by Kim Linwood
Focus! I force myself to frown. “You’ll never know what hit you.”
“You mean like this?”
“Huh?”
I don’t have time to react before he does exactly what I was resisting. His mouth covers mine, and I can’t help but lean into his kiss, electricity arcing between us. He pulls away, and I can tell from his smug expression that he knows how much I wanted that. The only thing that keeps me from being humiliated is the hunger in his eyes. Oh, he did it to piss me off, but he wanted it too.
“What are you—what the hell do you think you’re doing?” Adrenaline’s still coursing through my veins, and I hate myself for making it so easy for him.
“Whatever I want.” He flashes a cocky smirk before settling back down into the soft brown leather of his chair. “Cooper’s going to be here in an hour. Make sure you’re ready.”
I stomp out of his office and slam the door behind me. A few heads turn my way as I come out, but I don’t care. Better they think I hate his guts than know we’re one bad decision away from fucking like rabbits over his desk.
He has me all turned around inside. So much that I almost sit right back down into my booby-trapped chair. I close my eyes and force out a long, slow breath. There are only so many heart attacks I can take in one morning.
I’m not sure how I’m going to get him back yet, but it’s going to be good.
Declan
Hah! Holy shit, that was epic.
I’m still chuckling when it’s time for the meeting to start.
Claire’s so fucking gorgeous when she’s angry. Chest heaving, eyes sparking, she looked ready to fucking kill me, and it got me so damn hard. Something must be seriously wrong with me.
I shouldn’t have kissed her, but it was worth it just to feel her respond and know I’m not the only crazy one. My father would lose his shit if he knew what I wanted to do to that girl.
Banging the interns is highly discouraged, but I wouldn’t be the first. Banging my new stepsister, on the other hand... I can honestly say that’s never come up in any of his talks about office decorum.
Grabbing my laptop, I get up to go. I’m half hoping Claire’s decided I’m not worth it and quit, and half hoping she’s still angry enough to push me into something we’ll both enjoy way too much for our own good.
I guess both is too much to ask for.
Opening the door, I find her there. Her back is to me, and she’s fiddling with something on her desk. She hasn’t heard me yet, and I take a moment to lean on the door frame and watch her move. She’s bent over at the waist, and that view’s fucking gorgeous.
I’d stand here forever if I could, but Cooper will be here any minute. When she straightens up, I clear my throat.
She jumps and spins. “Holy crap, don’t sneak up on me like that.”
There’s a picture frame clutched to her chest, and I realize she’s been busy setting her mark on her little office space. There’s a tiny orchid on her desk, and she’s hung up a few photos. Aside from one with her mother, I don’t recognize the people in them, and for some reason it pisses me off.
Like I don’t want to be reminded she has a life I’m not a part of.
She sets down what she’s holding, giving it a place of honor on her desk next to the plant. Coming closer, I see it’s a picture of a heavy-set man with powerful arms and a big friendly smile. He’s sitting down with a girl in his lap, whose long, slightly curly dark red hair is a pretty obvious giveaway. She’s looking at the camera with a smile just like his while he’s looking down at her.
I cock my head, examining their features. “Your dad?”
Claire chews her lip nervously. “Yeah.”
It never occurred to me to even wonder about what happened to her dad. I’ve been too focused on her mother taking over my father’s life. “What happened to him? Ran out? Cheating? Joined the foreign legion?”
Her face twists angrily. “He jumped off a bridge, actually.” She puts a false brightness into her tone, and I know I’m about to find out just how badly I fucked up by joking about him. “That’s what years of alcoholism and depression will do to you. Well, that and getting screwed by Cooper fucking Holdings who stole twenty years of his life and gave him chronic, degenerative illness as a parting gift. He should’ve taken the watch, I guess.”
I want to say something, but for once I’ve no idea what. Fuck, no wonder she got all pissy about the case. I can resent her all I want, but no one deserves that. I open my mouth a couple of times, but all I produce is, “I’m sorry.” It sounds pitifully inadequate.
