Page 26 of Crossing the Line
Us Against Them
Paisley Grove
Ifeel like I’m stuck in a bad dream while having an out-of-body experience. It’s not a nightmare because Hercules is my leading man, but the circumstances surrounding us are nightmarish. Clive has instructed me to not say anything else to Hercules or his lawyer. And if the arbitrator asks me to answer any questions, I’m to repeat, verbatim, “I am not acquainted with the details of this case. Please grant me the allotted sixty days to gain knowledge of the facts.”
It’s clear to me that this entire procedure is pure BS. Max may be comfortable lying and scheming to win, but I’m not. And I’m supposed to lie and say Max has the flu. He looked healthy this morning.
“I don’t like this,” I whisper to Clive. We’re to sit on one side of the table, and when Hercules and his lawyer enter the room, they’re to sit across from us.
But why does his lawyer look so familiar?“His lawyer. What’s his name?”
“Nero Lord.” Clive sets his eyes on me. I’m thinking he wants to see how his answer landed. After a moment, he frowns as he slams his folder closed. “I’m worried that—”
The door opens. I’m mesmerized by Hercules as he walks in first. It’s just so weird that I hadn’t seen him in nearly eight years, and now he’s back in my life in a major way.
“Just stick to the plan,” Clive says.
I nod.
“And after this, let’s grab something to eat and talk. Have you ever been to the Chest of Chelsea?”
I don’t nod or say anything as Hercules and Nero sit down across from us.
“It’s almost impossible to get a table, but I always get one,” Clive adds.
His voice sounds as if it’s many miles away. It’s hard to be self-aware at the moment. Am I staring into Hercules’s powerfully intense eyes?Yes. I am.And I’m experiencing this weird sensation of feeling as though I’m falling into him. It happens whenever I see him. It happened last night and many times in the past. I’ve pondered why.Is he my soulmate, or am I just so attracted to him that my hormones soar?I often wonder I’ll ever stop getting that feeling around him.
But for now, I remind myself that Hercules Lord is just one man. And according toTop Rag Mag, he’s one engaged man.
I force my eyes off Hercules’s face yet again when the doors behind him and Nero open. In walks a tall, thin man with a long face. He’s leading a small middle-aged woman carrying a case and a younger man with a brown leather briefcase in each hand.
I sit up straight. I’m nervous. There’s no escape. I have to go through with this charade. It’s Clive and me against Nero and Hercules.
That’s just great.
* * *
Nero has been goingon and on about the details of the case. I’ve been keeping my eyes pinned to his face. Nero is handsomer than I remember. He looked very young back when he hooked up with Eden—like a teenager. However, she said that Nero, like Hercules, was a student at Harvard.
Age has served Nero well. He reminds me of a young Tom Cruise, a preppy kind of guy with an edge. What’s funny, though, is that Eden’s a lawyer too. When they met during that New Year’s Eve party, she was studying digital architecture. I was shocked when she told me she’d enrolled in law school a year after we graduated. Law is a large leap from digital architecture.
I decide to call her tonight and let her know that I saw him. She would be amused by it. I wonder if she’s seeing anybody.
So far, I’ve pieced together an idea of what’s going on from the legalese talk. There’s some kind of rule in place that says that a member of my or Hercules’s family can enter the arbitration process at any point if an appropriate excuse is given. Clive passed the arbitrator, Dan Munster, a doctor’s excuse on behalf of Max. And since Max is out, I’m in, and that means I could be granted a six-month postponement to get caught up with the details of the case.
I’ve been biting my tongue, fighting the urge to expose the lie coming from my side of the table.
“Go on, Dan. Ask Miss Grove if her brother has the flu,” Nero says.
Clive scoffs. “Now he’s telling you what to ask my client?”
I grow stiff, hoping the arbitrator doesn’t ask me to answer that question. But soon, I’m staring into Mr. Munster’s serious, gray eyes.
“Miss Grove, are you aware of the details of this case?”
I turn to Clive, panicked. His eyebrows shoot up as he nods. I think I’m supposed to deliver the line he’s been teaching me, but I can’t remember it.
“No,” I finally say.
