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Dani was beyond nervous as she walked into the courtroom to enter Alex’s inexplicable plea. Not only was this her first real hearing by herself in front of a judge, but Cam would be here. By mutual agreement, they hadn’t spoken for the past four days. Not since his late-night visit to her apartment.

It had been a living hell not hearing Cam’s voice every night, not knowing what he was doing with his days, wondering if he was missing her as much as she was missing him. Their only correspondence had been a single professional e-mail to him and his brief, formal reply. She was a wreck.

If she’d been sleeping badly before their stolen kiss, she was sleeping horrifically, now. She’d woken up every night since his surprise visit, halfway orgasmic, reaching for him with empty arms, so frustrated she could scream.

The past few days, she’d thrown herself with gusto into researching Whitney, Marcos & Pinter’s history with women associates. It had been illuminating to say the least. A half-dozen women lawyers sent her signed affidavits testifying to all kinds of behavior by male associates and partners that skated right to the edge of sexual discrimination.

Individually, none of the stories were bad enough to nail WMP with. But taken as a group, a damning picture was forming of the company’s practices.

She’d decided to wait until after Alex’s trial was over to ask Cam outright who the raspy voiced WMP lawyer had been that night at the cocktail party. Hopefully, she would get a chance to do it in bed with him at a moment when he was distracted and would tell her anything she wanted to know.

If, of course, she didn’t die of frustration between now and then. Death by horniness. Now there was a lousy way to go.

The courtroom doors opened behind her and her breath caught as she spied a tall, golden-haired figure striding toward her.

Cam looked magnificent in a crisply tailored, gray pinstripe suit and starched white shirt. Gray pinstripes, huh? Her gaze lifted to his, and his eyes glinted with humor. She tried not to grin back but mostly failed.

She also recognized the tie as the same one he’d been wearing the night he took her to Ma Foulle…and when he took her to bed. She would never forget pulling it from around his neck while he made her scream in pleasure.

“Good morning, Ms. Wellford,” he said politely to her, his eyes so smoking hot with memory of the sex between them she could hardly breathe.

“Good morning, Mr. Townsend.“ Her eyes sparkled wickedly. “Nice tie.”

“Recently it has become my good luck tie.”

Her smile widened.

The side door opened and Alexei Koronov was ushered into the room by a bailiff. He, too, cleaned up well. His dark good looks were dashing in a suit no typical petty criminal could possibly afford.

“Hi, Alex. Any second thoughts about your plea? It’s still not too late to delay this hearing and think about it some more.”

He shot her a withering look.

“Right,” she murmured. She gestured for Alex to stand beside her at the defense table. “Ready to do this?”

“Ready as I’ll ever be,” Alex said grimly.

“All rise,” a bailiff intoned.

Dani caught the sidelong glance Alex threw her as the door behind the judge’s bench opened. Her mental alarm bells clanged as if a four-alarm fire had just ignited in her skull.

Aww, crap .

Alex had something dastardly planned to mess with this hearing.

She should ask for a postponement?—

Too late. Judge Rasmussen emerged from his office and took his place at the bench.

“Don’t do it,” she warned Alex under her breath.

“Sorry, Ms. Wellford. I have no choice. None at all.”

He’d steadfastly refused to tell her anything about why he was so insistent on going to jail. Zoey had failed to uncover any reason in Alex’s past, or present for that matter, to explain why he was so adamant about wanting to go to jail.

She’d even broken down and asked Cam on one of their late-night calls if he’d found anything to explain Alex’s refusal to accept a plea deal and avoid jail time. He claimed to know nothing and said the D.A.’s investigators hadn’t found a reason for her client’s strange behavior, either. Surely, Cam wouldn’t lie to her about something like that…

…No. She trusted him. Cam didn’t know what was up with Alex, either.

Her client didn’t seem self-destructive or suicidal. But she became steadily more alarmed as the hearing’s preliminaries progressed and Alex grew more and more tense beside her.

The hearing was declared in session.

A bailiff came over to remove Alex’s handcuffs so he could approach the bench before entering his plea. The judge apparently wanted to have a conversation with this unusual prisoner for himself.

