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It was odd to have a constant cloud of worry hanging over my head. I’d gone through my whole life with the chip on my shoulder, a get-what-I-want-no-matter-the-price attitude, and to have that confidence evaporate overnight was like wearing someone else’s skin.
Thinking back over the past few days, I realized the only time I truly felt like myself was when I was with Gemma. She unleashed the real version of me—which only added to the intoxicating feeling of being around her. Being with her. It was freeing from all the bullshit that had stacked up against me and had me running scared for the first time in my life.
Approaching footsteps interrupted my train of thought.
“Mr. Rosen,” Mr. Toffer’s commanding voice cut into the wild thoughts swirling around my head, saving me from what was starting to feel like a dog chasing its tail. I stood up and extended a hand for his. “It’s nice to meet you.”
“Likewise.”
“Let’s go to my office and chat.”
I nodded and flicked a glance at Poppy as she waited in the wings, another man in a suit standing beside her, obviously the previous client. I followed Mr. Toffer down the hall and heard retreating footsteps from the other direction and Poppy’s voice as she saw the other client out the front door.
The hallway was short but led to a large room that I imagined had once been the dining room of the old estate. Now, it was decked out with dark hardwood floors, a thick rug, and a desk that matched the one in the lobby area.
Mr. Toffer rounded the desk and took his seat in a high backed leather chair and gestured for me to take my pick of the three upholstered seats opposite his. I chose the middle one and sank down, resting my broken arm on the armrest, and used my other hand to fish the folded contract pages from the inside pocket of my leather jacket.
“First of all, thank you for calling me. I trust that I’ll provide the highest quality assistance to you in this matter, and I am eager to get started. I don’t like to beat around the bush. So, that being said, my night receptionist is the one who took the message, and while I got the details from her, I’d like to start out by having you explain everything to me.” He rested his hands on the top of his desk at the conclusion of his welcoming spiel and waited patiently.
I took a deep breath and launched into the full story, just as I had when explaining things to the FAA agents but adding in the more colorful details that I’d left out when recounting the events to them. When I wrapped up, I’d covered everything from the first time O’Keefe and I met, the fight in the parking lot, the resulting visit from Talia and him—including the part about me sleeping with Talia—and then the night of the crash and the fallout since then. In the end, I handed him the contract pages that I’d been unintentionally crunching in my grip as the story spilled from my mouth.
The lawyer took them and pushed on a pair of spectacles that looked nearly identical to the ones I’d seen on Poppy. I briefly wondered if there was something more than just a boss/assistant relationship going on if they’d gone to the same eyeglasses shop but dismissed the thought. First of all, it wasn’t any of my business—I was with Gemma and had no interest in Poppy. And secondly, as long as it didn’t interfere in his representation of my case, it really wasn’t any of my business who he was banging on the side.
I kept quiet, studying him as he read through the pages of the contract. I watched for any flicker of change in his expression, but he remained steady and unreadable all the way through the last line. Something told me he hadn’t missed a single dot or letter. When he was done, he set the pages in front of him on the desk and dropped the glasses on top. “Well, Mr. Rosen, this is a tangled little web, isn’t it?”
I let out a nervous bark of laughter. “To say the least.”
He looked down at the contracts again, a storm of thoughts brewing in his sharp grey eyes. When he brought them back to meet mine, he smiled slightly. “They don’t give a degree in shit storm maneuvering at Harvard Law, but I consider it something of a specialty. Especially when it comes to dealing with the red tape you’re bound to encounter now that the FAA and FBI are crawling up your ass.”
His frankness surprised me but flooded me with hope. “So, it’s not a lost cause?”
“No such thing.” He shook his head. “I do have a few questions for you before I can offer my best advice.”
