“Well, that’s settled.” I swallow down the rest of my scotch. “Grace, I need you to stay late and book our accommodations for the next two nights.”
“Are you serious?” she asks me, shocked.
“You are my assistant. Of course I’m serious. It doesn’t matter that you are coming with me. I still need you to do your job here.”
She rolls her eyes at me and shoves her empty glass in my hand. “Well I’m booking myself a suite and don’t even try to think about stealing it from me.”
“We have a budget, you know,” I tell her as she stomps over to her computer.
“And you can stay at the budget-friendly hotel. Meanwhile, I’ll be ordering room service and drinking champagne.”
Owen snorts. “Have fun with that one.” He drops his voice. “But you better not touch her.”
“It’s work, man.”
He nods and then walks out of my office. I may have lied to his face. But it is work. I just know I’ll have my head buried between his sister’s thighs at some point.
* * *
“So who is Lionel?” Grace asks the second I pull out of Owen’s driveway the next morning.
She booked us two nights in the same hotel Phillips stayed at every time he was in Wilmington. And she booked the damn suite. I’m sure I’ll hear shit from our accountant but at least the other room she booked was the cheapest room there. Not that I have any intention of letting her sleep in it. Well, as she put it as we left the office last night, she booked me the servants’ quarters.
I am not going to lie and say my dick isn’t excited about this trip. Three full days and two nights with Grace and no needing to hide a thing. Yes, it’s a work trip but we also won’t have Owen around or anyone with prying eyes.
“He’s a friend.”
She looks over at me. “A friend you pay to have.”
“Some may call it that. But I like the man. He’s a good person. A caring family man that wants the best for his family.”
“Uh-huh.”
Normally I would leave it at that. My interns and even some of the new lawyers have no idea about the lengths I go to. But I trust Grace. I know she would never turn on me or her brother. “He works at the prison where most of our clients are held.”
“Makes sense. I would have someone like him on my side if I needed that information for an article. But no one gives information away for nothing.”
I glance over at her. “Sounds like you have experience in that department.”
“We are talking about you.”
I smirk at her. I am kind of excited about this car ride. I want to learn more about her. The reason she moved here. What made her leave journalism? And a five-and-a-half-hour drive is the best way to find out.
“I pay for his daughter’s school. She is amazingly smart. Goes to Duke, my alma mater. But he can’t afford it. It’s expensive as hell to go there. She got a scholarship but it still wasn’t enough. His wife had a botched back surgery and can’t work so it’s just him. And after their son died in a car accident a few years back, I couldn’t just let him suffer. Money doesn’t change things but it does help sometimes.” I sigh. “They are good people. I take them out to dinner every time I win a case. The fancy dinners they could never afford. But every time Lionel offers to pay their share and I always turn him down. He knows I bring them out to dinner as a thank you but the man has such pride, he doesn’t want to accept my gifts.”
Grace is silent and I look over at her as we are stopped at a light.
“Wow.” She puts her hand over her chest. “He sounds like an amazing man. I would love to meet him.”
I reach over and squeeze her hand. “Maybe you can come to dinner when we win this case.”
“Maybe.” She pulls her hand out of mine. “But is that even legal? You are paying someone for information?”
“It’s just knowledge that leads me to the truth, whether it falls in my favor or not is a different story.”
“Could you get in trouble for it?”
That’s a gray line. “Not necessarily. Maybe if I used him to testify but I never would.”