A pit drops into my stomach. She’s not kidding about her stepmother. She’s evil and greedy.
But I only have the mental bandwidth to work on one trial at a time, and I need to get Alexei set free for good. “I’ll get the disc to you tomorrow. I have a full day. What do you say about popping by around dinnertime?” I should be able to scrounge up enough money for pizza.
“If dinner is on you, I’m there,” she says. “We can ask Alana to meet us.”
“That’s fine. Give her a call. Oh, and I need my gold earrings back. They would’ve gone perfectly with my outfit today.”
She borrowed them months ago. “Sorry, I forgot to give those back to you,” she says. “I wore them on a date the other night.”
“How did it go?”
“Horrible. He spent the whole time telling me how close he is with his mother.”
I wince. “That’s not good.”
“No, but that’s okay,” Ella says. “Honestly, men are boring.”
I had actually thought the same thing until very, very recently. “Hmm.” I say noncommittally.
“I’ll get to the bottom of that hmm tomorrow. Talk to you later.” She ends the call.
A shadow crosses my office door, and Joseph Cage walks inside to set down three heaping boxes full of file folders and trial notebooks on one of my guest chairs. “I brought you the Miles casefiles for the last ten years.”
“Thanks.” I need more time in a day.
Cage leans against my desk, a little closer than usual. “Do you think the eldest Sokolov was set up?”
“I think it’s possible his brother or stepmother bribed the judge and the prosecuting attorney.” I look over at the box of files. “Those were all Miles’s?”
Cage’s gaze remains warm on me. A little too warm. “Yeah—just from the last ten years. You said you wanted to look into his cases. You don’t believe he was dirty, too?”
“I really don’t know, but we should find out,” I say. “Just in case.”
“If you want a project, you just found one.” Cage reaches out and brushes a lock of my hair off of my face. “How about dinner tonight?”
I blink, startled. “Um, I thought we decided us dating was a bad idea.” We only went out a few times and had a few kisses that basically didn’t do a thing for me.
“I think we should try again. I can’t stop thinking about you.”
“Why?” I shake my head.
His gaze drops to my chest. “I don’t know. Lately, there’s just something about you, something electric.”
That something about me is named Alexei Sokolov but I can’t say that. Sleeping with a client will get me disbarred. Cage is a good-looking man, but apparently, I like sizzle. Dangerous, deadly, over-the-top sizzle. But it’s not just that. Alexei has unlocked something in me. A wildness that contrasts with my need to be in control. Letting go as someone else takes control is addicting. Nobody else has ever figured me out like that. “It’s not a good idea, Cage. I like my career as it is.”
My phone buzzes and I pick it up. “Hi, Eloise. What’s up?”
“Blythe Fairfax is here to see you,” she says.
I have been calling Mrs. Fairfax for days to set up an appointment. Apparently, she likes to set the tone. “All right, send her back. No problem.”
Cage pushes away from my desk and looks down, today dressed in a nice black suit. “How about you think about it? I would love another shot with you.”
“I believe I’ve already said no twice, Cage,” I murmur. Besides being a risk to my career, the guy is at least twenty years older than me. It’s just not a good idea. There’s a knock on my door. “Come in,” I say, surprised when Blythe Fairfax walks in with Jaqueline Lion on her heels. Oh, this is going to be interesting.
Cage looks at the women. “Are we having a meeting?”
“No.” Jaqueline looks from me to Cage, her black hair up in a bun and her suit a red Chanel. In her mid-fifties, she has a spectacular body. “Why are you in here with the door closed?”
