had her drink with Mitch. She’d been totally focused on him and wouldn’t have noticed if the Governor of Florida had sat down next to her.
“Look who I ran into in the lobby,” O’Neill said.
“Good evening, Sophia.”
Joan was seated at the very table she and Mitch had sat at earlier. Joan was sitting in the same spot that Sophia had been in. O’Neill pulled up a chair, leaving Sophia Mitch’s former spot.
“Joan. I was meeting with one of the attorneys on the Spinder case.”
She knew it was impossible but she could still smell Mitch’s aftershave. She closed her eyes for a second and inhaled deeply. Shivers raced through her and when she opened them she found Joan staring at her. The feeling that everything was spinning out of control hovered on the edge of her conscious.
“Good. Did you get the names of the other attorneys who’ll be on the case?”
Was it her imagination or did O’Neill have too many teeth? If he smiled at her again she was going to be tempted to toss something at him. Sophia suddenly realized what this little meeting was about. And it wasn’t the Spinder case though that was part of it. Joan was trolling around for another D.A. to move into the deputy slot if Sophia lost her edge.
No. Dammit, she hadn’t discussed anything related to the case. “Of course.”
“Joseph, will you go get us a couple of drinks. I’ll have a White Zin and Sophia, Pinot Grigio?”
Sophia nodded. Joseph didn’t look too happy at being sent for drinks, but Sophia recognized this meeting and this moment for what it was. Usually Sophia envied her boss, the poise that she had and the life that she’d carved for herself, but sitting in this lounge at ten o’clock at night she realized that Joan lived for the law.
Did she ever get lonely? Had she ever made a sexy wager with an ex-lover? Probably not. Mueller was a single-minded woman when it came to her career, and she was everything Sophia had ever wanted to be.
Did she still want that? Of course she did. Sophia made up her mind to focus on her career. She hadn’t really stopped focusing on it, she reminded herself. She’d only let Mitch Hollaran distract her for a millisecond and look what had happened. She vowed it wouldn’t happen again.
“I’ve asked Joseph to move some of his caseload and assist you with this one,” Joan said.
Sophia straightened up and banished Mitch Hollaran from her senses. “That’s not necessary, Joan. I can handle this.”
“Are you sure?” Joan asked.
Sophia bit her lip. “Of course I am. I’ve already scheduled an interview with Holly McBride and her family.”
“Hollaran is a big gun and you were making noises this afternoon about not wanting the case.”
“Well, I don’t need help. I’ve got the case locked up. The trial’s not for two months.”
Joan leaned back in the seat and studied her. Sophia struggled not to squirm under the scrutiny.
“Something’s off about you, Sophia.”
“Nothing is off. I’m just tired.”
“A vacation will fix that,” Joan said, after a few minutes of silence had passed.
“Yes, it will.”
“Sophia, I’ve always seen a lot of myself in you.”
“I’m flattered.”
“Don’t be. I’ve made some tough choices, and I regret some of them.”
“I’m not sure what you’re trying to say.”
“Only make sure you’ll be happy living for the job. It’s kind of lonely here and not everyone would be happy with it.”
“Joan, you know me, I live for work.”
“Actually, Deltonio, I’m not sure you know yourself,” Joan said.
Joseph returned with the drinks before Sophia could comment. The conversation settled around the panty-raider case she’d won this afternoon, but Sophia didn’t feel like celebrating. She knew that the next two months were going to be hard. Harder than she’d thought they’d be because Joan was right. She didn’t know herself anymore. And that was never a good place to be.
MITCH HAD SPENT the last few hours on the phone trying to help Dev out. The best he could do was get Dev assigned to a very strict detox program that came with a twenty-four-hour-a-day counselor when you were released. The judge had promised if Dev used again he’d be in jail for a long time. Dev had muttered his thanks, but Mitch knew something still wasn’t right with his friend.
He’d had a meeting with Marcus, Spinder’s manager, to discuss strategy. The plan he and Marcus had come up with was for Jason to appear untouched by the trial. Jason would play the media with his usual finesse. Marcus booked Spinder on several talk shows over the weekend, and an officer of the court would accompany Jason on his out-of-town gigs, ensuring he didn’t skip bail.
Mitch had a list of people to interview, mostly cast and crew members who’d been at the bar that night with Jason. At least one of the other guys had been out with Holly before.
In fact, Mitch thought, as he reentered his own room and prepared to relax for the evening, everything was going well. Still, he was too wired to sleep. He paced over to the window. Glancing out at the Orlando skyline he saw his own reflection in the glass.
Mitch wished he really were the man he saw in the glass. The reflection looked successful. And if he could stop at success Mitch wouldn’t have any problems.
But there was no escaping the demons pushing him forward, nor the knowledge that revenge wasn’t the solution he was searching for and that even leaving Sophia in the same state he’d been in years ago wasn’t going to turn his life around.
He cursed and turned on his heel. Maybe he’d go to the weight room and work off some of this tension that lingered from his meeting with Sophia.
He wished he hadn’t let his anger get the better of him with Sophia. If he’d kept his mouth shut he probably would have been able to coax her up to his suite for the kind of reunion they’d both wanted.
But a few hours in the sack weren’t going to give him the kind of satisfaction he wanted. He needed to take Sophia’s well-ordered world and make it into chaos. He cursed again and decided against working out. He went to the minibar and pulled out a Heineken. Twisting off the cap, he took a long draw from the bottle.
He turned off the lights and moved his chair in front of the window. Propping his feet on the sill, he watched the lights for a while and tried to ignore the pImages** in his head. Tried to tune out Stevie Ray Vaughan’s electric guitar riffs and the woman who was swaying to the music wearing nothing but a sexy smile.
But the image wouldn’t leave and he leaned back and let Sophia seduce him here in the privacy of his room where only he would know about it. His cock twitched, tension spread throughout his body and he knew he should have left the room earlier, rather than staying here with the memories.
But this was part of his nightly routine ever since learning he’d be coming to Orlando and facing the woman who’d changed him. He’d been living with memories of everything he’d done with her. He’d been mostly focusing on the sex and the ending because if he remembered how good it had been between them he might start wanting something else. Something he knew better than to want because it wasn’t real.
The only real things were cases fought in a court of law, and old friendships. And he and Sophia weren’t old friends. They were ex-lovers with bad blood between them.
Remember that, old man, he reminded himself. Tilting back the bottle he drained it. He thought about having another one but wasn’t planning on getting drunk tonight when he had so much work to do tomorrow. So he focused on