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  During her explanation, she’d dug into her case, pulled out the files and handed the pertinent paperwork to him. He read it all, listening to her carefully and giving her his complete attention.

  He sighed when she finished. “You said she had a hearing today? If she’s so innocent, why is she still in lockup?”

  He’d been so polite up until then. Thank the gods for all her training. Still, she understood how difficult his job had to be, especially right then, so she would explain what she thought he should know already. “Mr. Lyons, how old are you? Do you mean to tell me you believe the justice system is perfect here in Ravena? The administrator who heard my motion this afternoon? His name is Paul Kerrigan. In addition to being a person Ms. Mortan raised from infancy, he’s also Saul Kerrigan’s third son.” Even as jaded as she was, it had been shocking to her to see the love in Gretel’s eyes for the boy she’d loved like her own even as he’d turned down Abbie’s request for an emergency hearing.

  “Are you saying he didn’t administer the case fairly?”

  “I’m saying that, looking at the facts, we’ve got a very elderly woman who has a spotless criminal record. She’s worked for the Kerrigan Family her entire life, first as general help and then as their governess. She has a family of her own. Her children are all solid members of society. In a normal situation, based on the amount of evidence against her, she would not be in lockup. She would be free as she awaited her trial. Anyone her age with her record would not be held in lockup and a request for an emergency hearing to determine lockup status awaiting trial should have been heard. But none of that happened and I can’t tell you why. I can only tell you what normally happens and my suspicions.”

  “What is it you’d like me to do?”

  “I wasn’t meeting you today about Gretel Mortan.”

  “I know that.”

  “I’m still going to want to speak to you about the MRD.”

  Was that a smile hinting at the corners of his mouth? A very sexy mouth, at that.

  “I’m certain you do. Marcus will find a place for you in my schedule. Just call him. He likes you for some reason.” He shrugged like he found it inexplicable.

  “I’d like you to step in and sign the order to have Gretel Mortan issued an emergency hearing. And I would like to have any House Kerrigan members removed from the case in any capacity.”

  He cocked his head and examined her face. “I thought you’d ask me to free her.”

  “I’m not trying to get special favors. Or okay, so yes, it would be a special favor for you to step in at all. But all I’m asking is for her to have an emergency hearing so she can be freed while she awaits trial. You don’t strike me as the kind of man who’d use his power to step in and free someone in a case like this. But if you’d look over the material I sent to your office and speak with Saul Kerrigan and urge him to drop the charges of theft, I would appreciate it very much.”

  He stood. “All right. I already spoke to the lead administrator of the courts and he happened to agree that Ms. Mortan should have received an emergency hearing. According to Cushing, she’ll be on the schedule tomorrow morning.”

  Internally, she was impressed. Cushing. Alastair Cushing was the most powerful name in all of jurisprudence in Ravena and he was on Lyons’s comm list. Obviously. “You knew this when you came here? And you still wanted my song and dance? Why?” Was she like a performing animal for him?

  “I wanted to hear it from you. I wanted to get a feel for who you are. That you kept your request fair means something about your character. Now, it is late, as you mentioned, and I have early appointments tomorrow. Thank you for the stew, and for speaking with me so candidly.”

  He headed to the door and she tried not to gape at him.

  What an interesting man he was.

  Chapter 3

  In the hallway outside the hearing room, Gretel looked fragile, confused and very sad. It nearly broke Abbie’s heart. But at least she could go home with her family instead of spending another night in lockup. The administrator who’d received the case was one Abbie knew to be fair and had been appointed for many years, and his rulings were unquestioned. It was one less thing to worry about in the short term.

  “I will do everything I can to keep her free. You have my word,” Abbie told Gretel’s family, who’d assembled there for the hearing. They thanked her and she watched them walk away, relieved and united.

  On Abbie’s way to her next hearing, Saul Kerrigan stood in her path to block her. She sighed inwardly and braced herself. There was a bit of history between Abbie and the Kerrigans, so she knew to expect an outburst.

  “Is there something I can do for you, Mr. Kerrigan?”

