Tempted (A Player Brother Romance Book) (A Standalone Novel) (Player Brothers Book 1) (5 page)

"I see," she said. "How do you feel
about that, considering how close the two of you once were?"

"It’s nice to see him again,” I said, hesitant to
say too much. "But don't worry. I came here to win this job, not to
rekindle an old friendship."

"Friendship? Are you sure about that?" She
had taken on that tone of Mother-knows-best, much to my ire.

"Yes Mom,” I said firmly. "Friendship.
Nothing has changed in that regard."

"No, I’m sure that it hasn't,” she said but she
didn’t sound convinced.

"Typical," I giggled. "What about you,
Mom? Anything new on your end?"

"Well, I had thought about coming to visit in
about a month. I have some vacation time from work and I thought a visit to the
beach might do me some good. Would that be a good time?"

"The case should be over by then,” I said doing
mental calculation in my head. "It starts in two weeks and should not take
more than a couple of weeks. That timing is perfect."

"Oh Blair," she said suddenly serious.
"Are you sure you’re okay out there all on your own? I worry, you
know."

"Of course I'm okay, Mom,” I answered. "Why
would you ask that?"

"I've often felt badly that you have never had a
brother or sister. Once I'm gone you’re going to be all alone."

"Oh Mom," I said rolling my eyes.
"Don't talk like that. It's a good thing you raised me to be a fully
competent adult who can function within society without much assistance. I'm
the one who should feel sorry for leaving you alone in that huge house."

"Darling, you know I like my solitude,” she said.
"And that closes the subject."

"Hey, I've got to go, Mom. I have a little bit of
work to do before I call it a day."

"Okay, honey. I'll look forward to seeing you in
a month." I could hear the smile in her voice. "Just remember to have
fun every once in a while."

"That sounds great, Mom,” I said.

"I love you."

"I love you too. Bye Mom."

I hung up the phone and leaned my head back on the
couch. I already felt exhausted from the hard work we had done at the firm that
day.

Seeing my Mother would be a nice break after this
case.

I glanced at the clock, and decided that I had time to
make myself something to eat before I tucked into my boring home work. I headed
to the kitchen to put away the forgotten groceries sitting on the counter.

The next day I arrived at the office excited and
feeling good. Stepping off the elevator I asked Willa if I could take her up on
that previous offer of coffee.

"Of course," she said. "It's one of the
perks of working here. Don't tell the others but I make a killer Cappuccino,”
she whispered in a conspiratorial tone.

"It will be our secret,” I said with a grin as I
headed down the hallway towards Mr. Mahoney's office.

She brought me the frothy hot beverage a few minutes
later, with a black coffee for Mr. Mahoney and a regular coffee for Ms. Klein.
Aiden hadn’t arrived yet, but I started to look over some of the files while
sipping my coffee. When he finally arrived a few minutes later I was struck
once more by his charisma as he walked in the door with his blinding good looks
and captivating smile.

"Good morning Blair," he said with his
crooked grin on his face as he slid into the seat across from me.

I couldn’t figure out how he looked both sharp and
professional while exuding the beachy charm of a surfer. He looked tan and
blonde but his tattoo was covered by the sleeves of his buttoned shirt and suit
jacket.

"Hi Aiden,” I said trying to keep my voice cool
and professional.

I couldn’t fully suppress a small grin as we exchanged
a glance, almost as if sharing a private joke.

"Are we ready to get started?" Mr. Mahoney
asked, standing at the head of the table.

Ms. Klein sat down at the far end of the table. She
was a trim stern woman who wore her hair in a low bun. I admired the way she
carried herself being the only woman on the board and secretly hoped that she
would mentor me once the job was awarded.

"We are ready, sir,” I answered as he laid out
the folders and evidence files.

"What we will be doing today is as follows,”
Mahoney began. "I'm going to let the two of you take over the case for the
most part after our brief recap. You two will work independently. If you have
any questions, Ms. Klein or I will be available to guide you as you work. I
will be heading up the case once we reach the courtroom. Do either of you have
any questions so far?"

"Has there been any progress on whether or not we
get to meet Mr. Shaw?" I asked, eying the large pile of papers that were
being laid on the table.

"Later this week,” Ms. Klein spoke from the other
end of the table. "We can go over to the prison. We have a meeting with
him already planned. Perhaps we can arrange for the two of you to join
us."

It didn’t go unnoticed by myself or Aiden that Mahoney
gave her an imposing glare the entire time she spoke. I also noticed that she
responded with a calm glance and a smile after she had finished speaking.

"I'll look forward to it,” I said.

"Our goal is a simple one," Klein continued.
"Our job is not necessarily to prove our client innocent. Our job is to
place a reasonable doubt in the minds of the jurors. Enough that they would not
be willing to find him guilty based on the evidence presented. It is an often
misunderstood difference."

"That confirms my theory," Aiden said.
"That his innocence is largely arbitrary."

"For the most part, yes,” Mahoney said.

"I’m sure," I interjected. "That the
difference means much more to Mr. Shaw himself."

"Let's begin," said Ms. Klein.

Aiden and I jumped in, beginning by combing through
the evidence, laying out a pattern depending on how certain items related to
one another providing a brief time line of the events.

The two senior partners seemed pleased with our
momentum and excused themselves after a while. Mahoney stated that they would
return in an hour to check our progress.

