Page 24 of Barristers & Bones

“You were twelve years old, and you’ve been living with the Spades ever since.”

I stared at him as my mind violently jerked me back. My father had never laid a hand on me until that day, but he’d come home so full of rage.

“You know what? You had no right to dig into my background–”

“Background checks are standard–”

I held up my finger. “Shut up, I’m not done talking. And then walk in here and throw the most hurtful parts in my face just to see my reaction. And I was fuckingrightabout my father. The law shouldn’t be applied differently for rich, degenerate assholes.” If Ivan knew, then Roman knew, and he hadn’t said a word.

Ivan’s eyebrow winged up mockingly. “I’m sure you believe that.”

“I said it shouldn’t. I never said it doesn’t. Why are you trying to run me off? You know I don’t have a choice about being here, right?”

He gazed at me for a few seconds, and he almost seemed… worried. Then the look vanished and his sneer returned. “No one’s forcing you to be here. You could tell Klim to fuck off.”

“Yeah, and lose my scholarship and maybe not graduate.” Gazing around the office, I stood up. “Fuck this,” I muttered as I shoved books, highlighters, and candy into my backpack. I couldn’t be here anymore, at least not today.

“Aren’t you going to stay and eat lunch?” he asked mockingly.

“Go fuck yourself. Roman may hate my guts, but at least he’s not purposefully cruel.”

Swinging my backpack over my shoulder, I shoved past him.

“Luna,” he called. “Don’t kid yourself about Roman. He’s just better at hiding his cruelty.”

I threw him the middle finger over my shoulder and strode out of the law offices, ignoring Brenna’s little grin when she saw the tear running down my cheek.

When the rideshare dropped me off at home, I turned off my phone, changed into jeans and a sweatshirt, and headed over to the law school. The heavy door of the law library groaned as I shouldered my way inside, and the scent of old books and low-grade anxiety greeted me. I dumped my backpack on a table in the back corner of my favorite floor.

Muttering under my breath, I pulled out my headphones. “My whole vacation shot in the ass.”

“Who got shot in the ass?”

I jumped at the sound of Jared Gardner's loud voice. He leaned against a bookshelf, staring down at me. Jared was probably the most handsome law student in our class, but he talked way too much about himself and had a grating, self-centered personality.

He’d asked me out a few times, and whenever we had a class together, he tried to sit next to me. The fact that I wasn’t interested probably made him that much more determined; I just wanted him to leave me alone.

“Hello, Jared. How was your fall break?” I muttered as I put my headphones around my neck.

Jared raised an eyebrow. “Good, how’s yours been? I thought you were going out of town with your roommates.”

He seemed to know a lot about my life. “Change of plans.”

“I hear you’re interning at The Firm with Roman Fowler.” He looked envious.

“I didn’t even know who they were until a week ago.”

Jared shook his head. “They’re only the wealthiest, most prestigious law firm in Las Vegas. Is it true? Are you actually interning there?”

I sighed and rubbed my eyes. “Probably not anymore. I told one of the partners to go fuck himself this afternoon.”

Jared’s eyes bugged out and he sat down. “Are you nuts? Do you know the rumors about those guys?”

“This is Las Vegas. What successful business around here doesn’t have rumors and gossip swirling around it? That doesn’t mean they’re true.” The irony wasn’t lost on me. An hour ago I’d stormed out of there with my middle finger in the air, and now I was defending them.

“It doesn’t mean they’re not. They're richer than Croesus, and they’ve got their fingers in a lot of pies.”

“Rumors are like pigeons,” I replied, flipping open a textbook. “They fly around and make a mess, but don’t amount to much.”

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