Fixing Justice Read Free Page B

wherever she could while also managing to stay invisible. She liked these folks, especially Alex, who she’d been hired to assist. With her personal life in shambles, she’d jumped at the job opportunity hidden away in the middle of a desert. Preferring to stay clear of social situations, she’d insisted on taking over on the day of the event so everyone else could enjoy it. Ever since the scandal that rocked her word exploded in the press, she’d been working overtime to stay off the radar.
    She hated being the center of attention. There was a reason her dad had lovingly referred to her as his little mouse. Lighting up around his only child, the two had shared a special father - daughter bond. Being something of a tomboy with a serious streak a mile-wide, the times they spent holed up at the library or exploring museums had helped her forget that she was a simple girl. No great beauty like her glamorous mother, as a child Tori had been every inch the quiet, bookish mouse her childhood nickname implied.
    When her father had passed away, she’d been too young to understand at the time what having cancer meant. After the shock of his death receded, her day-to-day reality became even more introverted. With a mop of bushy brown hair that never, ever did what she wanted it to and a slight frame with little in the way of feminine curves to grab a guy’s interest, Tori was content to disappear behind ugly eyeglasses a shade too big for her face and basically hide from the world. That didn’t however make her a pushover by any means. Schoolyard bullies had been the scourges of her childhood, and she’d learned early to stand up for herself. Along with a fierce determination to level the playing field by leaving her peers in the academic dust, she’d also mastered the art of the scathing verbal put down and never looked back.
    Possessing an astute mind and a brilliant reputation for anything having to do with numbers meant she’d been labeled a financial genius while still in grad school and ended up at a world-class investment firm based out of London. Europe had been an eye-opening experience for the plain twenty-four-year-old that included hobnobbing with royalty and an inside view of sophistication and power fueled by the sort of wealth that boggled the mind. That new life had offered exciting challenges and the opportunity to shed some of her natural reserve.
    When Tori and her remarkable skills had fallen under the attention of a senior partner who also happened to be an Earl, it seemed like angels had touched her as a fascinating new world opened up. Before too long, she was working side by side with the Earl, Wallace Evingham and enjoying one bold success after another.
    At his insistence she’d undergone a complete makeover at an exclusive Hyde Park spa and revamped her wardrobe. In the end she got what she deserved for being so naïve, she thought wryly. Wallace had been using her financial skills while distracting her with a rather public interest that led many, including herself, to believe he was grooming her to be his future Countess. God, she’d been such a twit.
    It all blew apart in spectacular fashion. Just when speculation had peaked that an engagement was only days away, she’d stumbled upon evidence that Wallace was up to no good. He’d been raking in tons of cash in schemes that, while not necessarily illegal, were certainly unethical. And she’d been unwittingly helping him by being so trusting and free with her business acumen. Oh yeah, and he had a string of mistresses to boot. Asshole.
    She hadn’t hesitated to alert the authorities. The blowback had been dreadful, and a major scandal ensued. Wallace was detained and their relationship paraded through the nightmarish British tabloids with headlines like ‘Billionaire Earl Tricks American Plain Jane’. A particularly vile tabloid reporter had referred to her as a spinster as if being twenty-six and unmarried qualified for such a loathed