Page 41 of Legal Attraction
CHAPTER ELEVEN
RONANNEVERSAWit coming. Muriel’s apartment door barely opened before two hands planted on his chest and shoved him back.
“You son of a bitch!” Muriel yelled at him.
“I guess I had that coming...” he murmured. But she didn’t even know about his mother—about how big a bitch the woman had been.
“Yes, you did!” Muriel said, her voice shaking with anger. Then her green eyes widened with surprise as she stared at him. “You admit that you do?”
What did she know? That he’d talked to Arte? He wouldn’t put it past the little bastard to have approached her and directly asked for money. No. He probably wouldn’t be that direct. He’d be sneaky and underhanded. Like Simon had said, Arte was a con artist.
“What exactly are we talking about?” he asked.
She pushed him again. But she wasn’t strong enough to hold him back. He stepped inside the apartment and kicked the door closed behind them.
“What?” she asked. “Are you afraid that someone might overhear us? Are you afraid of making a scene?”
He laughed. “I don’t care what people think.”
“Yeah, right,” she scoffed. “You don’t want the bar association thinking you did anything wrong.”
“I didn’t,” he said.
But he was beginning to believe that he had. Even if it was unknowingly.
“I talked to Allison McCann,” she said.
“That bitch!” Outrage coursed through him. “She gave you a bill?”
Muriel laughed. “No. She thought I was going to hire her, though.” And she laughed again until a snort slipped out. Then she tensed.
And he laughed.
“She is a bitch,” Muriel said. “But she’s a bitch who’s loyal to Street Legal. She wouldn’t tell me who ordered the smear campaign.”
His stomach churned with the guilt swirling through it. “I did.”
“I know,” she said. “Edward told me.”
“Who’s Edward?”
“The bitch’s bitch.”
He laughed as he realized she was referring to Allison’s assistant.
“Why did you do that?” she asked. “Why did you have to smear me in the press, too?” Hurt darkened her green eyes. “Wasn’t it enough to beat me in court? You won. Why did you have to win that badly?”
Tears streamed from her eyes, but she squeezed them shut. Then she turned away from him as if she was embarrassed that she was crying.
He wanted to reach for her, to comfort her. Her tears were killing him. But he knew he couldn’t take back what was already done. He owed her something, though.
Maybe it was because she turned away that he was able to tell her the truth. Not about talking to Arte.
He wasn’t ready yet to admit how wrong he’d been. But he could explain why he’d been wrong.
“I did it for my dad,” he said.
She turned back then, her brow furrowed in obvious confusion. “What? That makes no sense...”
