Brazen and Breathless (Untouchable #6) - Heather Long Page 0,78
as it may, your presence could mean she will step back from her protest once you’ve spoken. That would be the ideal situation, yes? That the two of you could resolve the issue, you get your emancipation and your freedom, and you are within your rights to cut her out.”
He wasn’t wrong.
“She could also use it as a chance to lash out at Frankie,” Archie cut in. “Since she seems to thrive on pointing out the flaws in her choices as everyone else’s fault.”
“That is also a possibility,” Wittaker agreed. “And why I’ll be there. If it descends into name calling and accusations, then we end the conference and you step out, Frankie. The goal here is to get everyone’s cards on the table and manage the situation so that you get what you want. We have a strong case and we can run the clock out until your birthday, so you never have to see her if you don’t want to. It really does come down to how you want to handle it.”
Leaning back, I stared at the ceiling. “Can you put it off until Thursday and give me a day or two to decide whether I want to be there?”
“Absolutely,” Wittaker said, giving me an approving smile. Hey look, I made my lawyer happy. “I’m going to caution you, however, that you shouldn’t bring any of your gentlemen friends, including Mr. Standish here.”
Archie glared at him. “We can wait for her if we can’t be in the conference room. I don’t trust a single thing that woman does, and I want Frankie covered on all aspects.”
If Wittaker thought that was overkill, he didn’t reveal it. After another ten minutes, where we went over how the conference would work and he called the other attorney to leave a message for rescheduling the conference, Archie and I were alone in the elevator on the way down to the garage where he’d parked.
“I’m not going to tell you what to do,” Archie said, hand firm in mine.
“But you don’t want me to see her.”
“No,” he answered, tone firm and unflinching. “She hurts you. No, I don’t want you seeing her or giving her the chance to get her digs in.”
“I don’t want to be afraid of her anymore,” I said slowly, chewing my lower lip. “I don’t want her choices to dictate mine.” As much as I wanted to say that her choices didn’t impact mine, they did. “That said…” I blew out a breath as the doors opened and we headed for the Ferrari. “I’m not interested in her opinions, and at the same time, I have questions.”
“About the DNA tests.”
I nodded. “About that. About her mother. About a lot of things… I don’t want to blow it all up in my head as something much bigger than it is, and at the same time…”
“You want to know.”
He opened the passenger door for me and waited for me to settle inside before he closed it. Once he settled in the driver’s seat, he got the engine started and looked at me.
“Then meet with her. See what she wants, but don’t let her control the narrative. You have goals when you walk in there. You can choose to ask the questions or not, no judgment either way.”
I laughed. “And you’ll be outside waiting for me?”
“Hell yes. Probably have to bind and gag the other guys to keep them away.” He shook his head, and I bit back another smile as he backed out. I didn’t think he meant more by that statement than what he’d said, but Ian was more likely to do the binding and gagging than be the one bound and gagged. “Wanna blow off the rest of the day and go home? Or anywhere else for that matter?”
“I would,” I said with a groan. “I really would, but I need to keep up my attendance as much as possible with going to my internship twice a week starting this week.”
He made a face. “I’d rather keep up with you naked and getting our time in that way.”
“You boys wouldn’t bother with letting me get dressed if you had your way. Ian already suggested I just spend a day naked while you four played video games.”
Archie snorted. “We wouldn’t be playing games for long. Though I could go for a little sudden challenge play.”
I groaned. “Do I want to know what that would be?”
A wicked grin curved his lips. “You bouncing on my dick while I kicked the crap