“Yeah.” Her eyes are far away. “By the time they let him go, he was slurring his words and his hands shook all the time. And he didn’t get a dime from them.” She plops into her chair, her gaze locking on the picture. “They said there was no concrete evidence that his problems were work related. Like they hadn’t done the same to his buddies two years before. We didn’t have the money to fight it. You know better than anyone how much they are willing to pay to make this go away.”
I lean up against the wall, watching her blink back tears. Her fingers are tearing at a piece of paper off her desk, making tiny strips out of it. I want to comfort her, but this is uncharted territory for us and I’m complete shit at this emotional stuff. “Sounds like a raw deal. No one could help?”
She sniffs. “What do you do when someone doesn’t want to be helped? He ran off when I was twelve, but he was never far away. I’d meet him in the park a lot and we’d sit together. I tried to drag him home over and over but he’d stay for a few days and then take off again as soon as we started talking about getting him help.
“Right before... the call, he’d been home for two weeks and I honestly thought things would be better. I had these dreams about him and Mom getting back together, and it all working out. Then one morning he was gone and a couple days later...” She looks down at her hands, dropping the shreds of paper as if she didn’t know she was even holding them.
“The bridge?”
Claire nods.
“I’m sorry. I really am.” Mom’s face flashes before my eyes. “Losing a parent sucks.”
She looks up, and for the first time since our night together, something real solidifies between us. A tenuous bond between two victims of unfair loss. Then my phone rings. Pulling it out of my pocket, I look at the display. Carl. I hit the button and answer. “Yeah, Declan.”
“Your guest is here.”
Right. “Thanks, Carl. We’re on our way.” I glance at Claire, her face a mask again. The moment’s passed. “We gotta go.”
She nods without much conviction, probably dreading this meeting. “Okay.”
Drawing a deep breath and letting it out, she’s totally unaware of how badly I want to grab her and take her somewhere, anywhere, else. She thinks I’m a greedy dickhead, and maybe she’s right, but while teasing her and making her angry is fun, watching her hurt isn’t.
She picks up a pen and a pad from her desk, then looks up, her face hard in determination. “I’m ready.”
Our walk is long and quiet.
Spotting our client, I wonder if maybe she’s right. Maybe it isn’t worth it, but we have a contract, and in this business, someone always ends up getting hurt. In the end the courts will decide, and what I believe doesn’t really matter.
Time to go make some money.
Declan
“So basically, we’re fucked. Some asswipe didn’t keep his trap shut and now it’s all over the goddamn news.”
Harry Cooper Jr. isn’t what I’d call a charmer. He’s crude, obnoxious and constantly fiddling with his cigar like he’s about to light that turd shaped stink bomb up in our meeting room. I try not to judge our clients, but I’m finding very little to like about him. His beady little eyes are fixed on me, ignoring Claire completely. He seems like an ass all around, and I’m not finding the accusations of screwing over his employees hard to believe.
He took over from his father about fifteen years ago, and
from what I can tell, he’s been slowly running it into the ground ever since. If Claire’s dad worked for this guy, it doesn’t surprise me she resents him. If anything, I’m amazed that the company’s still around. There must be just enough people left who know what they’re doing to somehow protect him from himself.
What was intended to be a status update, has instead turned into a two hour bitch fest with no end in sight. There hasn’t exactly been time to read it over, but I’m pretty sure all the new paperwork he brought in is just more of the same. Instead of worrying about that though, he’s obsessed with all the bad PR he’s been getting lately.
“Mr. Cooper, no one is fucked here,” I say, trying to calm him down and get him back on track. Again. “However, I can’t deny that it’s a difficult case. There’s a lot of documentation stacked against you, and you haven’t been able to present us with any proof that their information is incorrect.”
