“All right,” Will said. “We understand this could be a long-term assignment. This is a twenty-four seven thing. I expect you to eat, breathe, and sleep this job for the next eight weeks. That’s how long we think they’ll take to make the decision whether or not they’re going to retry Vallon. If it goes past that, we’ll renegotiate. I’ll have Moneybags here write a check and Taggart can pay you upfront if he wants to.”

“And if she dies, I’ll kill you myself,” Bridget promised, her hand resting on her swollen belly as if the child she carried agreed with her.

“I’ll do my best and I’ll get started right away,” Remy promised. “If she asks, I’ll explain to her I’m putting my house up for sale and I need a place to stay.”

It wasn’t a lie. His house would be on the market, so it would be perfect to have a place to hang while the real estate ladies did their thing.

“So you’ll do it?” Laurel asked, her eyes wide and pleading. Pleading for him to save her sister. He remembered how kind she’d been to him when she’d been his client. She never complained, included him in meals when she could, was always the perfect lady. Lovely manners, well-educated.

Very much like her sister, though he doubted Laurel would ever put her family through what Lisa was. Laurel Daley Bradford would have locked herself away in a heartbeat if it saved her family a moment’s despair.

“Yeah, I’ll do it. I promise I’ll make sure no one gets close to her.” No one but him. He wouldn’t go into this planning to jump into her bed, but if it came up, well, he would be open and honest with her and if she still let him in, it wasn’t like the wolf to leave the henhouse untouched.

As Charlotte started talking about the basic contract, Remy sat back and hoped his new client had better sense than he did.

Chapter Two

Lisa stared at the bank statement as though the numbers would change. Maybe if she willed it so, the decimal would move to the right and add some zeroes while it was at it. A lot of zeroes. She needed them since she’d been out of a job for over six months now. Stupid Jimmy and his stupid criminal activities.