The Gamble

by Alice Ward

  “Good. There’s no bending of ethics then. I understand if both cases are too much of a caseload for you. Let’s talk soon about which one you’d like to engage.” She paused, then added, “Thanks for meeting with him. I know he’s innocent. Now, we just need to gather the evidence to prove it.”

  “Right. Thanks for the opportunity.” I dropped the call and growled as I pulled off the freeway and took the long way to my brother’s house. Now I just needed to pray like hell that Zek wouldn’t inform Lizzy of me denying him and walking out. Or, maybe that was the best way to handle it. Perhaps I’d hurt his feelings or defamed him enough with my subtle denial that he wouldn’t want me as his attorney.

  “Please let that be the case.” I pulled up to Clark’s house and sat in the driveway for a few minutes, trying to still my racing heart. Thinking about Zek put me into a place I never wanted to be in again. Desperation could belong to someone else. I was over needing or wanting anything a man could provide.

  Least of all Zek Kellington.

  ***

  “Hey, girl.” Cathy opened the door and pulled me into a warm hug, not letting go for a few seconds longer than I might reasonably find comfortable.

  “That my baby sister at the door?” Clark walked into the foyer and smiled. “Kids! Aunt Alisa is here.”

  “Hey, Cat.” I moved back from her hug and walked into the tiny entryway before breathing in deeply. The smell of grilled meats filled my senses and my stomach growled as if on cue.

  Two little munchkins raced around the corner, my brother’s twin boys almost knocking each other over to get to me. I dropped to my knees and laughed as they plowed into me and knocked me back onto my butt.

  “Boys! She’s wearing her church clothes.” Cat reached for them, but I swatted her off.

  “Go help Clark. This is the best part of my week.” I glanced down at them as they chattered a million miles a minute. They were almost four and as rambunctious as boys could get. It was good though. My brother very much deserved wild children, seeing that he gave our parents most of the gray hairs on their heads.

  “Move back and let me help Aunt Alisa up.” My brother moved up beside us and offered me a hand.

  I took it and smiled as he pulled me from the beginning of what was sure to be a long wrestling session. “We’ll finish this up after dinner. You guys are going down.”

  “No we’re not!” Markie yelled, bouncing on his toes as he glanced up at me with a wide toothy grin.

  “You’re going down. You’re just a girl anyway!” Paul teased me.

  “Oh hell.” My brother rolled his eyes and turned toward the kitchen. “You guys better run for your lives. She hates it when you make girls sound weak.”

  “Yep. Better run before I tickle you to death.” I reached for them as they raced down the hall away from me, laughing echoing off the walls. “Don’t you know that girls rule, boys drool?”

  “It’s the other way, but good try.” My brother jogged away from me as I moved after him too.

  “Hey... no scaring him. He’s getting old and his bladder is weak.” Cat stuck her head out of the open kitchen door and we both laughed at the look on Clark’s face.

  “To hell with both of you.” He winked and walked out the back door toward the grill.

  Cat turned her attention to me. “Come in here and update me on everything. I know Clark doesn’t like to bring up Ben, but I want to know what’s going on with the divorce and how you’re holding up.”

  “Okay.” I kicked off my shoes, hating the subject matter we were approaching, but knowing they loved me and simply wanted to be kept in the loop. With our parents having moved to Seattle, it was just the three of us. Cat’s parents died when she was younger and she had no siblings to help fill the void. I owed her my time, my attention, and a piece of my heart.

  After snagging a fry and burning my tongue on it, I dropped down into one of the wooden chairs at the kitchen table and let out a long sigh. “The divorce is final and I gave Ben the house. I don’t want it. Too many memories.”

  “What? Alisa. You should have told us. We could have helped you move.” She put her hands on her hips and tilted her head, her toe tapping on the floor. Her warm brown eyes moved across my face as concerned touched her expression. “Clark’s not going to like that.”

  “That’s half the reason I did it.” I chuckled and wagged my eyebrows as he walked in.

