43. Cassandra Walker
Monday morning came too quickly, which isn’t something I ever thought I would say. I normally loved Mondays. I loved going to work, but now it meant I wasn’t with Theo, and I was beginning to hate being away from her.
I’d officially lost the battle, and my monster had claimed her as ours, which meant the obsessive tendencies were already beginning.
When I stepped out of the elevators at the firm, clutching the Yeti Theo had filled that morning with my usual triple long, I was actively fighting the urge to text her to see what she was doing.
She better not be at the cafe flirting with that barista…
‘There would be no barista to flirt with if you had let me kill her as I’d suggested.’
I was about to scold my beast when Alyssa rushed up to greet me.
“Morning, Aly–”
“Mrs. Walker, we have a situation. Mr. Cross sent me to find you.”
I froze as my blood ran cold at the look of concern on my EA’s face.
“Why? What’s happening?”
“It’s the reverend, he’s ordered an emergency council, and he’s currently with Mr. Cross in boardroom three.”
I gritted my teeth in frustration, but Alyssa hurried to calm me.
“Mr. Cross refused to start the meeting until you were present. They’re waiting for you now.”
My eyes widened in surprise before narrowing again.
This better not be some ploy to get in my pants or some shit…
But as soon as the thought crossed my mind, I felt annoyed with myself.
I needed to stop letting my interpersonal relationships interfere with my work. This wasn’t like me at all. I’d been really slacking on this case with everything that was going on, but that needed to end now.
I was going to be professional, attend this meeting, win this case, and make partner so that I could finally relax and spend the rest of my career spoiling the woman I… The woman I’d claimed.
“Alright. Here, can you take my things? I’ll head straight there.”
“Of course, Mrs. Walker.” Alyssa nodded, scurrying to take my Chanel. I kept my coffee though, knowing I’d need the caffeine if I was going to be dealing with both Nolan and Reverend Fuck Face at the same time.
Ugh.
‘No rest for the wicked,’ my monster mused, and I rolled my eyes.
I hated it when it was right.
The boardroom’s walls were glass, so I could clearly see what I was walking into before I entered.
Nolan was sitting across from the reverend in the center of the massive conference table, and he had his laptop out, I assumed to take notes… but he wasn’t typing on it. To my surprise, he was staring at the reverend with one of his most stone-cold looks.
To anyone else, he appeared professional, cool, and aloof. But I’d been working with Nolan for years. I knew him, and he was pissed.
What was going on in there?
The moment I opened the door and strode in, Nolan’s entire body seemed to sag in relief. Crossing the room, I pulled out one of the leather swivel chairs next to him.
“Good morning. My EA informed me there was an emergency?” I greeted them both coolly, smoothing my skirt down as I sat.
Whereas Nolan looked relieved that I was there, the reverend looked irritated.
His heavily lined face was tight, and he was sitting board-straight in his seat, glaring at me like I’d interrupted something important.
“Hope you didn’t get started without me.” I gave him a sickeningly sweet smile, which only caused his expression to darken further.
My demon snickered in my head, and my lip twitched.
‘This one is too easy to play with.’
‘No kidding.’
“Mr. Cross insisted we wait,” the reverend growled, and I smirked, taking a sip of the coffee Theo had made me.
“Well, I’m here now. Shall we begin?”
The reverend’s lip curled in distaste, and he turned to face Nolan, shifting his entire body in an attempt to make it clear he didn’t want me to be a part of the conversation.
“As I was trying to tell you before this… gender traitor interrupted… Another girl has come forward with false accusations. She’s a member of my flock, and this behavior, frankly, doesn’t surprise me.
She has always been an attention seeker.
I’m sure she’s seen how much media coverage the complaining witness is receiving, and she’s greedy for it. ”
I blinked as his words rolled through the room, and my monster literally laughed in my head, its raspy chortles scraping down the sides of my skull.
“Gender traitor? How medieval.”
My lip twitched, and I was about to open my mouth to speak, but Nolan beat me to it.
“If you use derogatory language in reference to my colleague again, this meeting will be over, Reverend,” he snapped. His voice was so cold, it shocked me.
I glanced over at him, but he wasn’t looking at me. He was staring at our client with an absolutely furious look on his face. There was a weird muscle pulsing in his jaw, and I raised an eyebrow at how worked up he was over this.
