“For you, yes,” Mark said. His smile was actually lewd. Unbelievable. “Never become the story, Cate,” he admonished, shaking his head. Then he looked her up and down. “I never would have guessed.”
Cate’s voice turned cold. She was very close to done with this dirtbag.
“Where’s your client?”
“I thought we could talk.”
“Non-negotiable, Mark. I was very clear about that.”
Cheedham looked at her with his dead eyes for a beat. Then he sighed and opened the door again, waving a woman inside.
He’d made
Daniella
Collins wait in the hallway. Unbelievable
redux
.
Daniella
was a small woman, brown hair, blue eyes,
tattoos
down one of her arms. Head held high. Cate wasn’t sure what she should feel—this wasn’t a typical case, and she wasn’t a typical plaintiff. If it weren’t for Soren, Cate might have felt pity. But pity was too condescending for this woman. So Cate fought down the jealousy from knowing this woman had been with
Soren
and settled on empathy, instead.
Cate wanted to help her, after all.
“
Daniella
, this is Cate Kennedy,” Mark said. And then, as if he’d spent hours thinking it up and simply couldn’t help himself, he said, “She likes it rough, too.”
Silence.
Mark Cheedham chuckled slightly, as though this were a totally acceptable thing to say. Like it was fair game, just because it had been in the news. Like introducing them as though they both had a similar interest in tennis was a good joke.
Unbelievable, the trilogy.
Cate might have kept it professionally tactful, except she saw
Daniella’s
face. The woman looked hurt, and sorry, and sad, and full of loathing for this man who had put her in her current position and now made her the butt of sexual jokes.
So she went with professionally blunt.
“I wouldn’t make jokes of that nature if I were you, Mark,” Cate said. “You’ll be going to prison—soon—and unfortunately the threat of violence in our state facilities is still very real.”
Mark looked up, stunned. She could see the pale circles around his eyes where he wore goggles in the tanning bed.
“It’s tragic,” Cate said. She meant it. “But that doesn’t stop it from being true. Maybe you’ll be able to draw attention to the issue from the inside.”
Cate sat at the small dining table in the corner of the suite, leaned back, and crossed her legs.
“You might be able to bring those media manipulation skills to bear for a worthy cause,” she went on. “You could look at it as an opportunity.”
ity>
“What are you talking about?”
Daniella
said. “Mark, what is she talking about?”
Cheedham had partially recovered. He was doing his best to look outraged now, rather than terrified, standing up as though he were about to storm out. “She’s talking out of her ass,” he said.
“Sit down, Mark,” Cate said. “I have a hypothetical situation for you both to consider. In that hypothetical situation, I have evidence that you, Mark, coerced
Daniella
Collins into perjuring herself, making false claims, the whole deal, by first promising to pay for her nephew’s medical treatments, and then threatening to blackmail her.” Cate looked at
Daniella
, who was wide-eyed and open-mouthed. “Your sister is very worried about you, you know.”
“Oh my God,” she said.
Mark was silent.
“In that scenario, I would be obligated to come forward. Perjury is a crime. So is fraud. I’m an officer of the court.” Cate sighed. The woman looked terrified. “Again, in that hypothetical scenario, I might also recommend that you, Ms. Collins, get yourself a criminal attorney. I think if you were to separate yourself from Mr. Cheedham here, make a full public admission absolving my client of everything you’ve accused him of, and cooperated with the district attorney, you’d probably be ok. My client isn’t the type to beat up on someone he cares about, and the district attorney is likely to be far more interested in Mr. Cheedham’s activities than your misdeeds.”
More silence.
Cheedham looked like he was about to throw up.
“Happily, I’ve brought a criminal attorney for you, Ms. Collins,” Cate said, as gently as she could. “He’s very good, and he’s in the adjoining room. All you have to do is open that door right there. I can tell you the first thing he’s going to do is recommend that you fire Mr. Cheedham, who, as it happens, will also be needing a criminal attorney.” Cate looked back at Cheedham. “I didn’t bring one for you, Mark.”
Daniella
began to cry. Cate found that all she wanted to do was get up and give the woman a hug—after
all,
Cate had spent the morning thinking about how she’d managed to make her own mistakes. She’d lied, too, and she hadn’t even had a sick nephew to worry about.
“Honey, just open the door,” Cate said. “Fire him and open the door. I really think it will all be ok.”
The second
Daniella
stood up, Mark Cheedham shot to his feet and raced out the door. He was probably about to try to shred a whole lot of documents. Given how brazenly stupid Cheedham’s fraud was
,
Cate guessed that he’d done it many times before, always counting on a quick hush-up settlement. She’d alerted the district attorney ahead of time, but it was anyone’s guess what would happen. If Cheedham really were running a giant racketeering operation, well…Cate would get out the popcorn.
ing "11" width="24">
But
Daniella
was still standing there, motionless. Looking at Cate.
