by Blair Grey
“I’m not worried about money,” he said with a shrug. “I need good legal advice, and from what I understand, you are the best available.”
“I’m not going to proclaim to be the best,” I replied modestly, though I had to admit it was rather difficult not to blush when such a hot man was standing in my office and telling me how good he thought I was. “But I can offer you some legal advice if possible. What is it you need?”
“I’m representing a man by the name of Roman Cash. He’s been wrongfully accused of a violent crime, and he’s going to need a good lawyer to get him out of this one,” he said.
I hesitated. I could have guessed he was there on account of another biker, but I had to admit, I was still a little disappointed when he did bring up the name.
“And, you’re convinced he’s innocent?” I asked simply.
“I know he is,” the man replied. “And, I need you to convince a jury of that fact, too. I’m not going to take no for an answer.”
“Well, I can tell you right now a case like that is going to need one Hell of a defense if it’s going to have any prayer of holding up in court,” I told him.
“Which is why I came to you.” He didn’t give me the chance to say anything else before he was right back to trying to get me to accept the case. I understood how it worked. This wasn’t the first time I’d dealt with someone who was practically desperate to get help for themselves or a family member.
But, that didn’t change the fact this was going to take a lot of work. I knew that without having to look into any of the actual details of the case. Not to mention, there was still the fact that one wrong move could very well leave a real and permanent mark on my own success record. I knew what it was like to lose cases. I certainly didn’t win all the cases I took on. But, this was a big one, and I knew in a town like this, there would be a lot of eyes on how it turned out.
The victim wasn’t a nobody by any means, which could mean a lot to the person who took on the case and lost it. This stranger might be hot, but I had to take into consideration the fact that I had a career – a reputation – to uphold. I couldn’t put it all on the line for him, even if I wanted to.
“I’m sorry,” I said. “I know this isn’t the answer you were hoping for, but I really can’t take this on right now. I can’t-” I started, but he interrupted me.
“I told you, I’m not going to take no for an answer. I know you are a capable lawyer, and I promised my friend I’m going to get the best there is,” he said. “I’m not going to walk out of this office until I know you’re working with us.”
“I’m sorry,” I said again. “I know this is hard for you, but you’re going to want a lawyer who is able to throw their heart and soul into this case, and I just can’t do that. I don’t have the time with the other cases I’m working on.”
“Money is no object,” he said again.
“It’s not about the money, Mr…” I let the word hang in the air.
“Just call me Rocco,” he said. “And, money is always part of the equation. Trust me.”
“Not in my world, it’s not,” I said softly.
It wasn’t easy for me to argue with Rocco. He was the sexiest man I’d ever seen. But, I had to stick to my guns, and that meant I had to turn this down. It was more than just the fact I was busy with other cases. It was more than the fact that I knew this was going to take a lot of time and I did have a heavy caseload.
As much as I would deny it, even to myself, I knew the fact that he was biker – and his friend was a biker – was the reason I couldn’t bring myself to do this. It was really simple, and I wasn’t going to change my mind. I had a reputation to uphold, alright, and I knew no good was going to come from getting tangled up with the likes of them.
He tried to argue with me for a few more minutes, but I had to wrap up the consultation and get back to work.
“This isn’t over,” he said. “I’m going to get Roman the help he needs.”
“I wish you all the best,” I said with a smile before he walked stiffly through the door. I sighed. Several of the other lawyers watched as he left, but I turned and headed back into my office before anyone had the chance to say anything to me.
Sarah was the only one to make a comment about how good looking our visitor was and ask if there was a chance I might get more than a case out of the deal.
“I’m not even going to take the case,” I told her.
“What?” she asked, surprised. “Why not!? He’s so hot, I’d be all over that.”
“Because I know how bikers are,” I told her dryly. “And, I’m not going to get tied up with the likes of him, no matter what.”
“If that’s what you think is best,” she said with a shrug. She turned to go about the rest of her afternoon, and I bit my tongue. I didn’t need to defend myself out loud, but it was hard not to.
It was what I thought was best, and it was what I would stand by. I had to stick to my guns on this and not get caught up with bikers.
I just couldn’t.
Chapter 7
Rocco
“I’m just saying we need to be realistic about this is all,” Jett said with a shake of his head.
“I am being realistic,” I told him, but before I had the chance to continue pressing my case, Blade cut in.
“We can find another lawyer. Who the Hell cares who it is we get for this? All that matters is that we get Roman out of jail as soon as possible and get this thing taken care of.” He was whittling at a stick as he spoke, and I shook my head. It looked like something out of a movie, but I wasn’t going to say anything to him right now.
I was pissed. I was pissed off at the fact that woman turned me down, for one. I never got turned down by women, no matter what it was I wanted. They were all more than happy to give me what I wanted when I wanted it, and I didn’t see how this was any different.
