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“I know.” Regret shadowed her delicate features. “I swear I wouldn’t ask if the judge hadn’t forced my hand.”
“We’ll need to study the area, and the driving route,” Graham interjected in Tai’s ears.
Tai inhaled slowly. “Okay. We’ll make it work.”
The brilliance of her answering smile eased his misgivings somewhat. She truly was exquisite, especially when she was animated and happy. Like now.
The urge to shelter her welled up, catching him off guard with its ferocity.
“Thank you.” She squeezed his hand, joy crinkling the corners of her eyes. “I know it’s asking a lot. I really appreciate you protecting me. All of you,” she added.
Tai’s throat tightened. He’d walk through hell itself to keep this woman from harm. Realizing his palm still cradled hers, he gently withdrew his hand.
“All part of the job,” he rasped.
Tenaya’s smile dimmed. Of course, she knew this intimacy was artificial, no matter how convincing they made it appear.
Tai wanted desperately to promise she’d be safe, that he’d move heaven and earth to protect her for real, not merely out of duty. But the words died in his throat.
Even if he was willing to bare his feelings over the comlink, he had no right to say such things. Right now his role was clear—eliminate the threat so Tenaya could reclaim her life. That possibility was the only future he had the right to promise her.
18
The sparsely-filled courtroom smelled of industrial-strength cleaner and desperation. At the counsel table, Tenaya hovered beside her client, shifting her weight from foot to foot. She couldn’t see the tiny recording devices the team had planted in the early morning hours, but she knew they were watching…and listening. Having Tai and the team overhear this petty bickering between two exceedingly wealthy––and in her opinion spoiled––folks, was incredibly distracting.
“The petitioner calls Roger Barlow to the stand,” her client’s soon-to-be ex-husband’s attorney intoned in a bored voice.
Tenaya resisted rolling her eyes as her client’s husband, the aforementioned petitioner, decked out in an ill-fitting suit he probably had his assistant grab from a Goodwill store shuffled past. She knew his sob story by heart already. The poor CEO claimed he’d been booted from his C-suite role at the company he founded and could no longer afford the temporary spousal support for his estranged wife.
As the husband’s attorney walked him through his supposed financial woes, Tenaya listened closely. Her line of questioning on cross would systematically dismantle his claims of hardship.
“I had no choice but to step down for the good of the company,” her client’s husband asserted as questioning began again. He blinked rapidly in a poor imitation of despair. “This so-called re-org cut my salary drastically.”
Tenaya suppressed a flare of anger. Just a little longer before she could rip apart this fiction. The man was still majority shareholder. His salary and bonuses hadn’t changed one whit. He and his attorney were clearly hoping the judge wouldn’t have a sophisticated enough understanding of corporate structure to buy their story.
At long last, the direct examination ended. Tenaya approached the witness stand, clicking her pen to channel her irritation productively. Time to shred this pretense of poverty.
She went through the records methodically, one by one demolishing the man’s claims of financial hardship.
“This statement shows a one-million-dollar wire transfer to a Cook Islands account just last month,” she said, holding up the damning document. “Hardly the action of someone facing ruin.”
The witness sputtered in protest. “My financial advisor handles all my accounts. I don’t personally review every transaction.”
Tenaya smiled without humor. “Very convenient. Though as majority shareholder, you must have approved this particular transfer.”
She continued dissecting his supposed downturn, citing specifics—the new Maserati, private jet charters, six figure country club fees. The exec grew more flustered, blinking rapidly as he ran out of excuses.
She refused to let him shirk his commitments to his family. He was simply unwilling to scale back his lavish lifestyle.
As Tenaya presented air-tight evidence of the man’s ongoing wealth, her thoughts strayed to Victor despite herself. He had never approached her in public before. But what if he walked through the courtroom doors right now?
A stupid thought. Tai and the others were monitoring the building closely. Not that Victor would be aware. Still, disturbed as the man was, she had to believe anyone able to evade the police for days wouldn’t be stupid enough to approach her at a courthouse bristling with armed bailiffs. A trickle of unease snaked down her spine. She had to stay vigilant, not let worrying distract her.
Shoving aside thoughts of Victor, she focused on the witness’s reddening face. A quick glance at the judge assured her the man’s crocodile tears hadn’t swayed him one bit. Now let him explain retaining his fleet of luxury cars while supposedly struggling to pay his family’s expenses.
By the time she finished her questioning, his claims of financial hardship lay in ruins. Given her client’s vast family wealth, and the iron-clad pre-nup Tenaya had crafted for her three years ago, the victory wasn’t a major one. Still, she got a grim satisfaction at exposing the jerk’s lies.
For all its flaws, her career searching for truth and equity still mattered. She wouldn’t lose sight of that, no matter how disenchanted she sometimes felt wrangling over money and privilege. The law was her calling, and she clung to that purpose.
