Page 4 of Unraveled

He cut her off, his eyes angry, his tone harsh. “Tell me, Audrey, because I really need to know.”

Something flickered in the dark depths. Disapproval? Disappointment, maybe? Her lips flattened into a straight line, and she drew herself up to her fullest height. Who was he to judge her?

She lifted her chin defiantly. “Excuse me, Mr. Cross. I believe we’re done here.”

She strode down the hall and through the lobby, acutely aware of his penetrating glare on her back as she pushed open the door with more force than necessary and stepped into the bright sunlight. No more. Today was the start of something new. She strode forward with purpose, shoulders straight, ready to start the next chapter in her life.

CHAPTER

TWO

Carter silently fumed, somehow managing to curse her even as he appreciated the way her hips swayed purposefully toward the door. Gideon moved to stand beside him in the hallway.

“Kind of a spitfire, isn’t she?”

Carter growled low in his throat, then spun on his heel and stormed into his office. “Stubborn-ass woman. Should’ve gotten the practice.” He threw himself into his chair and glared at the ceiling. “That moron doesn’t deserve a penny, and she’s giving him everything!”

Gideon lifted a brow. “Maybe she needs the money.”

Carter snorted. “She doesn’t need the money. Her finances are in way better shape than his.”

He had a feeling it was exactly as she’d told him: she just wanted out. But she deserved so much more. She needed more than a husband who cheated on her and knocked up some tramp. She’d get a nice chunk of money out of the deal, sure, but it wasn’t nearly enough.

“Why does it bother you so much?”

Carter dipped his head just enough to glare at him. Audrey was why. Because she was the smartest, most amazing woman who had ever stepped foot in his office, and he wanted to help her. He wanted to do a lot more, but she was also his client. It wasn’t as if it never happened, but it was the biggest cliché in the book.

“It just… does.”

He stared at his best friend, debating whether to open up or not. Gideon and Carter had met in first grade when Carter’s dad had picked up their family and moved them south. Back then, Carter had been scrawny and nerdy, an undersized young boy with glasses who’d been teased relentlessly.

Gideon had intervened one day on the playground when Jeff Sutton, the class bully, had knocked Carter down and stolen his lunch money. One punch to the jaw had sent Jeff to the ground—and forged a lifelong friendship.

A growth spurt in high school put Carter two inches taller than Gideon, but they remained friends all through school. After graduation, they’d enlisted in the military—Gideon in the Army and Carter in the Marines. After their tours were up, they’d returned home and chosen to go to law school.

They’d each had several offers from different firms, but when Walker and Raines had two open slots to fill, they jumped at the chance to work together there as well. The internships turned into full-time positions, and they’d been side by side for the last three years.

Carter steepled his fingers and rested them against his lips, mind racing. Why was she being so difficult? He could’ve gotten her a good deal, a lot better than what she was settling for. That idiot should be handing everything over to her, not the other way around. He commended her for wanting to move on with her life and leave the asshat behind, but… why wouldn’t she let him help her?

Gideon lifted an eyebrow. “You’ve done this hundreds of times. What’s the big deal with this chick?”

Carter growled. “She deserves better.”

Gideon shrugged nonchalantly. “So do a lot of the women that come in here.”

True, but Audrey Stanton was different. Carter had never—not since the moment she walked through those doors—been able to call her by her married name. Wishful thinking on his part, maybe, but he’d known within seconds of meeting her that he wanted her.

More than that, ridiculous as it was, he adamantly refused to accept that she in any way belonged to another man. There’d been a spark between them the first time they spoke, and when she smiled at him… his reaction to her was like grabbing an electric fence.

Despite trying to talk himself out of it, he couldn’t get her off his mind. He wanted her to see him in a different light—as a flesh-and-blood male instead of just her lawyer. Right now, he meant literally nothing to her other than the fact that he had the power to grant her freedom from the idiot she’d called her husband for the past several years.

“That jerk treated her like crap.” He could hear the derision in his voice, and he quickly cleared his throat. “I’m just trying to get her what she deserves.”

“Sounds like you’re trying to get something else.”

Carter met Gideon’s pointed stare with one of his own. “Not sure what you’re implying.”

Gideon snorted a laugh. “Don’t gimme that. I’ve known you too long. You got something going on with this broad?”