I wasn’t in the mood to argue with this woman about whether she was going to help me with Roman’s case, and I was sure she would be on board for it. So, when she told me she didn’t have the time or interest to take on the case, I was about ready to lose my cool on her.
When I left, I knew I was going to have to do something that would calm me down. But, more than that, I had to talk to the boys. They were set on me getting Amelia for the case, and now that wasn’t going to happen. Well, not yet anyway.
If there was one thing I had in life, it was confidence. And, I was more than a little confident I could convince this girl to come around. It might take more money – or more convincing in another way – but she was the one for the job.
But, when I told Jett about her refusal, his first inclination was to move on and find someone else. It didn’t help the situation in the slightest that Blade was right there with him.
“We could get another lawyer on the case and move forward with this. All I really care about is the fact we get Roman out of there sooner rather than later,” he said.
“That’s what I care about, too,” I said, trying not to let my frustration show. “But you need to look at this from all angles.”
“All angles being that we should get him out of there before he does something stupid and catches more charges or makes us more enemies,” Ares said with a shake of his head. He and Roman were close. As the sergeant at arms and his enforcer, the two of them tended to work together a lot, so Ares was feeling Roman’s absence more than some of the other guys.
“All angles being that if he gets convicted of this, he’s going to wind up with a steep sentence. As it stands, he’s being charged with attempted murder. What the Hell do you think that’s going to mean if the guy dies? Murder!” I looked around the room.
No one said anything for a moment, so I continued, “And even if the idiot doesn’t die, we’re still going to be looking at attempted murder of this rich asshole, which means Roman’s going to be looking at quite a long time behind bars. If you want to get him out of there as soon as possible, then the best bet is to get him out of t
here without getting him stuck with this, don’t you think?”
I tried not to let my agitation show too much, but I knew it already did. I was pissed, there wasn’t any denying that, but at the same time, I felt I had a right to be. I trusted Jett as the leader of our club more than anything, but there were times in my life when I truly wondered how he stuck with the decisions he made.
It wasn’t as simple as just getting another lawyer for the case. There was a reason I had chosen Amelia in the first place. It didn’t bother me too much she hadn’t agreed to work with us right from the start.
There were times when people needed that little extra convincing to get them to do what one wanted them to do. I was more than happy to give that little extra push in the right direction if it was going to wind up with us where we wanted to be.
And, I had a feeling it would.
I wasn’t going to step back and just ignore this. There was no way in Hell I was going to let Roman go into a trial with someone who was any less than the absolute best, and to me, the absolute best would be Amelia.
She had handled a lot of difficult cases before, and she was good. She knew the law, and she knew how to get the right evidence presented in the right way before the jury to get what she wanted with the law, too.
I knew she wasn’t the type of girl to walk away when things got tough. That wasn’t her style, not by a long shot. No, she knew what she was doing, and that meant something to me.
Of course, it didn’t hurt that she was absolutely gorgeous, either. Hell, she was one of the most beautiful creatures I’d ever seen, and I wasn’t afraid to admit it. There was something about her that really caught my eye, and I wasn’t about to ignore that fact.
Who better to work with than someone who was just as much eye candy as she was good at her job? I thought. I would be more than happy to have that woman representing us in court. And, with her successful track record, I had no doubt she was going to get Roman off without anything stuck to his record.
Hell, if anything, it might work to our advantage, proving to the world we weren’t as bad as anyone wanted to believe. We knew what we were doing, and we took care of our own. We had better things to do than to go around stabbing men with money.
That was for damn sure.
I wasn’t sure what had happened, and I didn’t know if Roman as being entirely honest with me when he said that he was just out looking for his cousin on the night of the crime. But, at the end of the day, it really didn’t matter.
What mattered was the fact that I knew he wasn’t the one who did the stabbing, and I wasn’t going to give up on this case. We were going to get to the bottom of this, there was no doubt in my mind about that, and we were going to make sure he was set free.
And, Amelia was going to be the one to do it.
“So you think we’re going to have to pour our heart and soul into this one?” Jett asked me with raised eyebrows. “There’s no other way around it?”
“In my mind, we’re going to want the best of the best on this case to get our man out of this,” I told him without the slightest bit of hesitation. “And if she’s the best, then we need her.”
“If you think you can convince her to work with us, then by all means, give it a shot,” he said with a shrug. “But, I’m not going to waste time trying to convince a specific attorney to take this one. We need to get Roman out of there as soon as possible, and if that means we need to get someone else for the job, so be it.”
“Just give me another day or two,” I told him. “We’re going to have Amelia on the case and have him out of jail.”
“Good,” he said. I knew Blade and Ares weren’t as thrilled with the decision to go with Amelia, but they weren’t the ones who had met her or done their research, either. I was going to convince her one way or the other that this was the case for her, and she would help us.
It was just a matter of time.
After talking to the boys down at the bar, I decided to go give Roman himself an update in jail. I knew he wanted to know what was going on with an attorney.
