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17. She Impressed the Client

She Impressed the Client

Gwen

“The jilted wife has arrived. What fun.”

I hesitated in the doorway. Nervous, trembling hands fumbled over my jacket, and I tried to force my feet forward, but the fury that had powered me down the corridors of Cumberland Investments vanished when the ice-blue eyes narrowed on me across the room.

My brother’s eyes.

I missed you so much.

A blond eyebrow lifted. “Well?” Liam’s face was stone. “Time is money.”

He’d know. Six clocks lined the dark-paneled wall behind his oversized desk. I managed a step before my heel wobbled under me. No. I needed to be strong. He’d respect that more. A deep breath in, my squared shoulders, I focused on the time in Tokyo as I crossed the marble floor.

I’m so proud of you.

Liam pushed back his chair, rose to his feet, and buttoned his jacket. The immaculately tailored navy suit was worlds away from the faded T-shirt and ripped jeans I’d last seen him wearing. My brother had transformed from a lanky, underfed teenager into an imposing man.

I love you.

But I shouldn’t have come.

When the recruiter had spat out the name Liam Crawford, I should’ve politely thanked her for the opportunity and run for my life.

There had always been something not quite right about my brother.

The tabloids had fooled me into thinking Liam might have escaped his demons. But the articles I’d devoured over the years painted a very different story of the man standing in front of me.

On the surface, he was the golden-haired prince who was fodder for the gossip columns.

His perfectly combed hair, expensive suit, and crisp white shirt were on point.

But the smug smile he flashed at the paparazzi was missing.

There were no hints of the playboy antics splashed over the online news.

The man looming behind the desk was expressionless and cold.

Just how I remembered him.

I stopped in front of Liam’s desk. A rush of protectiveness surged through my veins. Every muscle in my body strained to throw my arms around him and bawl my eyes out, but the wary glance he tipped in my direction warned me to keep my distance.

I leaned over just enough to offer my hand for him to shake.

He blinked down at me.

An awkward smile froze on my face. “Don’t you want to greet me, Liam?” I waved the hand stuck awkwardly over his desk. “It’s been a long time.”

“Oh.” His brow lifted again. “You want me to shake your hand?”

“Even if it’s not the typical way to greet your sister, it’s a professional courtesy, isn’t it?”

“Is it?” He seemed genuinely confused.

“Businessmen shake hands, don’t they?” This was officially one of the strangest job interviews in history. “Aren’t you a businessman now?”

“Technically, I’m an actuary. I calculate risk…for investments…for…insurance.” His lips curved slightly. “Perhaps other actuaries shake hands, but I don’t. It’s nothing personal. Won’t you take a seat”—Liam gestured to one of the leather chairs in front of his desk —“Mrs. Sullivan?”

My eyes narrowed. This was a test. A game.

Liam traveled in circles with rich men—unscrupulous men like Toby’s father—and he’d already called me the jilted wife.

He knew my marriage was in tatters. Maybe he’d seen the yard sale ad like the rest of Sydney.

Maybe he’d searched for me on the internet like I’d searched for him.

I hiked my chin and stared him straight in the eye.

Whatever Liam’s reasons were for summoning me back into his life, I wasn’t in the mood to play any of his games.

“Please, Gwen.”

The polite request caught me by surprise. Against all the better judgment screaming at me to run out of the office, I sank into the chair. He followed.

“Cute company name,” I said.

“Wouldn’t our mother be proud? I hated to be the one to prove her wrong about only the scum of the earth growing up on our street, but I was at a loss for a better name.

” The corner of his lips twitched. “Haven’t we come a long way from our humble upbringing, clever Gwen? Me, in banking, and you, well …”

I ignored his thinly veiled insult and folded my hands in my lap. “Will your business partner be joining us? Mr. Serrano?”

“Mr. Serrano? How formal.” Another twitch curved his lips.

“Unfortunately, Elias is still buried in social awkwardness. Not much has changed since you last saw him. He prefers the company of his spreadsheets and leaves me to handle the personnel.” His sigh was weary.

“It’s one of the many burdens I bear for having such a warm and bubbly personality. ”

I cracked an uncertain smile. Was Liam attempting to ease the tension tugging our eyes to blank spots on the walls with humor?

