Claire
“We’re going in circles.” I pushed my hair behind my ear, frustrated. Ethan started rubbing my back. We had been talking for hours, but not getting anywhere.
Liv stood up. “We know the banks in the Caymans that are involved, and that the contract was forged for Dan to have access. Maybe we’re focusing on the wrong things…” She glanced over at Meg.
Meg stared at Liv for a moment, then snapped her fingers. “Liv’s right. What if we shift gears for a minute? Besides money, what is Dan’s real motive here? Why was he taking cases he shouldn’t if he had this kind of money at his disposal?”
Phil’s head snapped up. “He doesn’t have the money at his disposal. It’s being run for someone else.”
“Claire, do you remember seeing anyone shady at the office?” Laura asked. “Or Dan taking any out-of-the-ordinary calls?”
I wracked my brain. “Dan’s clients are mostly businesspeople. A lot of my cases came directly to me because of my reputation. I had a few clients that I received through Dan, but I preferred my own. His clients always kind of gave me the creeps.”
“What do you mean?” Ethan’s head jerked toward me.
I shrugged. “On the outside, they appeared to be successful businessmen. They wore suits and represented successful companies. But they liked to cut corners. I wouldn’t do anything illegal, but I knew they wanted me to. I would go around and around with them about how they couldn’t do this or that, or it would be illegal.”
“Why were you hired?” Tom asked. “If Dan’s clients were mostly businesspeople, then why did he need a criminal attorney on his staff? If there were only a few cases, wouldn’t it have made more sense to refer it out?”
“It would have, yes. Especially given what he was paying me.”
“Can you expand on that?” Blake asked.
I stood up and started pacing. A heavy feeling grew in my chest. “The first year I worked there, I met with Dan and told him that I didn’t see enough criminal work coming in, and that while I appreciated all he had done for me, I didn’t want to morph into a business attorney. He had plenty of accounts for me to work on if I wanted to focus on contract law and other business-related items.”
“So, you were going to give your notice?” Jack inquired.
I stopped pacing. “I did give my notice, but Dan ripped it up. He told me that he understood my passion for criminal law and that he would give me a budget to use for marketing. Then he gave me a pretty substantial raise if I agreed to meet with his few clients who needed me and built the rest of my clientele myself.”
Phil jumped back in. “You didn’t think anything was strange about that?”
A flush crept through my neck. I went and sat down. Ugh, this is so embarrassing.
Ethan grabbed my fidgeting hands. “Claire, what is it? It’s okay, just tell us.”
Ugh! “I pushed any thoughts of it being strange out of my head. My six-figure student loans from Harvard kept me broke, and I was doing everything I could to survive on my thin salary.” I could feel the heat burning on my face, and I looked back down.
Ethan pulled me closer to him. “Hey, no one is judging you. We would have all done the same thing.”
Liv spoke up. “I stayed for years at Keller and Godfried because of the paycheck. I only had loans from Penn State... Way less than your student loans. You aren’t going to get any judgment from me.”
Meg threw her hand in the air. “Poor girl from the hood. No judgments.”
“Four years with an old, fat man that stole all my ideas and used to grab my ass every chance he got. No judgments,” Laura volunteered.
Blake’s head snapped up, and his face became red. “Who was this? I think I need to pay him a visit.”
Laura rolled her eyes and waved her hand. “Long time ago. Settle down, Cowboy.” She leaned over and kissed him.
“Six years of sleeping next to a human trafficker!” Maddie raised her hand.
Jack’s face fell. “Did you have to phrase it that way?”
Maddie shot him an I’m sorry look.
“I think we can all tell you we’ve done things for different reasons. No judgments. What I want to know is, who are these clients?” Derek asked.
I sighed and bit my lip. “I can’t disclose that. It’s confidential, even though I’m no longer there.” I peeked over at Meg. My heart started to beat faster as I remembered the last time I said that.
She winked at me. “Okay, you can’t give us names, but what did they do for a living? Why did they need to see you? Can you tell us that?”
