Indicted (Bad Judgment #1) Read Free Page A

exuberance fading. “Don’t be such a pessimist, Nicole,” Alexa said, finally. “We’re brilliant — remember? Or at least, I am. I’ll save Mr. Walker’s fine ass. It’ll be my pleasure.” She tossed her platinum bob dismissively and headed into her office.
    “See ya at the Keurig ,” she called, and my hands clenched into fists.
    It must be easy to be unrealistically optimistic when you were gorgeous, rich, and smart — and had been since birth. I sighed and rolled my eyes at Mandy, who laughed again, but this time it was in sympathy. Mandy had gone to school with Alexa. She had plenty of experience with how superior she could be.
    “Don’t mind Alexa,” Mandy said, leaving me at my office door. “But if you can’t help it, look at the bright side: at least we’ll have eye candy. Eye candy makes everything better.”
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    H ours later , I’d had another diet soda and had produced what I believed was the single best memo of my life. I had the shakes from too much caffeine, too little sleep, and too much adrenaline. But I was thrilled. I’d worked on tax cases, mergers and acquisitions, commercial real estate, and contracts. They were a snooze compared to this. And although I’d worked on deals that were worth a lot of money, the clients were always corporations. They didn’t have a face attached to them — and certainly not a face like Walker’s.
    I dove into the brief statement Walker had given to David Proctor, trying to get a sense of what my new client was like. He was the opposite of apologetic. He seemed completely fucking pissed that this was happening to him. I didn’t blame him — I mean, I didn’t blame him if he was actually innocent. Charges like this would ruin his career or at least his reputation. With cases like this, it was usually both. If he was convicted he would have to go to federal prison. He’d lose his job and any sort of separation package he’d been previously guaranteed; his company would flounder. It was a shame. He was young, just 35, and incredibly talented. He’d built Blue Securities from the ground up, piece by piece, until it was a multi-billion dollar corporation. And now he could lose everything.
    Broden Walker had to come out swinging. If he was claiming innocence and outrage, he had to fully commit.It was good that he was angry. Hewas going to have to hold on to it, let it burn him, fuel him. Because this was going to be bad. And itwas just the beginning.

Chapter 2
    I slept on my floor for about two hours. I was so exhausted I hadn’t even bothered with my pajamas, opting instead to sleep in my suit. Early the next morning I was putting on some lipgloss, trying to make my exhausted self look somewhat human, when Alexa stuck her head in. She looked miraculously rested for having been here so late; she must have the best concealer that money could buy.
    “Got a hot date?” she asked. I felt myself start to blush.
    “I figured we’re going to have another meeting. I just want to look decent,” I said.
    “Good luck with that,” she said, meanly, and clicked off down the hall.
    My assistant, Tammy, stuck her head in right after she left. “You’d think her father would have had the decency to send her to Etiquette School,” she joked.
    “It would have been considerate of the rest of us,” I said.
    I stood and stared at my desk. Alexa’s just jealous, I told myself . That’s what my mother used to say to me when I was growing up, when I’d been snubbed and not invited to a sleepover and later, when none of the girls included me in their circles. She said it was because I was too pretty and too smart. That I intimidated the other girls. But I knew that it was because I was so serious that I was of absolutely no use to most girls, even to the girls who were also pretty and smart. Normal girls liked shopping, boys and movies. I liked all of those things, too, but I had a mother dying of cancer, a bereaved father, two little brothers, and a 4.0 GPA