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Could I trust Jonny implicitly, or was I fooling myself? He could easily have sent his soldiers to handle the murders. I’d tried to research who they were but couldn’t find anything on their identities. That meant they could have gone behind Jonny after he used me as a mark, killing Ronan and Fiona O’Connor on his orders. That still made him very much a murderer. I doubted men like him got his hands dirty anyway.
Fuck.
This was bad, so very bad. I hadn’t worked on his case, still finding it impossible to believe I was in this predicament. God. What was I going to do? I slowly lowered my head into my hands, hating everything about my life.
When I heard a knock on the door, I stiffened, immediately jerking my head up. Seeing Christine’s pensive face was enough to pucker my asshole. She closed the door behind her, walking to my window, staring out at the rain as I’d just done.
“Is something wrong?” I finally asked. A few seconds turned into a full minute, the tension becoming thick.
“When I was growing up, my father used to remind me that it was a man’s world. He was a chauvinist in every way. I didn’t know that until I was a teenager, telling my father I wanted to become an attorney and maybe president of the United Statesone day. Do you know what he said?” She turned her head, studying me as if she no longer knew me.
“What did he say?” I’d never felt so uncomfortable around her.
“That women couldn’t be president of the United States given our weakness. When I asked him what that was, he said it was our sex. That we used our beauty to lure men in instead of our brains to beat them in anything worthwhile, including all aspects of business. Then he told me that I would make a pretty good beauty queen and could likely find a decent enough husband. But that if I worked on myself, including spending more time in the gym, I could improve my odds.”
“Your father was an asshole.” What the hell was she trying to tell me?
She laughed. “Yes, he was. But what that heart to heart did for me was put a fire in my belly. I went on to get a full scholarship to Columbia where I excelled. On the day I had to bury my father, I stood over his coffin and told him that I would be president one day. Then I laughed. I haven’t been back to the gravesite since. But I thank him every day for being such an abominable man. And do you want to know a little secret?”
“Sure.”
There was something strange about her that sent fear trickling down my spine.
She turned slowly and I wasn’t certain I even recognized her any longer. “I was the one who put him in his grave.”
As she took a deep breath, her sense of satisfaction in having done so was horrifying. “Why are you telling me this, Christine?”
She walked to my desk, slamming her palms on the surface. I’d never seen her like this before and I was angry as well as shaken. What had become painfully clear was the message she was sending was that she suspected I wasn’t on my game. Or the detectives I’d come close to harassing had called and complained. Was that all or did she know about my affair? The uncertainty was damning.
And terrifying.
“Because you’re just like me. I sensed that the very first time we met. The drive. The passion to shove aside the fact you’re a woman. The need and hunger to excel in everything you do. That’s why I took you under my wing teaching you everything I knew, all the tips and tricks of getting a conviction. You excelled beyond my wildest expectations, convicting a few people who had decent alibis. Amazing work.”
“They were guilty.”
“Most were, yes. And I know how much it hurt when you lost the single case. Damien Duncan.”
Why was she bringing that up now? I swallowed hard, nodding. The woman never did anything without a reason. What could it be, other than to remind me I wasn’t infallible? Another series of cold shivers rushed down my spine.
“Plans are being put in place so that kind of thing doesn’t happen again. He should have been convicted.”
“His alibi was strong,” I said, surprised I was defending the bastard.
“Alibis are just one person’s word against another. That’s something you should clearly know.” She smiled, her expression terrifying me.
“What are you saying?”
“Only that our office has become highly respected in the state and beyond. That’s because of hiring people like you, incredible women powerful like Amazons. We deserve to be running this world. I knew you would succeed in as many ways as I planned on doing. There’s nothing wrong with having a protégé as long as you can trust that person. And as you might imagine, there’s always someone else waiting in the wings, prepared to jump in if the opportunity arises. Do you know what I’m saying?”
Yeah, I did. She was issuing a threat. I was replaceable. “True, Christine. However, what I’ve learned in my few years of practicing law is that sometimes you don’t actually want what you think you want. You can get locked inside a prison cell within your own mind, fearful of venturing out for even a single taste of something else.”
She pulled back, lifting her head. The look was unreadable, but I had no doubt she was trying to figure out if I was on her side or not. “Perhaps, but it pains me to remind you that one must be careful in the choices we make. They can lead you to significant success or damnation. There is no in between.”
“Understood.”
“I hope you do. And I hope I didn’t make a mistake with you. Sometimes erasing mistakes can be very painful.”
Erasing mistakes? Another cold chill drifted down my spine.
