Page 28 of A Walking Shadow

“And it worked.”

The door to Judge Macomber’s outer office opened and Charlie poked her head out into the hallway. “Sasha, a word? Just you.”

Sasha turned to Ellie. “Why don’t you head over to Daniel’s studio and tell him the good news in person? I’ll see you back at the office.”

“I can tell the client we won?”

“Absolutely. Your research was instrumental, after all.”

Ellie floated down the hallway toward the elevators wearing a wide grin.

“She’s a fine young attorney, from everything I’ve heard,” Charlie said as they watched her go.

“She is,” Sasha agreed. Then she drew her eyebrows together. “What’s up?” She silently prayed the judge wasn’t about to appoint her to some dog of a case.

Instead of answering, Charlie jerked her head toward the office. Sasha managed not to sigh as she walked inside and the deputy clerk closed the door behind her. Charlie led her back to the room she’d just left and gestured for her to go inside the judge’s chambers.

But instead of the Honorable Kathleen Macomber, Connelly sat at the oval table. He was flanked by the two men who’d attacked them in the alley.

13

Raw fear flashed across his wife’s face, and Leo raised his hands, palms up, in a gesture he hoped would reassure her.

“It’s okay,” he promised.

She held his gaze for a moment before shifting her eyes to the men on either side of him. Then she pulled out the seat across from him and sat down, all without uttering a word.

“Ms. McCandless-Connelly, we just want to talk.”

The taller of the two men, the one Leo now knew as Camden Green, addressed Sasha in a grave, but calm, tone.

“So talk.”

“My associate and I apologize for last night’s misunderstanding?—”

She cut him off sharply. “There was no misunderstanding. You accosted us in a dark alley. You laid your hands on me. We kicked your asses.”

Javier Rose chimed in, “Perhaps ‘misunderstanding’ is the wrong word.”

“What’s the right word, then?”

“Mistake.”

She nodded at that. “Go on.”

“It was a mistake to approach you the way we did.”

“Why did you approach us at all?”

Leo interjected himself into the conversation, “To offer us a job.”

Sasha searched his face. “A job. What kind of job?”

“A highly specialized position in intelligence,” Rose explained.

Her face clouded, then cleared, and she addressed Leo again, “You mean, these bozos want to offeryoua job.”

He chuckled. “No, I mean us. And I’m intrigued, so maybe hear the bozos out.” Then he turned toward Green. “I warned you that she wouldn’t be an easy sell.”

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