Cooper sits back, arching his fat fingers over his belly. “I’m a businessman, Mr. Riordan. Times are tough. We all do what’s necessary to stay afloat.” He stuffs his cigar into his mouth for a moment before he remembers himself and pulls it back out. “You’re young, but this is a family operation. I’m sure you know what I mean. Everyone cuts a few corners here and there. Business as usual, am I right? Not like that’s worth all the news coverage.”
Claire’s been surprisingly quiet, but I can practically feel her tense a little bit more for every word that comes out of Cooper’s mouth. It’s like a crank gets turned every time he speaks, and I’m just waiting for the rope to fucking snap.
I wouldn’t blame her. From what she said about her dad, I’m impressed she’s lasted this long. I want to punch him and I don’t have half the cause she does.
Best to get him out of here before one of us loses the battle with self-control.
“Well, Mr. Cooper, there’s business as usual and then there’s legitimate grounds for a class action lawsuit. I’m not surprised the press is all over this. Your company employs a lot of people locally, so of course there’re going to be concerns. If the plaintiff’s attorney does their job, there’s very little we’re going to be able to do without evidence to prove that they’re wrong, or at least exaggerating. We’ll do our best to keep the news out of it, and if that’s not possible, to mitigate the damage.”
His pudgy face stares at me blankly. “Are you sure there isn’t anyone we can just pay to make this all go away?”
Jesus fucking Christ on a stick. I look to the ceiling for inspiration and try again. “Mr. Cooper, I’ll pretend I didn’t hear that. I’m sure you know as well as I that—”
“Maybe you should consider paying that money to the employees who deserve it.” They’re the first words Claire’s said since we entered the meeting, and while I agree with every one of them, she’s basically telling Cooper to give up and fuck off.
Cooper’s little pig eyes go about as wide as they can, which isn’t very. “I beg your pardon?”
Time to mitigate our own damage. “Claire. We’ll discuss it after—”
She shakes her head, red curls bouncing. “I spent all yesterday and last night until almost five in the morning reading over your documentation. The most reasonable thing for you to do would be to allow us to go to their representatives and find out what sort of deal we could reach.”
“Claire!”
She stops and looks at me, eyes hard and focused. “He asked if there was someone we could pay to make it go away. I’m simply giving him his options.”
Great, fucking great. “Come with me.” I turn to Cooper. “Please excuse us for a few minutes. I’ll send someone in to get you coffee or anything else you might want. We’ll only be a moment.”
Cooper waves his hand magnanimously, like a king granting a favor. “Interns, right? Go feed her a little dick, I find that reminds them to keep their mouths shut.”
She gasps.
My fist clenches and I think there’s a migraine forming behind my eye. I knew he was bad, but I’m starting to think that for once the complaint is actually underestimating the extent of the situation.
I guide Claire with my hand at her back, pushing her ahead of me out into the hall. She stays quiet, but her lips are pressed tightly together like she’s just barely keeping it in. Knowing her, I’m surprised she’s made it this far. Dragging her outside hearing range, I pull her into Dad’s executive meeting room. No one’s going to disturb us here.
The door closes, and she turns on me like a wild beast. “Did you hear that? That’s who we’re defending. You can’t seriously tell me that you’re just going to sit there and listen to the bullshit that lousy excuse for a man is spouting. He’s not even pretending to be innocent. He just wants to cover it up! And, feed me dick!”
“Claire. He’s our client. Assholes have the right to defend themselves too. You and I both know a settlement would be in his best interests, but he’s been clear from the start that he’d rather lose than negotiate. We’ll do our best, and hopefully figure something out to make everyone at least sort of happy. It’s how the system works.” I can’t believe I’m telling her to calm down when I want to beat his face in for what he just said about her.
Being the mature one sucks.
She growls in frustration. “I’ve tried to see your side of it, but I can’t. Fighting people like him is exactly why I wanted to become an attorney in the first place.”