I shifted in my seat. I tried to think of what was okay to reveal and what was not. “Different things—gambling...some drug issues with their sons...bribery...fraud… Typical criminal things.”
“If it was typical criminal stuff, why did you feel uncomfortable with them?” Tom asked.
“I always felt like they were picking my brain on how to do things so they wouldn’t get caught. I felt that they were always lying to me. There were never charges...or even interrogations, now that I think about it. A few times they told me that they had other representation for that, but wanted a second opinion to make sure their attorneys were doing the right things for them. When I asked who their attorneys were, they wouldn’t disclose it.”
Ethan turned to me. “Was there anyone who you met with more often?”
My skin got clammy. I bit my lip and nodded.
“Claire, what is it?” Ethan pressed.
“I don’t know why I didn’t think about this sooner. I can’t believe it.” I stood up and started pacing.
It’s been in front of me the entire time. What kind of idiot am I?
Flip, flip, flip went my stomach. I stopped in front of Ethan. My lip started quivering. “It’s my fault your accounts were embezzled from.”
Ethan
You could hear a pin drop. My mouth went dry. “Claire, what are you talking about?”
“Ethan, I’m so sorry,” she whispered.
I grabbed her hands and calmly repeated, “Claire, what are you talking about?”
Her face was white, and I could feel her hands trembling at the same speed as her lip. She was shaking her head.
I pulled her onto my lap. “Hey, it’s okay. Tell me what’s going on.”
She took a shaky breath and looked at me. “Dan put me in charge of continuing education. He sent a ten-thousand-dollar check directly to my student loans each year I ran it. Money laundering and ethics was an annual requirement.”
I rubbed her back. “Okay, so you ran the training. That doesn’t make this your fault.”
She shook her head. “I didn’t only run the training. A few years ago, Dan decided that it would be more interesting—continuing ed tends to be pretty boring—if I made up a case study and we held a mock trial. I agreed that it would be more interesting and really poured myself into it.”
I shrugged. I still didn’t understand what she was trying to tell me.
“Ethan, I created a very complicated case where the culprit embezzled from their client and laundered the money so well that it looked like it disappeared into thin air.” Claire paused.
“And…” I gently goaded her to continue.
Claire gulped. “Dan brought in the one client he had me meet with the most. He played the role of the culprit. Dan and I were the attorneys in the mock case. Dan was the prosecutor, and I was the attorney for his client. I had to get him ready for interrogation. Other attorneys pretended to be the FBI. We had court...everything. And...and…”
“Go on.” I brushed my thumb over her cheek.
“He recorded it. Dan claimed he wanted to send it to the continuing ed board. If they shared it with other firms, any money they paid us would go directly to my student loans.”
“Did he send it to the board?”
“He said he did, but I never received any payments, and I assumed it wasn’t good enough for them to use.”
My stomach was flipping. I had no doubt Claire knew who, along with Dan, was behind the embezzlement.
Ben’s voice interrupted my gaze with Claire. “JJ, you need to call Piper and Creedie.”
JJ walked over to where we were sitting and sat down on the ottoman. “Claire, we need to get the FBI to issue a search warrant for that tape. Do you have any documents still?”
“Yes, everything is on my computer. It wasn’t a client file, so I didn’t worry about it when I left Dan.”
“Good, that’s good. I’ll need everything you have on it, as well as a list of anyone present, including the client. We need to meet with Creedie and Piper tomorrow.”
Something occurred to me. “Claire, if you showed them how to make money disappear, can’t you lead the FBI to the money?”
“It depends on what they’ve done with it, but it’s possible.”
Ben started pacing. “Collin, you know Dan, right?”
“Yes. Until this happened, I used him for a lot of things. All my contracts have been reviewed by a new attorney this past week. My bank accounts attached to any contract he wrote have been changed over. I didn’t want to risk anything similar happening.”
“That was smart,” Ben stated.
“Why do you ask?” Collin wanted to know.
