Caught between a choice of avoidance and head-on collision, she pondered her options with no easy answer. Damn it, she didn’t feel like dealing with Greg, but she knew she wouldn’t later either.
“Ah, Lindsey?” Maggie questioned, letting Lindsey know time was up.
Grimacing, Lindsey gave in. Better to get it over with. “Put him through,” she said, sitting down, as she deposited her things on the desk.
“Good luck, honey.”
“Yeah, I need it,” she mumbled under her breath. Lindsey took several deep breaths and then picked up the phone line. “This is Lindsey.”
His voice made her flinch. “Hey, beautiful. How are you?”
Lindsey rolled her eyes. Spare me the sweet talk, please. Her response was clipped but polite. “Thanks for the flowers.”
“Just like old times, right?” he said in a soft voice full of intentions that didn’t match Lindsey’s.
No way was she letting him go down this path. “No Greg, it is not like old times, and it can’t ever be like old times again.”
He ignored her in favor of his own agenda. That part was indeed just like old times. “Go to dinner with me, tonight.”
It wasn’t a question, which set her nerves even further on edge, if that was even possible. What part of “over” did the man not understand? “I can’t, Greg. I have a lot of work to do.”
“That’s an excuse, and we both know it,” he said. “Go to dinner with me and you can find out what I know about the Williams case.”
Typical Greg tactic. Dangle something she needed as bait. Silently she cursed him. Lindsey bit her bottom lip, thinking hard. It was tempting to milk him for information. He owed her at least that for the hell of their past. Still, could she put up with Greg for an entire dinner? After only a moment of contemplation, she decided she couldn’t. “Greg, I really can’t.”
He paused as if considering his next attack method. Greg was, if nothing else, a practiced overachiever. The word “no” was not in his vocabulary. “Okay then, coffee. We’ll go to your favorite little spot.” His voice dropped. “I haven’t forgotten any of your little pleasures.”
Every muscle in her body tensed. The very thought of him understanding anything about her, let alone her pleasures, was a joke. Yet logic told her she could get a lot more scoop about Williams if Greg was playing to win her back. She hated being a user, but turnabout was fair play; and she’d been a token in his game for years. “Well,” she said slowly. “I guess we could do coffee.”
She could picture his cocky grin as he responded. “Good. How about seven?”
“Fine, seven.”
“I’ll pick you up at your office.” He didn’t give her a choice, which was so Greg. “See you then, Lindsey.” And he hung up.
No! Not the office. What would Mark think? Lindsey looked at the phone, realizing her grip was like a vise. He couldn’t come to the office. Her fingers punched the telephone buttons, dialing his number, which was embedded in her brain like every other bad memory he represented. Seconds later, she was informed that he wasn’t in his office. Slamming down the phone, she sat unmoving, mulling over her predicament.
Why in the world did she say yes to anything with Greg? He would just cause her trouble.
After a few minutes of beating herself up, she resolved to make the best of her situation. Lindsey swung around in her chair and grabbed the Williams file off her credenza. If the man was going to screw up her life, she might as well do a good job of milking him. It was time to roll up her sleeves and study and make a complete list of questions.
Reviewing files and calling witnesses took up the rest of her afternoon. A call to the NYU Dean’s Office proved difficult at best. Convincing them to share any student information was like pulling teeth. It took threatening the school’s reputation to get any semblance of information. A few other phone calls proved completely fruitless. If Williams was innocent, there was a link to those girls somewhere else. And she knew there had to be.
He was innocent, just like Hudson.
Her instincts said so, and as much as she feared trusting them, as always, they drove her actions. Regardless of the past, she had to go with what had always worked for her. And if Hudson was innocent, then her instincts had really never failed. She’d just thought they did. Getting back to her roots was the only way she would succeed.
She was looking through the police investigation reports on the Williams case, lost in deep concentration, when a noise made her jump. Her eyes darted upward, and she was shocked to see Mark standing in front of her desk. It scared the hell out of her that she had been so absorbed that she’d never even heard him enter. “Do you know how to knock, Mark?” she asked sharply.
Mark’s eyes immediately flashed to the roses sitting on Lindsey’s desk and then back to her face. “Funny, I thought we were past certain pretense.” His voice was sweetly sarcastic.
Lindsey avoided looking at the roses. He was angry, but he had it tucked neatly behind his business mask. Still, it was there, in his eyes and in his tone of voice. And that made her angry. Between her father, Greg, and the men she had encountered in her field investigations, she was well past her quota of the overbearing opposite sex for the day. She didn’t need Mark sending her into overload.
“One romp in the sack does not discard my right to privacy at work,” she threw out sharply.
Mark’s eyes narrowed and a flash of anger darted through them before he carefully offered her a blank stare. “So that’s how it is, is it?” He thumbed a rose petal.
Lindsey pushed her chair back and stood up. “You know, at the moment I have had it to about here,” Lindsey put her hand to the top of her head, “with men and their territorial claims on me and my time.”
Mark’s eyes darkened into deep pools of heat as he stood completely still, not moving a single muscle, just staring at her. There was a long, awkward silence before he turned and headed to the door. If he had said something, anything, it would have been easier to deal with than his cold silence. Lindsey felt regret like a sharp pain, and her chest tightened. “That’s it?” she demanded to his back. “You’re not going to say anything?”
Mark stopped walking but didn’t turn around for several beats. When he did, she hated the cool detachment that filled his face. His voice was brittle and low. “I am not playing this game with you, Lindsey. Press me, and I’ll leave you with this mess.”
As much as she knew she shouldn’t lash out again, she couldn’t seem to contain her temper. Crossing her arms in front of her body, she stared back at him. “Ah, I see. Looking for an out.”
The muscle in his jaw jumped, but he kept his expression emotionless. “If I was looking for an out, I wouldn’t have dealt with your father today. I have every intention of keeping my word to help you, but I will only put up with so much.”
Her eyes grew wide. “You fixed things with my father?”
He nodded and then turned back towards the door.
Lindsey stepped out from behind her desk and started crossing the room towards him, once again speaking to his back. “What happened? Mark?”
Mark’s hand was on the doorknob, his words spoken without turning. “We’re late for the partnership meeting, Lindsey.” He opened the door and left before she could stop him.
* * * * *
All eight partners were already seated when Lindsey entered the conference room several moments later.
Mark sat at the head of the table, a sturdy business face securely in place, ensuring she had no hope of reading him. She regretted how she had treated him. Her feelings for Mark were confusing, and she’d allowed her own inner turmoil to escalate her temper. He didn’t deserve to be smashed because of what other men in her life had done to her, yet it was so hard to separate him from them.
And terrifying. What if he turned out to be like them?
Mark was so stone-cold it was like watching a stranger. He was aloft and cold, with his cobra-like instincts alight in his dark eyes. He was prepared for battle, and she wondered if it was with her or the partners. Without speaking, she found her way to the empty seat next to Mark.