Lorai Espinosa, attorney by day and stripper by night.
Keeping her identity hidden proves to be easy until she finds herself stiletto deep with a mystery man in a fancy suit and a murder trial that begins to strip away at her little secret.
...
I booked it to the elevator. Carlson had stayed back with Erika but Alexander had caught up with me. "Lorai," he warned, "you cannot lose your temper like that."
I crossed my arms, "he embarrassed me!"
"You embarrassed yourself by stooping down to his level and letting him get to you."
I let out a frustrated breath. I knew he was right but that didn't mean that it made his comment any easier to swallow. "So now what?"
"Well first you're going to clear up your mess with Erika and apologize. Then," he smirked "you're going to meet me later tonight for dinner."
"Alex—"
"No excuses," he pointed, "now if you'll excuse me I'm going to go handle your little dilemma." He looked over at Harvey who happened to be staring daggers at us.
"Thank you Alex," I whispered and squeezed his arm.
Carlson and Erika made their way towards me. Carlson's face said it all. "I'm sorry—" I began.
"Save it," she said sharply, "just tell us what the hell that was about?!"
The elevator doors opened and we walked inside. "Mr. Specter and I happen to know each other..." I said slowly, "the details don't matter, but trust me what happened today will never happen again."
Erika looked away, "Lorai... I trust you, but I don't want you on my case if your personal life is going to meddle—"
"It isn't," I reassured her. "I lost my cool back there because I wasn't prepared and it was unprofessional of me. But Erika you have my word when I tell you that I'm going to do absolutely everything in my power to help you."
Erika smiled slightly. "Well then what's next?"
The elevator doors opened.
"I'm going to need to do some more digging on those shares, because if we're going to make any connections to Aaron or Gregory regarding your sisters murder then I need to know exactly how they were operating with your father... but in the meantime, Carlson I need you to plan a small little mock trial for ourselves, because Erika... when you take the stand you cannot freeze up like you did in that deposition."
"Understood," she nodded, "I'll be taking a cab back to the hotel if that's alright." She began walking off.
"Sounds good," Carlson nodded her off and then turned to me. "Lorai, I'm gonna be honest with you...you're making me think that giving you this case was a bad move."
"A bad move?" I scoffed.
"I feel like you bringing in Alexander has little to do with this case and a hell of a more to do with whatever fuck happened during that deposition."
I furrowed my brows, "Melanie, you came to me because you knew I was the right attorney for this case. No one else at our firm can do what I do. So I suggest you approach me with some respect and trust that every move I make is intentional. I brought Alexander on because he knows how to move when faced with scum bags like Beck Mallard. We need him in our corner in case things get out of hand."
Melanie sighed and nodded reluctantly. "Alright Lorai... but if I even get a whiff of something being off I'm pulling this case from your bare hands."
~
Harvey
I watched as Lorai was being coddled by her new co-counsel. I couldn't help but feel my stomach tighten as he grasped her hand during the deposition or at how close he stood to her now as they waited for the elevator.
"You okay?" Jessica popped up beside me.
"Yeah, yeah I'm fine." I gave her a short nod.
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"Good. Now are you going to tell me what the hell is going on, or am I going to have to figure it out on my own?" She rested her hands on her hips.
I sighed, "Jessica..."
"No, Harvey," she scolded me, "you were pushing it when you were badgering Erika, but how you went after Miss. Espinosa was utterly distasteful."
"Distasteful?" I retorted, "my job is to break them down, so forgive me if my methods seem unorthodox but I'm trying to win us this case!"
"Are you? Because from what I saw, the shit you pulled back there was less about representing your clients and more about digging into their counsel."
I rolled my eyes.
Suddenly we heard a loud bang from the conference room. Jessica and I ran in to find Aaron overtop of Jason, punching him.
"YOU FUCKING PIECE OF SHIT!" Aaron roared. "I BET YOU KILLED HER TOO DIDNT YOU?!"
"THATS ENOUGH," Jessica bellowed.
I grabbed Aaron from the back and pulled him off of Jason, " you need to calm the fuck down!" I held him back.
"How long have you known about this huh?" Aaron pushed me, "you're my fucking lawyer and you kept this shit from me!?"
"Aaron..." I warned.
"GODDAMNIT, GO TO HELL!" He shoved me backwards and stormed out of the conference room.
Jason lay on the ground with a busted lip. "You better fix this," I pointed at him.
"Me?" He slowly got up, "you're the one who slammed it on him!"
I grabbed him by his shirt collar and lowered my voice, "listen to me, you're going to go make nice with your brother because if you two aren't on the same page we won't win this case!" I let him go, making him stumble backwards. "So go kiss his feet, get on your knees, do whatever the hell you need to do. But you better not step a foot back in here without making amends with him."
Jason wiped the blood from his mouth and pushed past me, walking out of the conference room.
