Page 54 of Legal Desire
“I’m going to sue you all for slander,” she threatened them. “How dare you drag my company down with yours!”
“We had nothing to do with that report,” Simon told her.
“What?” she asked. Her voice had gone so shrill she sounded nearly hysterical. “Are you going to blame me for that, too? What the hell do you think I’m doing—committing career suicide?”
They were all silent. Like Trev, they had to be realizing how off base they’d been about her. She was definitely not an ice queen or a fool. There was no way she would have risked damaging her own reputation to damage theirs.
“I’ve got this, guys,” he told the others and walked toward his door to gesture them all out.
“You’ve got this!” she shouted. “Hell, no, you don’tgotthis! I’m not going to be sweet-talked or seduced out of suing Street Legal! I’m going to bring your damn precious practice down for real!”
Stone and Ronan hurried out with not even a glance at him. They were letting him take this one for the team. And he understood why. He’d been the one who’d suspected her in the first place.
But he knew now if she had been the mole, there would have been a lot more damage done to the practice than had already been done. She wouldn’t have just hurt them. She would have destroyed them just as she was threatening to do now.
Simon, as the managing partner, paused in the doorway. “I should handle this,” he told Trev.
But he shook his head. He knew her better than the others. Now was not the time to argue with her, not when she was as angry as she was.
Her face was flushed, her body tensed. She bristled with fury. No. Simon would not be able to charm or threaten her out of a lawsuit.
Hell, Trev wasn’t sure what he’d be able to do, except wait for her to calm down.
Simon glanced at her. She stood right in front of the television, watching the report again. And he shook his head. “You shouldn’t be alone with her...”
Just how dangerous did he think she was?
Of course, Edward had warned him that she’d try to kill him. She hadn’t at her office. He wasn’t so sure that she wouldn’t try now.
“I’ll be fine,” he lied to his partner. He had no idea if he’d survive another passionate encounter with Allison McCann. But he closed the door behind Simon and locked it, locking them inside together.
“Allison...”
She’d gone curiously quiet after all the threats she’d shouted. But now she turned back toward him, and he saw the tears running down her face.
Panic clutched his heart. He’d never done well with tears. Even knowing how his mom had been able to turn them on and off, he’d still let them manipulate him into agreeing to things, like working when he was too young, like letting her leave him to pursue her career...like telling her not to worry about him when she should have worried.
But Allison was more prone to act like nothing bothered her than to cry. No. Her tears were real. Just more hurt than angry.
“Allison...” he murmured again, and he started toward her with his arms outstretched.
But before he could pull her into an embrace, she stepped back and began to laugh and laugh and laugh as if she was unable to stop.
Allison’s chest hurt from her laughter. Or maybe that was from the tears. She had no idea. And clearly neither did Trevor. He stared at her in horror as if he’d thought she’d lost her mind.
And maybe she had when she’d barged into his office with all her threats. But she was getting a grip now. She drew in a deep breath to stop the laughter, to stop the tears.
She hated crying—especially now when she had no right to her tears.
“Are you okay?” Trevor asked her. He held his arms out, but his hands just touched her shoulders, turning her fully toward him.
She shrugged. She had no idea if she was or what she would do now. “So this is karma...” she murmured.
“What?”
“I did that to so many other people,” she said and she gestured back at the television screen. “I was the source for reports like that. Now I know what it feels like.”
And she didn’t like it.
