Page 11 of Voice to Raise
“Media, Spencer. You needed a media-relations person guiding you. Coaching you. Stopping you from making stupid mistakes.”
“Hey, I didn’t make any stupid mistakes.”Did I?“I was fine.”
“You weren’t fine. You didn’t even cope.”
“I did okay. I have some savvy, you know.”
“And how did your legal background prepare you for dealing with the media? Please give me the precise educational background—or work experience—that made you vaguely qualified to go up against a professional like him?”
We both knew whohewas.
“I worked in the biomedical research field for years. They put out plenty of press releases and held media events.”
Blossom’s eyebrow arched. “Right. And how many of those press releases did you write? How many media events did you host?”
“Well—”
“Hell, Spencer. Did you even attend these vauntedevents?”
I held in the wince.
Barely.
You’re the boss.“I did what I thought was best.”
Blossom slashed the air. “Razor Made is an up-and-coming band with a small, but very loyal fanbase. You pissed some of them off last night. They could make it difficult to recruit people to our cause in the future.”
Oh God, what if she has a point?I’d been focused on clearing the organization’s name—not about future recruitments. In fact,I’d convinced myself the inverse was true—if people thought we were only doing law-abiding work, then they’d be more likely to join. We didn’t want troublemakers. Guys like—
“I want to see him.” A firm voice came from the reception area. A very strong, masculine voice.
“He’s in a meeting right now.” Bonnie—just as strong and clear.
“Oh my God. He’s here.” Blossom squealed and then fanned herself.
Yep, fanned herself.
As much as I didn’t want to admit to knowing whohewas, clearly the cause of all yesterday’s distress had shown up.
“You can’t go in there—” Bonnie, again putting up a good front. Except she was about five-five and a little on the slender side. To the best of my knowledge, she didn’t have martial arts training—and I didn’t want her engaging in physical combat for my sake anyway.
“It’s okay, Bonnie. You can let Mr. Forestal in.”
Blossom grinned.
My office door was thrust open, andhestepped into my inner sanctuary.
That invasion raised my hackles right away. I didn’t want anyone in here whom I hadn’t specifically invited. I needed this to be my place of peace. I even had a vanilla-scented candle and soft music playing in the background. If incense didn’t give me a headache, I’d burn that as well. I might be a logical lawyer, but I also believed in encouraging good juju.
The influence of my beatnik parents who were born a dozen years too late. They wanted to be hippies protesting war. Instead, they’d embraced theno nukesmovement with great fervor.
But none of that calm helped now.
Malik stood before me.
He was a couple of inches shorter, but from the distance, our eyes met.
Ha, I was right. Dark brown.Stunning and luminous dark-brown eyes. His black hair curled wildly and I wondered about the texture.
