Lawful Escort by Tina Folsom

her, so caring. It made him even more of a cad.
    No, she had to forget about him. He wasn’t worth it. She had to move on. And nobody could know about it, not even Holly. If Holly found out that she’d fallen in love with him, she’d blame herself. And it wasn’t Holly’s fault. It was hers.
    Sabrina poured herself a quick cup of coffee and drank it standing in the kitchen. She wanted to avoid her roommate and get into work early, but she wasn’t lucky. Holly had obviously heard her and gotten up despite the fact that it was far too early for her. Holly never got up before ten in the morning.
    “What happened last night?” Holly needed no preliminaries when she wanted to get to the bottom of things.
    Sabrina avoided her gaze. “Nothing. Everything’s fine. I have to be at work early. Big case.”
    She put her coffee mug down on the counter and snatched her briefcase.
    “Sabrina, please,” Holly insisted.
    “It’s fine.” She rushed out and let the door close behind her.
    She had no big case to attend to. Nothing particularly important was waiting for her at work. But at least she could busy herself and make the day go by faster. When she arrived at work, the place was already buzzing like a beehive.
    “What’s going on, Caroline?” she asked the receptionist. “Why’s everybody in so early?”
    “Haven’t you heard? We picked up some really big client from the East Coast. He’s coming for a meeting in an hour.”
    Sabrina shrugged. Nobody ever told her anything, and obviously she wasn’t going to be working on the new client’s case anyway, especially not if he was a really big client, as Caroline had put it. Nobody ever gave her any important assignments.
    She opened the door to her tiny office and buried herself in boring depositions, which needed reviewing. Everybody left her alone. It appeared everybody but she was assigned to the new client. Perfect. Her love life was a mess, and her career was going nowhere.
    Her intercom buzzed. “Hannigan wants a copy of the Fleming depositions. Do you have those, Sabrina?” Caroline’s voice came through.
    “I’ve just finished reviewing them. You can pick them up and copy them for him.”
    “Sorry, can’t. I’m not allowed to leave the reception desk today.”
    “Then have Helen do it.”
    “Helen is working on something for the new client. I’m sorry, but there’s nobody else to copy those. And Hannigan wants them now.”
    Sabrina sighed. “Fine. I’ll do it myself.” Now she was even relegated to secretarial duties. Great! The day was getting better by the minute. What else was there that could go wrong?
    She passed the conference room on her way to the copier room. The conference room was on one end of their floor and had glass walls. When they’d remodeled the office, the partners had insisted on something grand to impress the clients. The conference room looked out over the city, and the glass wall between the room and the foyer added to the impressive view.
    All partners, several associates and other men Sabrina couldn’t quite make out were huddled over the conference table talking loudly amongst themselves and passing  documents between them. A bunch of suits. In the end, they all looked the same. Not a single woman among them.
    She entered the copier room and punched in her code to start copying the depositions. The machine made a loud humming noise as it started its job. Bored, she tapped her fingers on the control panel.
    “Waiting for something?” a voice coming from the door startled her.
    She turned in lightning speed and saw how Hannigan closed the door behind him and locked it from the inside. Instantly, cold sweat broke out on her skin. Oh God, he’d tricked her. He’d sent her to do the copying job knowing that none of the secretaries was available, so he could trap her in here.
    Sabrina’s stomach turned, and she felt sick.
    “I’m almost done here. I can bring the papers to your office.” She tried to remain calm