“I’m hoping to wrap up that case soon after the new year,” Robert said, his voice holding a hint of irritation.
Mosley grinned, glancing at me one more time. “Excellent. I hope you both have a wonderful time tonight. Make sure you gamble a little. The prizes are excellent this year.”
He walked away and I took a step away from Robert, needing some space. “I’m going to find the restroom.”
“It’s down that hall,” he gestured across the room. “Are you okay?”
I forced a smile. “Of course. Too much champagne.”
He eyed me curiously, but didn’t stop me as I spun and took off in the other direction. I did my best not to appear too hurried, but I was losing control fast. I shouldn’t have had so much champagne, but that wasn’t the main problem. No, the real problem was that Robert’s boss gave me the creeps and it made me sick. I spotted the ladies room and pushed inside, finding the entire bathroom empty. I shoved open the stall door and leaned back against it, doing my best to calm my nerves. I took deep breaths until my body relaxed enough that I felt like I wasn’t going to be sick.
I needed to get out of here. I would have to tell Robert that I wasn’t feeling well. I couldn’t stay here with his boss giving me the creeps. Hell, it wasn’t just his boss. I wasn’t comfortable around any of these people. I wanted to go back home where everything was simple, and the most that happened in our small town was the spreading of gossip on the town Facebook page.
I stepped out of the stall and moved to the counter, wanting to wash the makeup off my face, but knew that I would look terrible if I tried to wash it off in here. The door opened and I took a deep breath, gathering the courage to go out there again. I looked up, right into the eyes of Mr. Mosley. He was standing behind me, an evil look on his face. That feeling of nausea returned tenfold, but I had to be smart here. He was in the ladies bathroom and I was all alone with him. Now wasn’t the time to panic.
“What are you doing in here?”
His hand brushed against my arm and I stiffened. “I just came to let you in on an offer.”
“You have nothing I want.”
His hand slid up my arm and rested on my bicep. The hairs on the back of my neck were standing tall and everything in me screamed that I needed to run.
“Even Robert’s career?”
“What are you talking about?”
I felt him inch closer until he was right behind me. His grip tightened on my arm to the point of pain.
“You’ve been very useful, but I imagine we haven’t seen all of your potential.”
I felt his other hand slide to the slit in my dress and then his hand was on my thigh. My heart hammered in my chest as I tried to find the best way out of this.
“I’m done with your firm. I won’t be helping out in any other way.”
“I can still have your boyfriend disbarred,” he said as his hand slid just over my panties. I didn’t think. I just reacted, lifting my shoe and slamming the heel down on his foot. He yelped in pain, but he didn’t know pain yet. I slammed my fist back as hard as I could into his nuts, and when he bent over wheezing, I slammed my elbow back into his face. Blood gushed from his nose, spilling down the front of his crisp, white shirt. I grabbed my clutch from the counter and ran for the door, slamming into Robert as soon as I opened the door.
“What-“ His gaze landed over my shoulder and then he met my eyes, rage boiling inside his. He shoved me to the side and stormed into the bathroom. I heard a yelp of pain and then a scream. Security raced around me, running into the bathroom. A crowd started to gather around the bathroom, and soon, everyone was staring at me. It was then I realized that I had Mr. Mosley’s blood on me. It was on my shoulder, dripping down my arm. His nose must have gushed all over me.
Robert appeared behind me, grabbing me by the arm and dragging me down the hall. He opened a door and pushed me inside, slamming the door behind him.
“What the hell-“
“Why was he in there?” Robert asked accusingly.
“Excuse me?” I asked in shock. Was he accusing me of doing something with his boss? “Whatever you think happened in there-“
“I know exactly what happened in there, and now I want you to spell it out for me.”
His rage was at a tipping point. I needed to calm him down before he did something really stupid, but if I told him the truth, it would only set him off. If I didn’t tell him the truth, this would never end.
“This didn’t start tonight, did it?” he asked.
I shook my head. “No, it didn’t.”
“When? I noticed that he took a little interest in you, but I thought it was only because of how you were helping out. What did he do to you?”
“Robert-“
“Goddamnit!” he yelled, slamming his fist against the wall. I jumped back in shock, my eyes wide as I stared at the man before me flying off the handle. This wasn’t like him at all. He spun around and got in my face. “Tell me what the fuck happened.”
“Robert, you need to calm down,” I said as evenly as possible. He took a deep breath and stepped back, but I could tell he was anything but calm right now. “It started when Rebecca said she wanted me to help out with the case. He cornered me and told me that you needed this case to get senior partner. But he didn’t leave it at that. He also threatened to have you disbarred if I didn’t help keep Rebecca as a client.”
His jaw clenched hard, but he didn’t react other than that.
“And tonight?”
“He came into the bathroom. He-“ I cleared my throat, rethinking telling him everything. “He wanted me to do things to ensure he didn’t have you disbarred.”
His eyes slipped closed for a second, and when they reopened, I knew he knew. “He touched you.”
“Robert-“
“Don’t fucking lie to me. Not now. Tell me exactly what he did.”
