She thought about Jake. About home.
"I need a minute," she said. "Before I go back in there."
Ray nodded. He turned to leave, and then he stopped. Looked back at her with an expression that was almost fond.
"Jake Walsh has a way of doing this to people."
Then he walked back toward his office, and Emily stood alone in the hallway, and the uneasiness in her began to fade.
She knew what she was going to say.
She'd known since Katherine Winters said the words "all in."
She walked backto Ray's office. Winters was where she'd left her, portfolio closed now, legs crossed, watching the door with the patience of a woman who'd been in rooms where people needed a minute and always came back.
Emily sat down.
"I'm grateful," she said. "For the offer. For flying down here. For seeing something in me that I spent a long time trying to make people see."
Winters studied her. The assessment was quick, thorough, and carried no judgment.
"But."
"But I'm where I need to be."
Winters sat with the answer. Then she smiled. Not the recruiting smile. A smile that was warmer and less practiced, the expression of a woman who'd built her own career on choices and recognized one being made.
"Is he worth it?"
Emily didn't hesitate. "He's not why I'm saying no. He's why I figured out what yes means."
Winters held her gaze for three seconds. Then she uncrossed her legs, stood, and extended her hand.
"If you change your mind, you have my number."
"I won't. But thank you."
"I know you won't." Winters picked up her portfolio. At the door she paused, one hand on the frame. "For what it's worth, Ms. Callahan, the prosecutors who turn me down are usually the ones I wanted most."
Then she was gone. Heels on tile, the sound of a woman who'd lost a recruitment and respected the reason.
CHAPTER 29
He smiled for her, but it wasn’t the real one. The version he'd built for situations that required a man to hold still while the ground shifted underneath him. The one he'd perfected in briefing rooms when the mission parameters changed and the math got worse and the only acceptable response was a nod and an even voice and the absolute suppression of everything underneath.
Emily was sitting across from him in her office, the glass walls holding them in full view of the hallway, and she was telling him about the biggest opportunity of her career, and Jake Walsh was smiling like a man who was proud of her.
He was proud of her. That was the thing. The pride was real. Deputy Chief of Organized Crime and Gang Section, Main Justice, Washington D.C. Katherine Winters had flown to Tampa to recruit her in person because Emily Callahan was exactly the kind of prosecutor who got recruited in person. She was brilliant and relentless and she'd built the Vance case like someone assembling a weapon, and the people who ran the criminal justice system in this country had noticed, and they should have noticed, because she was the best he'd ever seen.
"I haven't said yes," Emily said.
"You should."
The words came out clean. The voice of a man supporting someone he loved, which was exactly what he was doing, which was exactly what was killing him.
"Jake."
"Em, this is what you've worked for. Everything. Since law school, since your clerkship, since you walked into this building and started proving you belonged in rooms most people never see." He leaned forward, elbows on his knees, and held her eyes because looking away would have told her the truth. "Katherine Winters doesn't fly to Tampa for regional talent. She flew here because you're the real thing."
