Page 52 of Fierce-Matt

“Trust in the process. Her attorney will want to settle with us. They are going to offer to make restitution plus damages to avoid jail time. Shelly is going to need your parents to back down or say they are satisfied and everyone can move on.”

“You’d settle and give up your percentage or whatever it is you’d get from this lawsuit? Doesn’t that go against everything an attorney stands for in their job?”

He laughed. “No. And yes, I’d give it up. Anya, I’m not a bad guy. This isn’t about making money off of you and your family. It’s about helping a family friend.”

“That’s what I am?” she asked angling her head.

“I’d like you to be more,” he said. “We are figuring that out. Or you are.”

He knew what he wanted. He was waiting for her to catch up.

“I am,” she said.

“Second, civil suits rarely pay in full. They end up being a debt someone has or their wages garnished. This isn’t like a business being sued that might have insurance to cover that loss. You’ll get out of Shelly what is due back and some extra in the process for a reduced sentence. What she has invested has done well. If she hands that over, anything extra comes from her selling her house or making small payments to your parents the rest of her life. I think your parents will be happy to receive what they are owed. Then the sale of the business. They should be out of debt and have a nice retirement egg for your mother to care for your father comfortably.”

“That is all I want out of this,” she said. “I mean it. I know my mother said she didn’t care if Shelly sold her house, but that was only if it was for them to get what was stolen. Now, there is noway my mother wants her homeless, although Shelly could still move to a modest apartment, but my mom wants this over with quickly because she doesn’t need the added stress of this in her life.”

“I’m going to make sure you and your parents get it. I promise you that.”

“Lawyers aren’t supposed to promise things they might not be able to deliver,” she said.

“They aren’t, but I am.”

“I appreciate it, but I won’t hold you to it.”

He wanted to argue but decided it was best to let her have the last word.

He was playing the long game and she could win the short one.

14

LOSS FOR WORDS

“Whoa. You’ve added some muscle over the years.”

Matt sent her another one of his sexy grins that she was struggling to not let affect her. Or at least not let him know how affected she was.

It was a lost cause though.

Between the kiss the other day and the joy of today, her guard was dropping faster than a wrecking ball hitting a straw hut.

“I don’t just sit at a desk,” he said.

They were at the lounging club, found two chairs to put the clothes and towels on and she was eying the bar. After they’d eaten, she bypassed the water slides. Maybe later.

“I see that now. You must have a gym in that condo complex of yours.”

“I do,” he said. “It’s a good stress reliever when the girl you’ve got your eye on isn’t interested in you.”

Anya laughed. Her eyes were roaming over him in a slow appreciation that a blind man could figure out what she was feeling.

Tall. A trim waist with a faint defined muscle that formed a V disappearing into the waist of his navy swim trunks.

He wasn’t ripped, but she wouldn’t find that attractive either.

But he had little fat on him and the muscles he had were meticulously on display, from his abs to his chest, biceps and when he turned, she’d noticed a ripple of triceps, not to mention his shoulders.

“No way you got this body in the past few weeks since we’ve seen each other again.”