Percy looks at my arm. “Dude, are you okay?”
“I’m fine. I may need a stitch or two.” I push the old man out the door into the light falling rain. “What were you doing trying to take a bullet for me?”
“That’s my job, right? Aren’t you the new boss?” He wipes water off his bony forehead.
I blink. He has a point.
He knocks my good shoulder with his gnarled hand, and pain ticks through to my bullet wound on the other side. “What were you doing jumping in front of a bullet for me?” He throws my words right back at me.
I sigh heavily. “You’re Rosalie’s. I couldn’t let you get hurt.”
He takes a step back, his eyes wide. The rain slashes all around us. “She really is yours.”
“That’s what I’ve been saying,” I bite out.
He blinks. “Yeah, but you love her.”
I step back. “That’s ridiculous. Love doesn’t exist. Let’s not get carried away, Percy.”
His smile brightens his age-pocked face. “Oh dude, this is a good thing.” He winks at Garik. “Come on, let’s get back home. It’s almost breakfast time. I’m starving.”
TWENTY-NINE
Rosalie
After an afternoon hearing, I drink a double espresso at my desk as I try to concentrate on work. Alexei didn’t return to my house last night, which is a good thing because I probably would’ve stabbed him to death. I still can’t believe what he did to me in that booze closet at the bar yesterday.
A small part of me, one that I’m trying to quash desperately, was lonely last night. I wonder where he was—not that it’s any of my business because I don’t care. I remind myself of that fact as I keep typing.
Joseph Cage walks into my office. “Where are we on the Bernanki merger?”
I look up and my eyes focus. He’s dressed in a nice, beige-colored suit with a salmon-colored tie today. “The documents are with the buyer. We just need signatures.”
“How about the Waltisi contracts?”
“The three employment contracts? The other side’s negotiating and sending over their stipulations now.” I sit back and hide a wince as the welts on my ass protest. Welts from Alexei’s belt.
Cage moves into my office. “What about Alexei Sokolov’s murder defense?”
Just hearing his name sends shards of fire through me. “I’m filing an appeal as to the overturning without prejudice tomorrow,” I say. “I spoke with the primary detective, and he seems solid to me. In addition, he’s looked over all the charges against the judge and the prosecuting attorney, and while there are many, he doesn’t see any that lead back to Alexei or his enemies.” Of which, I feel like one right now.
“So it’s possible Alexei wasn’t set up.”
I look over at Miles’s boxes. “Yeah. I haven’t gone through Miles’s notes yet. That’s my plan after I finish this brief.”
“Miles was a good attorney.” Cage leans against my desk and plays with a silver paperweight Alana once gave me.
I stiffen. “I read the trial transcripts. He did an okay job.”
“Okay?” Cage asks, his eyebrows raising.
I nod. “He missed a couple of objections he should have issued, and he made a couple of silly ones, but nothing that would point to purposeful error.”
Cage sighs. “We could subpoena Miles’s banking records.”
“I already have.” I shift my weight and attempt to find a comfortable position. Every time I move, somewhere on my body aches from Alexei. Unfortunately, the sensations are arousing. I am so screwed up. “I sent it to the executor of the estate yesterday morning.”
“Who is that?”
