Page 64

I walked in the office, still on my high from court, and screeched to a halt when I saw Gina-the-maniac sitting on our couch holding a sleeping Daisy. As the door swung shut behind me, I shot an accusing glare at Max. "What is she doing here, and why is she holding our puppy?"

Daisy heard my voice, opened one eye and peeked, then squirmed and wiggled until Gina put her down on the floor. Daisy ran to me as fast as her fat little puppy legs could carry her, which (I admit) is rather endearing.

Not that I'm a softie or anything.

Clearly, the dog has good taste, ditching psycho Gina for me. I picked her up, resigning myself to dog hair all over my suit, and petted her. She sneezed in my face, which probably means "I love you" in Dog.

Gina stood up, shoulders hunched. Her hair looked like it hadn't been washed in a few days, and strands of it hung in her face. The oversized t-shirt that hung loosely over raggedly cut-off denim shorts did nothing for her. As I studied her and wondered where the rebellious beauty from the bar had gone, leaving this defeated woman in her place, the worst possible thing happened.

That damn under-the-rib-cage twinge.

I blew out a sigh. "Okay, Gina, what's up? If this is another threat, I'm so not in the mood."

She shook her head, looking at Max almost pleadingly.

Max spoke up. "December, we need to talk. I have a favor to ask."

Oh, crap . Between my twinge and Max's "save the world" mindset, I had the sinking feeling I was getting ready to help Gina.

"What is it?"

Max bit her lip, then smiled at me. "First, the good news. Your furniture is on the way! The driver promises to have it here by the end of the week."

I rolled my eyes. "When his honeymoon is over?"

"Well, probably. And you didn't even notice! But I had the carpet cleaners in here this morning, and the place doesn't stink like alligator pee anymore."

I grinned. "Now, that is good news."

"And your toxicologist called, too. He has some very interesting news about the insulin. He didn't want to condescend to speak to a mere assistant, so he's waiting for your call." She held up a sheet of paper. "He's already faxed us his invoice, too."

I walked over to take it, still holding Daisy and keeping my eye on Gina, in case she suddenly attacked us with manicure tools. I scanned the page and tried not to gasp. "Wow, guess I should have been an expert witness. It pays way better than the law."

Max nodded. "Yeah, except you would have had to go to medical school, and you have that little problem with blood."

Gina sat back down on the couch, pulled her knees up to her chest, and put her arms around them. She sat there silently, her eyes fixed on me. It was a little creepy, to be honest. I jerked my head toward the hallway and asked Max to come fill me in. She followed me, first stopping to tell Gina we'd be right back. Gina nodded, but still said nothing.

As I walked down the hall, I realized I didn't hear Mr. Ellison clomping around or humming. "Where's our other employee, Henry the Alligator Slayer?"

"Oh, right. I forgot to tell you that. Mrs. Zivkovich called earlier, and she was really upset. Turns out her son-in-law cleaned out her savings account. Mr. Ellison rushed over to her place after I took the call. She says she's afraid of Nervil. Her daughter and the baby are staying with her; they left him."

Max paused at the doorway to my office, and I glanced back at her. "December, I'm a little worried, too. She says he's after you."

I dropped my purse and briefcase on my desk. "Great. Just great. Well, look on the bright side. If he drops in, we can sic Gina on him."

"Very funny. I told her how to get in touch with the police. I don't think this is anything to joke about," Max said, giving me a disapproving look.

"I don't think so, either. But what can I do? Add him to the list of people out to get me, I guess. Listen to this," I said, then filled her in on the morning's activity.

"They actually called you the stupid Ohio lawyer?" Max shook her head. "That's awful! Although, I have warned you about that suit. Especially since it matches your car now."

I groaned. "Don't remind me. Did you get that appointment for car painting?"

"They quoted me five hundred dollars, and I wanted to be sure you wanted to spend that much before I set the appointment," she said.

I groaned again. "I can't afford that right now. I'm wondering how we'll keep the electricity on, to be honest. Plus, we have to pay that invoice from the toxicologist at some point."

Sinking down into my chair, I tried doing mental calculations in my head, but nothing was adding up to enough money to meet payroll. "We have to find some paying clients soon, Max."

She perched on the edge of a chair across from me. "Right. But with this junkie label hanging over you, and all the violence, which everybody hears about on the scanner, nobody wants to hire you. We're in a tough place, D. We're not even going to meet payroll soon, at this rate."

