Page 112 of Dirty Rich Cinderella Story

CHAPTER FORTY-SIX

Lori

The next day Cat celebrates my six-month plan by bringing me coffee. That night, my mother bakes me yet another cake. I celebrate by working twice as hard. I have papers to write and cases to manage with Cole. Three weeks fly by in a blink of an eye. I spend most nights with Cole, but stay home on my mother’s off nights, though she insists on pulling so many extra shifts that I barely see her. She even takes on a charity event at the hospital that has her gone most weekends.

Monday, four weeks from the day we left LA, Cole and I are in his living room watching the news, drinking coffee, and working on the murder trial, when the headlines flash: David Curry’s death has officially been ruled a suicide.

As if on cue, Cole’s cell phone rings. “Tara,” he says answering on speaker. “You’re on speaker with myself and Lori.”

“Did you hear?” she asks.

“I just saw it on the news.”

“Aspirin and Benadryl,” she says. “He took a whole bottle of aspirin and Benadryl. You know they knew this before now. That bastard Waller. I hope he gets his.”

“He will,” I promise. “He will.”

“So I hear from Savage. I cannot wait.”

“Wait,” I say. “Are you dating Savage?”

“I’m fucking him. We’ll see where it goes. Ciao.” She hangs up.

“What is happening with Waller?” I ask Cole.

“From what Royce told me, they were letting him hang himself a little tighter before they arrest him.”

The next morning, I walk into work, and Cole calls me into his office. “Waller and the police chief, as well as three additional members of the force, are under official investigation.”

“Finally,” I say, perching on the arm of his visitor’s chair. “I know it’s crazy,” I say, “But this feels like my first big win. Something that in some small way, I helped make happen.”

“It should. You did. It’s a big deal. And more good news,” he says. “Ashley is going to be on her way home soon, though I think her attorney in Paris tried to hire her away from me. Bastard.”

“You’re on temp number three,” I say. “Apparently, you’re nicer to me than them. Or so Maria claims.”

“Maria is full of crap.”

Maria pokes her head in the door. “Maria is not full of crap. Maria knows you can be a bastard. Another temp just quit.”

“What do you do to them?” I demand.

“Not a damn thing,” Maria says. “That’s the problem. He barely speaks to them and intimidates them all. Be nice.”

“How about I just pay you extra until Ashley gets back?”

“How about the temp for you reports to me?” she counters. “And I get a bonus.”

“Fine,” Cole says. “Done.”

I laugh and follow Maria from the office. I’m feeling at home here. And I’m really feeling at home with Cole. Life is good.

Later that day, a trial date is set for our professor client, and a new whirlwind begins. For another full week, I can honestly say that watching Cole prepare for it is magic. He assembles a team, and night after night, we work tirelessly at the office preparing to win. I have never been so challenged or learned so much as I do working with him. We’ve become investigators looking for a real killer, or at least a way to establish reasonable doubt by way of suspicion. I’m addicted to this case and solving it.

My second month of my six-month internship starts at Cole’s place, where I hide the fifth payment on my father’s gambling note in his freezer because he has refused my money. I actually find this game rather amusing for no good reason. Perhaps because he’s taking care of me, but I’m taking care of him, too, and he just doesn’t know it yet. But I know, and it feels right and good. After that I’m off to my apartment to change, and back to trying to solve a crime.

It’s late afternoon when my mother calls as she often does this time of day. More and more she slides in details of her new male friend, and even hints that I might get to meet him.

“Hi, honey,” she greets.

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