  “You think you can just get your pet, Lyons, to fix things for you?” He yelled it so loud people stopped to stare.

  “I have no idea what you are referring to. If you’ll excuse me, I have another case to attend to.” She attempted to walk past but he grabbed her arm to halt her progress and a cold chill ran up her spine.

  “Look here, girl.” His face was very close to hers and her arm began to hurt where he gripped it. She fought the panic, fought the memories and amazed herself by staying outwardly calm.

  White noise filled her ears. It seemed as if she watched the entire scene from afar. She noted the way her hands shook slightly. The sheen of sweat down her spine, cold and flat, kept her anchored to the spot. Now was not the time to lose it. So she didn’t.

  “You need to unhand me this instant.” Hmm, how very calm she sounded.

  “Sir, is there a problem?” A security officer approached and attempted to get in between them. The guard knew her and Abbie realized he addressed Kerrigan first because he was Ranked, but he’d stepped in to protect her.

  Kerrigan let go of her arm and she had to concentrate on not rubbing the spot where he’d gripped her so tightly. For an old man, he had a lot of strength. And a lot of audacity if he thought she’d just roll over and let him harm her. Her panic subsided, replaced by a growing rage that he’d just hurt her for no other reason than that he could.

  “This woman is a traitor! She and all her little friends trying to overthrow Familial Rule. How dare she darken these halls?”

  The guard stepped back, urging Abbie away with his body.

  “I’m on my way to another hearing. If Mr. Kerrigan is done assaulting me, I need to be going.” She kept her voice bored, even as she worked to tamp down her fear. An accusation like Kerrigan’s wasn’t anything to play around with. In the wake of the recent scandals regarding the Imperialists, calling someone a traitor wasn’t an idle thing.

  “Saul, come on. Let’s get moving, we have a meeting.” A nearly emaciated, stooped male about Gretel’s age pulled gently on Kerrigan’s arm, and Kerrigan sneered at her one last time before bustling down the hall, away from them.

  “Abbie, are you all right?” Logan shoved his way through the crowd.

  No. No, she wasn’t, but she had no time to fall apart just then either. “I’m fine, thank you, Logan.”

  He saw her face and nodded. “I need to talk to you about a case. You have to be in Administrator Ubai’s motions hearing, right?” He put a hand at the small of her back and ushered her through the crowd toward the sky bridge between the buildings, all the while chattering to her about meaningless things.

  Marcus sailed into Roman’s office and tossed a stack of papers and files onto the desk.

  “Did Ms. Haws’s office call to set an appointment? And have you heard any results of the hearing for the old woman?” Roman asked.

  Marcus stopped and turned to look at him carefully. “My, you’re very interested. She’s cute, isn’t she? That tiny little spitfire thing works for her. You know, I hear she’s single.”

  Great, the last thing Roman needed was for Marcus to think he had a thing for Abigail Haws. “Stop it right there, Marcus. I asked because I wanted to be sure Cushing followed up. Ms. Haws’s romantic status is irrelevant to me. The woman has no manners
at all.”

  “You need that, Roman. You need a wild woman who will show you a world you haven’t seen. A woman who doesn’t need something from you other than some satisfaction in bed.”

  “Marcus!”

  Marcus, his assistant of nearly twenty years, simply laughed. “Let me check and I’ll get back to you.”

  His younger brother, Alexander, would probably frown at him for giving Marcus such leeway to say things like that in his presence but Marcus made him smile. Marcus respected him without taking him too seriously. Very few people apart from his children and a small circle of friends treated him like a person instead of the Roman Lyons. It wasn’t so much that Roman gave Marcus the leeway to speak to him so informally, but that Roman preferred it that way and saw it as respect. Marcus was an employee but also a friend. That was a rare thing anywhere, much less in his world.

  Roman had been standing at the window, reading a report, when Marcus rushed back in sometime later. “Roman, the old woman, Mortan, she was freed until trial. But the big news is that Saul Kerrigan grabbed Ms. Haws and screamed in her face, threatening her even, in the hall after the hearing had ended.”