It didn’t take me long to get back to jail to see him, and as I sat down, I tried not to cringe at the sight of his face on the other side of the glass. I expected him to look tired, perhaps a little worse for the wear, but to see that he had already been in more than one fight wasn’t a good sign.
The bruises on his face were both old and new, and I had a feeling that was just the beginning. I gave him a quick update on how things were going with the lawyer, and he shrugged.
“Are you sure we need to go with that one?” he asked. “I would rather get someone on the case and get me out of here.”
“We’re going to get you out of there soon,” I said quickly. “Just keep your head down and don’t wind up murdered yourself before we do, okay?”
He shrugged and gave me a grin, but I felt my heart sink. I knew Roman. Just like the rest of us, he wasn’t going to take shit from anybody. If he felt the need to throw his fist, so be it.
I just hoped he could hold it together long enough to get him out of there. It only took one wrong fight to do the most damage, and I didn’t want to think about what it would mean to lose Roman. In any sense of the word.
As I wrapped up the visit, I rose from the chair with a new resolution in my heart. I was going to convince Amelia to take on this case, and she was going to get my friend out of there. He was innocent, I just knew it.
And, I wasn’t about to consider anything else. Nothing else made sense, and I knew Roman was telling me the truth on this. I had to get him out of there before anything else happened to him. I had to prove he was innocent. But most of all, I had to get help.
I had to get Amelia.
Chapter 8
Amelia
“Thanks for all your help,” I said with a smile. It was more of a forced smile than I wanted to admit, but it at least appeared to be genuine. Well, genuine enough anyway. It was enough to satisfy the clerk, and she finished with the paperwork and handed it back to me with a small smile.
“I’ll check in with you in a day or two to make sure this processed,” I told her.
She didn’t seem thrilled, but gave me a curt nod anyway. I knew she wasn’t going to be happy to hear from me when I did call, but I didn’t have the time to worry about that.
I would get through her trite rudeness then, just like I got through it now. That was part of the job. I didn’t have to just deal with difficult people when I was in court. Hell, my entire life seemed to revolve around them.
If I wasn’t trying to defend someone against some asshole who was coming after them, I had to jump through the countless hoops pushed on me by the various assholes I worked with. It felt like a never-ending cycle, that was for damn sure.
But, it’s what I signed up for when I decided to become a lawyer in the first place, and every victory I had along the way made my job that much more worth the time and headache that went into it. I always felt good walking out of the courthouse knowing that I’d accomplished what I wanted, even if it was something I was going to have to follow up on later.
If I really was honest with myself, I knew that I got a lot of satisfaction out of what I did. The harder the case I won, the more accomplished I felt, there was no doubt about that. There was just something so right about walking away from a case and knowing I gave it my all, and knowing my clients were getting the justice they deserved.
I could see myself doing this for the rest of my life. Easily.
With that errand done for the day, I was ready to head back to the office to get through some paperwork. I just had one more stop to make with another clerk upstairs, and I could put the whole courthouse behind me for another week.
That was how I liked to do things. Get as much done at the courthouse as I could at once, then move on with the rest of my week and get things done. It did make for a busy day when I had to get through all this paperwork, but it was worth it in the end.
That is, until I heard some
one say my name.
I looked up, rather confused at first, only to see the man from the other day come walking up to me. Or, storming up to me would be a better way to put it. There was nothing slow or subtle about his approach, and if we weren’t in a public place, I would almost feel like I should turn and hurry out of there.
He walked right up to me, stopping right in front of me as though we were the only two people standing in the large hall. Of course, the other people passing us pretended not to notice anything going on, and I did what I could to ignore them, too.
“I need to talk to you,” he said when he had my attention.
“Mr-” I tried before remembering he hadn’t given me a last name, only telling me to call him by his first. I took a deep breath and started again. “Rocco. What are you doing?”
“I just told you,” he replied. “I need to talk to you.”
“We spoke the other day,” I told him. “And, I told you if you wanted to talk to me again you were going to have to set up an appointment. But before you go through with that, I’m going to remind you I’m not going to take on the case with your friend. I have too much other work to do.”
“You don’t understand-” he tried, but I held up my hand.
“No, you don’t seem to understand,” I interrupted. “I don’t mean to be rude, but I told you the other day what you needed to do, now it’s up to you to either do it or not. But I’m not going to waste more time explaining to you that you have to make an appointment.”
I wasn’t going to stand there and get a lecture from a stranger right in the middle of the courthouse. Not only did I fight to maintain the appearance of someone who was in charge, but I was already dying of embarrassment when I saw the looks of the faces of some of the people who were passing.
This wasn’t me, and I wasn’t going to stand there and put up with it out of anyone. It didn’t matter how hot of a man was talking to me. He was going to need to go through the same methods that everyone else did if he wanted my attention. There wasn’t any other way around it.