I swallowed hard, shaking as I opened my mouth to tell him. I really hoped he didn’t end up in jail when I was done. “He grabbed my arm and held me against him. And…and he put his hand under my dress.”
His jaw was clenched tight and his fists were working like crazy. This was very bad. “Stay here.” He turned to leave.
“What?”
“Just stay here. I need to have a meeting with the board members.”
“Now?” I asked incredulously.
“Yes,” he said, spinning around to meet my gaze. “Right fucking now, because Mosley will never enter that office again by the time I’m done with him.”
“Can’t we just leave? I don’t want to stay here.”
He sighed heavily and walked to me, pulling me out of the room. He wrapped his arm around me and guided me past the crowd, pushing past the curious onlookers that were talking about me. He grabbed my coat from the coat check, but didn’t grab his own.
“What are you doing?”
“Sending you home.”
My mouth gaped in shock. “You’re not coming with me?”
“I have to take care of this.”
“No, you need to come with me.”
“Anna, I can’t let that man get even one word in to the board. I need them to know what happened first, before he has time to concoct some asinine story.”
“Fine,” I said, not wanting to argue with him. I understood that he had to take care of this, but I wanted him with me. I didn’t want to be alone right now. He led me out to a cab and directed them to take me home. The last thing I saw was him walking back up the steps to the building, leaving me all alone.
Robert
Pissed didn’t even come close to what I was feeling right now. I hadn’t ever felt this angry in all my life. This was the second time that I hadn’t protected Anna, but it wouldn’t happen again. I would make sure that Mosley didn’t stand a chance of ever working as a lawyer again. I didn’t have proof of what he had just done to Anna, and I already knew he was slick enough to talk his way out of anything. But I had contacts in the business too. I could make su
re that no firm would ever hire him again. But first, I needed him off the board in our firm.
I gathered all the senior board members and asked them to meet in one of the private rooms off the ballroom. When they were all gathered, I explained to them what had just happened. Most of them looked horrified, but some didn’t seem surprised at all.
“I want him off the board. I want you to ensure that he never steps foot in the office again.”
The others looked at each other, but Mr. Dawson was the one to speak. “Robert, do you have any proof?”
I narrowed my eyes at him. “He was in the women’s bathroom. Tell me, what the fuck do you think he was doing in there?” No one answered. “What if it had been your wife? Or yours?” I asked Mr. Holland. “He attacked my girlfriend in the bathroom and threatened to have me disbarred if she didn’t do what he wanted. How many others has he done this to? Do you really want this kind of man working at the firm? He’s a lawsuit waiting to happen, and you know if it’s happened to Anna, any good lawyer could find others. We need him out of the office now.”
“And then what?” Holland asked.
“Then you make your decision on senior partner.”
“Is this a threat?” Dawson asked. “You want him out so that we’ll make a decision on you?”
“This has nothing to do with me, other than the fact it was my girlfriend that was attacked. Make me a senior partner or don’t. Either way, I want him out of the office. And by tomorrow morning, I want every other firm in Chicago to know what scum he is. Cameron,” I said, turning to one of the longer running board members, “you have contacts in New York, D.C., and Los Angeles. I want to make sure he never practices again.”
“But why not just go to the police?” Dawson asked.
“Because I don’t have any proof,” I said irritatedly. “Mosley is good. Do you really think he’ll go to prison for assault? Even if we can find other women that he’s assaulted, that’ll take time, and there’s still no guarantee that he’ll go to jail. Meanwhile, my girlfriend will be harassed by the police and his lawyers.”
“That’s the way this works,” Cameron replied. “You’re a lawyer, you know this.”
“It’s not good enough. Make this happen, or I will go to the press and I’ll make it public knowledge what Mosley has been up to. I won’t handle this quietly.”
I knew that threatening the board was a dangerous thing, but I had to do it for Anna. She was all that mattered. I knew she didn’t want the attention that this would bring, so my only option was to make sure that the board went along with my plan and removed Mosley from the firm.
“Fine,” Cameron nodded. “I never liked Mosley anyway. Let’s get him out of the office. I’ll make some calls.”
“I have a few people I can contact as well,” another board member said.
I nodded my appreciation. “Thank you. I’ll see you tomorrow at the office.”
They all nodded and I walked out, hoping they would all stand by what they promised. Mosley was just leaving the bathroom when I walked out and it took everything in me not to go back and kick his ass some more. He looked up at me, a glower on his face, but when the other board members walked out of the room and stood behind me, he knew he was finished. His wife helped him hobble out of the building, while everyone else stood by gossiping about what was going on.
I grabbed my coat and headed home. I felt like I needed more time to cool down, but I had left Anna, and I had no idea what state of mind she was in after what happened. I felt like an asshole for sending her off like that after she’d been assaulted, but I needed to deal with the situation promptly. I could only imagine the web of lies Mosley could have spun had I waited.