Dani noticed that the bailiff gave the metal cuffs a rather vicious twist that was uncalled for as he took them off Alex. She opened her mouth to tell the guy to take it easy with her client, but Alex moved so fast she barely saw his hand whip out and chop, knifelike, into the bailiff’s throat. The guy went down like a rock, gagging and gasping.

Two more bailiffs leaped forward, and Alex put them on the ground with such brutal efficiency that Dani gaped in shock. Who the hell was he? Alex fought like the freaking Terminator.

Cam leaped protectively in front of her, and her heart expanded in gratitude at the same time panic finally reached her brain. The judge surged to his feet, shouting for more bailiffs.

As quickly as it had erupted, the scenario froze. The courtroom was completely still and silent for several endless seconds.

Then, as the bailiffs groaned on the floor, Alex walked calmly over to stand beside her at the defense table. She and Cam stared at him in disbelief.

“Sit,” Cam bit out. “And if you touch Dani, I’ll kill you myself.”

“You can try,” Alex said calmly as he sank into the chair. “You’ll fail. But I have no intention of harming my attorney or anyone else who doesn’t attack me first.”

“Are you going to attack me if I put the handcuffs back on you?” Cam asked Alex tersely.

Alex merely held out his wrists and waited patiently as Cam cautiously snapped on the cuffs.

Several more bailiffs charged into the courtroom just then, Tasers brandished.

“The situation—and the prisoner—are under control, gentlemen,” the judge said. “Thank you for your quick response, however.”

Alex announced, “The bailiff I struck in the throat will need a trip to the hospital and possible surgery to repair his larynx. The big one over there may have a few cracked ribs but should be fine. And that one,” he pointed at the nearest bailiff, “is a pussy. He went down without me having to hardly touch him.”

And with that pronouncement, Alex leaned back in his chair, his hands clasped across his stomach.

Dani sank into the chair beside Alex. “Who are you?” she muttered in disbelief.

“I’m just a guy trying to disappear into the system for a good long time.”

To disappear? That was the closest he’d ever come to giving her a reason for his strange behavior. “But why ? From whom?”

“You’re a decent attorney. And I like you. That’s why I’m not going to answer your questions. The less you know about me, the safer you’ll be.”

“Are you some sort of spy like your father?”

“No comment,” Alex bit out.

There was a commotion as the second batch of bailiffs assisted the inured ones to their feet and ushered them toward medical care elsewhere.

Then, as she turned toward Alex to demand more information from him, the judge snapped, “I trust you have control of your client now, Ms. Wellford.”

“Yes, Your Honor. There will be no more outbursts from Mr. Koronov.” She tossed a glare over at Alex to emphasize the point.

He smirked at her for just an instant, but then his expression went deadpan again. The guy’s self-discipline was almost frightening. Frankly, it might be best for everyone if this dangerous young man were behind bars until he worked out whatever demons were riding him.

The judge, riffling through Alex’s case file on the bench, said sternly, “There will be no more shenanigans in my court, Mr. Koronov, or I will charge you with assault and contempt. Is that understood?”

“That’s Doctor Koronov to you, Judge,” Alex bit out.

“Alex,” she hissed, “play nice.”

“And that’s Your Honor, to you,” the judge snapped back.

Was it legal for her to kick her client under the table? What the hell. She gave Alex’s calf a whack with the toe of her shoe.

“Do you understand, Doctor Koronov, that the District Attorney has been extremely lenient in not pressing charges against you in the death of an inmate in the county detention facility?”

A shrug from Alex. Then, “I’d take him out again if a piece of slime like that jumped me again.”

The judge went ominously still. Pulled his reading glasses down with one hand to stare over them, first at Alex, and then at her.

Crap, crap, crap .

Judge Rasmussen was pissed .

She ground the heel of her shoe into Alex’s instep frantically as he casually told the judge, “Of course, the District Attorney was lenient with me. After all, he’s screwing my lawyer.”

“Alex!” she cried, aghast.

The judge pointed at her and Cam. “My chambers. Both of you.”

