The Proviso (91 page)

“I googled you. Well, Ford.”

He turned and dropped to the floor beside her,
stretching his legs out straight in front of him and lying back on
his elbows.

“Figured you might. I’d appreciate it if you’d keep
the whole Ford thing to yourself, though. It’d really cramp my
style if people knew. Did you Google anything else?”

“Oh, yes.”

“I see,” he said after a moment, when he finally
understood she wasn’t going to say any more.

“Sebastian?” she murmured, still looking out the
barn door. “Why me?”

“I’m not going to answer that,” he said immediately,
not even pretending to misunderstand. “It’s not my place. Knox
needs to tell you that himself and he will when he’s ready to.”

Justice sighed and looked away from Sebastian,
toward the back of the barn, her other cheek now resting on her
knees.

“He let me go,” she said after a while.

“Huh?”

She cleared her throat and turned to look at
Sebastian again. “Knox let me go. He gave me a new car, money,
clothes, a letter of reference. He let me go. Tuesday after work.”
Sebastian stared at her, his eyes wide. “And,” she added, just for
good measure, “he gave me an annulment.”

His face drained of what little color it had and he
gulped. “Oh, fuck,” he whispered and closed his eyes, dropping his
head back as if pained.

Well, at least now Knox wouldn’t get a drubbing by
Sebastian for letting loose his last chance to get out from under
OKH. Her mouth tightened now that she had just lost all traces of
her enchantment with King Midas.

“Then why are you here?” he asked sharply, suddenly
suspicious, his head snapping up and his gaze spearing hers. She
knew exactly why.

If he fulfills the terms of the proviso, his net
worth could increase by as much as a half billion dollars.

No, she wasn’t going to admit why she came back.

“You read my work, right?”

“Yes,” Sebastian said.

“Of
course
you do,” she said, her newfound
venom lacing her tone. “You were counting on me to endorse Kevin.
You’re welcome.” That startled a reluctant, wary laugh out of him.
“What I write is rhetoric. Complete theory. I suspect that very
rarely in life does one get the opportunity to truly put her money
where her mouth is, to choose a fight that’s worth fighting even
though it has high stakes.”

Sebastian said nothing for a long while, then,
slowly, “That’s the biggest crock of shit I ever heard.” Justice
started and gaped at him. “You know very good and well Kenard and I
have that locked up tighter than a drum. You’re in love with Knox
and it’s written in every freckle on your face. You want to ride
this ride with him and see where it goes.”

“Well then if you knew that, why’d you ask?” she
snapped, disturbed at how easily everybody read her. “It’s not like
you care why I came back. You’re just glad you might not have to
plow through that takeover.”

He started. “What gave you that idea?”

“Your very obvious disgust at Knox having let me
go.”

“You assume too much,” Sebastian snarled, and
Justice stared at him agape. How dare he! How dare all of them!

Her nostrils flared. “Look in the mirror, Mr.
Taight,” she ground out in return. “In fact, all three of you need
to. Talk about making assumptions! If you people would talk to me
and tell me what’s going on instead of treating me like I’m three
years old—and
assuming
you know what I’m going to think or
say or do at any given moment—maybe I wouldn’t have to assume so
much. If you and Giselle are so offended by the assumptions I make
about you and your motives, you’ve no one but yourselves to blame.
If Knox hadn’t assumed what I’d say if he’d just asked me for
whatever he wanted, none of this would’ve been necessary. And
another thing—my assumptions, given how much I don’t know, make a
whole lot more sense than yours do about me.”

Sebastian’s face softened then and he looked away.
“You’re right,” he finally said, low. “I’m sorry.”

There was a long, though not uncomfortable, silence
in the barn that stretched as they each cooled off.

“It’s too bizarre,” she said finally, softly. “I
can’t make head or tails of it. I just want to know why me and no
one will tell me. All Knox says is he has his reasons. I know it’d
all come together if I knew that.”

Sebastian sighed deeply. “And that’s the one thing I
can’t tell you. If Knox isn’t ready to yet, then you’ll just have
to trust me that they’re good reasons. I’m sorry.” He sat up and
studied the ground for a moment. “If you stay with Knox and see
this to its end with us,” he murmured slowly, “do you understand
what’s at stake for you?”

