Bailed Out (The Anna Albertini Files #2) - Rebecca Zanetti Page 0,12

not caring who heard.

His eyebrows went up, his chin went down, and his eyes narrowed. “I was doing my fucking job.” He had a pretty good bellow.

Unfortunately for him, half of my family was Italian, and an Italian man losing his temper and raising his voice did nothing but piss me off more. “That wasn’t your job. That was a travesty and a heavy handed smackdown,” I yelled, stomping past the guest chairs to face him across his desk.

His teeth ground together, and his eyes glittered. He planted both hands on his desk and flattened them in what I feared was an attempt to keep from grabbing me. He had big hands. “Sit the hell down. Now.”

Oh, I didn’t think so. “No.”

His nostrils flared, and he jerked his fancy black suit jacket off to drape over his chair. Then he yanked his tie loose and slowly, carefully, unbuttoned and rolled up the sleeves of his pressed white shirt. The taut muscle beneath his shirt moved nicely. When he’d apparently tamed his temper, he exhaled. “Where do you work?”

I blinked. He was threatening my job? Oh, I wasn’t sure I wanted this job. “Right this second? In this office.”

“Right.” His forearms were tanned and strong, and frankly, the whole rolling up the shirt was kind of sexy in a threatening way.

I tried really hard to push the unwelcome intrigue out of my head. I was not interested in Basanelli, no matter how rugged, sexy, and dangerous he was. “Your point?”

“Your sister is a defendant, and I knew Clark Bunne would do his job and remind the judge that Tessa doesn’t have a record and has strong ties to the community.” Nick pulled out his chair and dropped into it, for the first time looking tired. “I also knew that Judge Williams likes you and would go easy on the bail, but not too easy. We had to avoid any sense of favoritism here, and if you’d pull your stubborn head out of your spectacular ass, you’d know that.”

Oh. All right. I deflated and stepped back to sit in one of the leather guest chairs. “You think my ass is spectacular?”

“You know I do,” he said, warmth finally filtering through his tawny eyes. Then he pinched the bridge of his nose. “You are, however, more trouble than I think any woman could be worth.”

Also a fair statement. “I, ah, shouldn’t have yelled at you. I mean, you are my boss.”

He sighed. “When has that ever stopped you?” He sat back and studied me with those intelligent eyes. “How close was I to getting a wooden spoon to the head?”

“The spoon was in Nonna’s hand, but Jay intercepted her,” I admitted.

Nick grinned. “I guess I owe Jay a bottle of Scotch. Good to know.” Then he sobered. “Here’s the deal. I have Celeste creating an ethics wall between you and this case because I can’t afford for you to take a leave of absence right now.”

I shook my head. Celeste was Nick’s paralegal, and she pretty much ran the office. If she wanted me away from a case, there wasn’t anything I’d be able to do. Right now, I needed to know everything the state had on Tessa. “She’s my sister, Nick.”

“Don’t care,” he retorted. “You’re screened from everything having to do with this case. In addition, I strongly advise you to tell your sister that you can’t discuss the case with her. You are not her attorney. Keep that in mind.”

I swallowed. Since I was positive my sister hadn’t shot Danny, anything she told me wouldn’t harm her case. “You’re really going forward with the prosecution?” It shouldn’t hurt, but somehow, my chest still ached.

“Yeah. At the very least, we have to figure out who killed Pucci, and there’s a chance it was Tessa.” Nick reached for a gold pen to tap on the desk. “This is the last time we’ll discuss this case until it’s over, Anna. Don’t ask me, don’t look in files, and don’t ask the paralegals for information. You’re screened.”

I could quit my job, but that wouldn’t solve anything. “Fine.”

“And stay away from Aiden Devlin. He’s a defendant once again, and this office has had enough bad press lately. I don’t need one of my prosecutors associating with him. Got it?” Nick had a good glare when he wanted.

I nodded. There really wasn’t an answer, and it wasn’t like Nick knew I’d burned up the sheets with Aiden before he’d left town. That was private, and apparently that