  “What did I miss?” He stopped beside his wife and wrapped his arm around her shoulders.

  “Your sister moved herself to an apartment.” She glanced up at him as if expecting him to get upset. She shouldn’t have bothered. My brother was a sloth with little if any drive.

  “Good for her.” He glanced at me. “It’s about time you grew up.”

  I nodded and got up to get another fry. Hot or not, they were delicious. “Yep, and speaking of growing up... I met with a potential client just before coming here and decided not to take the case because he was part of our childhood. Too many memories.”

  That caught my brother’s attention. He jerked around and pinned me with a hard stare. “You were with Zek?”

  “How… how did you know?” Excitement ran through me as I popped another fry into my mouth before getting shooed away by Cat.

  “I’ve seen him all over the news, Alisa. Who doesn’t know that he’s in deep shit? They’re making him sound like the villain of the century.” He brushed his fingers over his mouth as he got a faraway look in his eye. “I hate it for him. He didn’t do that shit. I know he didn’t.”

  “Do you still talk to him?” Cat asked as she pushed Clark out of the kitchen too.

  “Not for a few years. We had lunch a while back, but our lives are just so damn different now. He’s a rich guy who doesn’t want a family or a woman, and I’m a family guy who very much loves my woman.” He shrugged. “There’s not enough in common to keep us seeing each other more than every once in a while.”

  “Did you know that I had a massive crush on him when we were kids?” I grabbed a beer from the refrigerator and moved back to the table. “I thought we would end up married and have two and a half kids and a white picket fence around our modest house.”

  “I figured you liked him. Why didn’t you just tell me?” My brother snatched the beer from my fingers and dropped down in the chair next to me, drinking half the damn thing before I could get it back from him.

  “Are you kidding me? You beat up half of the guys I liked just for looking at me sideways. There was no way I was watching you go after Zek. He was your best friend.” I shrugged. “I’m not taking the case. I can’t.”

  “Sounds like it was a little more than a silly crush.” Cat walked toward us, stopping by me and rubbing the top of my shoulders firmly.

  “Maybe. Nothing ever happened between us, but I wanted it to so badly. He’s so damn hot. It’s even worse now.”

  My brother got up and covered his ears. “Not interested in hearing this. I’ll kill him the next time I see him.”

  “You need to kill Ben. Asshole.” Cat took Clark’s chair and reached out for my hand, squeezing it softly and looking up into my face. “Do you need us to do anything? We want to be involved. To help with anything you need. Being married for ten years is a long ass time.”

  “Yeah, but it’s just part of life, I guess. You love, and sometimes the investment turns belly-up and you lose.” I turned and ran my fingers along the table top as pain laced my chest. Ben had wanted the divorce, but I’d begged him not to go through with it. It was all about my career being more important than anything else, including him. I guess it had been.

  “Well, you know as well as I do that a better day is coming.” Cat smiled and released my hand. “Besides, he was too shrimpy for you. I always imagined you with a big football player type. I don’t know. I guess because you look like a cheerleader to me.”

  I laughed, but the sound fell flat. I wasn’t completely over Ben leaving me, and something told me that getting involved wi
th Zek would just lead me straight into his arms. I wanted to believe that serenity and love were part of my future, but in the midst of the storm I called life, it was too much to ask of anyone, me included.

  CHAPTER TWO

  Zek

  Confusion raced through me as I drove back toward the house. I should have known better than to think Alisa would let me call out our history and her not pull away as the only viable response left. She was a lawyer — ethics were their calling card.

  “Hell, investment managers are supposed to be the same.” I ran my fingers through my short hair and let some of the weight sitting on me leave through a long exhale. I would find another lawyer, but dammit if I didn’t want it to be her. The level of trust between us when we were kids was solid and something I’d yet to experience since her.

  Watching her get all hot and bothered when I walked through the details of having sex with Melissa caused my blood to boil. We weren’t kids anymore, and I wasn’t bound by any restraints other than my impending doom.

