Page 121 of Her Defiant Warrior

Lainey stood up and blocked her way out of the office. “Look here, you feckless woman. I don’t care for your language, your churlish manner or the perverse way you’ve been ‘assisting me’ since Mr. Pine has been on vacation.” Lainey put air quotes around the words ‘assisting me.’

Janice took a step toward Lainey and shoved out her chin. “Who are you calling a pervert?”

“Listen to me carefully, you ignorant ingrate. I said you were perverse. That means you’re being deliberately unreasonable.”

“Just because you went to college, don’t try to rub it in my face. I’ve worked here seven years⁠—”

“And I know that. That’s why I’m coming to you for help. I value your input.”

“You should have thought of that before you took my job.” Janice hip checked her as she flounced out the door.

“Good God!”

Lainey sat back down at her desk. That woman was a menace. Lainey didn’t even know who Janice was when she applied for this program. Lainey had applied when she couldn’t stand another cucumber sandwich and had to leave South Carolina and her family or commit murder. Thank God she’d had the good sense to fight for a college education like her older brothers, instead of following in her big sister’s footsteps. Her dad was hard pressed not to support her after she got accepted into Clemson University. Heck, none of her brothers had managed to get accepted there.

Her sister, Bennett, had married a real go-getter in their dad’s law firm, a man named Frederick Laughton III, otherwise known as Trey. Of course, his name was Trey. As soon as Bennet and Trey came back from their honeymoon, Trey had a corner office in her father’s law firm. They currently had a house in the swankiest area outside of Charleston, that her father gave them the down payment for. Her sister currently had two daughters that she dressed like her and was now pregnant with the obligatory son.

Lainey had tried to fit into her family’s ideal of a Simpson woman, but when she had choked down her last dry scone at the monthly Historical Society tea, she couldn’t take it anymore. She decided to take the bull by the horns and get the heck out of town. Her dad and mom were against her leaving South Carolina. After all, her duty was to get married to a lawyer and propagate the next generation of lawyers and hostesses.

But she’d had enough, so she started sending out resumes. Her dad and mom thought she couldn’t leave since she didn’t have a job and was living with them. They had no idea what Gran had really left her, when Lainey was left with the contents of Gran’s safe deposit box. Gran had always said she liked Lainey’s moxie, and when Lainey had opened up the box, she’d been stunned. Stunned and elated. Gold. Who kept gold in this day and age? Her grandmother. This was her key to getting out. But it really was a way for her grandmother to screw over her father. He received nothing in the will. Gran never thought her father had moxie.

When she was accepted for the management training program with Lionel, she jumped at it. And for the first time ever, she used some contents of the box to buy herself a small house in Eastport.

“Enough down memory lane. Get to work, MacLaine,” Laine ordered herself. She opened up the file on her desk, then clicked into the massive set of documents on the secure server.

Yep, this was going to take much more than a minute.

7

Mateo looked up at the stately building from a bygone era. It was out of place against all the new construction in downtown Annapolis, but that made it all the more impressive. He walked across the street to a coffee shop and sighed when the clerk seemed confused when he ordered just black coffee.

“You know, we have a lot of different coffee drinks, right?” the kid, who couldn’t be more than eighteen, asked him.

“Yep, I see your menu.” Mateo pointed to the menu on the wall. “I just want a coffee.”

“Cream or sugar.”

Mateo remained patient. “Black means no cream or sugar.”

The kid frowned as he looked down at his register. “Oh, yeah.” He pressed a bunch of buttons. Seriously, why did a plain cup of coffee require that many buttons?

“What’s your name?”

“Mateo.”

“Ma-What?”

“Matt.”

The clerk wrote his name and order on a cup.

“Okay, Matt. Go wait over by the barista. Your order will be up in a few minutes.”

He looked at the empty area over by the barista.

Really? A few minutes?

He wandered over to the barista. By the time he got there, his coffee was waiting for him. He looked over at the barista and saw a young girl who smiled at him.