“Yes. My life is at stake, possibly our child’s if
we have one. That part I don’t like and I don’t want to go along
with it.”

Sebastian grunted. “I can say a lot of bad things
about Fen, but he wouldn’t kill a baby.”

Justice took a deep breath. “Well,” she finally
said.

“Are you joining us of your own free will?”

“Yes.”

“No coercion, blackmail, death threats?
Bribery?”

“No.” She glanced at him sharply. “You do understand
that I could’ve gone to Washington and immediately made my own
fortune on the radio, right? I wouldn’t even have had to wait for
eighteen months
and
get pregnant
and
had a
baby
to
maybepossiblymight
get it if someone didn’t
kill me first.
” He blinked and she saw that, no, that hadn’t
occurred to him. “I turned down three million a year for a two-hour
radio show straight out of law school to work for Knox for reasons
apparently you and the rest of the world already know. Think about
that before you keep thinking somewhere in the back of your mind
that I’m a whore.”

Sebastian flinched and Justice was inordinately
pleased by that. “I’m sorry,” he said again after a moment. He rose
then and brushed himself off. “But that only means you’re not as
smart as I thought you were.”

That made Justice laugh unexpectedly. “I’m smarter
than you are.”

He grinned then. “Oh, yeah? What was your
major?”

“Economics. I’m betting yours was art.”

“Hrmph. Maybe you are smarter than me.” He helped
her up and looked at her for a long time, his grin fading, then
said, “Let Knox work through this in his own way, okay? Be patient
with him and don’t get discouraged. And now I need to go home and
you better go back in the house. Would you like me to walk you
there?”

“No,” she said. “Not necessary.”

“You’re welcome to come watch me paint, but I
wouldn’t if I were you. Your choice.”

“Yes, it certainly is.
I
will decide when I
want to come watch you paint.”

* * * * *

83:
IRRESISTIBLE OBJECT, IMMOVABLE FORCE

Justice walked up the courthouse stairs Monday
morning, one week to the day of her marriage to Knox, not having
seen Knox all weekend. If he had been home since Friday night, she
didn’t know when. She had spent Saturday rearranging kitchen
cabinets, shopping for groceries, and exploring her new home.

Sunday evening she’d decided to scope the desk where
Knox paid his bills (with checks and envelopes and stamps, even!).
She rifled through his haphazard files shamelessly, assuming that
Knox would be thorough enough in his schemes to lock up whatever he
didn’t want her to see. After a while, the only thing that
scandalized her was the amount of useless information he kept and
in what disarray. She began to pitch and toss and shred until he
wouldn’t have a file left to his name when she finished.

“That’ll teach you to leave me alone for a weekend,”
she muttered, then stormed out to the barn.

“What can I do for you, Justice?” Sebastian asked
absently as he carved in oils and diamonds.

“Does Knox have a lover?”

Sebastian’s head snapped around. “
Shit, no
,”
he breathed, horrified. “
Why
would you think that?”

“He left Friday night and he hasn’t been back.”

His mouth tightened. “He runs to the Ozarks when
he’s upset.”

Her brow wrinkled. “What does he do there?”

“He works. If you want to know more, you’ll have to
ask him, but don’t expect an answer until he’s ready to tell
you.”

“Is he upset with me?”

“Doubt it.”

“But—”

“No more, Justice,” he said, somewhat harshly.
“Whatever’s going on between you two, you have to work out. There’s
a helluva lot more to being with a man than roses and chocolates
and candlelight, especially with one who’s damn near old enough to
be your father. You came back to him in spite of Fen, but you
apparently didn’t think about the fact that you’d have to work out
an actual relationship with him.”

She blushed at the reminder of her inexperience and,
did he but know it, her fantasies—

He likes women who are older than he is . . .

—and the difference in their ages.

Then his face and tone softened. “Obviously, you
can’t work at it if he’s not here and he’s a shithead for leaving
you alone. But whatever else you think of Knox, he would never
cheat.”

