Page 10 of Some Like It Deadly
As a man few people ever denied, he really didn’t like her telling him no.
So he called in Peterson.
Thankfully, the security chief backed her.
It was after midnight by the time she left the tower and almost one before she fell face-first into her bed.
5:00 a.m. came too swiftly, but she lunged out of bed and did a five-mile run on the treadmill before showering and heading to the office. She wanted to be in place before Richard and she wanted a good look at his fellow attorneys.
She really did need a raise. This undercover shit blew.
The next severaldays mirrored the first in terms of workload. Needing the additional time to begin building profiles of his employees, Kate arrived at the office every morning before seven. If she didn’t, Richard beat her. In addition to Richard, his firm included a dozen senior associates and nearly two dozen junior associates. As the only named partner, Richard had the final say on all their cases—a fact he seemed to take to heart.
“What are you doing?” Richard’s arrival had been announced by his security tail, so she had time to put away her research notes and meet his inquiry with a faint smile.
“Catching up with He Who Does So Much.” Rising, she preceded him to his office door and opened it. “I set up your coffee maker, you just have to hit brew. Your morning meds are on the desk. I’ve pulled the two briefs you wanted to review. The Wilkinson deposition has been rescheduled, and Mr. Grange’ssecretary called. Mr. Grange would like you to sit in on a phone call this afternoon for Mr. Voldakov if you have the time.”
And most of that was in the last fifteen minutes. She’d changed her mind, Richard Prentiss had enough work for four assistants. That she had to oversee his security simply added to the load.
His cell phone rang before he could respond. Richard pulled it out of his pocket and answered it with a thumb swipe. “Morning, Armand, you’re at your desk earlier than I am.”
Ignoring his conversation, Kate took his brief case and carried it over to the desk and started the coffee going before withdrawing a bottle of water from the fridge. She opened it, and put it on the desk right next to his meds and pointed at them while he continued talking.
Richard paused and covered the phone. “I’ll take them in a minute.”
“No, you’ll take them now because His Highness will talk business for at least twenty minutes, then you’ll discuss his upcoming wedding before you segue into his management plans for the rest of the family and you’ll forget to take them before the deposition you wanted to sit in on with one of the junior associates.” She folded her arms and stared at him, daring him to deny it.
“Give me a moment, Armand.” Richard hit a button on his phone and set it down. After opening the bottles one at a time, he took the meds he was supposed to and washed them down with water. “Happy?” He eyed her, his expression more fitting a recalcitrant six-year-old than a grown man.
“Did you eat this morning?” she countered. In her limited experience over the last four days, the man didn’t eat unless someone dropped a meal on him during a meeting.
“I have a call,” he told her pointedly.
“I’ll take that as a no and order you up a steak bagel breakfast sandwich. It will be here in thirty minutes. Wrap up with His Highness before then and I’ll let you have another cup of coffee with your breakfast.” Amused by his blink of surprise, she put away his prescription bottles then delivered his coffee before retreating out of his office, aware of his stare the whole time.
The man needed a keeper.
After placing the breakfast order, she checked her surveillance on his office—he was seated behind the desk and had the cell phone back to his ear. Satisfied, she pulled out her notes on the attorneys in his office—so far they all proved to be as clean and honorable as the man who’d hired them.
Chapter 3
Richard
The next week sped past and he not only got ahead of his cases, but managed to close two—including Leonard v. Johnson.
Blake had come through in spades. Leonard’s last continuance had been filed to allow the man to take a trip to Vegas where he’d not only partied, but ended up in jail on charges of public intoxication. Armed with enough evidence to debunk the majority of Leonard’s claims, Richard had met with the other man’s attorney and the lawsuit had been withdrawn.
Kate had gone with him to deliver the news to Brett Johnson and the older man had nearly wept.
He liked winning hispro bonocases, but Richard would savor the Johnson victory for some time to come. Men like Leonard, who wanted to take advantage of other people’s misfortune made him sick. Richard wasn’t ashamed to admit he couldn’t have handled the sheer volume without Kate.
She’d smoothed over all the rough edges, rolled with the changes, and found more efficient ways to pack his schedule in so he could maximize his time. But he’d also noticed the hour-long windows she gave him in the late morningsandlateafternoons—windows of time where he could rest his eyes, or at least take a break.
Shewashandling him. His unflappable assistant handled him like a professional.
“You make that sound like a bad thing.” Armand filled two crystal tumblers with ice and added water.
“It’s odd. Miranda micromanaged my schedule, but not me. Kate, she’s different. She makes changes, but only afterward does it seem like it’s my idea. The funny thing is that I didn’t realize it until today. She’s good.” Uncertain whether he should be impressed or irritated, Richard decided to go with the former over the latter.
