Page 45 of Silver Spoon Falls, Vol. I

THIRTY

AUTUMN

I need to fire Zane Montoya as my lawyer. It’s been the first item on my list for two days in a row, and for two days in a row, he’s managed to keep his job as my lawyer. I think the universe is conspiring against me to keep me from following through.

It’s not because I like him. Definitely not. Nope. Because I don't . Not even if he is sexy as sin with that dark stare and those broad shoulders.

“What the fuck is going on with you and Zane?” Andreas growls, stomping into my office with his sleeves rolled up to his elbows and his tie undone.

He never had much patience for paperwork and red tape. It stresses him out faster than I do.

“Zane who?” I ask.

He turns a dark glower on me. “Cash told Finn who told Giant who told me that Zane is all worked up over you,” he says, inviting himself to take a seat at my desk as if this is happy hour. It’s not. I have work to do. The company's environmental policy isn't going to rewrite itself.

Now that Andreas has given me free rein to repair some of the damage our father did to the environment, I'm doing everything I can to make sure Romano Shipping pays for the damage they've caused.

The lawyers don't like it much, but I don’t really care.

Maybe they should have stood up to my criminal father when he was dumping hazardous waste into the oceans or running ships through fragile ecosystems.

“Is he fucking bothering you?” Andreas demands.

“Oh my God,” I groan, laying my head on my desk. “Your MC is worse than the old ladies down at the diner. You have way too much time on your hands. All you guys do is gossip.”

“No, we do not.”

“Yes, you do. Cash told Finn who told Giant who told me,” I repeat, mimicking his deep baritone as I lift my head to scowl at him. “I lived with two other women, and we gossiped less than you guys do!”

“We do not gos—” Andreas narrows his eyes on me. “You’re avoiding the subject.”

“What subject?” I ask innocently.

“Zane,” he growls. “What’s going on with the two of you?”

“He’s my lawyer.” I grimace. “Temporarily.”

“Temporarily?”

I tear my to-do list from my notepad and pass it across the desk to him without a word.

“Fire Zane Montoya,” he reads, one brow arching. “And it’s underlined. Twice.”

“So I don’t forget again.”

"Again." Andreas smiles. He actually freaking smiles. “Ah, I see.”

“You see what?” I cry, snatching my list back from him. "Why are you even in my office? Yours isn't even on this floor."

“I see nothing.” He holds his hands up in a gesture of surrender, but he’s still smiling. Ugh. Older brothers are infuriatingly smug. They think they know everything, even though they’re usually wrong about most things. And he still didn't tell me why he's in my office.

“What’s going on with you and Catriona?” I ask him. If he can be nosy, so can I.

“I’m marrying her.” He shrugs.

“Does she know this?”

“We’re working on it.”

I laugh quietly, shaking my head. She’s been staying with us for the last few days.

I guess her brother isn’t a good person and has gotten involved in some bad things with a rival MC.

I don’t really know the details, and I try not to ask too many questions.

But I like Catriona. She reminds me of me in a lot of ways.

She's been through a lot, and it's made her a little bit hesitant to trust others.

“Can I ask you a question?”

“Shoot,” Andreas says.

“Do you think our father ever regretted any of the things he did?” I whisper. “Do you think he regretted what he did to Mama?”

Once upon a time, she loved him deeply. He used her love to tie her to him… and then took her family’s company from them after swearing that he wouldn't. They never spoke to her again, and the love she had for our father died. He wouldn't let her leave, though. Oh no. He couldn't have that.

He used me and Andreas to keep her in a loveless marriage. She was forced to play the perfect wife to a man who cared about no one but himself. Everyone he touched, he hurt. Even now, a year after his death, we're still cleaning up his messes.

Pain flashes across my brother’s face, an endless well of it, before he manages to school his expression again. He sighs softly. “I don’t know. But if he didn’t, I think the bastard will have an eternity to learn to regret all the shit he did and the people he hurt.”

I nod thoughtfully, staring down at my hands.

Maybe he’s right. I don’t know. As soon as I turned eighteen, I ran and didn’t look back.

I was never in the same room with my father long enough to ask if he regretted any of the choices he made or the things he did.

But being back here… I can’t help but think about it.

I want nothing more than to forget the way I was raised and the man who tried to sell me off, but he's everywhere, like a ghost who refuses to lie quietly. It's making me a little nuts, I think.

“Not every man you meet will be like him,” Andreas says, his voice soft.

“There was something fundamentally fucked-up with our father. He wasn’t capable of loving anyone.

To him, people were tools to be used. But not everyone is like that, baby sister.

Not everyone is like Jimmy Gatlin or the other men our father associated with, either.

Cash Montoya isn’t like that. I very much doubt his brother is, either. ”

I jerk my head up, pinning Andreas with a sharp gaze. “Who said anything about Zane?”

“Just a guess.”

“Stop guessing,” I mumble. “I don’t like it.”

He grins at me. “Noted.”

“You don’t think I should fire him.”

“I think you should give him a chance. I hear he’s a hell of a lawyer, and that’s what you need right now.

” He gives me the same look he’s been giving me for exactly my entire life.

The one that says he knows me and sees right through my crap.

