Page 83 of My Office Rival

“Oh, wow. Yes. You didn’t have to do that.”

“I know, but I want to.”I need you to see who I can be for you.I pushed open the door and sighed with pleasure.

Cynthia looked around curiously. “I love this townhouse. I guess I’d forgotten what it looked like. It’s very old New York. Dark, elegant. Kinda like you,” she teased.

I wheeled our suitcases into the hall. “Elegant, eh? That’s what you see?”

“Oh, yeah.” She fanned herself. “I told you, GQ model. It’s the suits. And the cheekbones. You should call Calvin Klein if this whole lawyering thing falls through. I’d pay for photos of you in yourunderwear.” She wagged her eyebrows and I couldn’t help but capture her mouth, press her to the wall, try to suck down that light and fire and loyalty in little sips and bites.

When I let her up, she was panting. “Wow.” Her eyes were already heavy-lidded, her body limp.

I winked, and she followed me into the living room, which was more modern than the hallway and the bedrooms, but still comfortable and old. A bar cart sat against the wall, a big sofa in the middle, the kitchen to the right, with its gleaming knives and pots hanging above the island.

“Rip it off like a Band-Aid?” she asked, her eyes shadowed.

I sighed heavily. “Yeah. Let me call Mitchell. I don’t want to dump this on Nisha.” While Mitchell was the more junior partner on the H Brands matter, Nisha was usually too busy to chat. She didn’t need this.

“Let me show you my office.” Cynthia couldn’t stay, not when I needed the call with Mitchell to remain privileged. Her presence meant any court could depose either of us about the conversation. I showed her into my little library and office, which was full of books and an armchair and a gleaming oak desk, before I settled myself on the couch.

Mitchell picked up on the first ring, like he always did, even on the rare occasions when I had called him at four or five a.m. As one of just a handful of Asian partners at the firm, Mitchell had to be more responsive and better than the other partners, and while he might make my life hell, I admired him.

“Jason, how’s it going?”

“Honestly, not great.” I loosed a breath. “I’m back in New York.”

“Really? I thought diligence was supposed to last another week. Did the TJR lawyer get everything she needed?”

“No.” I leaned my elbow on my knees.I think I’m going to be sick.“From everything I can gather, it looks like our client is involved in some sort of criminal activity. Gene threatened me and the associate from TJR today.”

“What the hell? Threatened you? What did he say?”

“He told us to stay out of his business. He used force on the TJR lawyer.”And I’d wanted to kill him for it.

“Fuck,” Mitchell murmured.Yeah, I’m with you.“So opposing counsel knows, right? Does the purchaser?”

“The TJR partners know, or will soon. Their lawyer figured it out. And today was a dead giveaway. He grabbed her. I had to intervene. There’s no way this deal goes through after that. It’s only a matter of time until she tells her client.”

“Damn it.” Mitchell’s harsh curse was loud in my ear. I could hear his muffled footfalls as he paced. “This deal is dead. And now we need to figure out whether to blow the whistle on them. What have you seen?” That was Mitchell. He got right to the point when it mattered.

I started to list off everything we’d discovered. The list was damning, but mostly circumstantial. Overheard conversations about threats of violence, secret offshore accounts, massive wire transfers, notes about payments being made in cash, possible bribes.

Mitchell was silent when I finished. “This does not look good.” His voice was flat, pissed. At me, at the circumstances, I wasn’t sure, but I sure as hell wasn’t about to ask.

“I know. I spent a while looking for more concrete evidence, but after we had to flee from the building today, I decided it was time to pull the plug.” I left Cynthia’s name out of it. Maybe I could protect her from the fallout.

“It goes without saying, but don’t contact Gene until I handle this. Do you have the files you need?”

“Yep. I grabbed them before we got out.” And I had photos on my phone of the most important evidence. “So you think they’re criminals?” I was sure of it, but Mitchell hadn’t been there to see Gene’s anger, the venom he’d spewed.

“Have you seen Gene’s suits? He practically shouts mobster.” Mitchell snorted. “In all seriousness, there’s always been something a little off about them. I couldn’t put my finger on it. Our money laundering checks when they came on as a client didn’t find anything concrete, but theyasked if they could pay in cash. They dropped it pretty quickly and pretended it was an error, but that should have been a red flag. Send me what you’ve found, but don’t put any conclusions in email. And keep our general counsel in copy. I’ll let you know once we’ve notified the client. Opposing counsel should wait until then to have their client take action.”

“You got it.” If Mitchell was telling me not to put findings in email, it meant he was taking this seriously.

“And Jason? Thanks for telling me.” He hung up. I let my head drop back onto the couch. The events of the day threatened to crush me. I texted Cynthia to let her know she could come back in, and she reappeared a few minutes later, looking soft and sexy in her yoga pants and cropped tank top.

“All good?” Her eyes were shadowed with concern.

“Come here,” I demanded roughly, and she came easily, curling herself against my chest. My arms came around her and just the feel of her in my arms waseverything. My body relaxed into the couch, her even breaths calming me. I pulled her hair back to press my lips to her neck, and she made a soft noise of pleasure.

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