“You willing to get wired and meet with Dan?”
Collin smiled. “Yep.”
“Great.” Ben pointed at Claire and me. “It’s time you two break the rules.”
“Break the rules?” I questioned Ben.
He smiled at me. “Yep.”
“Why would we break the rules? Won’t that create problems for Claire?”
Claire stood up and faced Ben. “You want Collin to work with Dan to embezzle more money from Ethan, don’t you?”
“Yep.”
Blood rushed through my veins. “Why would I let Collin and Dan embezzle more money from my company?”
Tom stood up. “Because Collin’s going to tell Dan that you two are together. He’s going to approach him to get in on the deal and suggest to Dan that you’re set up to look like you and Claire did it together.”
JJ laughed. “Maybe you should join our firm, Tom.”
Tom grinned.
Ben pointed to me. “This is what we’re going to do. You’re going to leave through the Silence of the Lambs basement with Jack tonight. That way, if anyone by any chance notices you, you went in together and came out together. Plus, we still have this as a secret meeting place if needed.”
I rolled my eyes.
Jack grinned at me and enjoyed my apparent dislike of his creepy basement.
“Claire, you’re going to leave Jack and Maddie’s and go home, or to Ethan’s. I don’t care where, but no more hiding. Tomorrow you meet with JJ and the FBI.”
“Creedie texted back. Nine a.m. tomorrow at Claire’s place,” JJ informed us.
“Good. Time for you to pony up and take Claire out on some dates this weekend, Ethan.” Ben gave me a wink.
Happiness burst through me.
“It’s about time you took me out,” Claire teased.
I leaned in and gave her a quick kiss, grinning like a schoolboy.
“Use your burners if you’re talking about the case. Otherwise, use your normal phones,” Ben instructed.
“I’ll wait to get instructions from you, Ben?” Collin asked.
“Yes.”
“Ben, we need to be very careful leaving here tonight. It’s not good that we’re both here with everyone,” JJ worried.
“Ben, have your car pull up outside Muldaney’s. I have another tunnel I can take you through. JJ, you can go out with Claire, since you’re her attorney. No one would question that,” Jack nonchalantly instructed.
My head snapped over to him. “Exactly how many tunnels are attached to this building, and how do you know about them?”
Jack laughed. “I have mad property skills, Ethan.”
“That’s seriously cool,” Derek proclaimed.
I jerked my head at him. “D, it’s only cool until you’re walking through them.”
JJ pulled us back on track. “Okay, so Ben, you go out the other tunnel tonight. Claire, you leave the normal route. Ethan, you and Jack go the way you came. Everyone else, if we need you, we will let you know.”
I looked around the room, then at Claire. This had better work.
It was around ten p.m. when I left with Jack. We quickly made our way through the creepy tunnel, up the elevator, and out of the building. Shaking hands, we parted ways. I started walking down the street when my phone rang.
“Hey, hot stuff. What are you up to?” Claire's voice purred through the phone.
I grinned. “I just left a property Jack wanted me to look at. What about you?”
“That’s funny, I was helping Maddie get more stuff ready for when the baby comes. I’m leaving her lobby now.”
“I’m not that far from their place. You had dinner yet?” I realized I hadn’t eaten.
“Nope. I licked some ice cream earlier, but I’m officially starving now.”
I laughed. “Thanks for the visual. Stay where you are, and I’ll pick you up.”
“Okay. See you soon.” Claire hung up.
I hailed a cab and quickly was in front of Jack’s building. Claire was standing outside. I jerked the door open and she jumped in, wrapped her arms around me, and pulled me to her lips.
“Where to?” the cabbie asked.
I raised my eyebrows at her. “You like Mexican?”
“Do I look like a girl who likes Mexican?” she teased.
“Hell’s Kitchen...the restaurant,” I replied to the cabbie.
Claire shimmied onto my lap. Her mouth met mine in a fury. Her delicious tongue dipped in and out of my mouth, and her hand gently stroked my face.
