Sleeping With My Boss: A Standalone Novel (An Alpha Billionaire Romance Love Story) (A Dirty Office Romance) (114 page)

“I want to apologize for my bad manners. I
didn’t realize you had an injury on your nose. I would have never said anything
if I had.”

He took me by surprise with his broad
smile. “It’s okay. I went home and looked in the mirror that day. It actually
made me happy that it only looks like dirt now. It’s much better.” Jack and I
had been friends from that day on. We were lovers years later and now here we
sat, both of us grown and successful.

“I guess you’re right,” I said to Jack.
“If not for our nannies…” I let it lie there. We both knew that our times
together were moments we would both hold in our hearts forever.

We launched into more talk about old times
and people we both knew and before I knew it, the lunch hour was over and I had
to get back to court. I gave Jack my cell number, and he said he would call
later in the week. I embraced him again before I left. I had honestly missed my
friend. I was glad to have him back. As I walked away, I glanced back at him.
The look that he had as he watched me go made me think again, though, that I
really should clarify my intentions the next time we met.

The rest of the day in court was more of the
same. Jury selection, as important as it was, could be a tedious chore. Nico,
Kyla, and I were all happy when by three p.m., both sides had agreed on two
more jurors and one alternate. The trial could begin now, and the judge
scheduled opening arguments for the following Monday morning.

Nico and Kyla had ridden in together that
morning from the office, so I told them I would meet them back there.

As I drove into the lot where the
associates and partners park, I saw Marjorie, again. She was getting out of the
backseat of a black Mercedes. The door was being held open for her by the
driver, and she was leaning in talking to a man inside. I recognized him as Hal
Rogers. Hal owned a large law firm, Rogers, Stein, and Rogers, and they often
went up against Adam and his lawyers in civil court. He was Marjorie’s lawyer,
and if Adam was right, her lover, as well.

I tried to walk by quickly without making
myself obvious, but just as I approached the car, Marjorie looked up and
noticed me.

“Hal, here she is! This is the girl that
was draped on Adam’s arm when he came home last night. Girl…oh, girl!” Marjorie
yelled out rudely at me like she was calling to one of her servants. I ignored
her and kept walking. I could hear her calling me until I got inside. Confrontation
with Marjorie was not going to do neither me nor Adam any good at this point.

I opened the lobby doors and slipped
quickly inside. I made my way back to my office with quick nods and smiles at
the skeleton staff that was left in the building this late in the afternoon and
slipped into my office. Once the door was closed behind me, I leaned against it
and took several deep breaths to calm myself. I startled as I both felt and
heard a knock on the door behind me. Thinking it was probably Carla, I turned
and opened it. To my dismay it wasn’t Carla, but Marjorie.

She pushed past me, not waiting to be
invited in and said, “I tried to get your attention in the lot, did you not
hear me?”

This woman was a real piece of work. “Oh,
I heard you, yes. I’m sure everyone out there did. I do not, however, answer to
‘Girl.’”

Marjorie smiled, or at least her face
moved as much as her multiple plastic surgeries would allow it to. “I do
apologize,” she said insincerely. “I guess that was rude, wasn’t it? I just
can’t for the life of me remember what my husband said your name was.” I felt
the knot in my stomach tighten at the word “husband,” even though I was sure
that upsetting me was Marjorie’s intention.

“My name is Alicia. Alicia Winston. What
exactly can I do for you, Mrs. Hanson?” I almost spat out the “Mrs.” and it was
obvious that Marjorie knew it.

“I just thought we should formally meet,”
she said as she helped herself to a seat on the couch in my office. “After all,
if you are going to continue sleeping with my husband, while he and I continue
to try and settle our divorce, I’m sure we’ll be running into each other
often.”

I felt my face grow hot. Marjorie’s only
intention here was to get to me, and unfortunately she was accomplishing her
goal.

“I fail to see who I, or Adam for that
matter, sleep with as you put it, is any of your concern. Now if that’s all, I
do have work to do.”

Marjorie stood and glanced around the
office. “You do know, of course, that part of my settlement will include this
law firm.” When I refused to engage her, she went on, “My first order of
business when that happens will be to take out the trash.” Picking up her coat
and leaving me fuming, she exited through the open door. I slammed it shut
behind her…right on Adam.

“How long have you been out there?” I
asked.

“Just long enough to see Marjorie breezing
out,” he told me as he came in and closed the door. “What was that about?”

I sighed, “Does it really matter, Adam?” I
asked, wearily. “She has planted herself in your life and grown roots. She does
not intend to be removed until she has exactly what she wants. Either you are
willing to give it to her, or you continue to live with her antics. I for one,
do not have the time, energy, or desire for any of it any longer.”

“What are you saying?” he asked, seemingly
genuinely confused.

“I am saying that until Marjorie is no
longer part of your life, until she no longer has the right to call herself
‘Mrs. Hanson,’ I am finished with you and I. Talk to me when you’re done with
her and we’ll see where we can go from there.”

Adam’s face was a mixture of anger and
disbelief. “You act like I want to live with this crazy woman. She is making my
life a living hell. I’ve been in meetings with oil barons and politicians all
day to boot. I’m being portrayed in the media as a pariah for taking on this
case, and now the one good thing in my life is about to walk away. Nice.”

I had been holding my temper back all day,
but I finally couldn’t take it any longer. “Me, me, me! That is all I ever hear
from you, Adam! What about me? What about what I went through last night
knowing you were spending the night with your ‘wife?’ What about what I went
through just now enduring that woman’s nastiness? At least you bear some
responsibility for what is happening in your life. Mine is falling apart as
collateral damage. You act like I just gave up on us. I have stuck this out for
nearly a year, feeling like the other woman when in truth, I was doing nothing
wrong. And now, nearly a year later, I am truly the other woman because here
you are living with your wife all over again!”

