After Hours Read Free Page A

hadn’t wanted her daughter’s life to mirror hers.
    Karla didn’t want to think of what she’d sacrificed to get what she wanted from life; but she differed from her mother because now she was able to give back. She’d accepted personal cases pro bono, volunteered her services to organizations serving at-risk youth. And if she couldn’t get a former fellow law school student to take on Adina Jenkins’s case, then she would do what she could to help the young woman.
    Glancing at the clock on her desk, she noted the time. Adina had been gone more than fifteen minutes. She buzzed the receptionist. “Valerie, could you please check on Ms. Jenkins. She’s in the ladies’ room.”
    â€œNo, she isn’t,” said Valerie.
    A slight frown creased Karla’s forehead. “No, she isn’t what?”
    â€œShe isn’t in the ladies’ room. She left about ten minutes ago.”
    â€œAre you certain she left?”
    â€œYes. In fact, she thanked me on her way out.”
    Karla’s dark eyebrows slanted in a frown. “Thank you, Valerie.”
    Perplexed, she hung up wondering if Adina had changed her mind and decided going back to her abusive lover was preferable to being on the run. Or perhaps she hadn’t believed Karla when she said she would get someone to help her. Expelling a soft breath, she closed her eyes. It would stand to reason that trusting wasn’t easy for a battered woman and that Adina was wary of everyone she met or confided in; after all, she hadn’t trusted the receptionist who’d taken her call to let her know why she was seeking legal counsel.
    Karla swiveled on her chair—and then she saw it. Adina had left without taking her shopping bag. She got up and picked up the bag. “Dammit,” she swore softly. She hadn’t gotten the name of the motel in Irvington where Adina was staying, so how could she return it to her?
    Sitting down in the chair her elusive client had occupied, she opened the bag and removed several sheets of decorative tissue paper. Her jaw dropped as she stared at the bag’s contents, her heart pounding a runaway rhythm. It took Karla several minutes before she was able to reach into the bag again. This time she took out a single sheet of paper addressed to her with Adina Jenkins’s contact information. She’d written down the name and telephone number to the hotel. She’d also included a cell phone number with a nine-one-seven area code and her proposed new name. Ignoring the stacks of bills bundled in denominations of tens, twenties and fifties in plastic Ziploc bags, she removed a large white envelope. Inside the envelope was an official copy of Adina’s birth certificate.
    A slow smile softened her wide mouth. “Why, the sneaky little minx,” she whispered. Adina Jenkins had come prepared to bribe her.
    Rising to her feet, Karla walked over to the door to her office and locked it. She returned to her desk and buzzed the receptionist. “Valerie, please hold all of my calls until further notice.”
    Her step was resolute, her hands steady as she entered her private bathroom, locking the door behind her. The corner office and private bathroom was only one of the perks that came from making partner. She’d worked hard, harder than any of her male counterparts at the firm, but the results were more profitable than mentally rewarding.
    She’d decided to take on Adina as a private client even before discovering the money; however, despite her passion for luxury, she wasn’t about to let greed jeopardize her license to practice law.
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    The hands on the clock had made a full revolution by the time Karla had counted the cash and put it back in the bag. She’d been given ten thousand dollars to make Adina Jenkins disappear. Methodically, as if preparing to take a case to trial, she stored the money in a cabinet under the vanity, unlocked the door to