  “You’ll never be good enough for her. You weren’t then and you sure as fuck aren’t now.”

  I pulled up to my oversized house and parked, sitting in the driveway and closing my eyes. I just wanted a minute to think through the moment when I lost her at dinner. I’d pushed her just a little past her comfort level, and unlike most women who would have nodded politely, told me they’d consider everything and call, she hadn’t.

  A smile lifted my lips as I replayed the moment. She shot back her glass of wine like a pro, the woman obviously capable of holding her liquor. The look in her eyes as she pinned me with that sexy hard stare spoke of confidence and stature. She didn’t have to feel anything where I was concerned, and where she most certainly did... she would deny herself.

  I opened the door and got out of the car, walking languidly to the house as the sound of a car pulling up behind me gave me pause.

  “Hey. You wanna go grab a beer? Lizzy’s working late again tonight, and I’m fucking sick of pizza.” My brother, Mark, leaned out the driver’s side of his car and yelled far more loudly than he needed to.

  “Yeah. Let me change into some jeans.” I walked around the front of his car as my eyebrow lifted. “Come in and get a beer from the fridge. I just need to get out of this monkey suit.”

  “Long day? You look like shit.”

  I turned and walked to the house, lifting my hand in the air and giving my older brother a proper welcome. His laugh caused me to relax a little. If the world fell apart, I wouldn’t stand alone. Mark would never leave my side, and in all honesty, I’d never leave his either.

  “I still have a Bud Light in the fridge, I think.” I walked down the hall as he started to hammer on about something related to his job.

  Some part of me wanted to snap at him for bitching about the simple things in life, but it was jealousy. I wanted a quaint house, a wife and a few kids. Somewhere along the path to getting those things, success grabbed a hold of me and pulled me in deeply. The desire to reach the top soon outpaced any other aspiration in my life. Having things and impressing people had never been my drug. Success... that was it for me.

  “So I tried to call you earlier. What the fuck? Can’t turn your phone on?” Mark walked into my bedroom behind me and dropped down to sit on the edge of my large four-poster bed.

  “I was in a meeting with the new lawyer Lizzy was trying to set me up with. She is Clark’s little sister.” I gave him a sideways glance and let out a breath I didn’t realize I was holding. “She’s a bombshell.”

  “Figures. Married, I guess?” He lifted his beer to his lips and took a long drink.

  “No. I don’t think so. No ring, at least, but who knows. She has a different last name than when we were kids, so if she’s not married, then she’s divorced.” I worked to unbutton my shirt as I disappeared into my large walk-in closet.

  “She looked good?” Mark’s voice reached me, and I nodded before realizing that he couldn’t see me.

  “She’s fucking hot. Had on a little tight business suit that covered everything up, but I couldn’t stop thinking about fucking her long enough to win her over. I became a demanding ass for some wild reason.” I pulled on a t-shirt and changed into some jeans before walking back into the bedroom. “I just had to push her to tell me if she was Clark’s sister. I should have let it go, but I couldn’t.”

  “Yeah, but that’s because she’s the one that got away.” My brother lifted his beer in the air. “To all the ones that—”

  “Don’t start that. No one got away. I pushed her away.” I worked on my boots and walked toward the bedroom door. “Come on. Let’s go grab a bite to eat. I’d planned on eating dinner with her, but she didn’t make it through the first glass of wine.”

  “What? You’re losing your touch for sure. I’ll show you how it’s all done.” Mark wagged his eyebrows as I turned to look over my shoulder. I awarded him with a ‘go to hell’ look for his cheeky comment.

  “You’re not giving me tips on dating. You’ve been married since the beginning of time, and honestly, I’m not interested in talking about the girl. She’s just a part of my past that didn’t go anywhere. I need a lawyer, not a wife.” I grabbed my keys. “I’m driving.”

  “Good. Your car is a hundred times better than my old piece of shit anyway.” He patted me on the back and finished his beer before walking to the front door. “So you’re not interested in anything but having her represent you against these charges?”