We made out the entire way. It wasn’t that far. We were soon inside the restaurant, and grabbed drinks at the bar while we waited for a table.
I grabbed a stool as someone was leaving, sat down, and pulled Claire onto my lap. “Why do I feel so free all of a sudden?”
She laughed. “I know. I do too. Now’s the real test. Do you really love me, or only love to hide with me?”
I looked at her seriously. “That’s not funny.”
She put her lips to mine. “I’m kidding.”
I kissed her back. “Tomorrow night I’ll take you on a real date.”
She gave me a sly grin. “Yeah? Where to?”
“I’m not telling you.”
“Then how do I know what to wear?”
I licked my lips and ogled her body.
She playfully smacked me. “Enough of the fuck-me eyes. I can’t go out naked in public.”
I laughed. “I’ll send you a text tomorrow after I arrange everything.”
The pager buzzed that our table was ready. I grabbed Claire’s hand and went to the hostess stand.
“Right this way.” A redhead with two menus walked us through the restaurant and back to a two-top table.
I sat across from Claire, giddy from just being out in public with her.
“What?” She grinned back.
“Nothing.”
“What?”
I realized there was so much first date stuff I didn’t know about Claire. “What’s your favorite color?”
“What do you think?”
“Pink?”
“Very good, Ethan. Aren’t you observant!” she teased.
“I’d ask you what your favorite flower is, but I have a feeling it’s roses.”
“Ding, ding, ding. You score another point.”
I did a victory punch in the air. “Favorite food?”
Laughing, “Sushi. My turn.”
“Go on.”
She smirked at me. “Favorite sexual position.”
I gave her my I-want-to-fuck-you eyes. “All of them.”
“If you had to pick one…”
“Any position that you’re in.”
She rolled her eyes to the ceiling. “Blow jobs or intercourse.”
“I’m not picky. Whichever you want to give me,” I teased, but was also serious.
“You’re not really giving me answers.”
I held up my hands. “Hey, I’m being totally honest with you.”
“Morning sex or night sex?”
I laughed. “Once again, I’ll take it whenever you want to give it to me.”
She laughed. “So basically, you’re ready to be used and abused whenever I snap my fingers.”
I licked my lips. “Yep.”
Claire’s foot started moving up the side of my leg and slowly stroked from my ankle to my calf. “What if I do this to you? Does that do anything to you?”
She's going to torment my dick through dinner. “It makes me think with my dick instead of my brain, if that’s what you’re asking.”
The waitress cleared her throat.
I looked over at her. “Sorry.” I blushed.
The waitress laughed, set down a basket of chips, went through the menu, then asked if we had any questions.
We shook our heads.
“Are you ready to order, then, or do you need a few more minutes?”
“I’m ready if you are,” Claire told me.
I nodded for her to order.
“Steak tacos, please.”
I shut my menu. “I’ll have the pork tacos.”
“Do you want a refill on your drinks?”
“I’ll take a water, please.” Claire smiled at her.
“I’ll take another beer.”
The waitress left, and Claire inched her foot up a bit. I looked back at her.
Her hand moved under the table and was soon caressing my knee and thigh, while her other hand’s fingers trailed from my fingertips to my elbow and back down again.
The skin on my neck stood up. My manhood quickly started standing at attention. I thought about how no other woman could sit in a restaurant and tease me quite this way. I locked eyes with her. “I think you like to torment me.”
“Very observant of you,” she shot back, and continued to fondle me.
“I think you should come back to my place tonight so I can teach you a lesson.”
She tilted her head and made a pouty face. “I have to meet Creedie tomorrow.”
I didn’t flinch, and knew she was throwing Creedie’s name out there to drive me batty. “Does that mean you aren’t going to stay with me tonight?”
She laughed. “Now, I wouldn’t go that far... More like I think you should stay at my place.”
“Done.”
She shifted in her seat and took a big sip of water. Setting her glass down, she batted her eyes at me innocently. “If you’re at my place, does that mean you’re still going to teach me a lesson?”