7. Chapter 7
Chapter 7
L una
On Friday morning, Roman knocked on the apartment door fifteen minutes before eight.
Swinging the door open, I glared up at him. “You’re early, and you still don’t need to pick me up. In fact, you go on. I’ll drive today, then I can leave early. It’s Friday after all.”
He grinned and walked inside. “Good morning to you too, Sunshine. It’s refreshing that you’re always pugnacious and always on time.”
I gave him a flat stare. “I know what pugnacious means, and my name is Luna, so Sunshine doesn’t really fit.”
“Then Moonshine will work.”
“Never mind. Sunshine is fine.”
“I like Moonshine. And no.”
I sighed. “There’s that word again. I just need to put on my shoes and get my bag.”
He walked over to the couch where one of my books lay on the arm and picked it up. “You’re reading a how-to book about building a raised garden.”
“It relaxes me.”
“Have you ever had a garden?”
I searched around for my phone. “No, but I’d like to someday. I’ve never done or seen most of the things I read about–that’s why I read.”
He stared at me. “Does your brain ever shut down?”
“Maybe when I’m sleeping.”
Shaking his head, he studied me as if searching for something. “Probably not even then.”
Roman spent most of the morning on his phone, so I pulled out my never-ending homework, put on my noise-canceling headphones, spread out my highlighters, and studied. A few hours later, Ivan tapped my shoulder. I squeaked loudly, sending a few highlighters skidding off the desk.
“Holy shit! Don’t sneak up on me like that.”
He folded his arms and grinned. “I said your name–twice. I’ve been watching you for a few minutes.”
I pulled my headphones off. “That’s not creepy at all. What’s going on?”
“Lunch is on its way. We bring it in on Fridays.”
“Okay. Sounds good.” I picked the highlighters up and straightened them.
“Your concentration is a bit scary. Why do you have so many markers you never use?”
My shoulders hunched. “I don’t know.”
“You have a near photographic memory.”
“How do you… Oh, the background check. I don’t have a photographic memory. My reading comprehension is just high, that’s all.” The background check annoyed me, but I knew they were fairly common. “What else did you learn about me?” I grabbed a cinnamon bear from the open package on my desk and chomped its head off.
Ivan smirked as he watched me chew. “You grew up in the Phoenix area, and your father is a federal judge there. You have stellar grades, a partial scholarship, and no criminal background.”
“Pretty boring stuff.” But my stomach tightened, and I chewed slowly. His smirk had a mean glint.
“Yep. Except you accused your father of taking bribes when you were younger, and your parents disowned you.”
“I’m not sure how that’s relevant to anything.” A wave of anxiety hit me, thinking about that time in my life.
“You were twelve years old, and you’ve been living with the Spades ever since.”
I stared at him as my mind violently jerked me back. My father had never laid a hand on me until that day, but he’d come home so full of rage.
“You know what? You had no right to dig into my background–”
“Background checks are standard–”
I held up my finger. “Shut up, I’m not done talking. And then walk in here and throw the most hurtful parts in my face just to see my reaction. And I was fucking right about my father. The law shouldn’t be applied differently for rich, degenerate assholes.” If Ivan knew, then Roman knew, and he hadn’t said a word.
Ivan’s eyebrow winged up mockingly. “I’m sure you believe that.”
“I said it shouldn’t. I never said it doesn’t. Why are you trying to run me off? You know I don’t have a choice about being here, right?”
He gazed at me for a few seconds, and he almost seemed… worried. Then the look vanished and his sneer returned. “No one’s forcing you to be here. You could tell Klim to fuck off.”
“Yeah, and lose my scholarship and maybe not graduate.” Gazing around the office, I stood up. “Fuck this,” I muttered as I shoved books, highlighters, and candy into my backpack. I couldn’t be here anymore, at least not today.
“Aren’t you going to stay and eat lunch?” he asked mockingly.
“Go fuck yourself. Roman may hate my guts, but at least he’s not purposefully cruel.”
Swinging my backpack over my shoulder, I shoved past him.
“Luna,” he called. “Don’t kid yourself about Roman. He’s just better at hiding his cruelty.”
I threw him the middle finger over my shoulder and strode out of the law offices, ignoring Brenna’s little grin when she saw the tear running down my cheek.
When the rideshare dropped me off at home, I turned off my phone, changed into jeans and a sweatshirt, and headed over to the law school. The heavy door of the law library groaned as I shouldered my way inside, and the scent of old books and low-grade anxiety greeted me. I dumped my backpack on a table in the back corner of my favorite floor.
Muttering under my breath, I pulled out my headphones. “My whole vacation shot in the ass.”
“Who got shot in the ass?”
I jumped at the sound of Jared Gardner's loud voice. He leaned against a bookshelf, staring down at me. Jared was probably the most handsome law student in our class, but he talked way too much about himself and had a grating, self-centered personality.