  Roman gripped the sheaf of papers until they crinkled. “Grabbed her how? Is she all right? Has she spoken with the media? Where in the seven hells is Saul?”

  “I don’t know. I don’t know. Not from what I can tell. Shall I send for him?”

  Roman exhaled sharply. “This sort of thing only feeds the anti-Family party line. Get him in here immediately. And get me the vid footage of that hallway. I can’t trust Saul to tell me the truth.”

  “Abbie, you’ve got several high-priority comm messages,” Tasha informed her as she got back to her office. “Are you all right?” Tasha followed her into her tiny office as she asked in a hushed voice.

  “Gretel is out until trial, that’s a huge relief for her family.” Abbie scrolled through the messages, stopping when she saw two from Marcus, Roman Lyons’s assistant.

  “He’s not hard to look at.” Tasha grinned.

  “He seems very nice,” she said absently as she watched Marcus request her presence in Roman Lyons’s office as soon as possible.

  Another comm, this one from Roman himself.

  “Now that is one handsome male. Looks like he’d smell very good.”

  “He does. But he has terrible manners. I should hit you with this”—Abbie held up a hole punch briefly—“for forgetting to tell me he’d be on my doorstep at a very late hour.” She hadn’t even been wearing a bra when he’d shown up. Not that he’d shown any interest in the state of her nipples at all, but still.

  “I left you a note. You always come back here.” Tasha raised one shoulder that told Abbie her assistant knew good and well Abbie wouldn’t get that message. Tasha knew Abbie would have put a stop to the meeting if she’d known.

  She sighed after listening to Roman Lyons ask her to come to his office immediately. It wasn’t like she could say no. Not when she wanted him to listen to her pitch about the MRD and he had helped out with Gretel. But when it came right down to it, Roman Lyons had requested an audience and it wasn’t one she could refuse.

  “I need to go over to House Lyons. I’m clear schedulewise. Please inform Mr. Lyons’s assistant I’m on my way and that I don’t have two hours to waste.”

  “Um, he’s had a conveyance sent. The driver is waiting for you.”

  “Tasha! You knew all this time and you didn’t tell me?” She stood and tried to smooth down the front of her clothing. Quickly, she managed to tuck errant strands of her hair back into the knot at the back of her head and hid a blush as she dabbed on lipstain.

  “Abbie, if I’d told you at the beginning you’d have insisted he was manipulating you. And look, Kerrigan is a monster to have handled you that way. Logan told us how he was. Roman Lyons seems to care about the situation, so why shouldn’t you go over there? He needs to know what the Ranked get up to.” Tasha handed Abbie her case with a smile that said she didn’t feel a single bit of guilt.

  “Logan shouldn’t be telling tales. I have to go. I’ll get even with you later.” She waved over her shoulder as she rushed out and the House Lyons driver who’d been waiting stood and gave her a slight bow.

  “Ms. Haws? Mr. Lyons says to bring you right over when you get the opportunity.”

  She smiled—what else could she do, she was raised to have manners, after all—and let him lead her to the conveyance waiting at the front of the building.

  No one in the inner-circle part of the capital city had vehicles. Mass transit worked very well, and without vehicles other than trams and the subterranean trains, it was easy enough to walk through the municipal complex from one side to the other in less than half of one standard hour.

  The Ranked, of course, did have vehicles, but even they didn’t use them very often within the municipal ring. And yet here she sat, ensconced in the plush seats of the transport of the House Lyons, headed to Roman Lyons’s office. It had been a total waste of resources and time, and a way to keep the upper hand but, at the same time, Abbie was glad she hadn’t had to walk and be jostled by the crowd on her way.

  She should have taken a relaxer but it’d been so long since she’d had an attack that she’d left them at home. And now, jittery and burning with adrenaline, she headed straight into the absolute worst place she could go.

  Chapter 4

  An angry violence coursed through Roman’s veins after he’d seen the vid footage from the hallway outside the courtroom. He’d fixated on the look of panic flashing over Abigail’s features and then nausea rose as he’d watched her panic fade into blankness.

