Unlawful Attraction: The Complete Box Set: Alpha Billionaire Romance (24 page)

He reached out and touched my fingers with the tips of his. “You need to back off,” he said softly.

Lowering my gaze, I stared at his hand. He wasn't hitting on me. The gesture felt more like he was trying to convey how important this was.

I started to pull back, but before I could, I felt an eerie crawling sensation on my skin. Lifting my head, I slid my eyes to the side and found Bethany looking in the window of the conference room. Staring at us.

Staring at the way Pierce was touching my hand.

He swore under his breath and jerked his hand back, but she’d already turned and walked away.

There was one thing I had to know. “Why in the hell are you sleeping with her if you’re so damned scared of her?”

Pierce stared at me, eyes wide. “Just leave it, Dena. Okay? Just leave it.”

Chapter 5

Dena

When my alarm went off, I was already awake.

I had been for close to an hour.

Smacking at my annoying clock to get it to stop, I closed my eyes and wished for a few more minutes of sleep, but it wasn’t going to happen. I'd never used a snooze button and didn't intend to start now.

Still...

I turned my head and stared at the soft blue numbers glowing dimly from the clock. Another minute ticked by before I actually sat up and swung my legs out of bed.

Yesterday had been one of the worst Mondays on record, and I doubted today would be much better. Pierce and I managed to get the brief that Bethany had wanted drafted, although I doubted it would work to keep the break-in from being presented at trial. We'd included everything we could, but I knew that anything Arik argued would convince a half-way competent judge.

Hell, even I was starting to think that we'd jumped the gun arresting and arraigning Leayna Mance, even if she had been found at the crime scene with her husband's blood on her clothes.

I hadn't shared any of my doubts, however. Pierce had hauled ass out of there as soon as we’d finished, and for the last hour or so we’d been working, he’d kept checking his phone as it buzzed, looking more and more harassed by the minute. Somebody had been texting him. I hadn't needed to ask who it was.

When Bethany had sent him the final text, he slammed the phone down with enough force that I was surprised it hadn't broken. He hadn’t responded when I’d asked if he was okay.

I hadn't really needed to.

He definitely wasn’t okay.

***

I was going to kick his pathetic ass.

And probably hers too.

Staring at Bethany for a long moment, I forced myself to take a deep breath. Then a few more for good measure. Pierce wouldn’t look at me, and it was clear why. Son of a bitch couldn’t stand the idea of facing me while Bethany laid this trumped up shit down at my feet.

After a few more seconds, my pulse slowed to a near-normal pace, and I looked over at him for a few moments. His eyes flicked in my direction, but he never once actually looked away from the surface of Bethany’s desk.

Fine. He could be a coward.

I
wasn’t one, though. I wasn't confrontational by nature, but I also wasn't going to be a doormat. Especially not for something like this.

Piling on scut work was one thing. I might not like an unfair playing field, but the whole missing police report, and now this...Bethany hadn't just crossed the line. She'd obliterated it.

“Would you care to repeat that?” I asked calmly.

“Which part?” Bethany gave me a close-lipped smile.

“All of it. I want to make sure I understood you correctly.”

She gave me a suffering sort of sigh. “We both know you understood it all well enough, Dena. Look, you're very lucky that Pierce came to me instead of filing an official complaint–”

“Not really,” I interrupted.

She tensed. “Excuse me?”

“You heard me. If he’d filed an official complaint, then I’d be able to file an official response. There’s a process that allows everyone to have an official say. You’re not giving me any sort of process.”

Her eyes narrowed, and I watched as her shoulders stiffened minutely under the pale lavender of her silk blouse. “Dena, you need to be careful here. I’m trying to be lenient. But if you persist in this unprofessional behavior of yours, then you just may well find yourself gone before you get your first real case.”

“
Unprofessional
.” I echoed her word choice, hardly able to believe the balls she had, after all she'd done, referring to me as unprofessional. “My behavior is
unprofessional
because I would like to be part of a process that allows for a response to false allegations? And yet your behavior...” I looked from her to Pierce and cocked an eyebrow. “The behavior between you and the subordinate – one who's been given a better office, as well as second chair on a headline case – who's now making a false allegation, isn't unprofessional?”

“Just what are you implying?” Her skin flushed.

“I'm not implying anything, just being tactful.” I'd officially reached my limit. I took a step forward. “Go ahead and terminate my employment, Bethany. See where
that
gets you. Because I do know where to file official complaints. And I won't be as tactful then.”

There was a weird, almost choking noise that came from Pierce, but when Bethany and I both glanced at him, his face was bland. He stared straight ahead, looking at neither of us.

After another tense moment, Bethany said, “I hardly think it’s necessary to terminate your employment simply because you made an advance on a co-worker, and didn’t react well when he rebuffed you.”

Her voice was stilted, eyes fixed at a point somewhere just over my shoulder.

“Really.” I didn’t call her out on the bullshit lie she’d spun together. And that’s what it was. All three of us knew it. I wasn't even sure Pierce had anything to do with it, other than the fact that he was too whipped to refute what Bethany was claiming.

“However,” she continued. “I think it would be best for you to step down from the case for now. We don't need any additional tension on the team. You’ll work with the paralegals.” The smile on her face looked forced, almost plastic. “Is that a workable solution?”

I wanted to ask her if kissing my ass was a workable solution, but decided not to. I knew the difference between taking a stand and going too far. Most of the time anyway. To keep myself from doing anything stupid, I turned on my heel and strode to the door.

