by Sable Hunter
“Uh,” Presley was embarrassed. She didn’t have a bedroom. “You don’t need to go to that much trouble.” Quickly, she took the case from him and set it aside.
It wasn’t any trouble; Zane had to bite his tongue. He wanted to just carry her home with him – permanently. But he had some thinking to do, some decisions to make. “Presley?”
“Yes?” she stepped a little closer to him, she couldn’t help it. More than anything she just wanted to go with him, to stay with him. Being alone again was not appealing at all. But it was late and tomorrow was a work day and she knew that there were cases that needed attention – they both needed their rest.
Zane hesitated. Hell. He reached out for her and drew her close, seeking her mouth. He was certain that he meant it to be a quick one, but once he tasted her – he lingered, sipping at her lips, stroking her tongue with his. When he pulled away, it was with great reluctance. “I’ll see you in the morning. Take care and sleep well.”
“You, too,” she stood at the door and watched till he made it to the elevator and when Sherwood and Rex stepped from the shadows and greeted him, she was relieved. Presley would gladly take care of Zane if he would let her.
Adam had read and reread the evidence and files concerning Laney Taylor. Countless times he had watched the video as she explained to Lieutenant Rodriguez what she had been through and why she thought she was in danger. “Why have you come to the station?” the Lieutenant asked.
“I’m afraid.” Laney spoke quietly; a blackened bruise on her cheek did nothing to mar her fragile beauty in Adam’s eyes. God! Why hadn’t he had the good fortune to cross paths with her when she was alive?
All of his life, Adam had expected to find that one woman who was meant for him. All of the dating he had done, all of the women he had met – no one had ever touched him like this one small angel. To think that he might have missed his chance and she was gone from his world was gut-wrenching.
He turned his attention back to the screen.
“If you’re afraid, why don’t you leave?”
“He won’t leave me. He keeps me prisoner.”
“Really? What makes you think you’re a prisoner? You have to give me some evidence. Mr. Kendall is a respectable member of the community.”
Laney let out a sigh. The woman didn’t believe her. “Because he keeps me chained to the bed or the dining table.”
Adam believed in proper interrogation techniques, but it infuriated him that the Lieutenant was more interested in protocol than protecting Laney.
“Have you been taking your meds? We’re going to have to call your husband. You do realize that, don’t you?”
Laney sat up and looked wide-eyed and afraid. “If I’m turned back over to him, especially after he finds out that I’ve come to you, he’ll kill me. Please don’t make go back. Couldn’t I go into witness protection or something? Or could I at least just spend the night in the jail? I’d be safe there.”
“You’re tying our hands, Miss Taylor.”
“You’re going to send me back, aren’t you?” she bowed her head and faced away from the camera. Adam could see odd shaped burn marks at her nape. He leaned forward. What was that shape? Was it a star? He made a note of the abnormality for future reference trying to keep his rage down at how the burns might have got there in the first place.
“Give me some specific things you are going through, help me compile evidence.” Rodriguez’s voice was clinically withdrawn, funny – he had always thought a more compassionate tone would encourage confession.
A nervous laugh bubbled up from Laney’s graceful throat. “Oh my, where do I start?”
“Does he hit you?”
“Yes,” she admitted.
“When? How often?”
“Every day, it depends on how often I’m bad.”
“Bad? How are you bad?”
“I don’t do things fast enough or perfect enough. I talk back sometimes.” Adam’s heart lurched to think this small woman was treated so abominably.
“What type of injuries have you had?”
“Broken bones, eight of them,” Laney’s voice dropped to a whisper. “He makes me sleep on the floor, but that’s not that bad. It’s better than sleeping with him.”
Rodriguez seemed to ignore that part. Adam drew closer to the monitor and let his eyes rove over her gentle features. She was so pretty, he wanted to take her in his arms and protect her – but it was too late.
“Anything else?”
“He burns me sometimes in places you can’t see and he ties me up to a hook on a door jamb and whips me with a quirt till I bleed.”
“What else?”
“He water-boards me or holds me under the bath water till I fear drowning.”
It tore Adam up that she recounted these horrors so matter-of-factly.
“Do you have a piece of peppermint or something I could chew on?” Laney looked at Rodriguez hopefully.
“Is your breath bad?” the Lieutenant snorted.
Laney looked sad. “No, I was hungry.”
The subject was dropped and it plagued Adam that she might have never had anything to eat. For Laney had gone missing the night this video was made. The PI the firm had contacted a few days ago was due to report in today. But it had been ten days since anyone had seen the young woman and there were few who think she had just walked off. Somewhere in all of this was an answer, but he couldn’t see it. “Damn!” Before giving it much thought, he hit Print and a capture of her face fed out from his copier. He picked it up, gazed at it and imagined how different it all could have been.
*****
Presley fell into a pattern at work. The cases that Zane gave her to work on were increasingly more complex and required more usage of her legal skills. She took on more pro-bono work and daily she tried not to think about the fact that he hadn’t asked her out nor made any move to renew their ‘relationship’ or whatever they had shared.
