Vanessa looked guilty, but not nearly guilty enough. “I’ll work it out with Katie. She’ll understand when I explain everything. Eventually.”

The eventually got Leigh’s back up.

“Let me be clear, Vanessa. I will not help you commit a crime.”

“I didn’t ask you to.”

“I could get disbarred.”

She started to say something, then bit her lip.

Leigh felt another surge of anger, but this time it was directed at her client. Through a long series of events, Vanessa had become mired in a deep morass of lies, deceptions, and half-truths. And now she wanted to pull Leigh into the muck with her.

“What about Cooper?” Leigh asked.

Vanessa looked startled. “What about him? He’s been amazing.”

Leigh sighed. “Are you guys back together?” she asked, even though the answer seemed obvious from the rumpled state of the bed.

“For now.”

“Does he know you’re using him?”

Her cheeks flushed. “I’m not using him. I just needed his help, and he agreed.”

“Because he cares about you.”

“Yes. And I care about him.”

She nodded. “Well, in that case I’m sure you wouldn’t want to ask him to do anything illegal for you.”

“He hasn’t.”

Leigh lifted her eyebrow at her choice of words. Saying he hadn’t done anything illegal wasn’t the same as saying she hadn’t asked. Leigh got the sense that Cooper’s feelings for Vanessa were much stronger than hers for him. She also got the sense that Vanessa knew it.

Leigh turned to look out the window and spotted Cooper getting out of his little blue hatchback. He had a fast-food bag in his hand. A pair of sunglasses concealed his black eye.

“I know you don’t approve of me.”

She looked at Vanessa.

“Approval has nothing to do with it,” Leigh told her. “You’re in a mess, and I’m your lawyer. I want to help you, but you’re not going to like my advice.”

Fear came into her eyes then. “You don’t understand. These last few days and weeks and months have been a living hell for me. All because of Mason. He’s not reasonable. He’s vindictive and cruel and he doesn’t have boundaries like other people. He wants to kill me—I know it—probably even more now that the police are looking at him.”

“Vanessa—”

“Don’t say no. Just hear me out.” She leaned forward, watching Leigh intently. “I need help, and you’re the only one I can ask.”

Leigh stared at Vanessa, ninety percent certain she was going to ask her to do something illegal. One hundred percent certain she was going to ask her to do something that would pour a bucket of cold water on whatever tiny ember of a relationship she had with Brandon right now.