“I’ll see if she’s available.” He felt like the hallway was closing in on him and had to fight the desperate, urgent need to escape.
“If not, you must still come.” She put a hand on his arm, the seemingly casual touch making his stomach clench. “I’ll send over some tickets for you.”
“And Elias.” No way was he going into the lion’s den alone.
“Yes, of course. Elias.” She tossed her hair and laughed. “I almost forgot about him.”
Jay was damn sure she hadn’t forgotten about Elias at all. “I should get back to the table.” He moved to leave but she blocked his way.
“I’m so glad we’ll be working closely together,” she said, fingering his tie. “Daddy thinks the world of you.”
“I respect his work.” Sweat beaded on his forehead and his nerves went into overdrive.
“We’re very close,” she said. “If I’m unhappy, he’s unhappy.”
Jesus Christ. Was she threatening him? Even after he’d told her he was with someone? Elias needed to get his head in the game. “We’ll do our best to keep you happy, Brittany.”
Her smiled widened until he could see every one of her pearly white teeth. “I’m so glad to hear it.”
* * *
• • •
Zara tried to take in everything at once when she walked into the office after a long day of negotiations. She was half an hour late to meet Parvati for their shopping trip. But what she hadn’t expected was that the more eccentric members of the firm would come out in force to keep her friend entertained.
“Sorry I’m late.” She gave Parvati a quick peck on the cheek as she dodged Tony’s lightsaber. “I was negotiating a contract for a stuntman who was afraid of heights, high speeds, loud noises, flying, water, fire, smoke, spiders, and scorpions and camels. It took forever.”
“No problem,” Parvati said. “Faroz and Tony have been educating me in proper fencing technique.”
“It’s all in the wrist.” Tony’s lightsaber made a sweeping arc, stopping only a few inches from Parvati’s neck. To her credit, Parvati didn’t move.
“Impressive,” muttered Faroz, perched on the edge of Janice’s desk. “You didn’t even flinch.”
“He’s wearing a Yoda hat and swinging a toy sword,” Parvati said dryly. “I didn’t think he was a real threat.”
“This isn’t a toy.” Tony stared at her aghast. “It’s a custom-crafted fully functioning piece of art. Michael Murphy created this lightsaber from the same vintage Graflex camera flashes used to create the real prop, complete with a sophisticated sound board, advanced motion tracking, custom chassis, and crystal chamber that hews to the official source material.”
Parvati yawned. “Can it kill me?”
Faroz pushed away from the desk. “Hit someone over the head hard enough with any solid material and you can do some serious damage. I saw a man killed with a plastic toy pail at the beach when I was in Guam.”
“What were you doing in Guam?” Parvati studied him with interest. Zara made a mental note to pick up some earplugs on the drive home. No doubt Faroz would be spending the night.
“If I tell you, I’ll have to kill you.”
Parvati snorted. “You wouldn’t be killing me with a plastic toy pail. It’s not physically possible.”
“It was full of rocks.”
“Then he was killed by the rocks and not the pail.”
“The pail held them together.” Faroz grabbed a few decorative stones from the plant display along the wall and dropped them into his paper cup by way of demonstration. “He wouldn’t have died if someone had thrown the rocks at him one at a time. So, therefore, he was killed by the pail.”
“If you throw one of those rocks at me, I’ll show you ways to die you never even imagined,” Parvati warned.
Faroz’s face brightened. “I thought I knew them all.”
“Did you know about death by lightsaber?” Tony asked. “Many people think it’s the same as a laser beam but lightsabers consist of a plasma blade powered by a kyber crystal. It makes for a cleaner cut.”
“Either way, it’s a shit way to die,” Faroz muttered. “When it’s my time, I want to go out fucking.”
“You can’t swear in a law office,” Tony warned. “Decorum.”
Faroz chuckled. “I heard you negotiating a settlement with the Hammer this morning. I’d say the bar is pretty low.”
“Is it always like this?” Parvati whispered to Zara.
“Yes.”
“Then you’d definitely better start rustling up some clients because this is where you belong.”
Zara dropped her files off in her office and ten minutes later they climbed into Parvati’s car, a black BMW convertible that she’d bought at auction.
“I gave my number to Faroz,” Parvati said. “Is there anything I should know before I bring him home?”
“He doesn’t talk about his personal life except to throw out little nuggets like When I was in Guam . . . or Did you know a man can still talk when you cut out his tongue? or Poison is always your best bet for an assassination, or my favorite, I’d tell you but I would have to kill you. I heard a rumor he was in the CIA but I don’t believe it. Why would a CIA agent take a job as a private investigator for a law firm?”
“Maybe he needed a cover,” Parvati said absently. “I don’t really care what he does for a living. He’s hot. He has an amazing body. He oozes sex. And I’ve always wanted to sleep with an older man.”
“How about we don’t talk about him anymore because I’ll have to pick up the pieces when you use him and throw him away.” She braced herself when Parvati blasted out of the parking lot, tires screeching when she rounded the corner.
“In a hurry?” Zara had always been a fast driver until she’d started working at Cruz & Lovitt and had seen firsthand the damage that could be done from reckless driving.
“I feel like I was just in the twilight zone. I need to calm down.” Parvati slowed to the speed limit. “After our shopping trip, I want to order Chinese food and stream an old episode of Autopsy on HBO for a little relaxation.”
“Normal people don’t watch autopsies to relax.”
“I don’t watch it for the autopsy.” Parvati stopped at a red light and checked out the hot guy in the red Porsche beside them. “My favorite part is guessing the cause of death. Was it a heart attack? Did he have a hidden cancer? Was there an amoeba in his brain? It’s so exciting.”