Damaged Read Free Page A

Worse, though, was her own uneasiness about Lisa MacAdam. Kate knew how secretive teenagers could be.
    They reached the lobby. Kate watched the elevator climb toward their floor. Fifteenth floor, sixteenth floor. She took a deep breath. She couldn’t let Marian MacAdamgo without trying one last time. “Mrs. MacAdam, Child Protection would be very discreet.”
    Marian MacAdam stiffened. “I don’t want Lisa to be traumatized by some social worker nosing around in family business. She’d never want to live with me after that. And besides, she’d lie about it, anyway.” Twenty-first floor. The elevator doors slid open. Marian MacAdam walked into its mirrored interior, then turned. “That’s why I came to you, Ms. Lange. I thought we could keep it private this way.”
    The last thing Kate saw before the doors closed were tears blurring her client’s watery blue eyes.

3
    K ate watched the elevator carrying Marian MacAdam slowly descend. And with it, her spirits. What a crappy way to end the week. She strode quickly out of the reception area. Damn. Now she was left with a niggling doubt. It threatened to bring to the surface something she’d been trying to bury for the past two weeks. Something that had been surging in her memory like a slowly rolling ocean swell, gaining momentum as each day passed, threatening to swamp the even keel of her mind.
    She breathed deeply. She wouldn’t let it. She couldn’t let it.
    Damn. Maybe she should call Child Protection. But that was a big step to take. A very big step. One she didn’t want to take when there was no tangible evidence of wrongdoing. Reporting that Lisa wasn’t showing up on time to her grandmother’s house for supper would become the office joke. They’d need a whole lot more proof that Lisa was being endangered before any judge would give an order removing Judge Carson’s daughter from her care.
    No. Kate would end up with egg on her face and Randall Barrett ready to scramble it for her.
    She hurried down the long hallway to her office. Thecorridors were hushed, the lighting muted. The workday was officially over. Except for all the worker bees who knew that the longer they stayed in the hive, the sweeter the honey would be.
    Kate took one glance at the pile of paperwork left untended on her desk and headed to the snack station opposite her office. The coffee had been on the burner since at least 3:00 p.m., but what she needed was energy. Flavor, with several hours of work left to do, was a luxury.
    She returned to her desk, settling into the chair, and kicked off her shoes. She tried to focus on the separation agreement she’d been working on before Randall Barrett had shown up at her door. But Marian MacAdam’s tear-blurred eyes kept staring at her from the page.
    The phone rang, shrill in the silence. She glanced at her watch: 6:56 p.m. Once upon a time, someone calling on a Friday night would have been a date.
    She grabbed the receiver before it could ring again.
    “Kate?” The cultured voice of John Lyons warmed her ear. She straightened. She hadn’t heard from John for weeks. He’d checked on her a few times, but she hadn’t worked on any files with him yet. And that rankled.
    “Hi, John.” She gripped the receiver.
    “I realize it’s late.” John had such a pleasant voice. Warm, yet polite. Gentlemanly. Her hand relaxed on the phone. “Do you have any plans or can you come to my office?”
    She hadn’t had any plans since she’d ended things with Ethan on New Year’s Eve. At 12:34 a.m. to be precise. Seven days and three hours after he slipped a ring on her finger with a kiss. One hundred and seventeen days ago. Every one of those days was carved into the wall of her heart.
    Did John Lyons know about her failed engagement? “I can come up.”
    She placed the phone down. Reaching into her side drawer, she took a few swigs from her bottle of Maalox, wrinkling her nose. It should tide her over until supper. She pulled out a compact and