“It didn’t start out like this,” she said quietly. “I just want you to know. He didn’t say we’d be accusing him of abusing me—he didn’t put it like that. He made it sound different. It was just a slippery slope, and before I knew it I was signing these documents, and by then…”
“You should say that to Soren,” Cate said. Then she remembered her job. “On television. As soon as possible.”
Daniella
cringed.
“I will.”
“Just between us,” Cate said, “I bet he won’t even hold a grudge. And I have a feeling your nephew is going to be taken care of no matter what happens.”
That’s when
Daniella
started to cry for real. Cate left before she joined in. She even managed to hold on until she got home and found Adra waiting for her.
~ * ~ * ~
Soren had to admit: the three of them made an odd team. He and Declan looked like they’d just rolled off a tour bus, and Ford looked like, well, Ford.
Jason Whittier could be forgiven for being a little bit confused when he opened the door. Then he recognized Soren, and his mouth dropped open.
“What the hell are you doing here?” Jason sputtered.
“I’m here to make you a deal,” Soren said. If this idiot knew the supreme concentration it required not to simply beat the shit out of him, he didn’t show it. “These two buddies of mine are here to act as witnesses. There’s a notary in the car.”
Soren looked back. There was a very confused but patient notary in the back of Ford’s Benz.
“Get the hell off my property.” Jason sneered. “Or I’ll call the police.”
“It’s not your property,” Soren said. “It’s Cate’s. And I promise you, Jason, you want to hear this deal.”
Soren’s muscles had started to twitch. Every fiber of his being wanted to be involved in teaching Jason Whittier a lesson or ten. Soren inhaled very slowly and thought about Cate.
“Screw you,” Jason said. “I’m calling the cops.”
And he tried to close the door.
Soren caught it.
Ford coughed and looked away, intent on studying something happening in a tree on the other side of the yard. Declan just smiled.
Soren stepped inside the house.
“Give me a reason, Jason,” Soren said quietly. “You don’t know me, but I have a mean streak. I earned it. I know what it’s like to get the shit beaten out of me, and it made me really good at beating the shit out of people like you.
And if I’m honest?
There’s a part of me that comes alive then. I don’t have to like it; I just have to deal with it. I control it. So I’m telling you, right now, that if you give me a reason to let that beast out of its cage, I am going to owe you one. And that’s gonna be the thing that saves your miserable life.”
“What is wrong with you?” Jason said. He’d backed farther into the house. Soren had no intention of following him. He wondered if Cate had felt as scared as Jason looked, and the thought made him nauseous.
“I’m in love with Cate Kennedy,” Soren said. “That’s what’s wrong with me. It means that I will literally do anything to get her what she needs. Look at me, Jason: fucking
anything
. And what’s wrong with you
is
that you’re a douchebag who won’t let her go, and you find any excuse to hurt her. That is going to stop right fucking now, do you understand?”
Jason stopped backing away.
“Give me a reason,” Jason said.
“That was the plan,” Soren said.
~ * ~ * ~
Cate had tried calling Soren half a dozen times since Adra had left, determined, finally, to tell him everything in person. To apologize, to tell him the case was sorted out, even if they couldn’t make it public yet. To tell him that she loved him.
Adra had been somehow reassuring without actually telling her anything, which, as a lawyer, Cate kind of admired. She had also offered to have Ford take a look at the divorce agreement that Jason had refused to sign, which hadn’t made much sense, but had seemed a sweet attempt to help. The end result was that Cate remembered that she had people who cared about her, even if she had screwed up.
That Soren cared about her, even if he didn’t…
Well, there was no point in going there at the moment. She needed to tell him about the case, she needed to tell him how she felt, and she needed to stop hiding. She’d put on her big girl panties and called.
And called.
And called.
After the fifth or sixth time, she’d begun to worry. Maybe she had crossed the line. Maybe she wasn’t special; maybe he was done. Honesty was his hard limit, right?
The thought was just…crushing.
Soren was the man who’d made her believe that people could be better than she’d ever imagined. If he couldn’t forgive her, she would feel utterly, utterly lost.
And she was on the verge of another bout of embarrassing tears when her doorbell rang.
Cate stiffened. The media was still a problem; she’d hired security guards through Ford’s contacts to keep them from encroaching on her property, and anyway, it was truly weird to have someone at her actual door unannounced.
She approached cautiously.
“What do you want?” she shouted.
It was the voice that answered her.
“Cate,” Soren said. “Open the door.”
She stood there in shock. Didn’t move.
“Move, Cate,” he said.