given the runaround before he finally got on the line.
“Hello, Lori.”
“What did you do?”
“Excuse me?”
“Don’t play coy with me, Paul. You said or did something to Shannon. Fess up.”
He was silent.
Lori waited and gripped the steering wheel to keep her mouth from opening and screaming at the man.
“I asked her to come back.”
“And when she told you no?” Please, please, Shannon, tell me you said no.
“I offered her another contract.”
It was a very good thing Lori was at a stoplight. “I’m going to play lawyer here for a minute . . . Are you listening, Paul?”
He was silent.
“Your contract specifically stated that any continuation or changes or anything in regard to Alliance has got to go through us first. You’re in direct violation just bringing the subject up without consulting us first. Do you understand that? Or have you forgotten everything you learned in law school?”
“Yes, Counselor.”
Good! The man could understand basic English.
“Now that we have that out of the way . . . Are you that big of a moron?”
The light turned green, and she shifted her car around a slow driver and hit the gas. “I understood you were a player when you signed on to Alliance, the risks were spelled out to Shannon, but you changed the rules when you filled her with hope that you were both more than temporary—”
Paul started to interrupt.
Lori didn’t let him. “You didn’t love her, fine. But you knew damn well she loved you, and you worked that for all it was worth. Now that Shannon is finally over you, you try and drag her back? That makes you a special kind of douchebag, Paul.”
“I’m glad you’re being diplomatic about this, Lori.”
“Oh, I’m not being diplomatic. I’m being a friend who is pissed off.”
“Fine. Now that your tantrum is out of the way—”
“My tantrum hasn’t even started.”
“I want to hire Alliance again.”
She laughed. “Not in this lifetime.”
“One good reason why . . . and don’t say Shannon.”
Lori sucked in a breath. “Alliance as you knew it no longer exists. In fact, it was someone searching for the truth behind your marriage to Shannon that helped shape our new business model. If you remember right, you and I had a conversation about this two years ago.” The fact that Lori’s now husband, Reed, was the private investigator searching for dirt on Paul’s hands was left unsaid. “Having you as a client a second time would be entirely too risky.”
“I forgot all about that,” Paul said with a sigh. Maybe she was finally getting through to him.
“Why don’t you find a wife the old-fashioned way? Leave Shannon and Alliance out of it.”
“I’ll consider your advice.”
“Good. You do that.”
“I never meant to hurt her, Lori.”
She wanted to believe him. “If that’s true, then leave her alone now.”
“I’ll let you extend my apologies, then.”
“I’ll do that. Goodbye, Paul.”
“What did you do?”
Victor stood behind his desk when Stephanie escorted Avery into his office the next morning.
“Hello, Avery.”
Stephanie ducked out of the room, but if Victor was laying bets, he’d place one on her standing close to the door to overhear the conversation.
“I swear to God, Victor, if I find out you were playing her, I will kick your ass.”
The term Wade used for Avery, the blonde pit bull, flashed in his head.
He looked at the small baby bump that was just starting to pop out.
Pregnant blonde pit bull.
He decided the desk between them was probably a good thing.
“We had a fight. I’ll make it up to her.” He was giving her some space since she wouldn’t take his phone calls.
Avery took a step forward, placed both hands on his desk. “And how do you plan on doing that when she’s left the country?”
Victor was vaguely aware he was staring. “She what?”
“Africa, or Brazil . . . someplace that probably doesn’t have running water. What did you do?”
His head was racing. “Slow down. What are you talking about?”
“She went to her sister’s . . . who is some tree-hugging do-gooder living in a hut somewhere. Does that sound like something Shannon would be good at?”
He started to answer and Avery cut him off. “No. She isn’t. She’s fragile and delicate and needs protection. And you did something, so give it up. What was it?”
The emotional roller coaster that was Avery standing in front of him was something that needed a careful hand.
“I believed the newspapers.”
“You . . . you what?”
“About her ex-husband.”
Avery gasped. “Paul orchestrated the whole thing. How could you be so stupid?”