Their meeting being scheduled for the afternoon was a special kind of torture.Baz begged his brain to focus on work, but every sound had him searching for a sign of impending doom.He imagined Erika walking through the door in her killer heels, slamming pictures of him and Sami onto his desk.How could you be so stupid?she would growl, and she would fire Baz for being a damn idiot.His name would be tarnished, and he wouldn’t find a job again, all over a moment of weakness—
“You all right, bro?”
Baz startled upright in his chair.Collin, in his doorframe.Why?
“Can I help you?”
“No, but I can help you.Aya told me to look into Captain Green’s financials and give you the breakdown before your meeting.Here.”
Baz’s eye twitched.Aya had told Collin but not Baz?Baz could have easily done that research himself!It had been on his list, except that it wasn’t relevant at all yet.A company owned by Breme could afford an eighty-million-dollar settlement five times over without breaking a sweat.
He snatched the thin file out of Collin’s hand.“Anything else?”
“Nah.Oh, actually.Are you coming to Sullivan’s big birthday bash next month?It’s gonna be huge.”Collin announced it with a childlike glee, as if any part of that sounded fun when it was Baz’s idea of hell.
Networking events with clients?Fine, he had no choice.Schmoozing people with money, advertising for the firm, those were part of the job.An informal birthday party was a whole different beast.
With the entire firm invited, it’d be a networking event in its own right.The kind that got people’s names into partners’ heads.The kind that could accelerate a promotion if the right impressions were made…
“I’ll be there.”If he still had a job then.If Sami hadn’t outed him and gotten him shunned from the legal world.
“Awesome.Will do you good to relax a little, bro.Plus, there’ll be many eligible ladies around.”Collin smirked and was out of the door before Baz could finish rolling his eyes.No party had ever done him any good, ever, least of all one where he was at risk of being set up with a woman.The thought alone made him shudder.
Much as he didn’t want to be stuffed in the ‘gay lawyer’ box—forever reduced to being the bestfor a gay guyand not the best, period—those rumors needed to die.
He flicked through the file Collin had given him.If Collin’s research was correct—and really, there was no guarantee—Captain Green had made fifteen billion in profit in the last year alone.Yeah, they had no business whining about a higher settlement.Baz didn’t doubt for a second that whatever Ian brought to the table would not reflect the company’s good financial situation.
As long as he brought a settlement offer and not evidence to blackmail Baz with.
Baz swallowed against his thickening throat.All he could cling to was the fact that if last night had been setup, Baz could just as well use that against Ian.Forcing someone to prostitute themselves was illegal, and he wasn’t above dragging Ian and Sami down with him.Hopefully, Ian was too calculated to risk such a lose-lose situation.
Dear god, let him be too calculated.
The prayer carried him to the conference room with a racing heart that he blamed on the stairs.He arrived ten minutes early, to assert dominance; this wasn’t the time for akeep-them-waitingpower play.
Aya joined him barely two minutes later, in a gray suit and blue shirt that complimented Baz’s outfit beautifully.Any other day, Baz would have enjoyed being on the same wavelength.
“Why did you tell Collin to look into Captain Green’s financials?Your disapproval of my offer wasn’t subtle.You didn’t have to go that far.”
Aya cocked an eyebrow.“What else are associates for if not to do the grunt work?”
“It’s my case.I’m the associate who can do the grunt work.”
“Baz, if you wanna be partner, you gotta learn to delegate work.Where would you be if I was as stingy as you with my cases?”
But that was him, not Collin.They weren’t exactly on the same level.
Then again, the idea that Collin was working for him was a good one.Same age, same experience, same school, yet Baz was ahead.
“If you put it that way.”
“See?Never doubt me.Now, are you ready to face your nemesis or is there anything else you wanna get off your chest?”
Why?What had she heard?
“I was joking,” Aya said, frowning slightly.
Right.Of course she was.Because no one else knew about last night.
