Page 46 of Legal Attraction
CHAPTER TWELVE
RONAN’SHANDSHOOKas he lifted the glass of water to his mouth. “I should have had you guys meet me at the bar,” he said. He could have used a stiff drink, instead. But he’d called the meeting in Simon’s office, and they all sat around the conference table they used every Tuesday morning for their business meetings.
But it wasn’t Tuesday morning.
And this wasn’t about business as usual. Of course, ever since he’d been reported to the bar association, it hadn’t been business as usual, at least, not for him.
“Do you want a drink?” Simon asked as he stood up and moved toward the bar in the back of his office.
It was Saturday night. Simon should have been with Bette. It was Ronan’s fault he wasn’t. As if Bette didn’t already hate him enough, now she would have another reason. But she wasn’t the only one who hated Ronan. Muriel did. And he wasn’t too crazy about himself right now, either.
“Pour me a drink,” Stone requested. “The trial starts next week.”
“Are you ready for it?” Trevor asked him.
“Of course,” Stone replied. “I’m just a little worried that I might have some surprises. Like Ronan has.”
Ronan had had too many surprises lately.
“Any leads on the mole yet?” Trevor asked Simon.
The managing partner shook his head. “Nothing. I can’t figure out who it could be.”
And that wasn’t good. Simon was the best judge of character of all of them. If he’d been tricked, this mole was good. Very good.
It hadn’t taken much to trick Ronan. He’d fallen easily for Arte’s bunch of lies. “That’s why I called this meeting,” he said.
“You know who the mole is?” Simon asked in surprise. Then he sighed. “Don’t tell me Muriel Sanz. She doesn’t have access to our office.”
She’d walked right in one weekend, but Ronan didn’t bother sharing that. He didn’t believe it was Muriel, either. “I don’t know who the mole is, but I’m worried about the practice,” he said.
“Why are you worried?” Simon asked.
“I think I’m going to get disbarred,” he admitted, and his stomach clenched then sank with the admission.
“You didn’t know those witnesses were lying,” Stone said. “That’ll come out during the investigation of the complaint. You’ll be fine.”
“Street Legal will be fine,” Simon added. Because he was such a good judge of character, he knew that Ronan wasn’t worried just about himself.
He wasn’t worried just about the practice, either. “I really screwed up,” he said.
“The guy’s a con artist,” Simon reminded him.
He shrugged. “But I took it further than I had to. I used McCann to smear the hell out of Muriel.”
Because he’d thought she was like his mother, and he must have subconsciously and childishly been using Muriel to get back at the woman who’d destroyed his father.
“I need to have McCann put out more press releases with the truth about Muriel,” he said. It was only fair to undo the damage he’d done.
“Then the bar will think you knew those witnesses were lying,” Stone said. “You need to keep your mouth shut and let this play out.”
“And keep your zipper up, too,” Trevor advised. “It doesn’t sound like your plan to seduce her into dropping the complaint worked. Sounds like she seduced you, instead.”
She had. He couldn’t deny that. But it had made him discover the truth. “I screwed up,” he repeated. “And I need to fix it.”
“You can,” Stone said. “But wait until the complaint has been withdrawn.”
“She’s not going to withdraw it,” Ronan said. And he didn’t blame her for not believing him enough to do that. After what he’d done, he would never be able to earn her trust. He, more than anyone, understood how hard it was to trust at all—let alone to trust someone who had already hurt you.
