His brow shot up in condemnation as we had an intense stare off. I made it abundantly clear in my interview, onboarding, and multiple times since then that I did not defend abusers. Realistically, I knew that as an attorney sometimes my morals may have to take a backseat for the sake of the job, but that was something that I did NOT fold on. Jocelyn’s hand gently nudging my elbow brought me back to earth and made me realize that my face was doing something that needed to be checked. Oliver sat back in his seat and adjusted his tie before speaking again.
“Lewis, Iknowyou have your… preferences, but with all the success coming our way, we need to strike while the iron is hot!”
“Can’t Trevor do it?” I asked, referring to my coworker who served as my co-counsel on the last trial. I knew he was more than capable and slimy enough to happily defend a man who put his hands on women for fun.
“You were specifically requested to join his legal team. I don’t have to explain to you how important these big cases are for partner consideration, do I?” He tilted his head and made a face that made me want to slap the fuck out of him, pack my shit, and never come back to this office again. I didn’t need this fucking job, and I’d rather go broke before I sold my soul to the devil for a check. I was proud as hell and would rather die by a thousand paper cuts and a lemon bath than to ever be fired or lose.
“Yes, I understand but?—”
“Butnothing,Lewis. I had Britney schedule flights for you two to meet with Mr. Andrews for intermediate counsel session tomorrow in Los Angeles.”
“I can’t go to L.A.—I have plans this weekend.” I said flatly.
“Well, you’ll just have to move some things around,” he answered with a callous shrug. I wanted to flip his desk over andtell his sun damaged ass that I couldn’t move shit around because it was a fucking funeral.
Calm. Down. Amaya.
I started my process of counting down from ten and was slowly able to breathe again. By the time I made it to four, I was able to apply the tactic that had kept me employed and out of prison most of my adult life—I kept my inside thoughtsinside.
“Thank you,” I said through tight lips. “I’ll be ready.” I didn’t bother asking if he needed anything else before excusing myself. We walked back into my office as I silently fumed and started thinking of how to exact my revenge in the nice-nastiest way.
“Amaya,” Jocelyn called as she waved her hand in front of my face. Only then did I realize that she had been calling my name and trying to get my attention since we stepped back into my office. I clearly scared the hell out of her the way I was staring off into space for a full two minutes.
“Girl… You okay?”
I swallowed, wincing at the way my throat felt like I had just deep throated a brick. “I’m fine.”
“Listen, you don’thaveto do this. My cousin is a doctor, and he can get you a good note. He’ll say you have covid, the measles, whatever.” Her dedication to my mental wellbeing made a smile creep across my face. Sheknewthis whole situation was a huge trigger for me, even though I didn’t tell her why, and the fact that she was willing to risk her cousin’s medical license really warmed my heart.
“I’m okay, Joce,” I assured her, but her questioning eyes had me wondering what my face looked like. “I swear. It’s okay. We’ll take this meeting, get a feel for him, then if it doesn’t go well, we’ll walk away. It’s fine.”
“Okay…” she gave me another leery look before pulling out her tablet and checking an email.
“Shit, the flight leaves at 11am… Do you think you’ll have time to make the funeral?”
“Absolutely not.” I shook my head, feeling like shit. My bestfriend Mona was going through a tough time. She found out her boyfriend died through social media of all places, and the funeral was tomorrow. We originally had a Galentine’s Trip planned for the weekend, so our other best friends went ahead so it wasn’t a complete waste of money.
“Maybe your aunt can go with her?” she asked, scrambling for a suggestion.
“Her and Uncle B left yesterday for Venice, you know that man is gon’ do the most every Valentine’s Day… Fuck.” I cursed. Everyone else headed out of town and I stayed back to hold her down, then this bullshit happened. I knew she would be understanding, that’s just how she was, but me and my guilty conscience would be making this up to her for the next few months.
“Hopefully she’ll be okay. She hadn’t even really known that man for that long. What’s theworstthat can happen right?” I asked with a skeptical look on my face.
“Sure…” she answered. We shared a look as an eerie feeling washed over both of us.
Fuck it. I guess we’re going to Cali
CHAPTER 3
SALTED CARAMEL
If there weretwo things that I hated most in life, the first would be salted caramel flavored shit, because why thefuckwould I want salt in my fucking caramel? On the rare occasion that I indulged in sweets, I wanted my shit sweet, not salty, and whoever came up with that needed a foot up the ass. The second was when people played with my fucking time—like this very moment.
“She’s three minutes late,” I huffed, looking at my watch and rolling my eyes. I was supposed to be in my weekly massage appointment, yet there I sat, waiting on this hotshot lawyer that Niko tracked down to help me win my case.
My mood was already on ten since I had to deal with this lawsuit. Chanel had done some fucked up things, butthistook the cake. I knew she didn’t need money and was purely doing this out of spite. She wantedto make me look bad because she knew it would hurt me the most. She knew my reputation was everything to me and her evil ass came up with the perfect scheme to stab me right in the heart.
“Relax.” Niko sighed and rubbed his temples likeIwas the fucking problem. “She flew in today as a courtesy. It’s a nonbusiness day.”