He wasn’t an open book like Toby. His emotions had always been a closely guarded secret, and he flinched away from any sign of affection.

We never knew our father. Our mother had been so cruel to him.

I knew it wasn’t his fault, but his cold indifference made me want to pick at my cuticles until nothing was left.

“Liam, why am I here?”

He cocked his head, watching my expression closely. “Do you believe in fate?”

“No.” It seemed like a strange question to ask but an even stranger question to lie about. “Not really.”

He acknowledged my answer with a nod. “I’m a man of numbers…

probabilities… Perhaps I was too harsh on that irritating recruiter.

I asked for a paralegal to file settlements and keep the regulator off my back, and she found me a renowned lawyer willing to do a job well beneath her.

What do you suppose the odds of that are? ”

I blinked. Was he expecting me to run the numbers? Give an impossible answer? “I’d say the odds are pretty high considering you asked for me specifically. My brain teaser for you after all this time is, ‘Why’?”

“One must be very selective when hiring staff for a modest family business.”

“Cumberland’s a modest family business?” I barked a laugh. I couldn’t help it. “The hedge fund you’ve built with Elias has assets under management of half a billion dollars.”

Liam’s lips curved into an almost-smile. “When a family has so much money to protect, that’s even more reason to be careful, no?”

“And after all these years, after you walked away and refused to have any contact with me, you think I want to be part of this… family ?”

Liam muttered a soft tsk . “Clever Gwen, we’re not ready for storytime yet.

Today, we’re talking about you.” He leaned back in his chair.

“You’re the woman who’s not afraid to go after the mob—or at least, you were .

You planned to prosecute Marcello Morelli and unravel the Bankstown drug cartel.

You won cases against child-abusing filth.

Everyone said you’d go on to do great things.

And yet, here you are… A single mother. Unemployed.

Willing to accept nothing but a crumb of your worth. ”

My chin lifted. It was a defensive move. He’d sucker-punched me in the stomach with his words, and he knew exactly what he was doing. This was no longer a game. This was war.

My voice was somehow still confident even though humiliation and fury swelled to fill the gaping hole he’d cracked in my chest. “I’m looking for a new opportunity.

Even I got tired of prosecuting the worst of society eventually.

” Every word was a lie, but I’d told the story so many times, maybe it would ring true. “I wanted to try something different.”

“I see.” Liam’s mouth flattened into a line. “Tell me, did your sudden desire to try something different coincide with your former employer revealing his true colors?”

The lies were so easy. “I’m not sure what you’re referring to.”

“Come now, we’re both intelligent enough to know you didn’t quit your job because you had a sudden change of heart.

We also both know your former employer is a renowned misogynist who’d sell his own daughter to the highest bidder.

” He tilted his head slightly, a questioning look in his pale eyes. “Is that why he got rid of you?”

I shook my head.

“Why then?” When I still refused to answer, Liam sighed. “You’re a frustrating woman, but you’re more like me than I thought. I like that you don’t share secrets so easily.”

“And is that why you asked me here? To get your fill of secrets? Is that how you do your business? Trading on favors and lies like the rest of them?”

“I’m nothing like the rest of them.” Liam almost spat out the words—I’d insulted him—but he quickly regained his composure.

“You talked about looking for opportunities. When your name started floating around certain circles, that’s exactly what I saw.

The perfect opportunity. I need a corporate counsel. ”

I was floored. I knew my worth, but an in-house gig overseeing all the legal work hadn’t been on my radar. “I’m not qualified to do that. I worked in criminal law, not mergers and acquisitions. I have no idea about banking…or…or…insurance.”

“A life for a life, little Gwen. That’s the only insurance you need to understand.”

“Uh…”

“And here I was promising no storytime.” He almost chuckled. “You’re a highly regarded lawyer. It’s immaterial to me what kind of law you practiced. I need a lawyer with more than corporate knowledge. I have matters that must be handled …delicately. ”

Unease prickled up my spine. “What type of matters?”

“The type that can only be handled by someone I trust, and not by someone corrupted by the mafia men your former employer was so friendly with.” Liam’s gaze leveled on me. “Or by a family like the Sullivans.”

