Page 79 of Defended By Love

It’s the most ominous optimism I’ve ever read.

Seriously, how can Grant believe his company isn’t evil?

“Are you trying to tell me that a company this successful has thrived on a diet of ethics and morality?” I ask.

“Did I say that?”

I don’t hear his next step. I feel it, though. He’s so close to me that his very nearness pulls me to him, like he’s an undefeatable titan who leaves people to stagger in his wake.

I take another step backwards. Or at least I would if I had another step to give.

Half a step back, I stop. The window is between my shoulder blades and the handle onto the balcony is in my lower back.

In short, I’m trapped.

“Do you seriously believe I’m going to let you get away with this? With what you’re doing to the environment?” I breathe.

Reinhold’s face widens into a mirthless grin. The pantomime of joy is more terrifying than any of his glares.

I, Hailey Cox, bitch of the courtroom and ice queen of the office, feel my knees quake in response to his smile.

Still, I smile right back at him. Even as he leans forward and whispers words that I can scarcely hear over my pounding heart.

“And do you seriously believe you’re going to get away? That I’m going to let you walk out of here after you’ve pushed your nose into Mr. Hart’s business?”

My blood flees my limbs, leaving them cold, dissociated appendages that I’m not sure I can control. His last words aren’t those of a lawyer.

Whatever song and dance we were doing has gone beyond the prelude of courtroom spar. We’re out of the world governed by rules and routine.

We’re in his world—a world where his only goal is to pave a smooth road for Zagreus Hart.

It would appear that I’m at his mercy.

My smile fills with a genuine joy.

“Did I say ‘walk’?”

With that, I fling open the door out onto the balcony and rush outside. This high up, the wind whips at my hair and pecks at my cheeks. My cheeks that are beginning to hurt from how widely I’m smiling at my win.

“What are you doing?” Reinhold asks, pausing on the threshold between his office and his balcony. “You’ve got nowhere to go.”

I bark out a laugh.

It’s the first statement he’s made today—and it’s completely wrong.

In a movement that’s as graceful as the moment deserves, I fling myself over the railing and off the side of the cliff.

As I fall, I watch above until I see Reinhold’s face appear above the railing. His face a smattering of every thought and feeling running through his head. His mouth a wordless ‘o’ as he yells into the void between us.

I shoot him the middle finger as I fall.

Fuck him and his intimidation tactics. What kind of tacky villain feels the need to back a physically inferior opponent against a wall? Really, if you have to use your body to win an argument, you’ve already lost.

If he had any inkling of what kind of lawyer I am, he would have known that every step backwards was part of my own design. It was a step he was taking into my own trap.

And a step I was taking towards Grant.

Even though I didn’t tell Grant what my plan was, I had no doubt that he’d be there to catch me.

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