Total pages in book: 115
Estimated words: 108531 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 543(@200wpm)___ 434(@250wpm)___ 362(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 108531 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 543(@200wpm)___ 434(@250wpm)___ 362(@300wpm)
Her hand went to the tote bag around her shoulder. “I wouldn’t say ‘forced.’ It’s no big deal. It’s a couple of contracts. Your brother’s not the brightest bulb, you know. Also, he needs a serious lesson in organization. I think there are two separate contracts in there, but they might have bred. And one of them has some jelly on it. I think it’s grape.”
That sounded like his brother. “Don’t worry about it. I’ll take them and get them back to Paul.”
“Why would you do that?” Jayna asked.
How should he put this? He’d avoided most talk about his family with her, wanting to leave her out of their drama. It was far too soon in the relationship for her to find out how nasty his family dynamic could be. “Because he’s not truly interested in hiring you. He doesn’t have any money. This is his way to force me to do what he wants.”
“So he doesn’t want me to look into his contracts even though contracts are my specialty?”
Somewhere in the back of his mind, distant alarm bells had started to ring. Maybe it was the tone of her voice or the way her brows had risen. He still plunged ahead, his anger with his brother far greater than those warnings. “No, he’s trying to force me to do it.”
“But you don’t have to, because I’m going to do it.” She took a step back. “It’s a couple of contracts, Quaid. It’ll take me a few hours tops to go through them. Well, once I get them in the proper order. It’s a pretty simple situation.”
That was where she was wrong. “It’s never simple with my brother.”
“He needs to sign the paperwork on his house so they can set a closing date and get the ball rolling. He needs the money from the sale of that house, and he doesn’t understand how it works in any way.”
Ah, but Paul understood how he worked. “You can’t believe a word he says, baby. I know that he’s in trouble, and bringing you in is his way of dragging me into whatever scheme he’s working on. My mother asked me to handle this for Paul. That was why she was here.”
He wasn’t about to mention the part where his mom had told him all kinds of rumors about Jayna.
“That’s what Paul said she was going to do, and he said you would tell her you would think about it,” she mused. “He also said you wouldn’t really think about it.”
“Of course I won’t think about it.” He hadn’t considered it in the moment, and after this play of his brother’s, he wouldn’t think about helping him in the future. How dare he bring Jayna into his plans.
Her arms crossed over her chest, a sure sign she was about to get stubborn on him. “Did she also try to talk you out of seeing me?”
He wasn’t getting into this. “None of that matters. What she says doesn’t mean a thing to me. She lives in her own world, so don’t worry about it. Give me the contracts so I can give them back to my brother and you can be out of this.”
Her hand tightened on the strap. “Why should I do that? He’s my client. If I hand over his contracts to you without his permission, I’m violating attorney-client privilege.”
“There’s no privilege because he didn’t give you any money. In fact, he stuck you with the bill for lunch,” he pointed out. “And that’s what’s going to happen when you deal with my brother.”
“There is the assumption of privilege,” she argued, and then sighed, relaxing a bit. “Quaid, I’m not sure what’s going on, but I don’t think this is about hurting you. I think Paul needs some help, and he doesn’t think he has the right to ask it of you.”
Paul had worked his magic on her. “Jayna, I’m asking you to give me that bag and walk away from this. Don’t ask me any more questions. I need you to believe that I know what I’m talking about.”
She frowned, looking more confused than he’d ever seen her. She glanced around, and that was the moment he realized everyone in the courthouse was watching them. There were a bunch of people who’d been milling about and now they’d stopped to watch the drama playing out.
“Is it because you think I can’t do it?” The question came out as a whisper.
“It’s because I don’t want you involved with my family.” It would be a disaster if she worked for Paul, and he had no idea what his mother was up to, but he knew what she wanted. She wanted Jayna gone, and he wasn’t going to allow her to chase off the only woman he’d truly wanted in years.
Her face flushed, and she drew in a shaky breath. “All right. I’ll give the contracts back to your brother, but I’m not turning them over to you. I’m not going to open myself up to another ethics complaint I can’t afford to defend. Now, we have a court case to deal with, and I hope that you can handle it with the professionalism I expect from you, Mr. Havery.”