“Thank you, Mr. Cross,” I said smoothly, turning my attention back to our client. “But frankly, I’m more concerned with these new allegations than I am with the fact that our client is clearly a bigoted homophobe.”
The reverend’s face turned red, and I smiled.
“I’ve been doing quite a bit of background on you, Reverend, and you have an interesting past. An interesting past indeed.”
I had his attention now. He was staring at me with those black, soulless pits he had for eyes, and it was clear he thought I knew something he was trying to hide from us.
The giant gap in his digital history was a glaring red flag. There was something there that he was trying to keep buried. I hadn’t figured out what yet, but I was hoping I could manipulate him into telling me.
“Care to share with us what you were doing before you founded ‘The Restoration House?’” I said it in a tone that implied I already knew, hoping to bait him into outing himself.
It almost worked. I could see the surprise on his face, but he quickly got it under control. Turning away from me again, he addressed Nolan instead.
“I want these allegations dealt with. They’re foul lies conjured up by bored little girls who have strayed from the path of God.”
“Mrs. Walker asked you a question,” Nolan deadpanned, leaning back in his chair, casually adjusting the cuffs of his sleeves.
The reverend glared at him, and I watched the wheels turn in what I was sure was a very tiny brain as he tried to worm his way out of dealing with me.
His beady little eyes darted back to me, and I gave him a bright smile.
“I spent several years before founding The Restoration House on a mission to find my purpose. I met God there.”
“A mission,” I repeated skeptically. “There is a twenty-year gap in your file, Reverend. You don’t expect Mr. Cross and me to believe that you went on an off-grid mission trip for twenty years.”
“You cannot rush the Lord’s work. His plan is his own.”
Jesus Christ, this guy was the worst.
Nolan leaned forward, crossing his arms on the table and pinning the reverend with a stern look.
“Hiding things from us will only hurt your case, Reverend. We can’t defend you against things we don’t know about. If there’s something in your past that might come up later in court, it could seriously jeopardize the success of your case.”
The reverend narrowed his eyes on Nolan, his lips forming a firm, stubborn line.
“How about you focus on the things you can defend against, considering that is what I’m paying you for? And what I need you to focus on is these incessant lies from little attention whores.”
‘Can we kill this one soon?’ my demon rumbled, and from the way Nolan’s fists were clenching on the desk in front of him, my monster wasn’t the only one that wanted to kill this man.
‘Maybe,’ I replied softly, and my demon’s ears pricked up in excitement.
‘I am looking forward to listening to him beg his god to save him while I feast on his bones.”
I almost laughed out loud, but managed to fix my face at the last second.
‘And you called him medieval.’ I chuckled softly in my head, and my demon grinned.
‘We would have done well in the Dark Ages. Torture was in fashion.’
Shaking my head to myself, I glanced at Nolan, giving him a knowing look before turning back to the reverend.
“Very well, Mr. Sterling. Allow Mr. Cross and me some time to investigate these new allegations, and we’ll come back to you with a defense strategy,” I conceded, and the reverend just nodded before standing up abruptly to leave.
Neither Nolan nor I stood to shake his hand, which seemed to suit him just fine.
As we watched him go, Nolan let out an angry huff next to me.
“I hate that guy,” he said, and I glanced at him, surprised to find that he hadn’t pissed me off once during the entire meeting.
“Me too,” I agreed, moving to stand up.
I was on my way out when he called my name, and I glanced back to find him staring at me with a cautious look on his face.
“Cassandra?”
“Yeah? What?”
“I saw your post on Instagram. With your… wife.”
I analyzed his tone, examining it for anything that might indicate he was trying to make some sort of jab at me, but I found none. The pause was more cautious than anything. Like he was trying to choose his words carefully to avoid picking the wrong ones.
“Yes? And?”
“I, um. I just wanted to say congratulations. You two look really happy together.”
I kept my face blank, even though my eyebrows seemed to want to shoot into my hairline.
That was… surprisingly nice.
‘I don’t trust it,’ my monster hissed. Inwardly, I agreed, but outwardly, I tilted my head in Nolan’s direction.
“Thank you, Nolan. We are very happy.”
He nodded and gave me a tentative smile.
I didn’t return it, but I was feeling like this case would be less of a nightmare if I wasn’t going to be fending off homophobic slurs from both my client and partner.
Now, all I needed to do was get through the rest of this day, and I could go home to my Theo.
I couldn’t wait.