Page 53 of Push

“And here I was promising no storytime.” He almost chuckled. “You’re a highly regarded lawyer. It’s immaterial to me what kind of law you practiced. I need a lawyer with more than corporate knowledge. I have matters that must be handled…delicately.”

Unease prickled up my spine. “What type of matters?”

“The type that can only be handled by someone I trust, and not by someone corrupted by the mafia men your former employer was so friendly with.” Liam’s gaze leveled on me. “Or by a family like the Sullivans.”

I sucked in a sharp breath. “Toby’s a good man.” I hated that defending him was automatic.

“Is he? I tend not to put too much faith in gossip.” He gestured to himself and rolled his eyes. “But an internet post of you handing your husband his balls suggested the apple didn’t fall far from the Sullivan’s tree.”

“You think Toby’s like his father? That he’s some wheeler-dealer shonky businessman?” I laughed. “Toby’s a dentist. He drives an SUV. He once serenaded me with a song fromMulanto get me through my law exams. He’s a cheating bastard, but he’s nothing like his father.”

Liam’s expression remained blank, but his fingers drummed the armrest of his overstuffed leather chair. He was calculating the risks. Assessingme.

“You were always too kind-hearted, little Gwen.” Sighing, he uncapped a gold fountain pen, scrawled something on a notepad, tore off the page, and slid it across the desk.

My eyes bulged. That was alotof dollars. “What—” I cleared the shock from my throat. “That’s too much.”

“That’s not even close to what I waste on legal advice.”

“You truly want me to be your corporate counsel?”

“Yes.”

“You want to pay me”—I pointed at the bit of paperin disbelief—“that?”

“Yes.”

“I need flexible working arrangements. Part-time hours. Staggered hours. Probably days working from home, too.”

Liam lifted a shoulder. “Work on the moon if it pleases you. I’ll drop by if I need your advice on anything particularly sensitive. If the workload’s too much, you’re most welcome to hire a paralegal. Hire ten. I only ask you to spare me from any more of these interviews.”

His offerwas too good to be true. There was always a catch. “Is this…” I dreaded asking the question, but my pride refused to accept the job without knowing. “Is this some kind of pity offer?”

Liam cocked his head. “You didn’t graduate at the top of your class?”

“Of course I did.”

“You didn’t turn down offers from all the top firms to serve the public instead?”

“I did, but—”

“You didn’t refuse to roll over when your former employer demanded you drop the cases against the Morelli family?” My breath sucked in, but Liam didn’t stop. “And that instead of accepting his bribe, you threatened to expose him? To whom, though, clever Gwen? Too many police were more than happy to accept the money you weren’t.”

“You—that’s not—you can’t know that.”

“I know many things I’m not supposed to. Rich friends. Powerful enemies. They’re the same thing in the end. If you have true family, then andonlythen do you understand loyalty. People who work here understand the importance of that.”

There was a hidden meaning in Liam’s words. I was certain of it. Nothing about him—or this job—was what it seemed. But, as crazy as it was, all I saw was my freedom in the flourish of numbers written with his fancy pen. Escaping the house and never hearing Toby’s mother accuse me of stealing his trust fund was worth so much more than the offer on that piece of paper.

I hiked my chin and looked at my brother head-on, ready to negotiate final terms. “I won’t do anything illegal.”

“No, you won’t.”

That answer gave me no comfort. “Or unethical.”

“You’re not much of a lawyer without ethics.”

“And there’s nothing…odd…you’ll ask me to do?”

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