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Hope
I couldn’t get my hands to stop shaking. It was just nerves from handling an on-the-spot arraignment for the first time. I could almost fool myself into believing it, but my hands betrayed me. The reaction I had to this guy was ridiculous—not to mention inappropriate.
A career criminal obviously. Smooth talker. Sexy in the most obscene and dangerous way. The hideous orange jumpsuit did little to conceal the powerful body inside. Still, when my eyes traveled farther up, my breath caught in my throat. I’m not sure I had ever met such an exquisite example of masculinity before.
Preoccupied with staring, I probably made a huge fool of myself. But I needed to take all of him in. Short, sandy blond hair, sharp cheekbones, a firm angular jaw, and perfectly straight nose. For some reason, I expected a man like him to have a crooked nose that had been broken once or twice in his life. He radiated power and barely controlled violence.
I was in way over my head here, and not just career-wise.
Our gazes collided, and I sucked in a deep breath. Deep, slate eyes bored into me. I had never seen anyone with gray eyes before, and I kept staring to see if the color would shift from a different angle. Tearing myself away from studying his unusual irises took some skill.
I wrapped my fingers around the handle of my briefcase and took a step back. The last thing I wanted to do was follow his scary-looking friends anywhere. Wasn’t my job finished now anyway? Since I’d never done this before, I had no idea. I guessed if I wanted to get paid, I needed to follow.
Instead, Judge Dane signaled me to come with him as he left the bench.
“I’ll find my way down there in a minute,” I told the guys who stood there waiting for me. A nervous smiled tugged at my lips.
“Ms. Kendall,” the judge called.
I turned and scurried toward the ornate oak door that led to his private chambers. I’d been back here once or twice before for settlement conferences, but never by myself.
I left the door open.
“Have a seat.” He swept his hand toward the two chairs stationed in front of his wide desk.
“Uh, I need to go follow Mr….” Crap! What was the guy’s name?
“North. That’s what I wanted to talk to you about. You did an excellent job. How would you feel if I appointed some minor criminal matters to you?”
Like throwing up on a regular basis.
“That might be okay,” I said.
“I can assign someone for you to shadow for a couple cases, until you get the hang of it.”
I interpreted that as I’d get to do all the work, while my “mentor” collected the fee. As if I needed any more complications in my life.
Rock
Handcuff-free and back in my street clothes, I looked around for my new attorney. She hadn’t followed the guys downstairs, and I wondered where she could possibly be. I didn’t even have her card.
“Prez, why you want to keep this snatch around? Glassman will take care of this,” Murphy asked, not realizing how close he was to an ass-kicking.
I flexed my hands. “That fucker couldn’t be bothered to show up. With the amount of money we pay him, that’s bullshit. She did a fine job.”
“You want to tap that? She’s a fine piece. I get it.”
I did indeed want to tap that, but something about Wrath—probably my oldest and closest friend—speaking about her that way pissed me the hell off.
“Shut the fuck up.”
His eyes widened, but his mouth snapped shut. Zero and Wrath exchanged glances, and I glared at both of them in response.
A gentle clicking against the concrete floors sounded a few seconds before she poked her head around the corner. “Sorry, took me a minute. Everything okay?”
I finished signing the last paper, collected my wallet, and nodded. “I’m good.”
Her gaze roamed over my brothers, a mildly freaked out expression forming.
“Come ‘ere, doll.” I motioned her over to the exit. I wanted to get the fuck out of this building and out of downtown Ironworks. I never shoulda been over the bridge anyway. If I’d stuck to my own damn territory, this bullshit wouldn’t have gone down.
But then I wouldn’t have met the pretty counselor.
I gave the guys my “get the fuck lost” face, and they beat feet ahead of us.
“Can I have your card?”
“Oh, of course.” She stopped and fumbled with her briefcase for a few seconds. Flustered, she huffed a bit of air up, ruffling her bangs. Cutest damn thing I’d ever seen. Tossing her head side to side, she marched over to a bench and set the briefcase down. Bending over to flip open the bag, I bet she didn’t realize I got an eyeful—a nice, straight shot down her cleavage. I’d known a lot of women who did this exact thing looking to get a response like mine. But this chick, she had no idea. Holy hell, this girl was dangerous.
