“I don’t know if that’s how they did the Orlando project.” I blink at him.
Aaron stares at me mulishly. “Fine, I’ll call him.”
The lunch turns into a three-hour video meeting with Grayson Richmond, much of it taken up by Aaron and his older half brother sniping at each other.
I don’t mean to be gone that long, and I seriously regret it when I get back to the office and Mandy isn’t at her desk. Her dog and her purse are gone.
“Where is Mandy?”
Jess puts her hand over the phone receiver. “She said she had a meeting.”
“How long has she been gone?”
Jess shrugs. She’s covering for her friend. Of course. As if I’m the enemy here.
“I bet she left right after I did,” I say.
“Yeah, I guess it’s been a few hours. I’m sure she’ll be back soon. Is there anything I can help you with?”
“No. Just call me if she comes back.” I throw my briefcase on my desk then head back to the elevators.
I have to find her.
27
MANDY
Itry not to fidget in the swanky corporate law offices of Clarke & Turner. Even though I didn’t sleep at all last night because I’ve been too panicked about the meeting, now the adrenaline is churning, frying my nerves as if I drank three venti lattes.
Unfortunately, it’s clear that even though I spent thousands of dollars on my lawyer, Randy’s a hick compared to the huge law team Jaxon has been able to assemble. The Clarke & Turner offices are in a glass-and-steel building with a million-dollar view of the Seattle skyline.
Pepper sits on the leather Barcelona chair next to me while my lawyer slouches in his own, looking even greasier and more rumpled in the bright overhead lights in the private lobby.
Yeah, this is the type of company that has multiple lobbies and receptionists on each floor, ostensibly to keeppeople from wandering where they aren’t supposed to, but in reality, it’s just for intimidation.
And it’s not working,I tell myself firmly.
In reality, I am intimidated and scared.
Not for the first time, I wish that I was like Lauren and had no issue dumping all my problems on a man and making him responsible for my life. Salinger wouldn’t even blink at being in this type of high-end corporate office. Shoot, he would parade in with an even bigger team of lawyers just to prove he had the money to burn.
But Salinger has a big, important meeting today, and he has a temper, and the reality is that this isn’t his problem—we aren’t dating, and I’m not a member of his family. Clearly, based on this office, getting him involved would be a six-figure endeavor, and that’s if he would even go aboveboard to fight Jaxon on my behalf. He would be liable to just attack Jaxon in broad daylight and go to jail, then I would never get over the guilt.
Jaxon’s team is entering the conference room from a side door. Everyone is wearing a bespoke suit except for Jaxon, who’s in his expensive hip-hop T-shirt, blinding-white sneakers, and five-hundred-dollar jeans that are artfully distressed.
The receptionist finally stands up and waves us to the other conference-room door.
Jaxon’s lawyers have all lined up along one side of the table, identical leather portfolios in front of them. My lawyer sits down heavily in a chair and slaps his yellow notepad on the table.
One of the Clarke & Turner lawyers hits Record on a digital tape recorder. “Max, go ahead.”
“Thanks, you two, for making the trip to our office. We thought it would be best to meet here.” Max gives me a syrupy smile. The lead lawyer is clean-shaven with reptilian eyes.
“Now, Miss Miller,” he says, “we understand that you do not want to turn over the dog to our custody.”
There’s a pause.
Max waits.