The evidence set before us was varied, consisting of
transcripts of depositions with eye witnesses, grisly photographs of the crime
scene, and lab results of DNA matches and codes.

When we had been told that we would be working on a
murder trial, I had steeled myself for having to face bloody images, but the
collection of information turned out to be much gorier and stranger than
anything I had ever worked before. All of the evidence confirmed that Shaw was
present at the scene or had arrived shortly after the murder. The transcripts
of his deposition indicated that he maintained his innocence regardless of the
evidence. The murder weapon, a kitchen knife from Mrs. Shaw's home, had our
client's fingerprints on the handle, but he had claimed that he grabbed the
weapon in a moment of panic upon arriving to find her bloody body.

"Look at this," I said pointing to a page.

"What did you find?" Aiden asked leaning
over the table.

"It says here that the anonymous call came at
9:07pm. According to the transcript, Mr. Shaw arrived around 9:15, just before
the police arrived at 9:17."

"What are you getting at, Blair?" Aiden
asked but I could see the wheels turning behind his eyes. He was seeing the
same thing I had seen.

"Shaw didn’t have his cell phone on him at the
time of his arrest,” I said. "There is no way he could have made that
call. Also his fingerprints didn’t show up on the phone itself at the Shaw
residence."

"Blair, that's true,” he said, scribbling down
some notes and grinning up at me. "We can use that. That's
brilliant."

Aiden and I fell into a natural comfortable rhythm as
we worked. Despite the surreal nature of the case, I almost felt a reminiscence
of when we worked together back in high school. We shared class projects sometimes
if not simply helping each other with an assignment.

This felt very much like that only, this time with
more adult subject matter and the fate of a man's life in the balance.

The only read difference aside from that was Aiden
himself.

He had changed so drastically that I sometimes had to
remind myself I was dealing with the same person. Though the change was largely
physical, his easy demeanor reminded me of how we used to be.

I couldn’t help but notice, when he took off his
jacket half way through the morning. He left his sleeves buttoned, which didn’t
surprise me, but it did lead me to realize that he was competing too and wanted
to maintain a professional image by keeping his tattoos covered.

Well played.

He hadn’t changed all that much personality-wise. I
would have to keep on my toes.

That much was certain.

By the end of the day I felt as if my eyes were
bulging out of my head from staring at so much evidence so closely. We had
gathered a few more inconsistencies between the accusations and the client
statements by the end of the day.

Mahoney and Klein had checked in after our first hour
but after that they never did. They finally returned towards the end of the day
for
our debrief
. Aiden showed them the details that we
had found.

"This is excellent work," Ms. Klein said
peering over the outline.

"I can only take credit for some of it,” Aiden
insisted. "Blair is the one who found the discrepancy in the phone call
time line."

Ms. Klein turned towards me and smiled. "Good job,”
she said in her curt tone.

I felt as if I had won the lottery.

But why hell would he just tell them I found the cell
phone discrepancy?

Shit.

Maybe I was overthinking it.

"I think that's it for today," Mr. Mahoney
said. "You’re both doing quite well. Why don't we call it a day?"

Stepping out into the cool evening air and seeing the
sky light up with a glorious orange and pink sunset helped diminish the stress
that had built up in my shoulders.

I stopped, closed my eyes and took a deep breath,
catching a hint of the salty air wafting in from the coast.

The sound of my mother's voice echoed in my mind. Take
time to play, she had said.

How was that possible?

Play was for when the work was done, and it seemed
that the work was never done.

"It's gorgeous isn't it?” Aiden's voice
interrupted my thoughts.

When I opened my eyes I saw him watching me.

"Yes, it is,” I said turning my gaze back to the
sunset setting the sky on fire in swirls of orange, pink and lavender.
"Too bad it is because of the severe pollution in the area."

"That's one way of looking at it," he said
with a small smile. "I've lived here for nearly eight years and I don't
think I will ever get used to the weather here. I love living this close to the
beach."

"Yeah?" I said, amused by the way his face
lit up as he spoke about it.

Maybe I did need to find a way to appreciate the local
scenery.

"Yeah," he echoed turning to face me again.
"Have dinner with me,” he said suddenly.

"Aiden," I began. "I would like to.
Honestly I would, but I'm not sure it is a good idea for us to see each other
outside of work. We are competing with each other, remember?"

"A little competition can be invigorating, if you
know what I mean,” he said with his crooked grin.

Jesus.

He took off his jacket and threw it over his shoulder
holding onto the loop with one finger. One lock of blond hair had fallen over
his eyes making his look more casual and undeniably sexy.

I tried to suppress the thought.

"I just don't think it's a good idea,” I said, my
heart beat picking up. "I don't want to endanger the case."

"Oh, I don't either,” he said as we both began to
slowly walk towards our cars on the other side of the lot.

Ahead of us just over the freeway, I could see the
lights of the restaurants flicking on as dusk fell.

"How about this. Hypothetically speaking, if we
were not competing for the same job, and if we were not partners on this case,
then would you then like to have dinner with me?"

"Okay," I laughed. "If you put it that
way, speaking purely hypothetically, and if none of the things that are
happening were happening, then yes I would consider having dinner with
you."

"But as things stand you only want to see me on a
professional level. Is that correct?"

"That is correct."

I felt at odds with myself even as I said the words. I
knew I had to quickly get some boundaries in place before this went much
further.

He hung his head in mock sadness. "I suppose then
that there is only one thing left to do."