She gave a small shrug and smiled sympathetically. “Looks like you’ll have your hands full for a while.”
“I’d like to keep this private, Elizabeth. My daughter seems to be going through a bad patch.”
“Certainly. Consider it forgotten.”
“Thanks.”
“You were saying that Gina dismissed Maude when you left. I can’t believe that.”
“See for yourself.” He looked beyond her as Austin’s Porsche pulled into a parking slot across the street from the coffee shop. Gina got out and even from this distance, Elizabeth could tell she was flushed and animated. At a signal from Austin, she waited for him to come around the car. He bent and said something in her ear. She nodded, not quite smiling, but she looked far less fragile than she’d been in the courtroom less than two hours ago. Tucking his hand beneath her elbow, they started across the street. There was no sign of Maude Kennedy.
“Hello,” Ryan murmured, watching them. “Looks as if they’re all made up.”
“Thanks to you,” Elizabeth said bitterly. “Once Austin got her alone, he would have wasted no time convincing her that they didn’t need anybody to help them work this out. So now he’s got a free hand to persuade her to anything he wants. Trust me, it won’t be to Gina’s advantage.”
Ryan looked down at her. “You really despise him, don’t you?”
“He’s a despicable human being.”
Both were silent as the couple approached. Gina’s smile, when she spotted them, was a little too bright. “Lizzie, I’m glad I caught you. Hi, Ryan. Are you two getting acquainted?”
“Mr. Paxton was just leaving,” Elizabeth said, then added coolly, “Hello, Austin.”
“Liz.” Austin’s pale eyes sliced over her.
“Austin and I are going to lunch, Liz. We’re going to talk this over ourselves, try to put something together without the…the lawyers.” She gave a quick, embarrassed half laugh. “No offense, Ryan. So, Liz, you needn’t wait around to give me a lift home as we’d planned.”
“What are you doing, Gina? You know why the judge directed you to work out an agreement with the help of your lawyers. These things are handled best with people who aren’t emotionally involved.” She gave Austin a quick glance, unmoved by the venom in his glare. She expected Austin to try an end run around the judge’s order, but why would Gina give him the opportunity after the abominable way he’d treated her? “If you go with Austin now, you give up any advantage you might have in negotiations. You know how he is, Gina.”
“Oh, Lizzie—”
“Yeah, Lizzie,” Austin said, with sarcasm, “however Gina decides to work this out is none of your business. And even if she wants advice from her lawyer, that’s Maude Kennedy, not you. So butt out. Now.”
Ignoring him, Elizabeth focused on Gina, but it was a struggle to keep the edge from her voice. “Does Maude know you’re going to handle this without her and does she approve, Gina?”
“She—she was a little reluctant, but—”
“C’mon, Gina. I’m ready for some fresh air.” With his arm around Gina’s waist, Austin’s razor-sharp smile included Ryan as well as Elizabeth. “That judge was so full of shit that it’ll take me and Gina a while to shovel through it and come up with a reasonable plan, but we can do it, can’t we, honey? And without the help of lawyers.”
He took a step or two, but stopped as another thought struck him. There was no smile on his face when he addressed Ryan. “Hey, Ryan, you’ll want to stick to criminal defense if your performance today is an example of what you can do in a civil suit. Luckily, Gina’s going to be reasonable about this and we’ll let you and that ball-buster who represented her know how it comes out.” Lifting his hand, he pushed Gina ahead a little more forcefully than she expected, but she quickly regained her balance and picked up her pace to match his as they headed toward the car.
“Seems in a hurry,” Ryan observed, watching as Gina was hustled into the Porsche.
“It’s necessary…before she changes her mind.”
Ryan shifted his briefcase to his left hand and urged Elizabeth into a walk. “I think I’ve just been dissed big-time,” he said dryly.
“I wouldn’t expect a bouquet of flowers tomorrow from your client if I were you,” Elizabeth said, still frowning at the Porsche that was peeling out into heavy traffic. But concern and disappointment were a thick knot in her throat. He’d done it again. He’d smiled and mouthed a few smarmy words and Gina had caved, just as she and Louie had feared.
“All I need now,” she said mostly to herself, “is to get back home and find a message that she’s decided to go back and live with him again.” She was barely aware that it was Austin’s lawyer beside her.
“I don’t think that’ll happen.”
“Oh, it could. She’s done it many times.”
“It might be difficult this time. Three’s a crowd and I’m not counting Jesse.”
She gave him a quick glance. “He has another woman already?”
He shrugged. “He hasn’t admitted it. I’m just repeating gossip.”
“Isn’t that a breach of ethics? The man’s your client.”
“As I said, it’s only gossip. Besides, Austin’s parting salvo makes me think he’ll be looking for fresh representation soon.”
She would have laughed, but she was simply too disheartened. “It won’t matter. He’s in damage control mode and we’ll only know how much damage he’s controlled when Gina gets home tonight.”
“I thought they were just having lunch,” Ryan said.
“Oh, they’ll have lunch all right…and then he’ll persuade her to spend the afternoon with him to give him more opportunity to get her to rethink her attitude. Then he’ll treat her to dinner in a great restaurant. It’ll be expensive and romantic, a place to remind her of all the perks that come from sleeping with the enemy.”
As they neared her car, Elizabeth fished her keys out of her purse and chirped the remote to unlock it. But before she climbed inside, Ryan stopped her.
“May I ask you a personal question?”
“Ask anything you want, but I certainly don’t promise to answer.”
“It’s about your friendship with Gina. Anyone can see that the two of you are nothing alike. From what I learned about her after I took on the case, Gina’s made some really bad choices. Granted, Austin’s not a very reliable source, but on the stand yesterday you said the two of you have been together as foster kids since you were five years old. Tell me, why is her personal life a wreck and yours almost the exact opposite?”
“Almost?”
“Well, nobody’s perfect. So, unless you’re going to tell me something bad, my comment stands. And my question.”
“I’m not going to tell you anything, Mr. Paxton. My personal life is just that, personal. And private.” She got into the car, but he caught the door before she could close it. “What?” she demanded. Both hands on the wheel, she looked straight ahead.
“You have a reputation for avoiding publicity, for reclusiveness. Don’t you know that the more mysterious you seem, the more intriguing you are to your fans? Avoiding them just adds to your mystery. Throw a few scraps out there and they’ll back off. And it’s Ryan, not Mr. Paxton.”
“Reporters