Before I could open it, however, she said my name.

I stopped, but didn’t look back, not trusting myself.

“You need to understand something. I can be a powerful ally in this office. Perhaps you're a decent lawyer, but you need allies working in this field if you want to make something of yourself. Do you really want to start off your career by alienating people?”

I finally looked back at her. “My ambition is less important to me than my ethics, Ms. McDermott.”

I left rather than waiting for a response. I forced myself to keep my pace even as I made my way down the hall. Once back in my office, I started writing up a report of everything that had transpired since I started working for Bethany.

I wasn’t filing anything, but I needed a chronological log of the problems I’d had and it was best to get it all down while things were still fairly clear in my mind. I didn’t want anything to go on record officially, so I saved all the data to my Google docs drive under my personal email. It would be there if I needed it.

It took over an hour.

It was a quiet hour, too. Nobody called me. Nobody knocked on the door. Nobody came by with a file of reports that needed to be addressed or demands that I look into something.

When I finally decided to take a break, I glanced down the hall toward Pierce’s office. I should have just turned and walked away, but instead, I found myself walking toward it. The door wasn’t completely closed, which wasn't strange, but it also wasn't welcoming either. I almost turned back, but instead, I walked sedately by, casually looking over my shoulder as I did so.

The lights were off so I almost didn’t see him through the few open inches.

He was sitting at his desk, staring off into nothing. Hands folded on his desk. Not moving.

Through the door, I heard the phone ring. After a second ring, he turned his head and stared at it, like he wasn't sure what to do. It rang a third time before he finally moved to pick it up.

There was something terribly unsettling about the whole thing.

Shaking it off, I turned and continued on down the corridor.

I didn’t have a destination in mind, but I needed to move, needed to think.

Needed to get away from Pierce and anything that made me think of Bethany before I exploded.

Chapter 6

Dena

I ended up taking an early lunch. Considering how many times I'd worked through lunch since I started at the DA's office, I doubted anyone would say anything, especially if I was back within an hour.

I didn't, however, tell Bethany that I was going. If I saw her again right now, I couldn't guarantee how I'd react.

I needed to talk to someone about all of this. With Krissy on LA time, she was probably right in the middle of getting her day started. If Carrie worked at the club last night, she'd just be getting up. Leslie already knew some of what was going on, so she was the logical choice.

I took the subway to Queens rather than a taxi, using the time to gather my thoughts. She had a nice practice going already, and I could tell I was interrupting, but she gave me a smile after her administrative assistant ushered me in. We always made time for each other.

I sat on the scoop chair by the window, staring outside and trying to brood through the mess in my head while she finished up something on her computer.

“Are you going to talk?” Leslie asked after a few minutes of silence.

“Yes.” Then I paused, giving her a wry smile. “I’m not sure. I might yell.”

Leslie laughed. “You don’t yell often. It must be bad. Some asshole stand you up?”

I slid her a narrow look.

“Okay, then.” She pursed her lips and then glanced around. “The walls are soundproofed. You remember how it was at Webster and Steinberg. No one in divorce cases wants to hear another couple screaming at each other.”

I managed not to laugh. If I started, it would come out as something harsh and jagged, and I might not be able to stop. I was more on edge than I thought. Unable to sit still though, I got up and began to pace. “My boss is a piranha.”

She cocked a brow. “We’ve all been called something like that at one point or another.”

I shook my head. “Oh, trust me. She really
is
one. A piranha. A shark. A bitch of the highest order.” I turned to face Leslie. “You want to hear what she did?”

Leslie raised an eyebrow.

I scowled. “She’s fucking the other attorney who was hired the same time I was, gave him the good office, the best cases. As long as he’s playing the good attorney anyway. And now...” I was too angry to even finish the sentence.

“Now what?” Leslie prompted.

I turned and stared at her. “Pierce and I were working on a motion yesterday and I said something to him about her. He told me to stop pushing her. He touched my hand, and she walked by, saw it. Then, this morning...” I had to stop and take a deep breath to keep my voice even. “This morning, she tells me that Pierce has made an informal complaint against me. That I’d acted unprofessionally toward him. So now, I get the fascinating job of working with the paralegals.”

Leslie’s eyes widened.

“Yeah. Bad Dena. Time out for me.” I stopped by the window and looked down on the busy streets, grinding my teeth together until my jaw ached.

Silent seconds ticked by.

“Well.” Leslie’s dry voice finally shattered the silence.

Turning to look at her, I waited.

She stared at me pointedly. “What are you going to do about it?”

“I...” Blowing out a breath, I pressed the tips of my fingers to my temples. I was starting to get a headache. “I don’t know. I've written everything down that's happened, but...”

“But
what
?” Leslie asked. “What would you be telling me to do if I were in your shoes?”

Rolling my eyes, I said, “If we were talking about
you
, I’d be having to post bail right now, because you would've already torn her eyes out.”

“True.” She smirked a little. “But you’re the calmer one. You think. You plan. What would you do if this was happening to me? What advice would you give if it was me? Before I bitch-slapped her.”

I chuckled and it helped some of the anger drain away. “Okay.” I sighed. “I’d be telling you to file a formal complaint.”

“So do it.”

“Against which one?” I spread my hands wide. “Her or him? He didn’t tell her shit.”

“But he stood there and let her say it. Go for them both.” Leslie’s smile was cold. “She’s screwing with you, Dena. She’s going after the career you’ve always wanted. You can’t let her get away with it.”