Page 90 of The Suit

The adrenaline which had spiked two minutes ago nose-dived, and I slumped into my chair. How had I let this happen?

There was a time when it never would have happened; I’d have seen through her façade, I’d have known the minute she rocked up at my apartment there was a motive beyond riding my dick. I’d let her into my life – albeit for a weekend – but I’d taken her home, I’d introduced her to my friends… And she’d fucked me, thenfuckedme.

Penn was onto something; theywereall snakes.

“You know what, Pennington?” I looked up. “Me too. Count me in.”

“Yes!” He fist pumped me. “Come on, let’s going and find Murray. Maybe we can get him to support our cause.”

“I can’t, I have work to do now I’ve been totally fucked over.” I punched the desk, hard, then turned to Penn. “I can’t believe you had me convinced I was falling for her.”

A severe pain shot through my chest.

“You know what, boss? You go. I’ll call you if I find anything. Leave your laptop and I’ll run diagnostics on it.”

I hesitated. I really did have a lot of work to do, but my hangover, combined with the agony and anger currently ravaging my body, was not going to allow me to concentrate anyway. “Thanks, man. We need to update the court as well. Can you let me know where you’re up to by one p.m.?”

“No sweat.”

Penn and I left Cody working his magic and walked out into bright sunshine; perfectly contrasting the black moods we were both in.

Penn looked up from his phone. “Murray’s going to meet us at the club. Come on, dude, we have some problems to solve. Nancy’s not getting away with this.”

“Neither is Beulah,” I snarled.

No. Beulah Holmes was going to pay.

One way or another, by the end of the day, I’d have figured out how.

17

Beulah

“Ohmygod, fucking finally!”

I slammed on the brakes and flicked the turn signal left so that everyone behind me would see this space was MINE. Just in time too. There was something about driving round and round a parking lot for almost forty minutes that made a person want to lose the will to live.

If I’d still been in Chicago, I would have given up thirty-nine minutes ago, but since I’d spent a night in a cemetery and had some sort of soul-searching revelation, I’d made a pact with myself: I was going to become the person my family had wanted me to be, not to mention the woman Ididseem to become around Rafe. So I persevered, driving round and round and round until luck shone down on me, and the beat up Mini reversed out of the space I was about to claim.

The reason I was now parked outside the English department of Columbia University? Kit. I may have only known her a few days, but it was quite possible she was my only friend, and I needed to apologize, as well as officially enroll her as the founding member of my friendship group.

I jumped out, but not before checking my phone again for the dozenth time to see if I’d heard from Rafe again, which I hadn’t, so opened the trunk and heaved out the bags I’d filled it with.

I hadn’t been sure what you took to someone for an apology-and-please-be-my-friend present, so I’d spent a fortune in Diptyque, then the florist next door on an enormous bunch of hydrangeas, and finally a box of my favorite cupcakes from the Magnolia bakery. Though now as I looked at the bags, it was exactly what we gave clients at the firm, minus the cupcakes.

God, I was so lame. I didn’t even know how to buy original presents.

I also realized that beyond the English Department, I didn’t know anything about where she worked - or her schedule. Considering it was now late afternoon, she might have even left for the day. Nor did I have her cell to contact her to tell her I was coming. I’d driven the three hours back to the city, stopped in at the hospital to check on the kids, and then whizzed into the nearest stores I could find. It was four thirty. From memory of Harvard, most classes would have broken up for the day and the professors would have gone back to their offices or home, instead of sticking by their lecture theaters.

Shit. I did not think this through properly.

I stopped in the middle of the path leading up to the tall, red-bricked building where I hoped Kit would still be, trying to balance all the bags plus the flowers held tightly in my arms so I didn’t drop them. A large shadow fell on me, and I craned my neck up to find myself in front of an enormous plinth with Rodin’s bronze Thinker staring down at me.

Huh. Still not solved allyourproblems?

I know how you feel, buddy.

Though I bet he didn’t have anywhere near as many thoughts as I currently did swirling around my brain. At least I’d gone a little way to solving them in the three hours it had taken to get back into the city.

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