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“I was…I’m tired of talking. Where is the guard?”
Countee knocked on the door, and the guards came in to escort Barry back to his cell. While they were unlocking his handcuffs from the table and preparing to leave Barry said, “I never would have hurt Averie if I were in my right mind. She is special and rare. I never should have listened to them.”
“Listened to who?” Countee asked.
Barry didn’t respond as the guard escorted him out of the room.
“Stand down,” Countee said out loud.
He really did have someone sitting on Barry’s family.
“Now what?”
“Now we figure out what the hell is going on. Someone is after Averie’s firm. The losing streak, the visit from Bell and the attack from Leathen. We have to get to the bottom of it.”
“Is Averie still in danger?”
“As long as Laila is around, she will be fine.”
Averie
It had been almost a month since the attack. My mother insisted that I start seeing a therapist. I’m glad she did because I was impacted more than I’d realized.
I mean who wouldn’t have some residuals from an attack that almost ended your life but beyond that, I hadn’t fully processed it until I started talking with Karen. Karen was a black woman a few years older than my mother. She was a no-nonsense type of woman that had zero tolerance for people that came into her office and didn’t really want help. I wanted help, so we got along well.
Laila had been by my side since I returned to work. Liddy had a little bit of heartburn with me hiring a personal assistant, but I explained that Laila would be helping me with my charities since I would start working on some projects with Torrey. I didn’t tell anyone who Laila actually was, not even Liddy, and I knew that I could trust her or at least I hoped that I could.
I was nervous about what Laila would wear on her first day of working with me, but when she stepped off the elevator, I was pleasantly surprised. She’d traded in her khaki pants andChambers Securitypolo shirt for a navy blue, wide leg pants suit with a white camisole underneath. She wore her hair down in long cascading curls, and she’d polished her nails. She’d completely transformed. I didn’t know where she kept her weapon, but she assured me that she was always carrying something.
Having a shadow took some getting used to. I’d walked past the new security guards on my floor on my way out of the building. They promptly stopped me until they could contact Laila to follow me. She gave me a stern talking to about not leaving her behind. Since then, I’d learned to let her know my moves. I thought that she would just sit around and watch me work, but she asked for real work to do to keep herself busy. She had made donor calls and set up viewings to see event spaces for future events. She had been great to have around.
There hadn’t been any threats since Barry, but Countee was still concerned. He was still working to get to the bottom of the things happening at my firm.
Luckily, the negative press blew over without a mention of my name. The firm’s name was in every print and web article for days, but somehow, they never mentioned me. The negative press did nothing to help me in the pursuit of getting my clients back, but I was still working on them and finding new ones.
Laila and I were on the way to a meeting at Valentine Law with Countee to discuss his progress on my case. We’d decided that we would not meet at my firm because we didn’t want anyone to associate him with me and know that I was looking into things.
Ray opened the door to my old war room at VLG. It felt like it was ages ago that we’d tried that case. So much had happened since then.
Samuel was ending a call but stood to greet me.
“Babe,” he smiled. “How has your day gone so far?”
“Better, now,” we kissed briefly. “What about you?”
“Brighter now,” he smiled again. “Hey, Laila. How is it working with us civilians every day?”
“I actually enjoy it. I get a break from all the testosterone in the office. I am going to run to the restroom while we are waiting on Count.”
She left out of the room leaving Samuel and me alone.
“I have something I want to talk to you about once this meeting is over. Will you have time to stick around?”
I looked at my watch.
“Yes, I should have time. Is everything okay?”
“It’s good.”