Of course, it had only been a few days – and he had been busy. Monday, the conference would be upon them and she was waiting for him to mention for sure whether or not she would be going with him. There was also a lot of talk in the office about the upcoming world premiere of Vision Star Studio’s production of “Burning Love” which was this weekend. Saucier & Barclay represented Vision Star and the law firm partners and a few other select employees were attending the opening and the swank party that would follow. She couldn’t even imagine what it would be like to attend an event of such magnitude.
“Presley, may I talk to you a moment?”
Zane’s voice sounded – different. Was she in trouble? Had she done something wrong? “Yes, Sir.” She moved over to his desk and sat, waiting to see what he would say.
Zane had been busier than he wanted to be ever since he returned from the Caymans. Matters with Aron’s search hadn’t improved. There was still no sign of him, although the family had not and would not give up until something concrete was discovered. Libby had returned home ill. She had hope but her pregnancy and the stress and strain had taken its toll and the doctor had put her to bed for an indefinite period. Noah had remained in Mexico along with Roscoe and Vance and they were intending to increase the range of their search.
Other things were crowding into his time – Laney Taylor’s civil action, several anti-trust suits and even a murder trial that was proving to be big news all over the state – the Lavonne case, in which a husband and father was accused of killing his whole family. The police had focused in on him and Zane believed he was innocent; only time would tell what would happen. And while all of these things were important, overtime and business trips had kept him from taking care of what mattered to him the most – Presley. As soon as he could, he sat down with human resources to work up a package to offer her a permanent job as his personal assistant. When he had requested her file from Work Force and HR began collecting her records, he was shocked at what he found. Presley Grace Love was licensed to practice law in the state of Texas. Her bar
exam grades were exemplary and her GPA from the University of Texas was as high as his had been. Even though he knew the answer – he just had to ask.
“So, when were you going to tell me that you are an attorney?”
He couldn’t see it, but Presley’s face paled. “I don’t know,” was all she could think to say. Zane just sat there with one leg propped over the other with no expression on his face at all. Was she about to be fired?
“Don’t you think that was pertinent information?”
“No,” she felt a little bit of her stubborn streak emerging.
“Why not?”
He didn’t seem to be giving an inch. “Because I don’t practice law, my education only helps me do jobs like this more efficiently.”
Zane wanted to smile. He bet her stubborn little chin had raised an inch. “Why don’t you practice law? You have one of the sharpest legal minds I’ve ever seen.” And she did.
Silence.
“Presley?” He pressed her.
“You know why.”
“No, I don’t – explain.”
Presley wanted to be anywhere but where she was. Having to admit her failure was so hard. “No one would hire me.”
“How many firms did you interview with?”
“Only five,” she whispered. “But after I got the same answer from all of them, I quit trying.”
“What was their reason for not giving you a job?”
She couldn’t be still instead she got up and paced the room. All of the anger she had felt for the people who had rejected her just boiled out. “What does it matter?” she spoke in a strained whisper. “No one would give me a chance. They didn’t say it was because of my face, but it was. Just like the woman at Work Force told you, I’m not front office material.”
“You knew she said that?” Zane was stunned – and very angry.
“Sure, I heard her say it to several people, and it was true.”
“You seem to be working out well here.”
Presley lost it. “Because you can’t see me!” she gritted through her teeth. She wasn’t a fit-thrower, but sometimes you needed to throw something. She looked at her desk for something appropriate, picked up a good sized law journal and just flung it across the room – not at Zane – but toward the couch. Rex jumped, hopped up and went to see if it were something to fetch.
Alright. Enough. Zane got up and walked right to her. “Stop it.” He managed to capture both her hands and hold them in one of his. She was about three feet from the door and he felt over and locked it. “That’s stupid.”
“But it’s true.” She didn’t struggle with him, but allowed him to keep her stationary.
“They didn’t tell you that,” surely they didn’t tell her something so cruel.
“No, they told me I wasn’t a good fit for their firm,” she overemphasized the word ‘fit’.
“Ridiculous.” He pulled her up against him. It was unprofessional of him, he knew that, but he couldn’t help it. What he felt for Miss Presley Love was very close to ‘possessive’.
His adamancy in her favor made her feel better, it didn’t make him right – but it did her heart good. “I think I could have done research for them, worked behind the scenes to do research on cases, but I could never argue a case in court because of my lisp.” Presley cringed when the word ‘lisp’ came out with a lisp.
Zane kissed her sweet lips – lisp and all. “You sound adorable and its only when you get nervous, I’m sure with practice you could deliver arguments without doing it at all.”
She had no answer for that – too many disappointments had dulled her expectations. But when he kissed her again, she leaned into him and let the hope rise within her.
“I have a proposition for you.”
Relief swept through her, he still wanted her in his bed. “You do? What?”
“I want to offer you a position with the firm as a first year associate.” He proceeded to tell her the amount of salary and benefits and Presley lost all ability to speak. He had pulled her hands up between them and they now rested on his chest and he was stroking her small closed fists. “How about it?”
Tugging hard, Presley pulled away and walked off.
“What’s wrong?”
