the trip, but by the time I flew back to Dallas, the waiter knew my name and favorite order. I feel a little guilty
for never having gone back.”

  “I love Palm Springs.” Landon stopped shy of offering to take Carly there and show her something besides the Thai restaurant. Instead she dipped a piece of Rangoon in the sweet chili sauce and took a bite. “Holy Hannah, this is incredible.”

  “I know, right?”

  Carly reached over and brushed the corner of Landon’s mouth with her fingertip. “Don’t want to waste the sauce,” Carly said, her voice low and sexy. “It’s liquid gold.”

  Landon stared as Carly slowly licked the sauce from her finger—a simple act that elicited deliciously complicated layers of arousal. Landon was mesmerized, and her hunger for anything other than Carly completely disappeared. She stood and closed the distance between them, sweeping Carly into her arms. She ran her hands through Carly’s hair and tilted her head back. Carly’s eyes were hazy with desire, and Landon was emboldened. She bent and kissed Carly’s full lips, and her body thrummed with anticipation as Carly pulled her closer.

  After the first hungry kiss, Landon asked, “Where’s your bedroom?”

  Carly answered by taking her hand and leading her out of the room, down the hall, and through a doorway into an immaculate, picture-perfect bedroom, complete with a canopy bed made up with a designer duvet and matching accent pillows, perfectly placed. Carly turned back toward her, trepidation filling her eyes. “Should we be doing this?”

  They shouldn’t. What they were about to do would cause problems between them and problems for how they would work the case, but in this moment Landon didn’t care about consequences. Every nerve ending in her body was on high alert and she was on the brink of discovering a side of Carly she knew existed but hadn’t seen—reckless, sensual, willing to surrender to emotion—not the buttoned-up woman who kept her bedroom looking like a display at a high-end boutique. Landon was consumed by the desire to strip Carly out of her clothes and spend the next few hours making a mess out of this perfectly appointed bedroom. She couldn’t, wouldn’t, walk away from this chance to see, touch, make love to this Carly. Whatever happened after…well, she would deal with that later.