Page 90 of The Logic of Loyalty

“I want you to maintain it with me, please. I request confidentiality unless I state otherwise.”

He dips his head. “Of course. Yes, now I would like to understand what’s happening here.” His fidgeting stops abruptly. “An NDA, you say? No. It’s not something that will hold up in court. It’s in the damn constitution. A citizen has the right to counsel. That would be pretty damn hard to do if the counsel can’t even see the document, don’t you think?”

I release the air I was holding and feel the restless energy slowly release from my body. Gathering my courage, I drop the papers back onto the desk and give it to him straight. The thwap of the papers hitting the desk makes him flinch, but then lean forward in clear, lawyer interest. I clear my throat and begin. “I have a bunch of questions for you, a phone call we need to make, then a document you need to see.”

“Sounds great. Let’s get started.”

“No! You’re not listening, you straightlaced-upity sonuvabitch!” My finger is in his chest, and Joseph useless-piece-of-shit Banks is standing there with his hands raised in front of him, which seems hard to do when he’s got his thumb up his ass.

“You need to calm down⁠—”

“Oh. My. God! I could rip your eyebrows from your face. Stop waving them around like that!”

“Seriously, Paige. I’m worried.”

“Well, don’t be!”

A slamming door in the hallway is followed by my name being called out by a familiar, panicked voice.

“Paige? Paige!”

I whip my head back to the suit in front of me. “You⁠—”

His hands go higher. “I didn’t say anything.”

“Sir, Trevor. No, you can’t go in there. Joseph has a client⁠—”

“Excuse me, Lettie, but try to stop me.” The door crashes open behind me, and there stands Trevor—chest heaving and eyes wild.

“I’m not ready. Don’t do this, Paige. I swear to you, I know I⁠—”

A harried-looking Charlotte shows up at the door, interrupting him. “Trevor William Whitaker. I told you.” He doesn’t even give her a glance as his eyes narrow at where I stand. Just like in the car last night, our eyes are locked, and everything else around us disappears.

“… call security?’

“… not necessary.”

The door shuts, but we remain in our silent standoff.

“Why are you crying?” His voice is low and raspy. I reach up and pat my cheeks. Sure enough, my hands come away wet. Stupid pregnancy hormones.

“Trevor.” Joseph speaks up from behind me, pulling Trevor’s singular attention his way. If I thought he went stock still before, it’s nothing to the preternatural stillness that overcomes him now. It’s intense and distracting.

“What the fuck did you do to my wife, Banks?” He growls, low and menacing, and I feel it down to my bones. He takes a slow step in our direction, followed directly by another and another until he’s pressed against me. The red lining his knuckles stands out in stark relief against the tightening of his fist. Is he bleeding? What is happening?

I push back against Trevor, realizing this version of my husband might skip the discussion part of things. “He didn’t do anything.” I shoot him a glare. “That’s part of the problem.” Trevor looks down at me again, his burning blue eyes taking in the tears on my face, then dragging down my torso, pausing on my stomach. He blinks, and his throat moves in a hard swallow.

“Paige—” He reaches his hand up as if to brush my tears with his fingers, but curls his fingers into a fist before he can make contact. He lowers his hand slowly back down to his side. “I don’t know what to do.”

I nod to the chair. “Sit.” I nudge him toward the open seat, and he sucks in a quick breath.

“We all need to—” Mr. Useless speaks up.

“You too, Banks.” You’re still on my shit list. “This apparently is great timing for once, Trevor. I was going to call you soon anyway, but this works even better. I need to sue your father, but this idiotic excuse for a lawyer—” He scoffs, and I shoot daggers at him. “He seems to have forgotten that I’m your wife and therefore thinks I have no right to litigation.”

“Well, yeah.” Trevor settles into a seat and nods approvingly at Joseph, who sits across from him.

“You see? Like I kept telling you. From what you’ve told me, it does not affect you. I helped Trevor check over that stupid post-nuptial agreement countless times over the years. It’s because of a biannual check-in that you were ’still safe,’ as he put it.”