He’d asked me out a few times, and whenever we had a class together, he tried to sit next to me. The fact that I wasn’t interested probably made him that much more determined; I just wanted him to leave me alone.
“Hello, Jared. How was your fall break?” I muttered as I put my headphones around my neck.
Jared raised an eyebrow. “Good, how’s yours been? I thought you were going out of town with your roommates.”
He seemed to know a lot about my life. “Change of plans.”
“I hear you’re interning at The Firm with Roman Fowler.” He looked envious.
“I didn’t even know who they were until a week ago.”
Jared shook his head. “They’re only the wealthiest, most prestigious law firm in Las Vegas. Is it true? Are you actually interning there?”
I sighed and rubbed my eyes. “Probably not anymore. I told one of the partners to go fuck himself this afternoon.”
Jared’s eyes bugged out and he sat down. “Are you nuts? Do you know the rumors about those guys?”
“This is Las Vegas. What successful business around here doesn’t have rumors and gossip swirling around it? That doesn’t mean they’re true.” The irony wasn’t lost on me. An hour ago I’d stormed out of there with my middle finger in the air, and now I was defending them.
“It doesn’t mean they’re not. They're richer than Croesus, and they’ve got their fingers in a lot of pies.”
“Rumors are like pigeons,” I replied, flipping open a textbook. “They fly around and make a mess, but don’t amount to much.”
“How’d you get an internship with them, anyway? I thought you had something lined up with a water law attorney.”
“I did, but Klim Hudson assigned me to Fowler instead. I’m there under protest.”
He shook his head. “You need to be careful. I’ve heard Fowler and his partners are basically a crime syndicate, and they don’t mind getting their hands dirty.”
“It sounds like someone's been watching too much late-night reality TV.” I’d grown up with the Spade family, so I wasn’t as freaked out as I probably should have been, and neither The Firm nor the House of Spades seemed to leave a trail of broken victims like my father did.
Jared leaned forward. “Around Vegas, there really are dead bodies buried out in the desert–or dumped in Lake Mead. Just be careful.”
“It's good then that I'm just a lowly law student intern. What are the rumors anyway?” I broke down and asked.
“Besides the legal but morally gray shit? Bribery, blackmail, greasing palms.” He ticked them off on his fingers. “Probably money laundering too.”
I scoffed. “You’re describing half the successful white-collar businesses around here.”
“Look, Luna.” His voice dropped. “I'm not saying Roman's firm is the mob, but they've got that same untouchable vibe. People get in the way or mess with their interests, and they end up like Schrodinger's cat—neither alive nor dead until someone opens the box.”
“Except nobody wants to open the box,” I concluded, my skepticism showing.
“Exactly.” Jared nodded, as if pleased I was following along.
He might be a shmuck, but he wasn’t stupid. Too bad he had such a shitty personality. “I'll avoid poking around. And like I said, I don’t plan to go back, anyway.” Even as I said it, I wondered if I had a choice.
“That’d be smart.” He pushed away from the table and stood, his chair scraping against the floor.
I put my headphones on and turned back to my homework. Jared was a bit of a conspiracy theorist, and he hadn’t told me anything I didn’t already suspect. Shaking off his warnings, I got to work.
Hours later, my mind felt tired, and my eyes stung. It was time to quit. When I snapped my book shut, the thud echoed in the near-empty library.
Turning my phone on, I winced as notifications started pinging.
Roman: Ivan said you stormed out of the office. Don’t leave again without checking in
He could go screw himself if he thought I’d be checking in with him when his partners were being pricks.
Roman: Are you returning today, or will you continue sulking for the rest of the afternoon?
Roman: It’s after five. You owe me hours. I’ll pick you up at eight tomorrow morning
“Un-fucking-believable,” I muttered under my breath. My fingers flew across the screen as I typed out a response.
Luna: Can’t. Tomorrow’s Saturday
He texted back almost immediately.
Roman: Non-negotiable
Me: Fill in the acronym to your law firm here, and add a “YOU” at the end
He didn't respond. I shoved my things into my bag with less care than usual. Carl would be waiting for dinner, and Ezra had texted about binge-watching some TV together. Both seemed like heaven compared to the hell of dealing with Roman Fowler and his stupid partners.
Dusk had fallen, and I wondered if I could make it to my car before it got too dark. I pulled my car keys out and muttered to myself as I walked out of the library. “Stubborn, pushy asshole.”
“Talking to yourself now?” a voice murmured to my right.
Jumping, I yelped and held up the keys I’d laced between my fingers. Roman leaned against a pillar outside the law library with his arms crossed.
“What in God’s name are you doing, lurking outside the library? Jesus Christ, man. You scared the hell out of me.”
“Where did you go this afternoon?”
Ivan’s words came back, and I straightened. “I’ve had enough, I want out.”
“Why?” His tone was cool, detached.
I turned and started walking down the steps. “Because you detest me and your partners hate me.”
“Luna, stop.”
