Legal Attraction: A Romantic Suspense Novel (Legally Suspenseful Romance)

Chapter 15

Coral could hardly speak she was so angry with Rand. He was being ridiculous. He knew she was right. He knew the case could merit an aggressive bold approach. And he shut her down, repeatedly. And then he practically ran out of the room.

She was about to chase after him, but Jaden called out to her. “Bold.”

Coral smiled. “Thank you? I think I overstepped quite a bit. But he has to know it would work. He has to see that I’ve done my homework.”

Jaden stood, her notebook in hand. “I don’t know how you could have done any research at all. You heard about it five minutes before you started defending your position like it was the hill of all hills to die on.”

She paused. “Was I coming across too strong?”

“I think so.” Jaden winced. “And you called him Rand.”

Coral felt the color drain from her face.

“As if you’d called him that before, often.” Jaden turned to Mel. “Did you hear it?”

She nodded. “It just rolled off your tongue.”

They both stared, waiting.

The others were moving out of the room. Trey was almost out the door, but he paused.

“What? What are you asking me?”

“Nothing at all. Just making mention of the fact that you seem awfully comfortable calling Mr. McCarthy by his first name.”

And now Coral saw the folly in pretending like she and Rand didn’t know each other. If she’d just owned up to having met him, it wouldn’t seem suspicious to bring it up now. “I don’t know. It just came out.” She put a hand on her forehead. “He probably thinks I have no respect at all.”

They all turned and left the room together. “We don’t see a lot of personality in him usually.”

“Well, we haven’t seen a lot of him at all. Even though we’re camped in his office.” Mel shrugged. “But he was showing some personality in there.” She looked at Coral again with a pointed inquiry, but Coral pretended not to notice.

She just looked at everyone like they weren’t talking about anything in particular. “It would be difficult to work with someone who didn’t have a personality.”

They both turned away from Coral. Mel lifted one shoulder. “Let’s meet after work, get dinner. All four of us.” She looked over the same shoulder at Trey.

“I’m in.” Trey lifted a hand and then walked in the other direction.

“Sure.” Coral had to. She was going to need to create some real relationships and gain some trust with these three. She got the impression they would be working together a lot, or at least clumped together for things. And she wasn’t sure how competitive they would need to be.

As soon as she was walking along the hall by herself, she had a second to be angry with Rand. That cold, stiff man she’d caught a glimpse of at Nico’s had returned to the conference room. And she’d known it was coming before he even spoke. After praising her, he would have to temper it with some real indifference, but he had no need to be critical. And she did not even agree with his reasoning. There was nothing she as a first year couldn’t do if she worked and studied hard enough, if she gathered a good enough team. He’d absolutely crossed the line calling her arrogant, assuming that she wouldn’t do due diligence. And he’d called her out in front of the others. She stood taller, feeling herself lengthen her stride in her heels. She didn’t care how hot he was or how good his lips felt on hers. Not good enough. She smirked. She’d prove him wrong.

As she stepped into her office, her phone rang, not her public phone, the private burner the security detail had given her. Rand. She pressed her lips together. And ignored it.

Then it rang again so she picked it up. “I’m not ready to talk to you yet.”

“Excuse me?” A familiar voice, not Rand’s, sounded mildly amused.

She checked the phone. “Is this Lucan?”

“Yes. I have some information I thought you’d like to know, but if it’s not a good time…”

“No, it’s a great time. I’m sorry! I thought you were someone else.” She closed her door and paced to the window. “What’s going on?”

“First things first. You didn’t call.”

She placed a hand on her forehead. “Oh right. But no. I’ve got a bone to pick with you sir. Why didn’t you tell me I was going to work at the same firm with Rand? That seems like a very important detail to leave out for a friend.”

“Would it have made anything better if I had?”

She considered his question and then didn’t even care. “It doesn’t matter. You should have told me. And no, I didn’t want to call you so you could be amused at my expense.”

“Not at all, though yes, it was slightly entertaining, I was more interested in keeping you both safe. But let’s move on. Everything is good. No new incidents at least. But we’ve learned a little bit more about the group and we have some concerns.”

“Go on.” She dug one hand into her pocket because she couldn’t figure out anything else to do with it.

“They don’t have a name, but they have a style, and so we are able to trace their activities back for a couple years and they have one commonality. Similar to the group Anders and Astra mentioned, but it is larger in scope. Maybe their group is related.”

She waited.

“Royals.”

She let out a long slow breath. “They target royals?”

“Yes. All their violent crimes and attacks have royals at the center. We aren’t certain about other activities, financials, business, recruiting, motivations, but their violence is always centered around a royal or family or situation.”

“Who knows?”

“Almost everyone.”

“My parents?”

Her other phone rang. Her father’s face lighting the surface.

“Someone just told him. Is that him calling?”

“Yes, but I’ll call him right back. What do you know about their activity here in America?”

“They haven’t breached that country yet, that we know of. But remember. There aren’t any royals over there.”

“Usually. There are some now and then.”

“True, but you know what I mean. They aren’t there long term like you. Thadd, my brother, even came back from New York with Sage for the next five years to work on something at home. Anders is over here. You’re it, for now.”

“Do you think I’m in danger?”

