Page 6 of Take the Bait
Right. And maybe if he told himself that enough times, he might actually believe it.
Regardless of his personal shit or fixation on winning—hell, maybe because of both—he had no business thinking of Ms. Wellford as anything other than the enemy.
But that feisty attitude and quick wit—he always had been a sucker for a smart woman. It didn’t hurt that her smarts came with fuck-me eyes and curves that could bring a man to his knees. The way her ass had twitched as she stormed out of the interview room…
…Dani Wellford was one smoking hot attorney for the defense.
Deeply annoyed at his complete loss of professional decorum with her, he headed outside to flag a taxi so he wouldn’t be late for the swanky party he’d been invited to by one of the most powerful attorneys on the east coast. The guy was undoubtedly going to put a hard sell on him, try to convince him to leave the D.A.’s office and come work for the private defense side of the courtroom.
He was going to say no, but he planned to be a hell of a lot more diplomatic about turning down the deal than Dani had been to him. Frankly, he was interested to see how much the guy and his firm were willing to offer him to change his mind and accept their job offer.
He liked to think he wasn’t for sale at any price, but he wasn’t that naïve. Everybody had a price. He just didn’t know yet what his was.
He might be willing to bend his moral spine when it came to enough zeros on a paycheck, but he still would never, ever, sleep with anyone he might end up on the other side of a courtroom from in any context, professional or personal.
Nope. As hot as Dani Wellford might be, she was off limits.
3
Well pleased with herself for her showing against the Roman god, who’d been visibly flustered by the time she walked out of their meeting, Dani made her way downstairs from her cubby hole of an office. Tonight was the official welcome party being thrown by the partners for this year’s crop of new associates.
And it was, of course, mandatory fun. All the newbies were under strict orders to show up tonight.
She took a martini off the tray offered to her by a waiter even though she despised gin and had never tried a martini before. The stemmed, triangular glass looked cool, at any rate. She took an experimental sip.
Grimacing at the sweet-salty bite of vermouth and olives, she wandered into the sea of black, gray, and navy wool, mentally reviewing the names of wives and girlfriends from the list her amazing paralegal had provided her.
“Hey, Dani! Welcome to the firm.”
Speak of the devil. She turned toward the familiar voice of her fave legal researcher and gave her a warm hug. “Thanks, Zoey.”
Zoey Spitzer had made Dani’s transition from law school to the real world of practicing law immeasurably easier, giving her hints and pithy advice that had kept her from making more than one boneheaded mistake. That and Zoey was one of the few worker bees at this place who had an actual personality.
“So. How’d it go today?” Zoey demanded.
“The meeting with the ADA? Pretty good, considering. He was severely pissed off that Alex turned down the plea deal, but we expected that. I figure the next thing he’ll try will be an end-around with a judge to force my client into a deal.”
“You gonna let him?”
She shrugged. “I serve the client’s will. I’m his counselor, not his boss. And Alex seems determined to take this thing to trial.”
“Is this kid counting on his youth and good looks to sway a jury? Or better yet, your youth and good looks?”
Dani laughed. “I doubt it.”
“Is he banking on the Boy Wonder medical degree, then? Does he think it’s some kind of get out of jail free card?”
“I don’t think so.” Dani waxed serious. “He was born in Russia. Wouldn’t tell me how old he was when he came to this country, but I gather he was young. He did all his high school here, apparently. Of course, he hit ninth grade about age ten. I’m hoping he only has a fundamental misunderstanding of how our legal system works. I thought I’d stop by the jail tomorrow and talk him through it all.”
Zoey made a face. “If I were you, I’d stay away from county lock-up—“She broke off, staring at something or someone across the room. “Well, hello, future Mr. Spitzer.”
Dani followed the line of her friend’s gaze and all but spewed martini all over the back of Mrs. Pinter, wife of the P in WMP, who happened to be walking past.
“What the hell?” Dani groused under her breath. “Who let him in here?”
“Have you ever seen a prettier piece of meat in a suit?” Zoey purred.
“That’s the severely pissed off ADA I met with today.”
