Page 15 of Embracing the Consequences

For now, the three of them dismounted and headed for the door near the loading dock. They had a long day of work ahead of them.

“I heard Vince hired someone to have her killed.” A not-so-soft voice spoke behind Johnny and the guys.

Johnny’s eyes narrowed on Derrick as they sat around a table in the moderately busy lunchroom.

The table behind them had been filled with people Johnny didn’t know, and had no interest in knowing, until they spoke up.

“He tried to kill his own daughter?” someone else asked, their voice shocked.

“Yeah. That’s what I heard at least. She apparently found that he had been embezzling from the firm. The news said she had tohand over hundreds of files to the DA’s office,” the first voice, a man, spoke up again.

Kevin was watching the table over Johnny’s shoulder, his dark eyes narrowing in on the person speaking. He had worked at the Carmichael building the longest. He probably recognized faces and maybe even knew some of the people around them. Johnny would have to ask him later.

“I heard she was attacked in her own home,” the woman gasped, clearly in shock. “But for her own father to have her attacked? That’s a little far-fetched.”

“It was outlined in the news report. You’ll have to look it up,” the man continued. “But the board brought her back on as soon as Vince was indicted. Apparently, he moved to have her terminated when he came back.”

“Holy shit,” the woman muttered again. “Goes to show you, blood isn’t everything.”

“Yeah.” The man huffed out. “And now Vince is on the run and the firm is being investigated. How soon until Kara starts having security escort people out of the building? Or worse, the police start arresting people?”

“Well, I didn’t do anything wrong, so I have nothing to worry about,” the woman murmured.

The man made no comment.

“I heard they’ve already arrested Reid James, Jim Briggs, and Janet Walter. They were senior partners,” another woman spoke up.

“No shit?” the first woman asked.

“Not surprising with how tight they were with Ken Laraway,” the second woman said.

“I’ve already sent my résumé to a colleague at another firm. Might be time to make a move, before the house comes tumbling down,” another man spoke up.

Johnny narrowed his eyes at that. Kevin met his gaze and shook his head. There was no use getting all worked up. This was bound to happen when it came to any kind of in-house scandal. He knew Kara was strong and could weather the storm, but it still bothered him to hear it in person.

He stuffed the last of his sandwich in his mouth and cleaned up his stuff. He had a sudden urge to see his woman and hoped her day was going better than the gossip he had to listen to.

By Friday evening after Kara’s first week back to the office, Johnny was about ready to pull the plug on the whole thing. He hated her being away from them all day, hated that he went hours without laying eyes on her. He was seconds away from tying a damn tracker around her neck or locking her ass up in their bedroom.

That second idea had merit. He considered it, wondering how she’d handle some of their rougher play now that she was pregnant. It felt like he’d been googling the shit out of everything all week. He knew he wasn’t alone in that whenever Derrick would spout off some random fact while they worked like, “She can’t eat sushi anymore, but I can still eat her sushi,” a typical crack that Devil was notorious for.

Johnny led the way into their house Friday night, Kevin and Derrick joking loudly behind him. He had a wide grin on his face, happy to be home, as he walked through the back door in the kitchen and headed for the kitchen table.

He looked around the great room and smiled wider when he saw Kara kicked back on the couch, her heels on the floor, andher stockings-clad feet up on the coffee table. Her formfitting dress had driven him crazy all day. The bright red chiffon or whatever it was clung to her golden skin. In the office, she had covered her tatted arms with a leather jacket that also hugged her curves. Now the jacket was draped over the back of a kitchen chair and her ink was on full display.

She looked so damn fuckable. “Fucking hell.” Kevin groaned under his breath as he looked over at their girl.

She had a charcuterie board ladened with snacks on the table and three glasses of Macallan already poured. There was a wineglass of a clear bubbly liquid in front of Kara. She looked up from her phone when they walked in and smiled widely.

“Honey, we’re home,” Derrick greeted with a goofy grin.

“I can see that.” Kara smirked.

Johnny took a seat at the table in the breakfast nook and made quick work of unlacing his steel-toe boots.

“Whatcha doing over there, pretty girl?” Kevin asked, bending down to unlace his own boots but keeping his eyes on Kara.

“Well since I can’t drink wine…” she rolled her eyes, “I figured I’d pretend with some Sprite and you all could have a drink and relax…and maybe help me relax in return.” She gave them a wicked grin.

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