I got out and paid the cab, nodding to Ed, the night doorman as I entered. By the time I got upstairs, I was slightly calmer, knowing that I wouldn’t have to see Mosley again. I opened the door to my apartment and walked inside, seeing Anna standing in the dark by the window, still in her dress from this evening. As I stepped closer, I could see that she still had blood on her arm from when she beat the crap out of Mosley. By the time I got in there, he was already down for the count. I got in a few good punches, but he was already down on the ground, so there wasn’t much pleasure in beating the shit out of him.
“How are you?” I asked, walking up behind her. She stiffened when I wrapped my arms around her waist, and I prayed that she wasn’t afraid of me.
“I’m fine.”
“You don’t look fine.”
“Well, I am,” she snapped, her usual attitude coming out. I smiled to myself, grateful that she was okay.
“Anna, talk to me.”
“I want to go home.”
“What?”
She turned in my arms and looked me straight in the eyes. “I want to go home.”
“Anna-“
“I hate your job. I hate your boss.”
“He’s gone,” I reassured her. “That’s why I put you in a cab and sent you back here. I had to talk to the board and make sure that he never stepped foot in our offices again. And they’ve all agreed to put out the word on what kind of man he is. He won’t be able to find work in Chicago, let alone any other major city.”
She shook her head, her irritation evident. “I don’t care about him. I wanted you, and you put me in a cab and sent me away.”
“I was trying to protect you. Would you rather have had the cops called and be dragged down to the station to give a statement?”
“If you were with me, that would have been fine,” she snapped. “You just left me. Once again, you did what you wanted and left me alone.”
“Christ, is that what this is about?” I asked, stepping away from her. “I was doing what I could to protect you.”
“I don’t need you to protect me. I need you to be with me when I need you. I need you to stick around instead of doing your own thing.”
“I wasn’t-“ I sighed, running my hand through my hair. It didn’t matter what I said. She had already made up her mind. It didn’t matter that I was doing all that to protect her from scrutiny. “I won’t apologize for doing what I had to do. I was making sure that you were protected. Maybe you don’t like it, but that’s what I was doing.”
“What’s it going to take for you to see that I only want you?” she asked. “You know, when we were in high school, I didn’t need to be sent away. I would have stayed in town if you were with me.”
“And what would that have gotten us? The whole town gossiping about us, and neither of us going off to school? What would that have helped?”
“I wouldn’t have been alone,” she whispered. “I want you, all of you. I don’t want to be constantly wondering how this is going to work.”
“It’ll work because we’re older and smarter now. I’m not running from my responsibilities or you. I want to build a life with you. I need you to trust that, but I have a feeling that you’re still looking at me like the kid that broke your heart and your trust.”
She glanced away and sighed. “Maybe. I don’t want to, but it’s hard to forget.”
“You keep telling me that you’re over what happened. If you’re not, you need to tell me right now, because we can’t move forward if you’re constantly thinking about what happened thirteen years ago.”
“I don’t constantly think about it.”
“No, but when something goes wrong, that’s the first thing you think of.” She didn’t say anything. I gently took her chin and forced her to look at me. “Tell me the truth. You’re either all in or you’re out. We can’t make this work if you keep thinking I’m going to hurt you again.”
Her eyes filled with tears and she blinked them away, trying her best to hide from me. I hated that she was doing that.
“Hey, don’t do that. Don’t think you have to be this tough girl so you don’t get hurt. I promise you, I will never hurt you like that again.”
“I want to believe you,” she said, her voice cracking.
“Then choose me,�
�� I pleaded. “Choose who I am now and not who I was as a kid. I know it all started then, and you fell in love with that kid. He’s still part of me, just smarter. I know who I am now and I know exactly what’s at stake. I’m yours. Tell me you’re still mine.”
She laughed lightly as tears slipped from her eyes, trailing down her cheeks. “You always were a little sappy.”
“Only for you. All those dreams we talked about, they all included you and only you. I’ve wanted you my whole life. I won’t mess it up again. I won’t do anything to risk losing you. You’re the love of my life. Say you’re mine.”
She nodded, smiling wide. “Of course, I’m yours. I’ve always been yours.”
Anna
His lips slid across mine, his hand slipping through my hair, pulling me closer. I loved everything about this man, from his huge heart to the way he commanded his place at work. His heart was the same as it was when we were kids, but he was a stronger person than he was back then. He had the ability to draw me in with just his looks, but it was his touch that had me melting. And when he whispered in my ear that he loved me and he would never leave me, I knew I needed him in my life.
“I love you,” I whispered. “I’m yours.”
He pulled back, looking me in the eyes for the truth. He smiled and ran his thumb across my cheek, that sexy smile tilting his lips. “There she is.”
“Who?”
“The girl under the stars. I knew she was still in there.”
“She’s always been there. I was just scared to let her out.”
“Don’t be afraid anymore. I’m not going anywhere.”
I wanted him so much, but in the back of my mind, I couldn’t help but replay Eric’s words. If you don’t think there’s a way to make this work, walk away. I shoved those words away and kissed Robert with everything I had. After everything that had happened, I needed him. He had proven to me over and over again that he loved me, that he wanted to be with me. All of those worries fled my mind, and then it was just him and me, our bodies tangling in the sheets as he made love to me.
Collateral Damage: A Small Town Romance Page 28