A steady stream of cursing flowed through her brain. She’d known in her heart of hearts that Alex would pull some stunt to hose himself. She just hadn’t expected him to throw her under the bus, too.

She didn’t know about Cam, but she felt like a kid summoned to the principal’s office for committing some terrible infraction.

Rising to her feet, she glared down at Alex. “You sit here. Do nothing. Say nothing. Got it?”

He nodded back at her unrepentantly. “Got it.” But as Cam strode past, Alex muttered sotto voce , “Hope she was worth it, slugger.”

Cam shot a murderous glare at Alex as he politely gestured for her to go first into the judge’s office.

The judge pointed to seats in front of his desk and she and Cam sank into them. He leaned back in his big leather chair, hands folded across his girth. “Care to tell me what’s going on with your client, Ms. Wellford?”

“Dr. Koronov has seemed determined to go to jail from the beginning. Any time anyone shows him the slightest hint of leniency, he strikes out provocatively, much as he did just now. He flatly refuses to tell me what he’s acting out or why, although I’m certain he knows exactly why he’s doing it. This is a calculated strategy on his part.”

“Do you concur with that assessment, Mr. Townsend?”

“I do.”

“Tell me, Mr. Townsend. If the accused killed an inmate and badly wounded three more intentionally, why aren’t you pressing charges?”

She flinched as the judge’s voice flailed at Cam. The judge sounded half-inclined to believe Alex’s outrageous, and unfortunately accurate, accusation about her and Cam sleeping together. Good instincts both Alex and the judge had, dammit.

She caught the miniscule move Cam made, leaning protectively toward her before he quickly straightened and shifted his weight further away from her on his seat.

Cam answered the judge, “Investigation into the incident at the jail revealed that the four inmates attacked Mr. Koronov first. They were overheard making statements earlier that day indicating they planned to kill him. I also have affidavits from multiple guards stating that they believe Mr. Koronov easily could have killed all four of his attackers. They believe he intentionally refrained from doing so.”

“So I’m supposed to show leniency because he only killed one man?” the judge bit out.

“It has been deemed self-defense by my office. And given the extenuating circumstances of Mr. Koronov’s past, the District Attorney has chosen not to pursue pressing charges.”

“What have you got to say for your client, Ms. Wellford? I’m inclined to tack on assault charges against my bailiffs.”

“I have no excuse for his behavior, Your Honor.”

The judge opened Alex’s case file. “This guy went to college at fourteen. He’s a trauma surgeon. Productive member of society until the night of his arrest. No priors. No substance abuse. No history of violent or erratic behavior.”

His piercing gaze lifted from the file to skewer Dani. “Do your job, counselor. Give me a reason not to toss him in jail and throw away the key.”

She opened her mouth to answer but was at a loss as to what to say. Alex’s instructions to mess up the case rang in her head. Desire to save Alex from himself warred with her obligation to serve her client’s best interest.

Cam saved her, though, by piping up with, “Your Honor, if you don’t give this guy what he wants and send him to jail, I’m convinced he’ll continue to lash out and even harm others.”

The judge looked over at her. “Comments?”

She sighed. “It’s my job to defend him to the best of my ability. But from the start, he’s made his desire to go to jail crystal clear. He even went so far as to order me to do a bad job of defending him.”

That made the judge lean back with a harrumph.

Dani continued earnestly, “The question, then, is whether my obligation is do my best to get the case dismissed or to accede to my client’s clearly stated wishes. Furthermore, I struggle with the question of whether the best way to help him is to let him go to jail. I could find no precedent for it in this court.”

The judge pursed his lips and was silent a long time, staring at the wall of leather bound law books lining the wall beside his desk.

At length, he exhaled long and slow. “You pose an interesting question. I, too, can come up with no applicable precedent or case law.”

That was a relief. She would’ve felt really stupid if a similar case existed, where a client was willing to do anything to go to jail, and neither she nor Zoey had found it.

Judge Rasmussen continued, “Right now, he’s charged with DUI, evading arrest, reckless driving, reckless endangerment, and a few lesser charges. Which gives me a wide range of possible sentences, assuming young Mr. Townsend doesn’t mess up prosecuting the case and a jury finds him guilty.”

