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“Defense-worthy,” he says. “Perhaps even how we won the case. I’ll talk to the team about it Monday.”
The team.
Not me.
He eyes Reese. “I’m heading out.”
And then he’s gone.
Nothing more.
He’s just gone.
Chapter fifty-one
Cole
Ileave Reese and Cat’s place, go home, change, and jog five miles. Anything to get Lori out of my head. I fail. I do it again the next morning. I fail. I do it again Monday morning. Then I walk into work and she is there. I’m pissed for no reason. It fires me up. I’m brutal with the ADA I’m dealing with on numerous cases, but it works for me and my clients. If I can’t get my way with Lori, I’m getting my way at work. At least my frustration at Lori is contributing to the good of the company.
She walks into my office at noon in a damn light blue dress that hugs her ass. I hate that fucking dress because I love her fucking ass. “I have that case file you needed,” she says, and when she would cross to set it on my desk, I stop her.
“Give it to Ashley. You have to make your Stanford deadline. Finish your papers before you touch anything else.”
She stares at me a moment, like she wants to say something, but she leaves, and I watch her ass leave in that dress. I don’t see her, or her ass, again for the rest of the day. I go for another jog that night and somehow, I walk into the Tiffany’s store. I end up at home with a twenty-five-thousand-dollar ring they’d called the “Soleste” in its box and staring at me. I shut the damn box. She didn’t want to live with me. Why do I think she would marry me?
Lori
A full week passes without Cole. A full week of hell. He’s shut me out. Maybe I shut him out first. Saturday morning comes, and I go to the hospital to see my mother and then as usual stop by the accounting office. “I need to make a payment on the Havens account.”
I wait and the lady behind the counter says, “There is no open account.”
“That’s impossible. We still owe ten thousand dollars.”
“Says here it was paid off a week ago.”
“By who?”
“Anonymous donation. Wow. That’s nice.”
Cole.
I’m furious. I’m confused. I’m furious all over. He can’t keep doing this and he hates me now. Why would he do this? To make me feel bad? To prove he can control me? To—what? I turn away from the counter, and don’t even think about what I’m doing. I am in the subway on my way to Cole’s apartment, and barely remember how I got there. The ride is short, and I have no coherent thoughts during the trip, just adrenaline and this white-hot feeling in my chest. When I get to his building, I go straight to the elevators like I still belong here. I arrive at his door and I don’t knock either.
I open the door.
I walk in.
I feel the crush of emotions he creates, and I smell him everywhere.
I am angry all over.
I rush down the hallway to find him standing at the living room window on the phone, his back to me, a white tee stretched across his broad shoulders, jeans hugging his powerful lower body. He looks deliciously male. His voice is deliciously rich. I hate that I notice. I hate that my heart races just being this near him. “No,” he says. “That’s unacceptable. We need a full record of—” He turns around and his eyes narrow on me. “I need to call you back.” He disconnects the line and shoves his phone in the pocket of his jeans.
“What did you do?” I demand and I’m so angry, I’m now standing in front of him and once again I don’t remember how I got here.
“Which time, Lori? Because apparently I did a lot wrong.”
“Don’t turn this around on me. You can’t pay my bills. You paid the hospital bill.”
