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“Yes, my wife is coming in for a deposition at nine.” I didn’t do a good job at hiding my surprise, and he noticed. “Yates will handle it, but we expect you to sit in.”
“Of course, Sir.”
“If there’s anything time sensitive on your desk, let me know and I’ll reassign it to another associate. I expect you’ll be busy getting up to date on my case for the next few days, at the very least.”
I spent the next hour doing as he’d asked, going through everything on my desk. I handed several files over to other associates and wrapped up a couple more by the time my phone rang and I was instructed to head to the firm’s largest conference room. It wasn’t the usual location for a deposition because of its size, but it was the best one we had. From the way Mr. Warren had talked about his wife’s lawyer, it was possible the choice of location had been made as some sort of pissing match.
Although it initially made me roll my eyes, I was grateful for the size of the room when I walked in and spotted opposing counsel seated at the end of the long conference table on the side of the room. The shark who was out for my boss’s blood was someone with whom I was intimately familiar. He was the man whom I’d reluctantly left this morning, after he’d fully demonstrated exactly how he expected me to kiss him—Jax Croix.
Our eyes met and I was caught in his intense regard, though his expression remained neutral. I was barely able to tear mine away from him as I walked the length of the room to take a seat next to Mr. Yates. It wasn’t easy to pull myself together, but I’d managed to wipe the stunned expression from my face when he introduced me to Jax and Mrs. Warren. She lifted her surgically perfected chin and glared down her equally fake nose at me. When she shifted in her seat, moving a little closer to Jax, I balled my hands into fists to avoid clawing her eyes out.
I needed to get control of myself. With a deep breath, I averted my gaze, but I could feel the heat of his stare and it made my skin tingle. It was a damn good thing I wasn’t the one asking the questions during the deposition, because it was incredibly difficult for me to take notes while my mind reeled at the revelation that Jax used to work for Smith, Yates, and Warren. If he’d left the firm the way Mr. Yates explained, and fought many cases against us, he damn well should have mentioned it when I told him where I worked.
An hour later, I had pages of notes. I was in possession of more information than I ever wanted to know about any of my bosses. Or my co-workers. Or anyone I knew. What I didn’t have was any idea of how I was going to proceed with Jax. My heart was telling me to figure out a way to continue my relationship with him, but my head was telling me to get out as quickly as I could or else I’d risk losing my job.
I watched him walk out of the room, with his blonde bitch-of-a-client next to him, and I wanted nothing more than to yank her hand off his arm. Mr. Yates and I followed them to the reception area, and I bit my tongue the whole way there. It was neither the time nor the place to have it out with Jax. And even if it was, I wasn’t ready for the kind of discussion we needed to have. But as his eyes met mine before the elevator doors closed, I knew by the gleam in them that he wasn’t going to give me long—not with him looking at me like he owned me and didn’t give a damn who saw him doing it.