I stared off into space for a long minute, then forced myself to snap out of the doom and gloom. "So, tell me. What is Gina doing here?"

Max brightened. "Right. We need to hire her."

I blinked. "We have no money; we can't meet payroll; we need to hire another employee. Is this beauty queen math?"

T hirty minutes and two or three rib-cage twinges later, I surrendered. It turns out Max and Gina had chatted and found out that Gina had gone to school with some cousin of Max's, so that practically made her family to Max in that incomprehensible "everybody is my relative" way that Southern girls have. (I'd been on the receiving end of a lot of kindness because of Max's "adopting" me when I was in high school, so I wasn't knocking it. I just didn't quite understand it.)

Anyway, Gina hated the inpatient facility. Her lawyer'd worked out some deal so she could attend outpatient rehab, as long as she could prove she'd found gainful employment.

Just call me Gainful.

Unpaid, maybe, but gainful.

"Why doesn't he hire her?" I muttered rebelliously, sounding a lot like Emily's daughter Joker when she didn't get her way.

Max glared at me. "Now you're being childish. If you're talking about her attorney, he said it wouldn't fly since he represents her. If you're talking about Jake, he didn't want to build into her delusions about him any further."

My ears perked up at Jake's name. "So, Jake was here?" I tried to sound nonchalant, but from the look on her face, I failed miserably.

"No, he called. Look, are you going to hire her or not?"

I sighed. "Fine. As a favor to you. But you keep her out of trouble, and you supervise her. If she shows the slightest sign of going bat poop on us, she's gone."

Max jumped up and backed out of the room, probably afraid I would change my mind. "Right. No problem. I'll send her in to talk to you," she said, then practically ran off down the hall.

"Wait!" I didn't want to talk to Gina. I didn't want Gina near any sharp objects, for that matter. I grabbed my letter opener and shoved it in an open drawer. I'd already been chased around my office by one employee wielding a sharp weapon. Once was enough.

Been there, done that, almost got the stab wounds.

Gina walked into my room, still watching me with that wary expression; still saying nothing.

I gestured to a chair, and she sat down across from me. "Okay, Gina, we're going to help you out here. You can give Max all the credit for this, because it's not really my habit to go around hiring people who threaten me. But she assures me you're past all that, and that you will work hard and be responsible. No stabbing people, for example. That's definitely in the employee manual. Page thirty-seven, I think."

A little smile flickered at the edges of her lips, which gave me hope. If a person has a sense of humor, she can survive anything. Well, maybe except bullets. Or stabbings.

But she can survive most things.

Gina finally spoke, but her voice was so soft I could barely hear her. "Thank you. I'm sorry about calling you and yelling at you that time. My head was in a terrible place. Jake and me are just friends, anyway."

"What about painting my car?" I asked, playing a hunch.

She looked at me blankly. "Painting your car? What are you talking about?"

"What about having that man call me and tell me to mind my own business or else?" I leaned forward. "Why did you do that?"

She shook her head, looking at me like I was the crazy one. "I don't know what you're talking about, Miss Vaughn. I called you once about Jake, and that was it."

"Call me December," I said automatically. Unless she was a brilliant actress, she wasn't faking it. She didn't know what I was talking about. My instincts told me I could cross her off the list for the car and the sinus stalker.

Which left me back at square one. Who would have written such nasty, personal things on my car? And why?

I realized she was still sitting there, staring at me, and I stood up and held my hand out to shake hers. "Welcome aboard, Gina. We're a bit of a leaky ship right now, but we're doing our best. Please talk to Max about the paperwork you need to fill out."

She shook my hand, hesitantly. "Thank you, Miss – December. I know I made a bad first impression. And a bad second impression. But I'll work hard. Thanks for helping me out."

As she left, I got the feeling that I'd just shoved the leaky ship in high gear and pointed it at an iceberg. But what could I do? It was the rib-cage twinge.

As I sat back down, my phone rang. "December, it's Addison Langley," Max said.

This ought to be interesting.

I grabbed a pen and waited till I heard the click. "Hello, Addy. What can I do for you?"

"Five million dollars to settle the Deaver case. Confidential, sealed settlement. You have twenty-four hours."

Click .

I'd been right. It was definitely interesting.