Page 9 of (Un)Rivaled

A knock sounded on my door, and my eyes darted up to meet the smooth smile of my favorite investigator. Tomas wasn’t a tall man, probably just shy of six feet, but he was still one of the most intimidating men I’d ever met. His darkeyes were intense, able to make the most assured man question himself. His chocolate brown hair was shaved at the sides but longer on top, and a dusting of stubble covered his olive-toned chin and cheeks. He stepped closer, holding a stack of documents. I arched a brow, trying to hide my hopeful smile. “Please tell me that’s what I think it is.”

“If you were hoping it's photos of your client engaged in extracurricular activities with a woman who is not his wife…” he chuckled, passing me the envelope. “Then you’re going to be very happy.”

As soon as I held it in my hand, I ripped the envelope open, both horrified and delighted by what Tomas had captured on film. Glancing around him to make sure there weren’t any lurking ears, I whispered, “You think you can get this to the wife’s attorney without alerting anyone?”

Tomas clicked his tongue. “I’m insulted you even have to ask, querida. But I have to admit, this little assignment piqued my interest. Shouldn’t you be helping your client keep his prenup in place?”

I stared back at Tomas, trying to keep up my stony veneer, but he’d always been able to see through me, even when we met years ago. The best investigator contracted by the firm–he was only supposed to work with the named partners. Luckily for me, our paths had crossed on one of my first days, and a particularly bad one at that. He must have seen something that gave him pause because, unlike the rest of my colleagues, he stopped and asked if he could help me. Typically, I would have said no, needing to prove I could do it myself, but he caught me at a weak moment, and to be honest, I needed the help.

As they said, the rest was history.

I shrugged my shoulders as I leaned back in my white leather chair. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.Obviously, someone on the wife’s side must have gotten wind of the affair and leaked it to her attorney.”

Tomas’ wolf-like smile matched mine as he walked over to the corner of my office, thumbing over the top of my legal texts. My office was small, but at least I’d moved up a few floors. It wasn’t on the top, and most people forgot about me down here, but when I walked in every day, it made me proud to see my name etched onto my door.

“Does this have anything to do with the police reports the judge suppressed?”

I toyed with the rings on my pointer finger, trying to get the images out of my head, even months later. My client beat his wife within an inch of her life, and even after filing a police report saying he was the cause, shestillwasn’t granted a restraining order. And because of some bullshit technicality, the overseeing partner had gotten it thrown out of court, making it even harder for his ex-wife to get any support from him now that they were divorced.

While I tried to do my job and fight for my client, domestic violence was unforgivable in my mind. My client deserved to lose everything, but I also had to think of my future, hence the need for anonymity. Luckily, Tomas and I saw eye to eye on a lot of these cases, and he was always happy to throw in a couple of pro-bono hours for a good cause.

I handed the photos back to him. “Like I said, I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

As soon as Tomas took the folder and tucked it inside his leather jacket, I leaned back in my chair. My eyes closed, and I rubbed my lids, trying to push away the migraine that had been plaguing me all day.

“What’s going through your mind, querida?” Tomas asked as he sat down, kicking his feet up on the end of mydesk. I tossed a stack of Post-It notes at his feet, making him chuckle and put them back on the floor, but when he leaned closer, there was nothing but cold observation in his eyes. “You look tired, Devyn. Even more than usual.”

“Isn’t that just a euphemism for saying I look like shit?”

“You could never,” Tomas shrugged. Once upon a time, his bold flirtations would have come across as more than a passing comment, but now, they were familiar. Besides, we worked well together, so we’d never crossed the line, a choice I was very grateful about. Not only would it have made work awkward, but we’d become good friends, and we would have never worked out as a couple, not when I couldn’t give more than a few sleepless nights.

Tomas’ voice broke me out of my haze. “Anything I can do to help?”

Only if you have a time machine and the ability to wipe people’s memories. Maybe if the past forty-eight hours were gone, I’d be able to take a full breath. It was tempting to fill him in, but there were eyes everywhere, and even though I trusted Tomas, I didn’t want anyone else in this building to learn my weakness. I’d seen firsthand how quickly loyalties could shift for the right price. No, this secret was mine to bear. And considering that my husband—I shuddered thinking that word—was currently at the top of my shit list, there wasn’t anyone else I was willing to let in.

“I’m fine,” I sighed, shifting forward to look over my caseload for the day, but Tomas just stared at me as if able to read the lie in my words. I sighed, dropping the glare for a moment. “Iwillbe fine. As long as I don’t have to talk about it, especially not here. I just want to do my job.”

Tomas stood, and for a moment, I thought he was going to walk out of my tiny office without another word.But instead, he leaned forward on my desk, placing his hand on top of mine. “Remember why you came here, Devyn.”

My jaw tensed. “Of course I do.”

“Then focus on that. You’re getting close, querida. I can feel it. And then, maybe once we close all this…” Tomas sighed, like he wasn’t sure he believed his own words. “Maybe it’s time to think about moving on. Start really living.”

I narrowed my eyes at him. “I don’t remember asking for tough love with my morning coffee.”

“Might be tough love, but you need it,” he shrugged. “I know why, but I’ve watched you kill yourself for years, Devyn. You’re a damn good lawyer, but I want you to think if this is what you want the rest of your life to look like.”

No. The voice in the back of my mind called out before I could stop it. From the outside looking in, it looked like I had everything I could ever want: the job, the fancy apartment, and enough money to live comfortably. But it was a hollow existence, and I probably would have left a long time ago if I’d had the courage to walk away.

But I wasn’t ready to consider that. I was too focused on my goals to picture a life afterward.

I smirked as I looked over to Tomas. “And you waited how long to say something to me?”

“This is the first time I thought you’d actually hear me. Oh, and before I forget, there’s a little something extra tucked in that folder. You might find it interesting.” With a knock on the doorframe, he backed away, waving at me as he passed through the office door.

After it swung closed, I tried to keep my pulse calm as I searched through the file to find what Tomas had left for me. Underneath all the photos was a zip drive, and I let out an excited sigh. Peeking out into the hallway, I closed theblinds to my office and rushed into the corner to grab my personal laptop. It was a risk doing this at the office, but there was no way I could wait until I got home.

As soon as my computer booted up, I plugged in the external hard drive and made sure the Wi-Fi connected to my personal hotspot. When Tomas and I first started down this path, I talked to the IT director, flirting with him to see how I could work around our system in case I needed to access anything I didn’t want my boss to see. I'm pretty sure he thought I was filming OnlyFans videos in my office, but that was better than the truth.

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