Mr Snuggles hopped onto the chair beside me, looking at me pointedly, seeing everything, judging me.
They bought that stupid cat after they moved in together, and I swear it had a vendetta against me.
I glared back at him.
“What?” I asked bluntly, narrowing my eyes, but all I got was an appalled meow.
I sighed as I pushed myself to my feet. No matter how this played out, it couldn’t end well. I just had to make the most of it while it lasted.
Dom
Ihad just settled at my desk and was starting up my computer when the shouting began. Working across the hall from Christian was always a treat.
He was a good distraction from Harry, who I’d been mulling over for four days straight.
Christian was generally calm and put together. It was simply that some of his clients—scratch that—mostof his clients had a habit of pissing him off.
He'd been a defence lawyer far longer than I had, and we first met when he took me under his wing. Before the change in his employment contract.
Christian was smart enough not to blow up at the older guys, the ones who marked their kills on their arms with tallies. But, from what he’d told me, the younger generation of thugs were dumber than they were deadly.
I had a heavy workload and I was always trying to keep up. As one of the youngest lawyers working on the tenth floor, I constantly had to keep proving that I was good enough to be there. On top of all that, my boss, John Harris, had transferred all of Christian’s ‘lower level’ clients to me. It gave him space totake care of Harris, Walsch & Sons high-priority clients, such as the Polish mafia, who employed Christian exclusively, and paid a shocking amount for his services.
And Christian would be a welcome distraction after everything that had happened over the past week. Harry was still texting Molly, wanting to ‘talk’, but I didn’t know what else to do but give him short answers. From what I could tell, they had had some kind of argument before she left, but that was it. He kept asking if he could call, and all I could write was “I’m busy, maybe later,” while resisting the temptation to sext with him again. And each day I was closer to giving in.
Sally was repeatedly sending photos of all the things she had bought for my sisters with my ‘donation’. I could rest easier knowing that they were still being taken care of, but it didn’t rid me of the unseated rage every time her simpering tone crept through my mind.
“Get the fuck out of my office!” Christian yelled, his voice travelling down the hall.
I typed out my password and gave my computer time to update while I waited for him.
Moments later, there was the slam of his office door, followed by a polite knock on mine.
“Yes?” I called out innocently.
Christian hurled himself through the door, knowing he was always welcome when I was alone.
He stormed in, clearing the distance between the door and my desk before throwing himself into one of the chairs in front of me.
He stretched, rolling his shoulders, kicking out his feet, and getting comfortable. Christian’s clients had a habit of running him ragged, and it showed in his thick blonde stubble, his flat hair, and the heavy bags under his eyes. He’d grown thinner since he started working for them; his suits didn’t fit like they used to. But he could still rain down hell when he wanted to.
I gave him a look. It wasn’t that his visits were unusual, it simply varied on how much time he needed to pop off.
He stuck his elbow on the armrest, pressing his hand over his mouth, returning my look with a scowl.
“Just give me a minute,” he chewed out.
I nodded and got back to work. The longer it took Christian to start, the more he was boiling over.
I was five minutes into my report before he snapped.
“For fuck’s sake!” My head shot up at the smack of the leather as Christian slapped his hand down. “These idiots were put on the planet solely to fuck with me.”
“What happened this time?” My mouth curved. I enjoyed watching Christian lose his shit. It made me feel better about my dickhead nature.
“I can’t believe he’s in line to take over the family. He’s so fucking stupid.”
Christian had an ongoing fight with Emeryk Kowalski. He was the oldest son of the head of the mafia family thatChristian served. It was a bit insane that we would casually talk about them every day as part of our jobs, but that was how deeply involved he was.