I sucked in a sharp breath. “Toby’s a good man.” I hated that defending him was automatic.

“Is he? I tend not to put too much faith in gossip.” He gestured to himself and rolled his eyes. “But an internet post of you handing your husband his balls suggested the apple didn’t fall far from the Sullivan’s tree.”

“You think Toby’s like his father? That he’s some wheeler-dealer shonky businessman?” I laughed. “Toby’s a dentist. He drives an SUV. He once serenaded me with a song from Mulan to get me through my law exams. He’s a cheating bastard, but he’s nothing like his father.”

Liam’s expression remained blank, but his fingers drummed the armrest of his overstuffed leather chair. He was calculating the risks. Assessing me .

“You were always too kind-hearted, little Gwen.” Sighing, he uncapped a gold fountain pen, scrawled something on a notepad, tore off the page, and slid it across the desk.

My eyes bulged. That was a lot of dollars. “What—” I cleared the shock from my throat. “That’s too much.”

“That’s not even close to what I waste on legal advice.”

“You truly want me to be your corporate counsel?”

“Yes.”

“You want to pay me”—I pointed at the bit of paper in disbelief— “that?”

“Yes.”

“I need flexible working arrangements. Part-time hours. Staggered hours. Probably days working from home, too.”

Liam lifted a shoulder. “Work on the moon if it pleases you. I’ll drop by if I need your advice on anything particularly sensitive. If the workload’s too much, you’re most welcome to hire a paralegal. Hire ten. I only ask you to spare me from any more of these interviews.”

His offer was too good to be true. There was always a catch. “Is this…” I dreaded asking the question, but my pride refused to accept the job without knowing. “Is this some kind of pity offer?”

Liam cocked his head. “You didn’t graduate at the top of your class?”

“Of course I did.”

“You didn’t turn down offers from all the top firms to serve the public instead?”

“I did, but—”

“You didn’t refuse to roll over when your former employer demanded you drop the cases against the Morelli family?

” My breath sucked in, but Liam didn’t stop.

“And that instead of accepting his bribe, you threatened to expose him? To whom, though, clever Gwen? Too many police were more than happy to accept the money you weren’t. ”

“You—that’s not—you can’t know that.”

“I know many things I’m not supposed to. Rich friends. Powerful enemies. They’re the same thing in the end. If you have true family, then and only then do you understand loyalty. People who work here understand the importance of that.”

There was a hidden meaning in Liam’s words.

I was certain of it. Nothing about him—or this job—was what it seemed.

But, as crazy as it was, all I saw was my freedom in the flourish of numbers written with his fancy pen.

Escaping the house and never hearing Toby’s mother accuse me of stealing his trust fund was worth so much more than the offer on that piece of paper.

I hiked my chin and looked at my brother head-on, ready to negotiate final terms. “I won’t do anything illegal.”

“No, you won’t.”

That answer gave me no comfort. “Or unethical.”

“You’re not much of a lawyer without ethics.”

“And there’s nothing… odd …you’ll ask me to do?”

The look in Liam’s eye was almost sly. “There’s one thing.”

Here we go. I lifted my eyebrow, waiting for him to fill in the blanks. There was always a catch.

His tone was almost amused when he explained, “I’m told by the woman who runs human resources that staff morale is important. It’s a rule here that everyone works in the office on Tuesdays to bond or some such nonsense. And once each month, there’s a compulsory morning tea.”

“You attend the morning teas?”

“Of course. One of the girls in accounts is quite the little baker. She makes delightful lamingtons.”

I stared at Liam like he had two heads.

“They don’t surpass the squashed peanut butter sandwiches you made for our dinner.” He winked at me. “But what is life without a little whimsy?”

I was hallucinating. The shapewear squeezing me into my pencil skirt had cut off the circulation to my brain. One of the wealthiest men in the city—my brother—was talking to me about the whimsy of eating lamingtons.

He continued. “If you still enjoy cooking and have time around your commitments , you’re most welcome to contribute to the morning teas.”

I smirked at him. “And if I don’t bake lamingtons?”

His lips curved. He knew he’d reeled me in. “Well, in that case, you may recall that Elias is partial to polvorones.”