  Saul Kerrigan was a thug, and if, after the dressing down he’d received for nearly a standard hour, he did not change his behavior and stay the hells away from Ms. Haws, Roman would punish House Kerrigan severely, no matter what connection existed between them.

  A man did not use his size and power to harm a woman. It simply wasn’t done. Roman’s wife had been such a sweet and fragile woman. He couldn’t imagine having touched her in anger even if she’d been as tough as the petite Abigail Haws was.

  He shoved that line of thought far away. Lindy had been gone twelve years, and it wouldn’t do to think on that just before he was due to meet with Ms. Haws.

  Once Marcus announced her arrival, Roman terminated his comm immediately and told his assistant to send her in.

  He stood and met her at the door. “Ms. Haws, are you well?”

  She sighed and the tension vibrated from her, concerning him deeply.

  “Marcus, will you please bring us some refreshments? And hold all comm traffic please.” He looked back to her. “Please, sit down.” When he touched her arm she jumped. He slowly moved away, taking a seat after she did.

  “I’m fine. I take it this is about the scene Saul Kerrigan made today in the hall?”

  He nodded. Her voice was so flat, the spark in her dimmed. There was something wrong with her just then. She wasn’t her usual combative self. “I saw the footage, Ms. Haws. Is your arm all right?”

  She winced, holding it close to her body. He had to know.

  “Did he mark you?”

  “That’s none of your business.”

  He narrowed his eyes. “Indeed it is. This is my damned ’Verse and I take care of my people. You’ll show me your arm because I asked.”

  She jerked back, brown eyes flashing, face flushed, and satisfaction roared through him that she showed signs of her spark.

  “I’m not one of your peasants as if you are a fief lord in the oldest sense. If you saw the vid, you saw an Associate House leader act inappropriately. Security came and he left. I went to the rest of my hearings and came back to the office. By the way, thank you for speaking to Administrator Cushing. Gretel Mortan is now home with her family. She’ll still have to endure trial but at least the credits won’t be an issue. Her case has been taken up by my office and paid for by an anonymous donor. Now, would you like to speak about the Movem
ent for Representative Democracy?”

  Marcus chose that moment to glide in and place a tray heavy with food and tea on the table between Roman’s and Abigail’s chairs.

  While Abigail’s attention was on Marcus leaving the room, Roman leaned forward and pushed her sleeve up. The creamy pale skin was marred by an ugly thumbprint bruise.

  All he heard was a gasp before he found himself flat on the carpet. Abigail scrambled atop his chest, teeth bared.

  Her hair had come unmoored from the nest at the back of her neck and her spectacles sat askew on her face. The uptight barrister had been replaced by a wild woman with a river of dark hair and big, flashing eyes. Her lips, why hadn’t he noticed them before? Plump and juicy. He certainly didn’t miss the heaving breasts. He’d pretended not to notice she hadn’t been wearing a bra the evening before, but with them only inches away from his face, he couldn’t pretend they weren’t there. Large, fleshy and mouthwatering. The upper curve of her right breast was exposed at the neck of her blouse as she leaned over him.

  The moment stretched between them. He knew Marcus must have heard but the door had not opened. Madness took hold in him chasing all rational thought away.

  His control slipped, replaced by fascination at what she’d feel like. His hands found her thighs as she straddled his body, slid up until the edge of her stockings alerted him to bare flesh. Her breath hitched and then she froze.

  “I . . .” She blinked as if awakened from a dream.

  “You have very soft skin,” he murmured, his thumbs sliding back and forth along the band separating bare, velvet thigh and the stocking.

  She scrambled back, legs akimbo, giving him a perfect view of the slice of her body he’d started to yearn for. Red. Bright red panties and stockings underneath the sensible suit. Abigail Haws had a bit of insensible and a lot of sexy.

  “I’m so sorry.”

  He moved, slowly on his hands and knees, until he reached her. “I shouldn’t have startled you. I’m the one who’s sorry.” Clearly something had happened to her to make her respond that way. He wanted to know, wanted her to trust him to tell him but it wasn’t the time.