Dani tensed at the implication that Cam might make a mistake big enough to get the case dismissed. For his part, Cam frowned and opened his mouth to speak, but the judge waved him to silence.

Rasmussen said, “I have no reason to believe you’d screw up, Townsend. You’ve never been remotely less than competent in my courtroom.”

She relaxed as Cam subsided in his seat, too.

Rasmussen pinned her with another sharp stare, asking abruptly, “How long does your client want to go to jail for?”

“I don’t know, Your Honor.” Sheesh. It had never occurred to her to ask Alex that outright.

“Go ask him.”

She blinked, startled. The judge was serious.

Well, okay, then .

She rose to her feet and went back out to the courtroom, where the bailiffs still eyed Alex with deep wariness. She leaned down and whispered to him, “How long do you want to go to jail for?”

“Ten to twelve years is the maximum for the charges I currently face, correct?”

“Yes. With possibility of parole in four.”

Alex nodded slowly, his gaze calculating. Eventually, he said, “If the judge will guarantee me that sentence, I’m willing to forego a trial and plead guilty to whatever he cares to charge me with.”

This was crazy.

“You’re sure? Four years is a long time. Let alone twelve years if you misbehave or attack more inmates and have to serve out your full sentence.”

“Four years should be sufficient.”

“For what ?”

“Sorry. If I told you that, I would put you in danger. Best you know nothing.”

She stared at him thoughtfully. Danger, huh?

Was he going to jail for his own safety? To hide from someone on the outside who was out to harm him?

It made sense. Particularly given what she knew about Alex’s father having been a traitor to the Russian government. A jail was one of the few places the Russians would have to work to get at a guy like Alex.

She said under her breath, “If it’s the Russian government you’re hoping to avoid, they can still reach inside a prison. It would take a little doing on their part, but it’s not impossible.”

He smiled faintly. “You’re smarter than you look, you know.”

“I would say thank you if I wasn’t insulted.”

“You looked pretty smart already. And it’s not the Russian government.”

She opened her mouth to ask who he was planning to hide from, but he interrupted her gently. “Go get me my dozen years and parole in four, and you’ll finally be rid of me. I’m sorry I’ve been such a rotten client.”

“You haven’t been rotten. Just…confusing.”

He smiled sadly at her. “Trust me. It’s best this way. Now, go.”

She shook her head and retreated to the judge’s chambers.

Numb, she relayed Alex’s offer to Cam and the judge.

“This is damned irregular,” the judge declared.

Cam turned to her. “To be clear. He’ll plead guilty to all charges if I agree to ask for the maximum penalty under the law for his crimes?”

“Correct.”

The judge planted both palms on his desk and pushed to his feet. “All right. Go get your client to formally accept the deal. Should take only a few minutes to read in Koronov’s plea and hand down my sentence. And then I’ll thank you to remove that disrespectful young man from my court.”

She and Cam started to rise, and the judge said warningly, “I’m going to assume the accuser’s accusation of an inappropriate relationship between you two was a lie. I don’t have time for a mistrial and I’d hate to see what the good doctor would do to less competent attorneys than you two. There will be no improprieties between officers of the court who appear in my courtroom, correct?”

“That’s correct, Your Honor,” Cam replied deadpan.

“Correct, Your Honor,” she chimed in.

Thank God. The judge hadn’t asked them outright if Alex was right.

Rasmussen shook his head as he jotted down the anticipated sentence in Alex’s file. “Both of you. Out.”

Cam took her elbow and hustled her out of the judge’s chamber. Not that he had to urge her to go any faster. She was as eager as Cam to get away from any more potential questions about any personal relationship between the two of them.

“You okay?” Cam breathed as they emerged into the courtroom.

“Yes. You?”

“I’m good. I think we dodged the bullet.”

“Thank God,” she whispered.

“Amen,” Cam muttered back.

“We have a deal, then?” Cam raised his voice to ask as they approached Koronov.

“Gimme a sec.” She formally relayed the offer to Alex, who smiled broadly when he heard it. Shaking her head, she turned to Cam. “We have a deal.”

