connect the dots.”
“Filho da puta.” Penn was using all his influence with the Brazilian government to have Adrian indicted
and to pry ownership of the island out of his rival’s grasp while he himself
was guilty of all the same crimes and more. The urge to confront Penn, to rush
to Adrian’s side, welled up so strong in my chest that I could have screamed.
Swallowing down another flood of curses, I bit the inside of my cheek.
Karl was chuckling again. “I don’t speak Portuguese,
but I think I get the gist of that.” He paused. When he spoke again, it was
more tentatively. “Chloe, do you think there’s any way you can get me the name
of that go-between Penn is using? I… I have to admit to a somewhat petty desire
to take Penn down at his own game after he screwed my company over on that
infrastructure deal.” The case I’d had to recuse myself from, because I was
dating Penn and the firm was representing his father. Even then, I’d never
believed the Ellison accusations against Richter’s company.
Nina sat up a little
straighter and shook her head of short blond curls, only accentuating the halo
effect. “That’s going to be a problem. Whitney said that Penn left for Brazil
yesterday.” As an aside to me, she added under her breath, “And she was none
too happy to be left behind.”
I frowned so hard I felt it in my cheeks and my
forehead. “I’m sure Penn had them fueling his private jet as soon as he heard
Adrian had been indicted. He’ll want to see the proceedings first hand.”
“Sounds like the gentlemen have some history,” Karl
interjected. And they did, from competing for every award and position of
leadership from prep school through college to Penn seducing the girl Adrian
had planned to marry. Only fair, I supposed, that Adrian had taken the first
opportunity to move in on me when I’d left Penn over his public infidelities.
Fair to everyone but me, that was.
Christ, it seemed like I still wasn’t sure if I
hated or loved Adrian Knight. Probably both.
Karl’s voice drew me back from my momentary retreat
into private thoughts. “If you can pull this Knight out of the mess Ellison put
him in, maybe we can do business. The enemy of my enemy and
all that.”
“Oh, I’ll get Adrian out of this all right,” I vowed
before I realized my intention. But even as I promised to call Karl back when I
had more information, as I began stuffing files into my leather briefcase while
Nina watched me with a curious tilt to her head, my better judgment was ringing
bells and blowing whistles in my head.
If I acted on this impulse, if I walked away from
all the cases piled on my desk and out that office door, I was risking my
position as the junior partner of
note at Ferris & Hale and probable censure for unethical behavior…and maybe
more. This wasn’t my case, never was, and Adrian wasn’t my client, just my former lover. Governments were involved,
both the American and Brazilian. More money than I could imagine was on the
line, I was sure. And I was only one woman, a grubby little girl from the poor
side of town who happened to clean up well enough to pass among the moneyed
elite without offending their sensibilities. That wouldn’t last if I acted on
the urge gripping me from the base of my spine to the ache in my chest.
“What am I doing?” I asked myself aloud as I fell
back down into my chair. My face felt suddenly feverish, like the warning flush
of impending flu or exhaustion. “Adrian isn’t even…” My
client. My problem. My lover,
anymore. I absently asked myself where I’d put my passport when I’d
stumbled forlorn back to my apartment in the middle of the night last month,
freshly fled from Adrian’s bed after learning he had known all along I was
Penn’s ex-girlfriend, after seeing the subpoenas that seemed to prove him every
bit the underhanded white collar criminal his father was. My fingers wandered
toward my laptop keyboard as I wondered about flight
“Filho da puta.” Penn was using all his influence with the Brazilian government to have Adrian indicted
and to pry ownership of the island out of his rival’s grasp while he himself
was guilty of all the same crimes and more. The urge to confront Penn, to rush
to Adrian’s side, welled up so strong in my chest that I could have screamed.
Swallowing down another flood of curses, I bit the inside of my cheek.
Karl was chuckling again. “I don’t speak Portuguese,
but I think I get the gist of that.” He paused. When he spoke again, it was
more tentatively. “Chloe, do you think there’s any way you can get me the name
of that go-between Penn is using? I… I have to admit to a somewhat petty desire
to take Penn down at his own game after he screwed my company over on that
infrastructure deal.” The case I’d had to recuse myself from, because I was
dating Penn and the firm was representing his father. Even then, I’d never
believed the Ellison accusations against Richter’s company.
Nina sat up a little
straighter and shook her head of short blond curls, only accentuating the halo
effect. “That’s going to be a problem. Whitney said that Penn left for Brazil
yesterday.” As an aside to me, she added under her breath, “And she was none
too happy to be left behind.”
I frowned so hard I felt it in my cheeks and my
forehead. “I’m sure Penn had them fueling his private jet as soon as he heard
Adrian had been indicted. He’ll want to see the proceedings first hand.”
“Sounds like the gentlemen have some history,” Karl
interjected. And they did, from competing for every award and position of
leadership from prep school through college to Penn seducing the girl Adrian
had planned to marry. Only fair, I supposed, that Adrian had taken the first
opportunity to move in on me when I’d left Penn over his public infidelities.
Fair to everyone but me, that was.
Christ, it seemed like I still wasn’t sure if I
hated or loved Adrian Knight. Probably both.
Karl’s voice drew me back from my momentary retreat
into private thoughts. “If you can pull this Knight out of the mess Ellison put
him in, maybe we can do business. The enemy of my enemy and
all that.”
“Oh, I’ll get Adrian out of this all right,” I vowed
before I realized my intention. But even as I promised to call Karl back when I
had more information, as I began stuffing files into my leather briefcase while
Nina watched me with a curious tilt to her head, my better judgment was ringing
bells and blowing whistles in my head.
If I acted on this impulse, if I walked away from
all the cases piled on my desk and out that office door, I was risking my
position as the junior partner of
note at Ferris & Hale and probable censure for unethical behavior…and maybe
more. This wasn’t my case, never was, and Adrian wasn’t my client, just my former lover. Governments were involved,
both the American and Brazilian. More money than I could imagine was on the
line, I was sure. And I was only one woman, a grubby little girl from the poor
side of town who happened to clean up well enough to pass among the moneyed
elite without offending their sensibilities. That wouldn’t last if I acted on
the urge gripping me from the base of my spine to the ache in my chest.
“What am I doing?” I asked myself aloud as I fell
back down into my chair. My face felt suddenly feverish, like the warning flush
of impending flu or exhaustion. “Adrian isn’t even…” My
client. My problem. My lover,
anymore. I absently asked myself where I’d put my passport when I’d
stumbled forlorn back to my apartment in the middle of the night last month,
freshly fled from Adrian’s bed after learning he had known all along I was
Penn’s ex-girlfriend, after seeing the subpoenas that seemed to prove him every
bit the underhanded white collar criminal his father was. My fingers wandered
toward my laptop keyboard as I wondered about flight
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