Adam sighed and rubbed his temples. “I
can’t just let her have it all. I can’t.”

“Then you keep fighting, Adam. You do what
you have to do, and I’ll do what I have to. Right now, what I really need to do
is get to work on my case at hand. There is a young man depending on me and I
will not throw his life away because I am too wrapped up in my personal issues
to do the best job possible for him.”

Adam nodded and left, just like that. I
wasn’t sure what I expected. He was headstrong and arrogant. I had known that
from the start. I didn’t really blame him for not wanting to give Marjorie what
was rightfully his, what he had earned. I just honestly didn’t have the
strength to be a part of it any longer. I had a horrible thought then, one that
I pulled right back down into that dark, dusty box in the corner of my brain
that I rarely allowed open.
 

“I
wish the bitch would just disappear off the face of the earth.”

CHAPTER
SIX

ADAM

  
I
had the worst day that I remembered having in a very long time. I stayed late
at the office not because I had so much work to do, but because I hated the
idea of being alone with Marjorie. When I finally forced myself out of the
building, I was assaulted right outside on the sidewalk by the bright flash of
a camera and a microphone in my face.

“Mr. Hanson, do you have any statements
regarding the death of the President’s campaign manager and his link to Miles
Brigham IV?”

My breath caught in my throat – Vick
Landon dead? I had no idea what the reporter was talking about. Vick couldn’t
be dead. He’s young and healthy…unless there was an accident. Why would he be
asking me, anyways? Vick was more Alex’s friend from the start. Or maybe it was
more about our common associates. It suddenly dawned on me that he was asking
me because of my association with Brigham Oil and their association with Vick
and this political campaign. Shit.

Realizing that I was surrounded by
reporters and they were all yelling questions at once, I held up a palm to
silence them. I saw Alicia leave the building out of the corner of my eye. She
stopped at the edge of the crowd. I wanted to go to her and make her understand
this bullshit with Marjorie, but that would have to wait until later. I
addressed the reporters as soon as they were quiet.

“I’m afraid, first of all, that you are
talking to the wrong person here. Yes, I am the attorney of record for the Oil
Company, and yes, we are connected to the President’s campaign financially. However,
I didn’t know Vick very well and I’m not sure how I can help you here. I didn’t
even know he had died, and so I have no idea how it happened.”

“He was murdered,” one of them called out.

“He was bludgeoned to death,” another one
said.

Before I opened my mouth again Mac, my
partner and my personal attorney, stepped out of the building. He leaned in
close to my ear and said, “You know better than to talk to these vultures.
Miles is here, let’s go.”

Before I even knew what was happening, I
was ushered into Miles Brigham’s smoke gray limousine, the door was slammed
shut, and we were pulling away from the curb. The last thing I saw outside the
building was Alicia still standing there and looking confused. I didn’t blame
her. I was confused myself.

********

I asked my assistant Mary to send Alicia
into my office as soon as Alicia got in the next morning. I was working on a
brief when I heard a tap on the door and it was pushed open. “Mary said you
wanted to see me,” Alicia said. I could tell by the red in her eyes that she
hadn’t had much rest. The look on her face also told me I was probably the last
person she wanted to see this morning. I knew I was dangling precariously close
to losing her; I just wasn’t sure I knew how to fix it.

 
“Yes, thanks for coming,” I said, trying to go
into boss mode and forget for a few minutes how much I loved her and how badly
I wanted her. “Please, sit.” I stood and motioned at a chair, and instead of
sitting back down behind my desk I sat in the other wing-backed chair opposite
her.

“I suppose you heard what happened last
night?”

“Yes, I couldn’t miss it. It’s all over
the news, and there are reporters all over outside. It’s still hard to
believe.”

“There are also federal agents here,
unfortunately,” I told her.

“FBI?” she asked.

“Yes. They are with Mac right now. They
believe that Brigham had something to do with Vick’s murder. Mac is trying to
get out of them exactly what we have, but I don’t think he’ll have much luck.
Our only goal in being here is to make sure his attorneys are aware he is a
person of interest, so our case doesn’t fall apart somewhere along the line for
not following the letter of the law.”

“Adam, do you think Brigham had anything
to do with it?”

I hesitated as I decided how to phrase my
answer. I wasn’t trying to keep things from Alicia. I didn’t want to alarm her
needlessly, either. Finally, I said, “He denies it, and we are his attorneys,
so it really doesn’t matter anyways, does it?”

“What do you need from me?” Alicia asked,
knowing that I was leading somewhere by telling her this. I felt an ache in my
chest. I wanted to tell her what I needed from her, on all levels. Instead, I
made myself focus on the task at hand and said,

“I need you to hand all of your open cases
over to Kyla and Nico, and I need you to take on the criminal portion of this
case. Mac and I will continue to represent the oil company, but I need you to
represent Brigham, whether or not he ends up being arrested. There are going to
be a lot of interviews with police and FBI, not to mention the press
conferences. I need you on that; you can have as many of the junior associates
and paralegals as you need to help.” Alicia looked dumbfounded. She knew how
good I thought she was at her job, but she was also still new. I just hoped I wasn’t
putting too much on her.

“Why me?”

“You have the most criminal experience of
us all, Alicia. Our forte here was corporate and domestic before you, Nico, and
Kyla came on board. You are all good, but I believe you are the best we have.
Brigham is our number one client. We can’t afford to hand him over to someone
that doesn’t know what they’re doing. Also,” I hesitated again before going on
to say, “the authorities are bound to turn up some things in our investigation
of Brigham that we would prefer the public and even some of our firm not know
about. I believe I can trust you to do what needs to be done to keep certain
things out of the press.”