Page 4 of Mace

“He’s a biker who owns a bar,” her father insisted.

“I knew that already, Dad,” she said. “I’m just not seeing the reason why you don’t think we should represent him.”

“He’s up on murder charges,” her father challenged.

“So, I’ve defended a lot of men and women who were up on murder charges. Why is Mace’s case any different from all the others?” she asked.

“You’re getting in over your head with this case, Brooke,” he shouted.

“No, I’m not,” she insisted. “He has an alibi.” Brooke didn’t like his alibi, but the cops should have removed Mace from their list of suspects. Instead, they weren’t looking for other suspects. They zoned in on Mace and the cops seemed determined to bring him down for some reason.

“I’d like for you to drop the case, Brooke,” her father insisted.

“I won’t do that,” she spat. “Mace is innocent, and I can prove that. Why are you so adamant about me dropping his case? His money is as good as out other clients.”

“Right, but our other clients aren’t bikers with a record,” her father said.

Mace’s records were sealed by the courts. Her father shouldn’t have had access to them. “How did you find out about his juvie record?” Brooke asked. “They were sealed.”

“I pulled some strings down at the courthouse. When you’ve been a lawyer as long as I have, you have a lot of people who owe you favors,” her father insisted.

“You went behind my back and looked into my client?” Brooke asked. She knew that her father didn’t play by the rules all the time, but she never expected this from him.

“I did, and I’m ordering you to drop the case,” her dad said.

“You’re ordering me?” she asked. “I thought that you wanted me to work here as your equal and someday take over the firm.” It was the only reason she didn’t send out resumes after she graduated from law school. Her father had made a pretty good argument to get her to work for him.

“You need to do this for me, Brooke,” her father insisted. “Consider it a favor.” She wasn’t about to consider his order, but telling him that wasn’t going to get her home any faster. She just wanted to go home, shower, and look at her files to come up with a strategy to help Mace, because there was no way she’d be dropping him as a client, even at her father’s order.

Mace

Mace felt as though things were looking up for him, and he wasn’t about to jinx things by not following every rule that Brooke had laid down for him. She insisted that he stay put in his shitty motel room until she could work things out with the cops. Brooke seemed to feel that his so-called alibi was enough to get him released as a suspect, and that sounded like music to his ears. Sure, he hated having to tell Brooke that he was having sex with his new waitress in his office, but it had to be done. He told the cops the same thing and they didn’t seem to care about anything he said. Mace chalked it up to them judging him by the outside package. He just hoped like hell that Brooke could see past his tattoos and bad-guy exterior and help him.

They had spent the better part of the day going over his case in detail, and by the time Brooke left his motel room, he was exhausted. The crazy thing was that he actually missed her when she left, not that he wanted to read too much into that. He was probably thinking with his cock and not his head and that usually got him into trouble. Mace needed to remember that she didn’t date clients and there was no way that he’d give her up as his lawyer. He needed her more than he wanted to, and that plain sucked. It didn’t mean that he’d never take his shot with Brooke. Sooner or later, he’d be free of this mess and then he’d see if she was up for a little bit of fun.

For now, he’d sit and wait for her to come back to talk about his case some more. He wasn’t sure how he’d kill time, but he could think of something. A knock at his door had him hoping that she had decided to come back a few days early, or that Brooke had good news to give him.

Mace stood and crossed the small room, pulling the door open to find Owen, Steel, and Maverick on the other side. Steel and Mav looked pretty pissed off at him and he wasn’t sure that he could blame them. He always preached to his guys that “Brothers stood together” and here he was trying to go it on his own.

“Why the fuck did you keep us in the dark about the charges against you, man?” Steel asked.

“I didn’t want to get you both involved in my mess. Owen had some contacts at the courthouse and with a lawyer, so I called him instead. You three shouldn’t be here.” They might have led the cops right to his motel room and then he’d be behind bars for his next meeting with Brooke. He definitely didn’t want her to see him like that.

“Brothers stand together,” Maverick growled. “You can’t preach that shit to us and then not follow your own advice.” Mace knew that Mav was right, but telling him that would only end with Maverick giving him an even longer lecture.

“I know, and I’m sorry,” Mace said. “I fucked up. I got scared and I ran.”

“And now, you look guilty as fuck,” Steel said. Mace also knew that too. Brooke had chided him a few times about taking off when he found out that he was the cops’ main suspect.

“I’m aware,” he grumbled. “Brooke has already told me that I’m a moron, I don’t need you three telling me that too.”

“Brooke?” Steel asked. “Who is Brooke?”

“She’s the lawyer that Owen found for me,” Mace said.

“Is she hot?” Maverick asked. Mace could feel himself making a face and he knew that the guys would rag him until he told them that she was probably the hottest woman that he’d ever seen. But Mace was never one to give such secrets away, so he decided to lie to the three of them.

“Nope,” he breathed. “She’s older and not very attractive.” He just hoped like hell that he was wearing his best poker face because he didn’t want to admit to the guys that he was attracted to his lawyer.

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