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JoJo looked skeptical as I held open the door. “It’s a steakhouse.”
“What part of I want a steak the size of my head didn’t make sense?”
She brushed past me and informed the hostess we needed a table for two.
I let them get a few steps ahead of me.
JoJo didn’t like me. She didn’t like steak. Yet she was here.
Because she wants something from you.
Take. Take Take.
I hadn’t been joking when I’d told her no one ever came to me without wanting something.
Except Nancy Calhoun.
I’d taken on her son as a client eight months ago, and she’d adopted me. When she called, she wanted to feed me.
Other than that, it was always what I could do for everyone else.
I supposed that was the curse of being so good at what I did. And the reason my ex-wife believed she’d become an even wealthier woman in the divorce.
JoJo slid into an intimate booth, and I took the bench opposite her. She perused the small menu as if she were making a life-changing decision. I didn’t even look at mine.
I ordered a whiskey. She ordered a water.
I ordered a ribeye. She ordered a salad with the dressing on the side... without the bacon crumbles, the boiled egg, and the croutons.
“You just took off all the things that make a salad worth eating,” I said as the waiter walked away.
“Are you really going to help Penelope?”
Ah. There it was. The reason she was sitting across from me.
A sliver of unexpected disappointment slashed at my chest. I shouldn’t hold her to a higher standard, but obviously somewhere along the way, I had.
Leeches.
All of them.
There had only been one time where I’d given without being asked. When I’d been needed . . . without an ulterior motive.
Arms around my neck. Cheek against my chest. Fingers digging into me, a plea not to let go. Water. Desperation.
This—whatever it was—was the only thing JoJo had ever asked me for. Everything else, I’d given of my own accord.
The look in those green-gold eyes challenged me to say no. To give her an out.
But if she didn’t want my help, she was going to have to turn it down herself.
“My word is good,” I said acidly. Had I not told her mere hours ago that I would represent her precious daughter? Her lack of faith was insulting.
“You didn’t even ask what the problem is. You said yes without knowing anything about the situation.” She fiddled with the cloth napkin under her silverware.
“I didn’t need to know the situation.”
All cases were different puzzles, but most of them had at least some of the same pieces.
