No Way to Treat a First Lady Read Free Page B

she said, "here I am. On bended knee."
    Boyce used this as an excuse to look at her knees.
    "The reason they're bent," she said, "is from four hours in the back of a Secret Service SUV. But I could say they're bent for your sake, if you'd like."
    Toying with him! Intolerable.
    "You must be in a world of hurt," he said, "to come to me."
    "I've been indicted for murder. That's one definition of 'world of hurt,' I suppose."
    "Why me? There are lots of good lawyers who'd love to have this case."
    "Boyce," she said, "if you want me to say, 'Because you're the best,' I will."
    "Beth"—he smiled—"I know I'm the best. Don't take this the wrong way, but I'm past the point where I need your approval."
    "Oh, you've done well. No question. It's why I'm here, isn't it?"
    He was thinking, You waltz in here after screwing me over and sit there with those incredible legs crossed, putting out — attitude?
    Boyce decided right there and then to take the case.
    "On the way up here," she said, looking down at her lap, "somewhere between Baltimore and Wilmington, I promised myself that I was not going to apologize. Then when we got to the New Jersey Turnpike, I decided I was going to apologize. Then in Newark I went back to my nonapology posture."
    "How'd you feel going through the Holland Tunnel?"
    "Like turning around. Only that's tricky in a tunnel. Annoys the oncoming traffic."
    "Well, we can talk about all that some other time."
    "Maybe we should talk about it now. I think I'd rather know your state of mind going in. I don't want to find out during closing arguments that your heart wasn't really in this."
    She was a canny one.
    "This isn't Casablanca. And this"—he waved at his Wall of Ego, which still, Beth noticed, held an official framed photograph of his former father-in-law Prince Lupold of Bad Saxony-Wurtburg—"is not Rick's Cafe. I moved on. And I've done just fine. The truth is I got over it pretty quickly."
    "I don't flatter myself that I ruined your life."
    Flatter herself? That she ruined my life? Dammit...
    "I have a very good life." He nodded in the direction of the Wall of Ego. "As you can see."
    She looked at the wall. "I see. I..."
    "What?"
    "I did reach out to you. After we got to the White House. You didn't answer four invitations. To state dinners."
    "Must have gotten lost."
    Beth smiled. "Boyce, dinner invitations from the White House don't get lost."
    "I may have been in the middle of a trial. When I'm trying a case, to be honest, an earthquake wouldn't register."
    "Then you must have been in the middle of four trials, because we invited you four times. I was going to put you next to Princess Caroline. Knowing how you like princesses."
    "She was related to my wife. Somehow. All goes back to Queen Victoria." He was mumbling.
    "The protocol office said they'd never heard of anyone not answering four White House state dinner invitations. You're in the Guinness Book of World Records."
    "One of my fathers-in-law died in the middle of the MicroDot trial, and I was so wrapped up in it that I didn't even attend the funeral."
    He heard the little computer voice in the cockpit saying, Pull up, pull up!
    "So," he said crisply, "shall we talk about my bad manners, or the case?"
    "I'm not sure," said Beth, "that I've satisfied myself as to your state of mind. If you're going to handle this, I need to know that you're on board, emotionally."
    Boyce snorted. "I don't deal in emotions, only motions."
    "I don't believe that for a second."
    "What makes you think I've decided to take this case?"
    "Boyce"—Beth laughed—"whatever the situation is between us, I really can't believe that you wouldn't take this case."
    She was smiling. My God, the woman was smiling in triumph.
    "I mean," she continued, "the very idea of you not being involved in this case—they're calling it 'the Trial of the Millennium.' It doesn't make sense."
    She had him, had him by the short ones. All he could do was pretend that he was the absolute lord and