I’d asked Farber about that case in one of my emails and he’d never responded. Guess now I knew why—he was too chickenshit to outright tell me he’d screwed me over. Again. The worst part was, I wasn’t all that surprised. Pissed, definitely, but I couldn’t pretend like I hadn’t seen this coming. Farber and Roberts were two peas in a pod with their little golf outings and their squash games. I’d known from day one that my f
irm was an old boys’ club, but I’d hoped that my hard work and dedication could break through all that crap. And I’d only been gone two days.
My hands were shaking with anger, making it hard to type. This wouldn’t have happened if I hadn’t left. I hadn’t taken a day off since being hired, even going in when I had the damn flu last year. Then I leave for two days! I gave those two assholes the opening they’d needed to squeeze me out. Elaine must have known exactly what I was thinking.
They’re pulling the same shit they did with Margaret Stern.
The air rushed out of my lungs. She was right. This was exactly like Margaret Stern, a former employee who’d been on the partner track when I started at the firm. Elaine and I watched from the sidelines as she got screwed at every turn by Farber and his cronies. After a couple of years of being shafted, Margaret resigned and we all knew it was because they’d forced her out.
Stupid me, I’d watched that happen but I still thought that I had a chance, that maybe I would be different. If I worked hard enough and played by their rules, I could earn the role of partner. Yeah, right.
As if the system wasn’t rigged against me from the start just because I had a vagina. As if Roberts hadn’t been the favorite all along.
I shook my head with disgust at my personal pity party. Wallowing in anger at the unfairness of it all wasn’t going to get me my case back and it sure as hell wouldn’t win me the partner position. Neither would remaining in Bridgewater County, Montana. I needed to make sure Roberts and Farber knew that I wouldn’t let them walk all over me. If I wanted to claim what was mine, I had to get back to New York and take it back.
***
JACK
Katie was standing in front of the coffee shop when I pulled up in my truck. Sam walked toward her from the opposite direction, apparently coming straight from his office. He spotted me and gave me a small nod before we both turned our attention to Katie, who hadn’t glanced up from her phone long enough to see us coming. We’d texted to tell her we would pick her up to take her to dinner at Cara’s once she finished up her work, but from the looks of it, our girl still hadn’t called it quits for the day.
Of course she hadn’t. I wouldn’t expect anything less from our little workaholic. But I still had hope that we could tempt her away from the rat race and into our lives…for good.
That death glare she aimed at her phone was goddamn adorable, if you asked me, but it was frustrating as hell to see her all worked up over that crappy job of hers. Sam reached her side first and his voice was surprisingly gentle. “Put it away, doll. Work time is over.”
She looked up at him and blinked as if just now realizing where she was and why. She turned those big baby blues in my direction and it was all I could do not to scoop her into my arms and kiss her until she forgot all about the damn phone. Her work. Hell, New York City. Better yet, haul her into my truck and fuck her brains out until she was too blissed out to care.
But as quickly as she’d looked up, she turned her attention back to that fucking phone. “Hang on one sec. I just have to send one more email.”
Sam arched his eyebrows at me over the top of her head. Just one more email. Our Katie sounded like a damn junkie when it came to her work. There would always be one more email. I knew this because Sam had been just like this. Until he saw the light.
I was ready to snatch the phone out of her hand right then and there but judging by the understanding look on Sam’s face, he knew exactly where she was coming from. Being a former workaholic himself, I let him take the lead.
“What’s the emergency this time, doll? Tell us about it.”
Huh. This was a new tactic. I trusted my cousin and it seemed his approach was exactly what she needed because Katie’s shoulders slumped with something that looked heartbreakingly like relief at having a sympathetic ear. Snatching the phone would only mean we didn’t understand, which was probably true, at least for me. I’d always wanted to run the ranch. No rat race for me. Hell, the only rush hour traffic I ever saw was when a herd of cattle stopped traffic as it crossed the road.
“It’s that asshole Roberts,” she muttered as she stabbed at the keypad of her phone. “He took my case and he’s trying to steal another. And Farber is letting him!”
She glanced up at us and I swear her eyes were wild with a frantic energy. A mix of stress and anger that had her wound up so tight, she could snap at any second. Now, I had no idea who Roberts and Farber were but I would beat the shit out of them on the spot just for putting that look in her eyes.
“Then there’s my ex. He keeps calling and he sent an email to mess with me.”
I could see Sam felt the same way judging by the tightness around his mouth and eyes. Ex? He hid his anger better than I did, but either one of us would put our lives on the line for this woman—and kill for her, if it came to that.
Her ex was fucking with her? He was a dead man and we had hundreds of acres to bury the body.
“He’s already junior partner and gloating,” Katie continued. I wasn’t sure if she was talking about Roberts, Farber or her ex. Her fingers were still flying over her phone and though she might have been standing in Bridgewater, her mind was clearly thousands of miles away.
“Would that be so bad?”
We both shot Sam a look of surprise at that. Katie, for obvious reasons, but for me—I could see where he was going with this. I just hadn’t expected him to bring up this conversation quite so early in the night, or while Katie was in one of her stressed out stupors, for that matter. I’d kind of envisioned this talk happening when all three of us were naked and content in bed.
But hell, if Sam thought it was time, I was game.
“Would that be so bad?” Katie repeated the question slowly as if it was the most ludicrous thing she’d ever heard. “Of course it would be bad, Sam. I’ve worked my ass off to make partner. I’ve earned it.”
“No one’s saying you don’t deserve it.” I tried to keep my voice low and soft, the way I’d talk to a spooked horse to make sure it didn’t hurt itself or me. Sure enough, she swung around toward me with those wide, crazed eyes.