“We both know you’re liable to get yourself into more trouble before this whole thing is done and over with if you have to face that fucker without a good lawyer. ”

“Just the sight of him makes me want to vomit.” I shudder. “He’s so smug and entitled. He called me a stuck-up bitch like I owed him a civil conversation just because people were around. Who does that?”

“Motherfuckers like Jimmy Gatlin,” Andreas growls, pure venom in his voice. “He’s lucky I wasn’t there. They’d have been filming him picking his fucking teeth up off the airport floor for coming near you.”

“If he comes near me again, he might just have to pick them up anyway. Going back to jail would almost be worth it.”

Andreas chuckles, climbing to his feet. “Shit. I’ll bail you out.” He pauses, eyeing me critically. “Give Zane a chance.” A little grin tips his lips up at the corners. “And give him hell, baby sister.”

“Plan on it,” I say. “He called me little rebel .” I leave out the part about him threatening to spank me, pretty sure Andreas doesn’t need to know that part.

He’s overprotective. He’ll flip his lid if I tell him Zane’s already threatening to spank me.

He’ll definitely flip if he hears that I don’t entirely hate the thought.

That’s what really freaks me out. I don’t entirely hate the thought.

What the heck is that about?

"Poor bastard," Andreas says, laughing as he strolls out of my office, closing the door behind him.

This is why I love my brother. He doesn't try to change me.

He doesn't care that I'm rebellious and fierce and refuse to be tamed.

No matter how many times I led protests against the company or caused problems for them, he never once tried to stop me.

I needed to fix at least one thing that our father broke, and Andreas understood that, perhaps better than anyone.

I pick up my to-do list, staring at it for a moment, and then I sigh and carefully cross firing Zane off the list. I guess I can give it a few days before I resort to drastic measures just because he makes me feel things I shouldn’t.

Besides, it’s not like wanting to sleep with him means I have to give him my heart.

I may be crazy, but I’m not fall-in-love crazy. No way, nu-uh, never going to happen. Not even if Zane Montoya does give me butterflies.

A little before four, my desk phone rings. I save my document, which is full of revisions to the company’s environmental policy, and pick it up.

“Autumn Romano, how can I help you?”

“Little Rebel, it’s Zane.”

“Who?”

He growls in my ear. “Stop fucking with me, Autumn. You know exactly who I am.”

“Oh, I know. But you called me little rebel after I specifically asked you not to do so,” I say sweetly. “So, if you’re going to be a pain in my butt, I’m going to be a bigger pain in yours.”

His deep chuckle rolls over me, setting off forest fires deep in my stomach. Lord, he has an incredible laugh. It’s rich and smooth, like brandy. “You seem to do that to me, Ms. Romano,” he says. “Would you be interested in calling a truce for dinner?”

“You want to call a truce for dinner?” I narrow my eyes, instantly suspicious. “Why?”

“We have things to discuss, I’m afraid.”

“Like what?”

“Your criminal record, for starters.”

“Oh. That.”

“Yes. That.”

“In my defense, I was protesting my own family’s company, so it doesn't count.” Every judge in the United States would disagree, but whatever. If they knew my father, they might see things differently.

“You were… You know what? Don’t answer that over the phone. Meet me at the Broadway Steakhouse at six.”

“I don’t discuss business over dinner, Mr. Montoya. I have a strict nine-to-five policy." As of right now, but he doesn't need to know that part.

“Then call it a late lunch, Trouble.”

“Did you just call me trouble ?”

“You’re the one with the criminal record,” he says, a smile in his voice.

“Siri, add firing Zane Montoya back to my to-do list!” I shout.

“Add it back to the list? What the fuck, little rebel?” he growls. “How many times has it been on the list already?”

“Three.” I lean back in my chair, delivering this news with a bright smile.

“I’ve only been your lawyer for three days.”

“Yes, and you’ve been annoying me for the entire three days.

I sense a pattern,” I say sweetly. I actually haven't even heard from him for two of those days, which is also annoying.

Was he working on my case? Was he golfing?

It's anyone's guess. Though I kinda figure if he was looking into me, he was working.

So I guess I'm just annoyed on principle.

“So, why am I not fired yet?”

“Been busy,” I mumble.

“Hopefully not protesting your family’s company. I’m not sure how that’d go over since you work for them now,” he says conversationally. “I think you’ve just been telling yourself you’ve been busy.”

“No. I’ve definitely been busy. Lots to do. Whole lists of things,” I say, nodding my head like he can actually see me.

“Good. Then you need a break. Meet me at the Broadway Steakhouse at six,” he says. “We’ll discuss all the reasons you haven’t fired me yet. Like the things I know about Jimmy Gatlin that you don’t know.”

“What do you know that I don’t know?” I demand, my curiosity officially piqued.

“Nu-uh, little rebel,” he says, chuckling. “I’m not that easy. If you want to know what I know, you have to wine and dine me first. Broadway Steakhouse. Six o’clock.”

He hangs up before I can tell him that I am not going to dinner with him. I gape at my phone, caught between the urge to call him back and give him a piece of my mind and the urge to laugh like a crazy person.

Maybe strait-laced Zane Montoya isn’t so strait-laced, after all. He’s a bossy, calculating brute. And I do not find that the least bit sexy. Nope. Not at all.

“Great,” I whisper-groan. “I’m going to dinner with my lawyer. And then I'm firing him.”