“I think we all are, in one way or another. You are exposed, being alone. But I’m sure your father will increase your detail.”

“Or he’ll make me come home.”

“Can he?”

“He can be very persuasive. Would you go home?”

The pause was lengthy, but his breathing and some fingers tapping on the keyboard let her know he was still there. “I see no activity by airline heading in your direction, at least not now, not by any known problems. Would you be safer locked up in your parents’ palace? Absolutely. If you were my daughter, I would want you home. But are you going to skip your law degree and refuse to live because of a terrorist threat?” He puffed out a long breath. “I can’t believe I’m saying this, but really, it’s up to you.”

“Thank you, Lucan.” Coral closed her eyes. “Could you send me updates as you get them?”

“Sure, in fact, I’ll just add you to our zoom call tonight so you’re aware of anything that might be going down.”

“I’d appreciate that.”

“Good luck with your father.”

“Thanks.”

Her mother had sent at least ten texts during her call with Lucan. Her father picked up immediately when she dialed him. The conversation did not go well. He wanted her home and Coral refused to come. So he told her all the new security measures he would put in place.

“Father, you know if I have too much, it will just draw attention to where I am.”

“Don’t presume to start telling me about security for our family. I’ve been doing this for a decade longer than you’ve been alive.”

She paused a moment and then breathed out, “I’m sorry. I know you’re worried and I’m not making things easier.”

Her mother pitched in. “Just come home. Why can’t you come home? I’m sure we can work out some remote agreement with your boss.” Her mother’s voice was high pitched, only a couple breaths away from a total freak out. Coral needed to get off the phone.

“I will if there is a real and present threat.” Coral nodded to herself. “Until then, I’m likely as safe here as I would be anywhere, right?”

Her father grunted.

“I look forward to meeting the new team. Thank you for understanding. This means so much to me.” Her voice caught. “I hope we can make this work. I really will be careful. I promise.”

“We love you dear. We know this job means a lot to you. But it doesn’t mean more than your life. Just remember that and come home the first time things get suspicious.” Her mother’s tone had mellowed.

“Thanks Mom. I really will. The safe house I already have is top of the line. I’m safer there than anywhere. And Lucan said there are no indications that people have flown across the ocean. I don’t think this area is even in the radar of these terrorists.”

“We just never know, nor can they tell why certain royals are targeted over others. Our nation has been spared. But that could mean we’re next. We don’t know.”

“Lucan is an expert. He will keep us informed, and my team here will be a great help. I really will bring myself home if things escalate here.”

“Well, that’s good to hear honey. You have a good night. And get yourself home.”

“I will, thank you.”

As soon as her mother hung up and both her parents were no longer in her ear, she fell to a chair in her room and rest her head in her hands. “This is kind of big.”

“What is?” Rand stood in the doorway, tall and more handsome than he should be when she didn’t want to talk to him yet.

“Oh, I just had a call from my parents. They’re checking in about my security.” For some reason, she didn’t want Rand to know about the threat and the new intel regarding the terrorists at The Palisades. He had every right to know. He was there. But she didn’t want to talk about it, not with him.

“Is everything alright?”

She breathed in, suddenly having a hard time keeping a neutral expression. Everything was not alright and her body was reacting as if with the sight of Rand, it just realized how bad things were. She hid her shaking hands. “Yeah, it’s fine. I think I’m tired though. I know there’s a group going to happy hour and I should probably support the Firm’s activities and all that, but I think what I really need, is my quiet home and cozy couch.” With heart nearly pounding out through her throat, she fought to hide every indication that she was just about to panic.

“You’ve had quite a day. I don’t blame you at all. Tonight wasn’t planned by the firm. But it would be good to spend time with the other new hires. The more allies you have, the more friendships you make, the better.”

Slight irritation helped her focus. “We should all be friends. There are only four of us.”

“Unless they become your competition.”

She sighed. This was not the conversation she needed at the moment. “Well, I’ll worry about that tomorrow.” Her shoulder bag was heavy with files she planned to read before bed. “Have a good night. Tell them all hello from me.”

Not only was she not in any way able to function at a social thing tonight, she didn’t want to miss the zoom call. Neither of which she wanted to tell Rand. “Good night.” She called again over her shoulder.

His eyes followed her all the way to the corner. She didn’t need to turn around to feel his attention.

She had about three hours to kill before she would get on the zoom call. That call would help her feel better, at least put some actionable things to do about her situation instead of just waiting around for something bad to happen, which is what her security team was encouraging. She pulled out her files on Muskanza. She could at least get some research in. Who were these people? Why was there so much secrecy surrounding their cases? On the surface, they looked very mellow, harmless.

But the more she dug in, the more things just simply didn’t add up. They had a highly sophisticated money train for one. She was determined to figure that out. She kept digging around and right before the start of the meeting, found a file referencing a woman. There was a snapshot of her, which Coral found odd, and no name. And she looked familiar.

Several things were not matching up in the files she had. She found the email of this client and opened up her inbox. “I’m a new attorney on your case. Would you be free for lunch to discuss the details of our next project?”

Nothing like going straight to the source. She would know a lot by looking into their face. Her calendar dinged. Time to enter the video conference. Hopefully she’d find some answers.