Frank Dovey—her boss.

The dream of becoming a prosecutor had sustained Lila through seven years of books and study and stress. Her undergraduate degree had been hard enough, but law school came with the feel of trench warfare, the competition for class rank pitting students against each other. Lila had chased a vision of herself through it all—nice suit, polished shoes, confident posture, standing before a jury and putting evil men in prison—men like the ones who had hurt her so badly. In the end, her effort landed her a job that was perfect in every respect—except for Frank Dovey.

She wasn’t sure whether it had been seconds or minutes since she’d tuned Ryan and Patrick out, but soon she heard Ryan’s voice breaking through the fog. “Lila? You okay?” He sounded concerned. “You need water or something?”

Lila looked around and saw that Patrick had left. “I’m sorry,” she said. “I should get back…” Lila started to stand, but Ryan put a hand on her shoulder, gently easing her back down to the chair.

“No hurry. What’s going on?”

“Nothing, really.”

“Lila.” Ryan’s voice took on the soft tone of a therapist or maybe even a friend. “It’s me.”

“Frank Dovey.”

“Yeah, I hear he’s a bit of a dick.”

“It’s more than that. He and I…we have a history.” As soon as she said it, she could hear the hint of affair in the words.

“You and Dovey?”

“In court,” Lila said quickly. “We have a history in court. When I was a second-year, one of my law professors hired me to help him with a murder trial. We beat Dovey, and I think it cost him a judgeship.”

“The Pruitt case? You were part of the Pruitt case?”

“You heard about it?”

“Just gossip.”

“What’d you hear?”

Ryan sat down and laced his fingers behind his head, looking at the ceiling as though trying to remember. “The victim’s sister…she was politically connected, right?”

“Personal friend of the governor.”

“Right. One of the paralegals told me that Dovey was so sure he had the judgeship that he’d joked that she should start calling him Your Honor.”

“Oh good lord.”

“Yeah, and then he lost the case. Word has it that the sister went to the governor and blackballed him. The paralegal said he smashed one of his chairs against the wall when he found out.”

“I was on an elevator with him back in June,” Lila said. “Everyone else got off on lower floors, so it was just him and me. Once we were alone, I faced the front like a normal person, but he turned and stared at me like…I don’t know, but it was creepy.”

“Stared at you?”

“Yeah. He was two feet away.”

“Did he say anything?”

“Not a word. He just stared at the side of my head.”

“Damn.”

“I know. I’m pretty sure that Beth hired me over his objection.”

“And now he’s…your boss.”

“Yeah, well, it was fun while it lasted.” Lila had a smile on her face, but the slight quaver in her voice betrayed her.