I shifted my weight from side to side while I contemplated circling around to check out the back view when she straightened up and thrust a bright green and off-white colored card at me. Unique and pretty, just like her.
“Sorry.” She flashed a nervous grin.
“No problem.” I took the card. Hope Kendall, Esq. God. Damn.
I flipped my wallet out of my cut and fished out five hundred-dollar bills, curled them over, and handed them to her.
She protested immediately. “Oh my gosh, Mr. North, I can’t take that much. One hundred would be fine.” She thrust the cash back at me.
I couldn’t remember if I’d ever heard anyone over the age of five say “gosh” before. It was really fucking cute coming from Hope’s mouth. I also didn’t think I had ever known a person to turn down money when offered to them.
“No. You did an excellent job, considering it was sprung on you at the last minute. You earned it.”
She blushed and looked down at her shoes. “Thank you.”
Damn, she was sweet. She had this bright, wholesome thing going on. Why it got me so fucking hard, I had no idea. I usually didn’t do clean. I liked my hookups nasty and dirty.
“No problem,” I said. “Now, I’m starving. Let’s go grab some lunch.”
She hesitated, which was why I hadn’t asked her to lunch.
“I should really…”
“You have to be in court somewhere else?”
“No.”
“So let’s go eat.”
“Don’t you want to join your friends?” She gestured to the corner where Zero, Wrath, and Murphy had stopped for a smoke.
I wasn’t used to girls trying to get away from me. Usually they jumped at the chance to, well, jump me. This one was twitching to ditch me. It made me want to pursue her even harder.
“Nah, they can come back and grab me later.”
“I’m married,” she squeaked out.
Well, fuck me.
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Author Notes
Finally, we’re here. Z’s waited SO LONG for his first book! Of course he needs more than one. He’s the most loveable of the guys!
I’ve been agonizing over Zero Tolerance forever. And i
t didn’t become obvious to me that people were really going to hate Lilly after that epilogue in After Glow. Ooops. Not sure how I misjudged that one! It made me a little prickly too, because, duh, I love Lilly. I created her. She lives in my head and I know all her secrets. So telling me you hate her is kinda like stabbing me in the heart.
I’ve known since… I don’t know, White Heat, maybe that this would be a secret baby romance. I even made jokes about it on social media because it’s the one trope I thought I’d never, ever write. And I did my research early. Discovered what I did and did not like about secret baby romances.
What I didn’t like? When the dad was a disrespectful asshole to the mother. Maybe it’s some leftover trauma from my lawyering days, but nothing turns my stomach more than parents who are dicks to each other. The ones who are too busy punishing the other parent instead of doing what’s right for their child. Z being an asshole to Lilly throughout the book would’ve been un-heroic to me.
In the aftermath of After Glow, I started to get the feeling that’s what people expected to happen in this book, and I was like, uh, you’re going to be seriously disappointed, people.
Sure, Z’s angry. He has every right to be. But he loves Lilly. We all know it. And isn’t that what love’s about? Forgiveness? And don’t you know me by now!?
Maybe you’re thinking, fuck you Autumn, Z was a dick to Lilly. Yeah, I guess. A little bit. I think some of my favorite parts of the book were when Chance basically calls Z out on his dickishness. Chance has future romance hero written all over him.
Ah, Lilly. I am a bit of a jerk, huh? You still don’t know what made her leave. You have some guesses. If you picked up Zero Hour, you might have a few extra guesses. I’ve seen some theories, none were right. Close, but not quite there.
Anyway, I like continuing stories. Stories that are all wrapped up by the end of a neat 325 page novel were never all that interesting to me as a reader. Maybe I watched too many soap operas with my grandmother when I was a kid or any continuing television series, really. That’s how I feel most comfortable telling stories. It’s the way things come to me. My characters are always off living their lives and doing their thing and sometimes those things are interesting enough to put into another book.