“No. I'm not available whenever you snap your fingers. You don’t own me.”
He pushed off the pillar and closed the distance between us, stepping in front of me, his dark eyes unreadable.
“What happened at the office today?”
“Nothing I want to talk about. And this?” I wagged my finger between us. “Will not work. I have classes and responsibilities, and I need to study. You can't just—”
“Control your life?” He finished my sentence. “I wouldn't dream of it.”
“Good, because you can't.” I turned and started walking again.
“Luna, talk to me.” His low, serious tone stopped me.
I hung my head, then turned around and faced him. “I know you did a background check on me. And today Ivan threw some painful memories in my face for no good reason.” I stepped closer to him. “Well, guess what? My roommates and I did a background check on you guys. And we know about Arizona. We’ve also heard rumors about questionable legal activities and deviant sexual tastes.”
His face went blank. “You can’t believe everything you read.”
“Trust me, I know. The point is, I don’t throw it in your faces just to get a rise out of you or hurt you. And I didn’t use it to try and get out of this internship.”
He nodded carefully. “Understood. I want you to stay.”
“This isn’t a good idea.” I stared up into his fathomless dark eyes. “Please, you need to let me go.”
“I can’t.”
He sounded almost… sorry. Closing my eyes, I exhaled slowly. Why did I think I could persuade him?
I opened my eyes and met his gaze. “Then we need some boundaries.”
“Boundaries?” he repeated, the word rolling off his tongue like a funny joke.
A few students came out of the library and glanced at us curiously before heading down the steps.
“Boundaries.”
“Alright. I haven’t eaten, so let’s grab dinner and talk. There’s a little Italian place near the mortuary. How does that sound?”
The idea of eating at Luigi’s deflated my knee-jerk refusal. “Damn it, I love Luigi’s.”
Roman smiled, and it was the first time I didn’t see mockery, scorn, or faint derision in his eyes. His smile charmed me, and I wondered what he would’ve turned out to be like if he hadn’t been sent to that hellscape in Arizona.
“Then let’s go eat and discuss boundaries.” The faint mockery was back, only a little more muted this time.
“Alright. I’ll meet you there in twenty minutes.”
He folded his arms and looked down at the keys still threaded between my knuckles. “I’ll walk you to your car and meet you at the apartment.”
When I opened my mouth, he held up his hand. “I have another word for you. Yes. Yes, I’m walking you to your car.”
My shoulders loosened and I glanced around. “I was about to say thank you. How’d you find me, anyway?”
“I had Ivan track your cell phone.”
Stopping short, I turned to him incredulously. “Oh, my God. See, this is what I’m talking about. Boundaries.”
He held up his hands. “I was worried. Come on, let’s go.”
Roman followed me home, and I ran up to my apartment to feed Carl. Then we walked over to Luigi’s.
Sophia smiled and hugged me at the host desk. “I think your favorite table is open. You okay to seat yourselves?”
“Absolutely.” I led him to our favorite booth, tucked away in the corner. I didn’t bother with a menu, and a few minutes later, a server came over and took our order.
Roman eyed me. “How often do you come here?”
“Two, maybe three times a week. When Sophia sprained her ankle last year, I helped them over the holiday break and got to know everyone pretty well.”
Roman leaned back and put his arm up. “Ezra mentioned you work funerals sometimes too. That’s a strange part-time job.”
The server brought us the house wine. “It’s not that strange. Okay, there have been a few odd moments, but if the funeral is over thirty people, then Alexa and I dress in black, slap on discreet gold name tags, and help out wherever Sylvie and Ezra need us.”
“I bet you asked Ezra about the whole process.”
I smiled and took a sip of wine. “One of my favorite memories is when I first moved here, and I took a tour through the whole facility with him.”
“Did he answer all your questions?”
“He did. I have my mortician apprentice license too.”
“I did not know that.” He studied me. “What’s your proposal regarding these boundaries?”
The way he abruptly changed the subject was a typical attorney technique to catch witnesses off guard. “The other student interns say they put in five to ten hours a week. None of them are required to study at their respective firms, and no one carpools with their mentor. It’s overkill.”
I paused as the server dropped off our meals. I’d ordered chicken parmesan and Roman got the boneless pork in red sauce.
Roman’s pork smelled so good that I leaned over, stabbed a piece with my fork, and stuck it in my mouth. My eyes rolled back and I moaned. “That’s delicious. How’d you know to order it?”
Then I realized what I’d done. “Oh, shit. Sorry. I usually come here with Sylvie or Alexa, and we always share whatever we get. Here.” Slicing off a piece of chicken, I swirled it into their world-famous marinara sauce and slid it onto his plate.
“Thanks. And there’s no way I’m agreeing to just five hours a week. I like picking you up, we can work on weekends, and you study just fine in my office. Text me your class times, and I’ll give you a schedule.”
I wasn’t going to let this asshole get to me. I stuck a piece of broccoli in my mouth and growled at him.