Standing in the hallway in front of the prosecutor’s
office with her hand on the door, she shook her head to clear it of
that conversation. She had no wish to go in, wondering if she’d see
Knox. She thought it truly pathetic that she, his wife, didn’t know
what he’d been up to all weekend.

The sound of Knox’s bellow through the outer office
door let her know he was here, but it made her even less eager to
see him. Apparently, he wasn’t any happier now than he had been the
day she’d come back, when he’d ranted at Eric.

She sighed and opened the door, then stopped short
when she heard the answering bellow from behind Knox’s office door.
Who
besides Sebastian and Giselle would have the guts to
yell at Knox that way?

“You can’t just up and decide whose spine you need
to replace next!”

Mr. Kenard. Of course.

“Bryce, this is my office. Do you think I’m going to
let you come in here and tell me what to do?”

Mr. Kenard yelled over him as if he hadn’t said a
word. “I’ve known you to pull some stupid stunts in your time, but
this takes the cake. This trumps Leah all to hell and back.”

She cast a glance at Eric, who typed away, a smirk
on his face. “Why is Mr. Kenard here?”

Eric looked up and pursed his lips at her, trying
not to laugh. “I think you’re just about to find out.”

“MCKINLEY!” Knox roared. “In my office. NOW!”

“Well, hey,” Richard said from behind her, “at least
now you know he’s not going to kill you.”

That made Eric and Patrick howl, but Justice only
scowled at them and dropped her things by Eric’s desk before she
opened the door to Knox’s private office. Mr. Kenard stood in the
middle of the room, his arms crossed over his chest, looking at her
with a kind expression that was totally incongruous to his volume
just seconds before.

“Justice, Bryce seems to think you’d rather work
somewhere else.”

Her eyes widened. “I didn’t—”

“I know you didn’t,” Knox said low. “Yes or no. Stay
here or go with him.”

Her eyebrows rose as if considering the offer
because she was angrier than she thought about his having left her
to fend for herself for the weekend.

Mr. Kenard spoke before she had decided what to say.
“I am giving you a choice, Justice, since
Lucifer
here
doesn’t seem to get the whole free agency thing.”

Knox flinched and she looked between them, feeling
undercurrents running wide and deep that she didn’t understand.
That was the second time in a week someone had called him Lucifer.
She knew it wasn’t coincidental and she knew it was a religious
reference, but she didn’t understand the heavy subtext.

“Justice,” Knox said then, staring at her with those
beautiful blue eyes, “I would like it if you stayed here. You’re a
good lawyer.”

“DAMMIT, KNOX!” Mr. Kenard bellowed and Justice
stepped back a bit. At school, she’d heard he could be vicious in a
courtroom, but in the week she’d stayed with him and Giselle, she’d
seen no evidence of a temper. She might have been frightened but
for his unwavering kindness and gentleness toward her. “Make up
your fucking mind! Couldn’t you have used that approach two months
ago? Why do you have to do everything the hard way?”

Knox’s jaw clenched, but he said nothing. He
continued to stare at Justice and her insides melted. Still . .
.

“You’re a good lawyer, Justice,” Knox repeated.
“You’ll make an excellent prosecutor. I can teach you how to be one
of the best in the country. But you’d make an equally good tort
lawyer, and Bryce can teach you how to be one of the best in the
country—his name on your CV in civil litigation is just as
prestigious as mine is in criminal law. You’ll make a lot of money
at his firm. You’ll never make that kind of money here.”

She glared at him, then looked at Mr. Kenard. “I was
offered three million dollars if I took my own radio show. Can you
beat that?”

He didn’t seem surprised, but then she couldn’t read
his expressions through all those scars. “No. Not until you’re
bringing in the kind of money that would justify that. Ninety
thousand.”

There’s a helluva lot more to being with a man than
roses and chocolates and candlelight.

“Thank you, Mr. Kenard.”

Knox started and gaped at her. “Justice!”

“But I think I’ll stay here.”

Mr. Kenard’s eyebrow rose as he studied her.
“Sebastian told me Knox let you go.”

“Yes, he did.”

“And you came back on your own.”

“I did.” Justice didn’t dare look at Knox at that
moment for reasons she didn’t want to think about.

“And you know about Fen.”