The judge emerged from his office, and they went through the formalities of entering Alex’s plea and having Alex sign paperwork to indicate the plea deal had been struck. And just like that, it was over. Alex was remanded to the bailiff for processing, and she walked out of the courthouse.

She paused to let out the breath it felt like she’d been holding for the past hour, then started down the steps of the courthouse.

“Dani! Wait up!”

She turned to face Cam who hurried to join her. “I’d take you out to lunch to celebrate your loss, but I’ve got a deposition across town and need to run.”

“Congratulations,” she said politely. Vividly conscious of standing on the courthouse steps in sight of any number of members of the local legal community, she shook the hand he offered her and managed not to shiver with delight as their palms touched.

Cam smiled wryly at her as he released her hand. Without moving his lips, he said under his breath, “Dinner tonight? Same place as before?”

“Deal,” she replied from an unmoving smile. Then, as they walked down the steps side by side, she asked conversationally, “How on earth do you swing reservations at a place like that on such short notice?”

“My cousin’s the pastry chef. I’m family.”

“Ahh. I’ll look forward to hearing more about your family sometime.”

“Later. We have other things to…discuss…that could take a long time.”

“A very long time,” she agreed with a straight face.

With a quick flash of that thousand watt smile of his at her, he turned and jogged of down the sidewalk.

She could not wait for tonight.

She went back to the WMP offices in an ebullient mood. Finally. She and Cam were going to be together.

But as soon as she stepped out of the elevator into the WMP offices, she knew something was wrong. Very wrong. Everyone stared at her as if she was a plague bearer and scurried out of her way as she headed for her office.

Had they already heard she lost her case? News did travel fast in legal circles.

Zoey was waiting for her, grim-faced, in her tiny cubby hole of an office. Uh oh. It was serious, then.

“WTF?” she asked her friend under her breath.

Zoey closed the door behind her. “Word is you’re being canned. The big boys are gonna blame you for losing the Koronov case. The line will be that it was a no-brainer case and you couldn’t even get it right.” She added heavily, “But we all know why they’re firing you.”

“The discrimination thing.”

“Yeah, sweetie. Have you got enough to hang them with, yet?”

She squeezed her eyes closed. Not without that name from Cam.

Damn her bosses, anyway. This was just like she’d read in the files of those other women. The firm pulled crap right up to the edge of actionable behavior, then swept everything under the rug and quietly got rid of the female associate before she could make a stink.

She was so close to having enough to nail them.

But her gut yelled at her that WMP was going to manage to get rid of her before she could expose them. The bastards were going to get away with it. Again.

Desperate, she picked up her cell phone and dialed Cam’s number. It kicked over to voice mail immediately. He must already be in his deposition. She swore under her breath as the beep signaled she could talk.

“Cam, it’s me. WMP’s about to fire me. The only thing that will stop it is for me to get the name of the man you talked with that night at the cocktail party. The guy who told you to screw me if you’d like because that’s what I was hired for. I have to warn you, WMP will get you blackballed with every law firm on the east coast if you get involved with this. I won’t hold it against you if you choose not say anything. You have your career to look out for. Now that I think about it, I shouldn’t have asked you at all. I’m just panicking, here. In fact, forget I asked. I would never wreck your career to save mine.”

The second she disconnected the call, even more intense buyer’s remorse slammed into her. Crap . She shouldn’t have said anything to Cam about giving her the name.

She asked Zoey urgently, “Is there a way to delete messages once you’ve left them on someone else’s phone?”

“No, honey. That’s why drunk texting is so dangerous.”

“ Dammit .” She thought fast. “Then I’ve got to get the partners to fire me before Cam can get that message and ruin his career for me. Quick, do you know if the partners are in the building?”

“I can find out for you—” Zoey started.

“Forget it. I’m just going upstairs to confront whoever’s here, now.” She scooped up the affidavits and files she’d compiled from all the former women associates and rushed out of her office.

“Dani!” Zoey called after her. “Stop and think about this!”

“I love him, Zoey. I’m not wrecking his life!”

“But you’re wrecking yours?—“

The elevator door closed on her friend’s protest. Which was just as well. She knew what she had to do and exactly how to do it.