Barely Breathing(43)

The desperation and willingness to do violence weren’t there, but then, I’d never been subjected to withdrawal from Viv. If anyone ever tried to take her from me, I’d do whatever I had to do to stop them.





Viv

A FEW DAYS LATER, I was laying eyes on Kane for the first time since our dinner in his office, but it wasn’t making me as happy as I’d expected it to.

Oh, hell no. I wasn’t having any of this.

Samantha, one of the paralegals at my office, was giving Kane a coy smile. He stood near Charlene’s desk, right on time for our meeting. But he couldn’t get to my office since Samantha had her hooks in him.

“You must lift weights,” she said, her eyes wide as she squeezed his bicep. “Oh my gosh, it’s so hard.”

I picked up my pace and covered the rest of the distance between me and Kane.

“Samantha,” I said sternly.

“Oh. Sorry.”

“You ought to be. Keep your hands to yourself.” I glared at her. “Get back to work.”

Amusement flickered across Kane’s face, but he cleared his throat to cover it. I cocked my head in the direction of my office and he followed.

He walked in behind me and closed the door. “You’ve got a possessive streak, babe.”

“She was grabbing you. Acting like a bitch in heat.”

I grabbed a handful of his t-shirt and led him to a corner of my office that couldn’t be seen through the glass door. As soon as I slid my hands around the back of his neck? he cupped my backside and squeezed, giving me a hungry look.

“I’ve missed you,” he said, kissing me softly and tugging my lower lip between his teeth.

My body warmed in response to him, which felt forbidden in my office.

“Sorry I’ve been so tired,” I said.

“You’ve been working long hours. It’s understandable.”

“You work long hours, too.”

He pulled back a little and looked at me. “Yeah, but if I don’t come over til after midnight, I expect you’ll be tired.”

I sighed and nodded. I’d been coming in early and staying late every day, catching up on the workload I’d already had when I took on the Cartwright case and also working on that one. Marcus had apparently taken me onto the case so I could do most of the work and he could take the credit. But such was life for a young attorney.

“We’ve got five minutes til the meeting,” Kane said in a low tone.

I smiled and ran a hand up from his neck into his short hair. “I think Cara’s ready for us now, actually.”

His body stiffened and I realized how nervous he must be.

“Is this gonna be good or bad?” he asked. “I can handle it, just tell me.”

“I honestly don’t know. Let’s go find out together.”

Nodding somberly, he pulled away and we left my office, making the short walk to Cara’s three doors down the hall. I knocked once and opened the door.

“Ready?”

She looked up from her computer and took her reading glasses off. “Yeah. Come on in.”

We went in and I closed the door. Cara had the blinds inside her glass office door drawn, so we had privacy. Kane and I both took a chair in front of Cara’s desk and she looked between us.

“I’ve had a couple conversations with Corinne Martindale’s counsel,” Cara said. I tried to read her expression, because I could usually tell whether it was good or bad news. But I was getting nothing.

“Miss Martindale was surprised by our request,” Cara said, focusing on Kane. “She was shook up at first. I think her initial reaction was fear that you want to seek joint custody.”

“No.” Kane looked pained. “I didn’t mean to—”

“I know. And I had explained your intentions clearly. But she was still upset by it. I explained to her counsel again that this is nothing more than what it appears to be. That you’d like a meeting with your daughter, but you don’t want to upset Miss Martindale or your daughter.”

I took Kane’s hand and he squeezed mine back, hard.

“She said a visit isn’t a good idea,” Cara said softly.

I heard Kane’s deep, disappointed exhale. It was all I could do not to jump Cara. She was more tenacious than this. It was one of the reasons I’d asked her to take the case.

Cara continued. “I reminded her counsel that you’re paid to date on child support, Mr. Kane. You’ve actually paid more than you were court ordered to pay. And you’ve been a law-abiding citizen with no legal issues since your release from prison. Your parole officer vouched for you. I pretty much told her counsel they will be seeing us in court if she makes no concessions.”

“I really don’t want it to come to that,” Kane said, shaking his head. “Cori’s just looking out for Brooklyn.”

“Well, Miss Martindale came back with an offer to allow the meeting as long as she can also be present.”

Kane went still. I held my breath as I processed Cara’s words.

“That’s good,” I said softly. “That means he gets to meet her. How do you feel about Cori being there?”

I turned to Kane. He took his hand away from mine and buried his face in his hands, his elbows resting on his knees. All he could do was nod.