Tears weren’t far away. She didn’t know whether to cry because she was happy or cry because she was sad. What was he doing? “Are you offering me a job because we slept together? Because you feel sorry for me?”
Damn. “Come back here to me,” he ordered. Now, he was a little mad. “I’m offering you a job because you’re brilliant, you’re compassionate and I think you would make a damn good lawyer for this firm.” He heard her footsteps coming back to his side. Good. “As for our sleeping together, I’m not willing to give that up. Are you?” It may not be right, but he couldn’t fathom depriving himself of the haven he had found in her arms. Where they were headed – he didn’t know.
“No, I love to be with you. Before I met you, practicing law was the ultimate dream of my life. I want the chance, but I don’t want things to change between us, either.”
“It’s doesn’t have to,” Zane assured her. “I want you to start your practice working with me. I’ll begin to put out feelers for another assistant, but until I find someone suitable, I want you to stay where you are, I’ll just increase your level of responsibility and we’ll get you a secretary to help with the clerical work. How does that sound?”
“Incredible.” Presley launched herself in his arms. She caught him by surprise, but he still managed to catch her close. “Thank you, Zane. You have changed my life in more ways than I can count.
During the night, Zane had been carefully considering his choices. More and more, he was beginning to think that Presley might be the one woman he could trust to bring into his life. She didn’t see him as half a man, she found him desirable. They could talk about anything and he found her wit and intelligence to be almost as intoxicating as he found her body. In fact, he was very tempted to ask her to move in with him, but he wanted to be sure because her feelings were just as fragile as his, of that he was sure. “Get your coat. Let’s go out to celebrate.”
Go out? “On a date?” she said the phrase then wished she could call it back.
Zane didn’t let a second go by. “Yes, a date.”
Presley’s head spun. This would be her ‘first’ date. She had always envisioned getting ready for the auspicious occasion and spending hours in front of the mirror and closet, preparing herself – just so. With Zane, nothing was going as she had always dreamed, but it was equally amazing. “Let’s don’t go anywhere fancy; I’m looking very ordinary today.” Okay, she looked ordinary, at best, every day.
“You are beautiful, as always. I see you quite clearly, Presley. No eye can see as clearly as the heart. Don’t you know that?”
Presley stared at the broad-shouldered, absolutely scrumptious man who still had his arms wrapped around her. Sometimes he said the most amazing things. “Thank you, Zane. I’m grateful you feel that way.” What else could she say? He let her go and she grabbed her purse and coat. Rex was ready, he loved to go.
They unlocked the door and left the office, as they were making their way through the lobby, Adam stopped them. “Zane, what do you think about getting a search warrant to check out Kendall’s house?”
“On what grounds?”
“Shelly thinks her possessions are in there; that will be our excuse to search. What we find might indicate if Laney actually left or not.”
“You don’t think he might have rid the home of her stuff, anticipating this very action on our part?”
“I’m hoping he isn’t that smart or else he’s cocky enough to have kept trophies. While we’re in there, I also want to look for evidence of waterboarding and for that quirt she talks about being whipped with. If it has blood on it, that could be construed as grounds for assault charges.”
“I don’t know,” Presley spoke up. “So many people are in the BDSM lifestyle, Kendall might pro
pose that Laney wanted to be tied up and whipped – some women enjoy that.”
Despite the seriousness of the conversation, Zane laughed. “Why, Miss Priss, what do you know about BDSM?”
Adam laughed too, because she blushed. “I read.”
All Zane could think about was tying her to the head of the bed and making her beg for whatever he wanted to give her. Dang! He was getting hard; time to make an exit. “Let’s do it.” Placing one hand at Presley’s back, he started to propel her forward.
“One more thing, Zane. I just got off the phone with Ralph Dyess; he’s invited us all to his place after the party for breakfast.”
“I don’t know, Adam, I may have other plans.” His other plans were standing very close to him and smelled heavenly.
“Talk to Renee when you get a chance, she said something about Alicia Fields making a request of you.”
Zane’s hackles rose. He didn’t have time to cater to a celebrity, no matter how beautiful people said she was. “We’ll see. Hold down the fort, Presley and I are leaving a little early. We’re celebrating her coming on board as a first year associate.”
“I heard,” Adam beamed at her. “Congratulations. I should have said something to you right off the bat,” he apologized. “But Laney’s case has been consuming my thoughts. You were hiding your light under a bushel, weren’t you?”
“Not really,” Presley protested. “I’m grateful for the opportunity, working with you and Zane will be a privilege.”
“I think we’re the lucky ones. Everyone has been talking about how helpful and intelligent you are. Hardly anyone was surprised to find out you are an attorney.”
Hardly anyone, Presley noticed his clarification. There were those in the firm who did not approve of her; Presley had enough sense to realize that fact. Still, people like Adam and Zane and a few others made the prospect of being a part of Saucier & Barclay an irresistible proposition.
Finally they were able to depart. Austin was sparkling in the fall evening. The traffic was light and a faint drizzle of rain was falling. A distinct chill filled the air; the holidays would be on them before they knew it. “Do you enjoy Christmas?” she couldn’t resist asking. One day she hoped to build traditions of her own.