Now that she’s told me a little about her dad, her career choice seems obvious. Pissing her off enough to make her quit—and hopefully take mommy dearest with her—seems like it would be in my best interests, but I don’t actually want to do it. She’s smart, funny, and from what I’ve seen so far, will probably make a damn good lawyer.
I love making her angry, but not like this. This is fucked up.
“Listen, I can’t just kick him out. They’ve hired us, and as a company we’ve taken on the assignment. If you don’t get that, you’ll never make it far enough in the business to get to do what you want.” She’s got to understand that, right? That this isn’t about what I believe in, it’s a job.
She plops into one of the black leather chairs, fuming. “This sucks.”
I nod in agreement. “There are hundreds of these cases every year. You’re not going to be able to save all of them.” I want to stuff the words back in my mouth when I see the horrified look on her face. “I don’t mean we do hundreds of these, I mean the court system in general. No matter where you go, things like this are going to happen. See it as a chance to learn. How are you going to know how to fight back if you don’t know how these people operate under the hood? It’s an opportunity.”
She looks at me strangely. “You sound like my mother.”
“Jesus Christ.” I rub my face with my hands. “You can do this. And when you’ve got your own thing going, you’re going to be bringing these fuckers down left, right and center. They’ll crash and burn, and it’ll be all you. Claire ‘The Badass’ Anderson.”
“That’s a really crappy nickname.” Her face softens for a moment. “But for being an asshole, you say some nice things sometimes.” She takes a deep breath and pulls herself back together. “Alright. Let’s do this.”
“Good, but just for the record.” I open the door for her. “If he makes another comment about where I should stick my dick? I’m going to teach him a lesson about keeping his mouth shut.”
Claire laughs. “My hero.”
“I’ll find a way for you to thank me later.” I grin at the playful punch she lands on my arm.
The first thing I notice when we get back to the room is the acrid smell of cigar smoke. Oh fucking hell. “Mr. Cooper, I’m afraid there’s no smoking in this building.”
He looks up, his eyes going wide, like a schoolkid caught with his hand in a cookie jar. With a practiced motion, he grabs a sheet of paper from his documentation, folds it up tightly into a little cup and then quickly stumps his cigar in it. Miraculously, it doesn’t catch. He at least has the gr
ace to look a little embarrassed. “Sorry. It was just for a moment.”
I sigh. The cigar is probably the least offensive thing he’s done all day and that’s what he apologizes for. Let’s get this over with. Claire takes the chair next to me. Her eyes are tight, but she’s shutting up, and that’s all I ask right now.
“That was quick. A pretty thing like her, I suppose I wouldn’t take long either.” Cooper indicates Claire with a nod of his head.
I look him right in the eyes, which are practically glowing with what he’s imagining Claire doing. “Ms. Anderson is a trusted employee of this firm and she is assisting me in this case. We’re going to do our best to ensure a favorable outcome for you and your company, Mr. Cooper, but if you make another comment like that again, I’m going to break your face. Do we understand each other?”
Dad’s going to fucking kill me, but I have my limits.
Cooper recoils like I’ve already hit him. “Jesus fuck. Is this how you treat all your customers? One of you insults me, then the other threatens me? What is this shit?”
He’s such a caricature of a sleazy businessman that I find it hard not to laugh.
“Sir, I’m only asking for a minimum of respect. Quite frankly, given your situation, you are lucky we’re willing to work with you. There will be no more outbursts from Ms. Anderson, and I apologize for those, but we’re all professionals here and we expect to be treated as such. You respect us, we respect you. Otherwise... I become unhappy. Alright?”
When this meeting is over I’m going to have to ask Carl to get someone to scrub down the room. The cigar is bad enough, but something about Cooper makes me want to bleach everything he’s touched.
Cooper nods quickly. He’s a bully, but like most bullies, when he meets a bigger one, he backs down. And I’m by far the biggest bully in the room. “Alright. Fine. So long as you get me off the hook.”
