Page 28 of Filthy Liar

This was a mistake.

I swallow hard and finally look at him, at the two black coals staring back at me, and at the hard flex of his jaw.

“Would you be more comfortable in the conference room or my office?” Jason manages to keep his burning gaze on me and still seem genuinely concerned for Caroline at the same time. He’s got mad manipulation skills, I give him that.

“I don’t care.” Those are the first words she’s uttered since I told her who I was calling. Caro’s never met Jason before. She didn’t know that I worked here until I quit, until I confessed I’d fallen for someone I’d meant to investigate, and I needed to get out of town.

She doesn’t know all of what this is costing me, but she knows enough, and even in distress, she’s got my back.

Jason points to the conference room, and I take Caro’s arm. He waits for us to pass, then follows behind. I can feel the heat of his hand at the small of my back—not touching, but close.

Cole leads the conversation, for which I’m supremely grateful. Jason sits at the far end of the table, slightly out of Caroline’s field of vision, and he takes notes as Cole calmly leads her through what they need to know and what could wait for the doctors.

“How much of a circus is this going to be?” Caroline’s voice shakes.

I see Cole and Jason exchange a look. They’re thinking,good, she knows the risk, she’s smart to ask.

Cole doesn’t miss a beat, he just waits for us to give him our attention again and he nods. “It’s going to be a circus. Big time. But on your terms. And we’ll be standing behind you, or beside you, or in front of you. Wherever you want us to be, whatever you need us to do.”

All of that standing sounds expensive. And the Horus Group doesn’t work for people like Caroline Denten pro bono.

I lean forward. “How much will that cost? She doesn’t want her family making any decisions. If you help us beyond this meeting, Caroline’s the client.”

“Of course.” Cole doesn’t look down the table, but he waits a beat to see if Jason wants to weigh in. When he doesn’t, that must have meant something, because Cole leans back. “We’ll need a ten-thousand-dollar retainer.”

I do a double-take. I’m not sure what I’m surprised about more—that they want money, or that it’s so little.

I mean, it’snot. It’s a ridiculous amount of money to pay ex-soldiers to hold your hand while you go to the hospital and the police station and run the gauntlet of media once they catch wind of the story.

Federal Prosecutor Victimof a Home Invasion; the Granddaughter of a former Speaker of the House accuses her own team of not protecting her while she’s pursuing a sealed indictment against a protected Individual

It’sa story that demands a circus.

“I can get a bank draft in a few hours,” I say, and Caroline protests, but I just rub her shoulder and repeat myself. “Really, it’s fine.”

Cole clears his throat. “We’ll return whatever funds we don’t use at the end of this.”

There won’t be any funds left. They will exhaust the retainer by the end of the week, which is why it is usually ten times that amount.Wasusually, I suppose. I don’t know what they’re charging these days, but they don’t look like they’re running a charity.

“The next step…” Cole continues, detailing how they’d send someone ahead to the hospital and arrange for Caroline to bypass the Emergency Department, going straight to the Sexual Assault and Domestic Violence Assessment Unit. She’ll see a social worker, a nurse, and a doctor if she had any significant injuries, and a rape kit will be collected. “At that point, it’s up to you if you want to involve the police immediately.”

“I don’t.” Caro sits up a little straighter, the prosecutor trying to take back some control over what happened to the woman.

“Then as you know, the rape kit is stored securely, transferred through to the police lab with an anonymous identification number. The evidence is collected, but your name isn’t attached to it yet.” He glances at his watch. “Have you slept at all?”

“No.” Her voice is barely above a whisper now, but she keeps going and it breaks my heart.

“Ms. Denten, you aren’t our first client who’s been through this,” Jason says from the end of the table, and his voice is like ice. Barely controlled fury simmers under the surface, I realize with a shock, and I don’t know how I didn’t pick up on it before.That’s why he sat so far away.

God, this must be so inconvenient for him. My own rage quickly rises, and I pinch back a sneer. “Good to know,” I say instead, my voice suddenly frigid as well.

Cole frowns at me, then at his partner, and finally offers Caroline an almost-smile. “We need to give Wilson thirty minutes to get ahead of us to the hospital. Would you like something to eat?”

She shakes her head. “Could I lie down?”

“Of course. We’ll give you both the room, and come back when it’s time to go.” Cole stands and walks the long way around the table, collecting Jason at the far end of the table and ushering the still-glowering ice man out of the room.

What is he afraid we’ll do to his conference room? I wrap a protective arm around my friend and guide her to the couch. She sags against me, and we hug for a minute, holding on to each other tighter than we have in…as long as I can remember.

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