Total pages in book: 115
Estimated words: 108531 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 543(@200wpm)___ 434(@250wpm)___ 362(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 108531 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 543(@200wpm)___ 434(@250wpm)___ 362(@300wpm)
“She’s divorced?” That was some interesting information. “Do you know what happened?”
“How do you not know this?”
“How do you know it? You’re not exactly the town gossip.”
“I suppose I spend more time in New Orleans than you do.” Rene’s company had an office there. “It was something of a story about six months ago. She was involved with some client who ended up going to jail when she turned him in. I’m not sure what she turned him in for, but it was a bit of a scandal.”
“Yes, it would be.” He wanted to know the rest of that story. “Attorney-client privilege is the holy grail in our world. The client would have to have done something criminal. Her firm fired her?”
“Yes, and from what I understand, she was married to the son of the head of the firm. He divorced her, and I think she’s being blackballed. She couldn’t find a job in New Orleans so now she’s back at her momma’s,” Rene explained. “Sylvie’s thinking of hiring her to do some city work.”
Quaid winced. “Yeah, I’m sorry I haven’t gotten to that yet.”
“We know how hard you work, and the parish doesn’t pay much. As your biggest client I certainly appreciate you prioritizing me, but Sylvie wouldn’t hate having someone who could work faster.”
Rene’s wife was the mayor and one of the smartest people he knew.
“Give it to Jayna. I’m fairly certain she won’t get anything like cash out of Geraldine, and if she’s living with her momma, she’s in that trailer park.” The thought hurt his heart. She’d been magnificent in her designer suit and heels. A goddess in Louboutins.
How much of a blow to her pride had it been to come home?
He wanted her whole story. Preferably told to him after he’d gotten her into bed and given her a couple of orgasms. Then they could lie there, well-satisfied, and she could tell him how her life had gone off the rails.
The fact that he was as interested in the story as he was the sex was likely a sign of his impending old age.
“I’ll let Sylvie know.” There was a pause over the line. “Do you want me to get a report on her?”
Rene had a couple of private investigators on his payroll who could get him every bit of information on Jayna Cardet that he could ever want.
“No.” He wasn’t going to invade her privacy. He wanted the story from her, and only when she was ready to give it to him. “Don’t sic your PIs on her. If she’s still practicing, then what she did wasn’t a disbarrable offense. I suspect she did the right thing and it cost her firm money, so she got the boot. Do you know the name of the husband?”
Rene paused for a moment. “I want to say it was Todd something.”
Quaid groaned. “Shale. Todd Shale’s father runs one of the biggest corporate firms in New Orleans. I would bet a lot that’s who we’re talking about. He’s also a nasty piece of work. If he’s been married up until recently, he’s also had a girlfriend on the side because he was with a woman at the last conference I went to, and it wasn’t Jayna.”
The woman had been a blonde and looked to be barely twenty years old. She hadn’t held a candle to the magnificent creature who’d looked like she’d wanted to claw his eyes out earlier today.
“You sound like you’re already invested in this woman,” Rene pointed out. “I hope you didn’t admit to her you couldn’t remember who she was. Please tell me you didn’t.”
“I wish I could.” He wished he could take back more than just that. Including the fact that she’d caught him with demonic dolls in his office. “It gets worse. I kept her waiting in court and then had a judgment for my client within ten minutes of walking into the place. Then I asked her out. She turned me down.”
“How surprising. Well, I don’t suspect she’ll be here all that long. Jayna was one of those kids who left and almost never came home after she went to college. She wanted out of Papillon.”
And now she was home and was trying to find something to do while she put her life back together. He could understand that. “I can be her rebound guy.”
Rene snorted over the line. “You’re too old to play these games. You’re not twenty-five anymore.”
He knew that. All of his friends were married with kids, and it wasn’t that he didn’t want a family. He’d just never found the right woman. “Well, even if she is my dream woman, she didn’t walk back into town to stay, so I have to take comfort where I can. And Jayna Cardet looks like she could use some comfort, too. I see no reason why we can’t comfort each other while she’s here. And if she can take some work off my plate, I might have a chance to look for someone who can come in and help me.”