Once Upon a Friendship

Even if Liam woke up one morning and suddenly decided he was attracted to her, too, when things went bad—and they would, considering Liam’s inability to settle for one woman for more than six months at a time—their friendship would never be the same.

She wasn’t willing to lose their family over some latent desire to know what his kiss felt like.

The next morning, on her mandated coffee break at the legal aid office—which she rarely took—Gabrielle took herself outside, cell phone in hand. Naturally paranoid, she was now a bit more so when it came to Liam.

Now that she knew his father had some shady associates, at the very least. And, worst case scenario, was a crook.

The first call she made was to Elliott Tanner. She wanted a list of his clients. Not that she expected him to give it to her. Still, she had to try.

Of course he refused to give it to her without a court order. And would fight doing so even then.

He knew darn well she’d never get that order. Her client wasn’t even facing charges.

“If it’s any consolation to you, you have my word that I’m going to take good care of him,” the other man said, his deep voice sounding more trustworthy than intimidating.

Gabrielle wanted to believe him.

But she took his words with a huge grain of salt. If the man was out to spy on Liam, he certainly wasn’t going to come right out and say so. Which meant that Gabrielle and Marie were going to have to be extra diligent about watching his back.

The second call she made was to Walter Connelly. Turning her back to the wall of her building, Gabrielle watched the people walking past. A normal view. On a normal day.

There was no reason for the butterflies attacking her stomach.

She didn’t expect to be put through when she identified herself to Mr. Connelly’s secretary. The FBI had finished their investigation as promised, restoring his full access to his computers, and while all accounts relating to the Grayson deal were frozen, Connelly Investments had eggs in many baskets. Walter would be hard at work protecting those eggs.

“Ms. Miller, this is a surprise.” Walter Connelly’s voice boomed over the line. You’d never know the man was facing a large financial loss. Not to mention possibly twenty years to life in jail.

“Your son has hired me to represent him...”

“The fool’s going to sue me? Surely you’re smart enough to advise him to drop this ludicrous notion.”

“I can’t speak to you of Liam’s plans, sir, but I can assure you I’m not calling to talk about terms of a lawsuit.”

“So why are you calling?”

“To ask you about the alleged charges against you.”

“Liam hired you to look into my affairs?”

“The FBI questioned him. He’s a natural suspect. I’d be better able to represent his best interests if I had a clue what was really going on.”

“As soon as I have one, I’ll let you know.”

Why she’d thought the man might cooperate with her, she didn’t know. If she thought he’d do so for the sake of his son, she was the foolhardy one. He’d written Liam out of his will for buying an apartment building. And Walter Connelly had never made a secret of his feelings where Gabrielle and Marie were concerned. They were common girls. Unconnected. Not good enough for Liam Connelly.

Gabrielle he’d seemed to hate most. Where Marie might get a gruff hello on occasion, he’d looked right through Gabrielle. At least Marie came from a decent, upper-middle-class family. Gabrielle had grown up on food stamps.

She was freezing and needed to go back inside.

“Do you have my number?” she pushed him.

“I do. And I mean what I say,” he added. “You should know that about me by now. I do not yet know what’s going on, but I intend to. Very soon.”

“You didn’t do it.” Liam had made it clear the night before that he had no doubt to his father’s guilt.

“I did not.”

“For the record, I didn’t think you had,” she said. “Not after I read the reports.”