Love on Trial Read Free Page A

whipped cream. The waitress returned a few moments laterwith trays laden with steaming, fragrant dishes.
    She thanked the girl—who looked as if she could press 200 pounds without any effort from the way she was handling those heavy trays—and froze as she looked past the girl’s frilly apron.
    Hawke and his current girlfriend, a darkly elegant brunette in a dress cut almost to the waist, were seated just across the way. Siri carefully rearranged her chair so that her back was slightly toward them, and hoped Hawke wouldn’t notice her.
    â€œIt’s been a rotten day,” Mark sighed as he attacked his steak. “One of my clients had to go downtown for an audit with the tax people, and they found a mistake. My secretary,” he groaned, “typed the right numbers, but in the wrong places. So instead of getting the refund he expected, my client wound up owing money.”
    â€œHow awful,” Siri said automatically.
    â€œAmen. I caught it from both sides.” He reached for his soft drink, grimacing at the steaming cup of black coffee at Siri’s right. “How can you drink that stuff?”
    She shrugged. “Habit, I guess. Dad and I always have it for breakfast and dinner—with every meal.”
    There was the sudden interruption of loud conversation just behind her, and she caught the familiar sound of a rival reporter’s voice.
    â€œI hear there’s some new evidence in the Devolg case, Mr. Grayson,” Sandy Cudor was probing in his pleasant voice. “Anything to the rumors?”
    â€œYou’ll find out in the courtroom, Sandy,” came the deep, equally pleasant reply.
    â€œIn other words, you aren’t talking,” the reporter interpreted, and Siri knew there would be a smile on the young man’s face.
    â€œExactly.”
    â€œWell, have a nice evening,” Sandy said, and Siri instinctively leaned down to pick up the napkin she dropped on purpose, so that her colleague wouldn’t see her. It worked.
    â€œDisgusting,” Mark was grumbling.
    â€œWhat is?” she asked.
    â€œReporters,” he replied with a glare after Cudor’s retreating back. “And grandstanding lawyers,” he added for a good measure.
    â€œJust hold it right there,” she told him icily. “If there’s any grandstanding, it’s usually done by young lawyers trying to make reputations. Hawke’s a long way past the struggling stage. And Sandy may be impetuous, but he’s young and learning, and bound to be a little overeager.”
    â€œI didn’t think you cared a fig about either one of them,” Mark recalled, his own voice cool.
    â€œI don’t,” she agreed. “But then you aren’t attacking personalities, you’re attacking two professions that I know intimately.”
    He drew a harsh sigh and tossed down the rest of his soft drink. “You don’t even have to work,” he said unpleasantly. “I don’t know why you insist on pursuing that job—”
    â€œBecause I like it!” she shot back.
    â€œYou like associating with all those men, and showing your legs,” he retorted.
    â€œYou go to hell,” she said in a furious whisper, her amber eyes shooting flames toward him, as she crumpled her napkin and threw it down to the right side of her plate.
    â€œI didn’t think it was so easy to keep secrets in a newsroom,” Hawke remarked from behind her.
    She turned, flushed with anger, to meet the taunting light in his dark eyes as he paused beside their table with the impatient brunette on his arm.
    â€œIt isn’t,” Siri managed, irritated atthe breathless tone of her usually steady voice, hating the effect Hawke always had on her nerves. “I don’t suppose Bill’s told any of them yet.”
    â€œIf he does, you’d better check under your hood every afternoon before you leave there,” came the cool reply. “Hello,