Page 51 of Embracing the Consequences

Derrick sighed heavily. “I hate him.”

Kara pressed a kiss to his lips. “Me too.”

“Alright, baby girl. I’m gonna beat him to holy hell, though,” Derrick conceded.

“Fine.” Kara smirked and pressed another kiss to his lips.

“That’s an option?” Johnny asked from behind her.

Kara laughed softly. “Not too badly. I need him to be able to appear unharmed on arrival.”

“Nothing visible. Got it,” Derrick shot back with a smirk.

Kara rolled her eyes and pulled away from him. “If we’re done here, let’s go home.”

A throat cleared behind her, and Kara turned to see Noah Jameson standing in the doorway. “If it’s cool, I’m gonna head out. I opened all the safes for you.”

Kara beamed and headed toward him. “Thank you so much, Noah. Seriously. I appreciate it,” Kara gushed, stopping before him. “You were a lifesaver today.”

Noah gave her an easy smile. “Anytime. Things around here are fun.” He chuckled.

Kara laughed and stepped toward him, opening her arms. Noah leaned down and gave her a friendly hug. “It was nice to meet you,” she said as she let him go.

“You too,” Noah said.

“I told Steph, when things calm down here…and there, we’ll have to get together.”

A dark look passed across Noah’s eyes, but he blinked it away quickly. He plastered a smile on his face as he nodded. “Sounds great.”

Jack and Kevin escorted him out of the house as Kara turned to Johnny and Derrick. “Something’s going on with Stephanie. I’m worried about her.”

“I think Jameson and his team have her completely guarded,” Johnny said. “We were talking to him about his life in the military. He’s ex–Special Forces, ran in some of the same circles we did.” Johnny motioned between him and Derrick. “I think they have it handled.”

Kara frowned and leaned into his arms. “I hope you’re right,” she murmured.

“I hope you’re right about your father and the board,” Johnny countered.

“Me too.” Kara sighed.

It had been along time since Kara had stayed late at the office. Before her attack, before she started dating her boys, she had been a workaholic. Most days she started early and left well after eight or nine p.m., especially in the lead-up to a trial. She needed her ducks all in a row and her case airtight.

She might not be leading the case against her father, but she was assisting Winters with anything she could. That meant gathering even more evidence. She had handed over access to her storage facility already, and Winters’ team, along with Danvers, was neck deep in boxes.

The additional information Stephanie Stonewall had provided regarding the senior partners was what really had driven the indictment. Winters hadn’t just gone after her father; she’d gone after several senior partners as well, Ken Laraway among them.

While they had all been indicted, only Laraway and her father had disappeared before they could be arrested. They were in the wind and on the run, so to speak. Winters was hoping their disappearances would put more pressure on the other indicted senior partners to talk.

Kara was growing more anxious the longer they went unapprehended. Her boys didn’t want her going anywhere alone. She understood their reasoning, appreciated that they cared so much about her safety, but they were driving her crazy.

It had been two months since they were indicted and took off. Two months of her boys hovering constantly whenever they left the house. The only time they weren’t up her ass was at home, the clubhouse, or the Carmichael and Associates building.

It had been months of no leads on where her father might be, months of digging through files and compiling the evidence that her father was a crooked lawyer, and months of putting up with Danvers’ constant phone calls.

She was done with it all, over it completely. But she couldn’t quit, not when they were so close, so she did what she always did when things got hard: she threw herself into her work, hence her need to work late. She was missing something, something key and vital to the case. Some little piece that would spell out justwhereher father and Laraway had gone and give some hints as to their next moves.

They had gained a wealth of information in the handful of safes Noah had cracked at her father’s mansion but nothing trulyconcreteon his location, not without boots on the ground.

Her boys had left for the Cayman Islands the following afternoon. That had been a week ago. Jack had given them his private jet to use. Kara didn’t want to risk using her father’s and having it get back to him. She had hoped they’d be back by now, that she’d have answers.

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