Jane Choate - Shattered Secrets

“You’re fortunate to have your sisters and brother.”

“We Santonnis are a loud, bossy bunch. I’ll take you to meet them one day—” He stopped abruptly.

He was remembering the same thing she was, she thought, a pang of regret spearing through her. Two years ago, they’d planned a trip to meet his family.

It had never happened.

“What about you?” he asked. “Are you into designer handbags?”

Olivia shook her head and patted her battered briefcase. “Daddy gave this to me when I graduated from law school. It’s getting pretty beat-up, but I always carry it.” Her voice caught. “It reminds me of him.

“I have to get back to work,” she said, the huskiness of her voice at odds with the teasing note of earlier.

“Yeah. And I should be talking with more of your coworkers. See what I can learn.”

He closed the door behind him, leaving Olivia feeling more alone than ever. Without her knowing how it had happened, Sal was starting to become important to her all over again. The question was, what was she going to do about it?

SIX

By the end of the day, Sal had a pretty good handle on Chantry & Hammond’s personnel. There was the flirt. The jealous coworker. The ambitious partners. For the most part, they fit neatly into categories.

He’d do background checks on each, including any criminal history. It wasn’t difficult to figure out that several members of the law firm were living beyond their means.

He’d zeroed in on Bryan Hewston and Vicky Newman. A call to Shelley netted him the information that Newman came from money and had a substantial trust fund. Okay, that explained the designer bags and clothes. Hewston was another matter. It wasn’t clear, Shelley told him, where his money came from. She promised to do more digging.

“Thanks, boss.”

“Take care of Olivia. From what you’ve said, she’s in over her head.”

“You know I will.”

“I wish I could be there, but I can hardly tie my own shoes, much less chase down bad guys.”

Sal gave the expected chuckle, but his mind wasn’t really on what Shelley was saying. He was too busy trying to convince himself that he didn’t still have feelings for Olivia, before giving it up as a lost cause. Mixing personal and private matters was a recipe for disaster, so he was determined to keep things strictly professional.

That was the way to go. The only way to go.

He’d insisted on accompanying her to the Savannah courthouse and seeing her home at the end of the day. In between chatting up her coworkers, he’d found a motel, stashed his duffel bag there. He could have stayed at his parents’ place or with his brother, Nicco, but he preferred having the freedom of movement that a motel room offered.

Though he’d grown up in Savannah, he’d kept his distance from his family since his return from Afghanistan. The past kept tripping him up. He’d hidden the darker parts from his family as well as Olivia.

He knew he needed to make time to see his family. Until then, he contented himself with a phone call to his parents, assuring them that he was all right and would see them once the case was resolved.

He now waited at the side entrance to the courthouse as they’d agreed.

Heels clicking on the marble floor, Olivia made her way to where he stood. He took in the defeated expression on her face.

“A setback in court?”

“Waterloo was a setback. This was a disaster.” She tried a smile, but it barely made it to her lips. “I let everyone down.” Her shoulders slumped. “Especially the parents. They’re depending on me.”

“You’re too hard on yourself. Always tilting at windmills.”

“That’s what windmills are for.”

He understood that defending the underdog was what had made her want to be a lawyer in the first place. “You’ll get ’em tomorrow.”

“I hope so. I have to.” Her voice hardened. “What the company did to those children is as good as murder. And that’s what I’ll take it down for.”

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