  “No, I’m not. I’d love for her to take both cases or even one of them, but I’m likely headed to jail, Mark. We can pussyfoot around the conversation all we want, but I didn’t get where I am now by shrinking away from the truth. I can get out of the rape charges, but the insider trading is going to get pinned on me. I deserve it anyway.” I shrugged and moved out into the cool early evening.

  “Stop talking like that. Lizzy will break the rules and take the case if we can’t find the right person, Zek. I’m not giving up on us beating this. You aren’t either.” He squeezed my shoulder tightly and gave me a look I’d seen a million times in my mom’s face as we were growing up.

  “Stop trying to give me a pep talk and get your ugly ass in the car.” I pushed his hand off playfully and walked to the Porsche.

  “Jealousy is not becoming.” He wagged his eyebrows and got into the car.

  My phone buzzed in my pocket and I pulled it out, waiting for it to connect to the car’s speaker system as I got in. “Your wife’s on the phone.” I pressed the button. “Lizzy. Give me some good news.”

  “I’m divorcing Mark and we can finally be together.” My sister-in-law sounded as cheeky as she truly was.

  “Thank the Lord,” Marc responded loudly, dropping his head back dramatically. “Such a slave driver.”

  I chuckled. “It’s not happening. I’m sure you being a lawyer and me being a criminal wouldn’t work at all. Besides, you like little scrawny men. That’s not at all—”

  I didn’t even get it out before my brother leaned over in the seat and started wailing against me, the wrestling match soon to take place in the front seat of my car. I laughed loudly and started to give it back to him, letting all of my anxiety over everything bleed into the moment.

  “Boys! Really. Jeez.” Lizzy’s level of aggravation must have warned Mark, because he pulled back and started to smooth down his hair.

  “What, baby? I’d fight for you, and I’m not scrawny.” He glanced over at me and narrowed his eyes. “I got twenty pounds on you, at least.”

  I rolled my eyes and pulled out of the driveway. “Lizzy. Tell me that Ms. Manning decided to take the cases.”

  “I’m not sure. How did it go with her today? She seemed a little unsure of herself when we spoke. She did mention that you guys knew each other when you were kids.”

  “We did. I’m not sure if she remembered that before seeing me though. I’m the one who pushed our past back up in the middle of the conversation. It was a long time ago
, and we were nothing more than strangers passing in the night. I was good friends with her older brother, Clark Beeler. She might have had a silly crush on me, but nothing else.” I glanced over to Mark in time to see him mouth, “liar.”

  I shrugged. “Did she debrief with you? Our meeting was cut a little short.”

  “Yes, we spoke, but I think I’ll have to twist her arm a little, which I’m not too thrilled about. I guess if nothing else, I could talk to one of our partners about putting a senior attorney on your case. With any luck, they’ll choose me.” She sounded tired.

  “You okay, baby?” My brother took over the conversation for a moment as concern brushed across his aging features.

  “Yeah. Just ready for the weekend. We have a large caseload coming in from a chemical spill downtown earlier this morning.” She sighed. “I’ll talk with Alisa, but you should too, Zek. Something tells me that you have more pull than you think you do. She’s the perfect attorney for both cases. Let’s nudge her from both sides to take them.”

  “Alright. Thanks for your help.”

  I pulled into a small pub that Mark and I had been haunting for years and got out, leaving my brother in the car to finish the conversation with his wife. He would bring the keys in with him when he came, and knowing the bastard, he’d pocket them too. He’d been eying my Porsche since the day I picked it up.

  Hell, it might be best to give it to him now, before they come to take everything away.

  *

  “I think the hardest part of this was Celia’s involvement.” I pursed my lips and tapped my fingertips on the table between us. “I just never saw that coming. She’s been one of Mom’s good friends for as long as I can remember, and she was my secretary since the day I opened the firm. Why would she wear a wire and bring the cops to my door?”