Page 63 of Take the Bait

“You have no idea,” Cam replied pleasantly.

Frowns around the table met his comment. These were attorneys, one and all, and they could smell a threat no matter how pleasantly it was delivered.

Dani literally tugged at his sleeve in panic. “Don’t do this, Cam!”

She turned her back on the table so no one could read her lips and added under her breath—way under her breath for his ears only—“I love you. I don’t want this for you. I’ll love you anyway. I’ve already blown up my career to protect yours.”

He muttered back, “And that would be why I love you. It would also be why I’m not letting the woman I love sacrifice herself for me.”

She glared at him and he glared right back.

Finally, he murmured, “What say we do this together?”

“You’ll never get out of the D.A.’s office.”

He shrugged. “I don’t need the money. I’ll go into private practice, and plenty of firms would love to have a defense attorney with my experience and track record. And you’d make a hell of a public defender.”

“You’re sure?” she breathed.

“You and me, babe. Together against the world.”

It sounded like he was talking about more than tangling with WMP. Like he was talking about a long-term relationship. She searched his beautiful eyes, seeking his meaning.

Smart man that he was, he saw immediately what she was silently asking with her searching look. He said clearly, “I’m talking about the whole shooting match, Dani.”

Her jaw dropped. She would love nothing more than to launch herself into his arms right now, rip his clothes off, and make wild love to him right there on the conference table in front of every last one of the sanctimonious WMP bastards.

Laughter entered his gaze. “Hold that thought until tonight.”

“I believe we have a deal, counselor.”

“You accept the whole deal?”

“The whole shooting match,” she declared.

It was his turn for his gaze to ignite.

He said loudly enough for everyone in the room to hear. “All right then. Let’s blow this place up.”

His jaw rippled as he turned away from her to stare down the table. “I’m prepared to testify that Wendall Marcos told me the only reason this firm hired Miss Wellford was so attorneys the firm is hoping to attract to work for it can screw her.”

A gasp around the table accompanied the abrupt jolts of most of the partners sitting up sharply in their chairs.

“It’s your word against Wendall’s?—”

“I overheard the conversation,” Dani interrupted smoothly. “It’s what launched my investigation of firing practices of female associates at WMP in the first place. I’m also prepared to testify to what Mr. Marcos said. I’ve also documented the sexist and misogynistic treatment I’ve been subjected to while working here.” She gestured at the pile of dossiers. “As have any number of women attorneys of excellent reputation and standing in the legal community.”

That silenced them.

She could practically hear the mental wheels of the men at the table spinning at top speed. She and Cam let the silence marinate long enough for the partners to fully process the implications to WMP—and to them personally—of a very public, very messy discrimination lawsuit that they were going to lose.

Then Cam said casually, “For the record, I wrote, dated, and notarized an affidavit detailing my conversation with Mr. Marcos the morning after it took place. It’s on file and can be submitted to a court and the New York Bar Association with a few keystrokes on a computer.”

The morning after?

He’d had her back all this time, and she’d never known it? Why hadn’t he told her about the affidavit? Obviously, he’d thought the conversation was as inappropriate as she had or he wouldn’t have bothered to write a formal statement and go to the trouble of having it notarized.

He glanced at her and caught her staring at him in shock. He flashed her a brief, rueful smile. “I went looking for you immediately after the conversation to tell you about it in private, but I got, umm, distracted.”

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