Law, Lies, and Love Affairs

So Nice to See You Again

To say he'd been shocked when he found out the new general counsel of the Miami-based import company his private equity firm had just bailed out was a woman named Stephanie Morgan was an understatement. Surely it couldn't be Stevie who, the last he'd heard, had skyrocketed her way to an early partnership at the top-rated international law firm she'd joined after their graduation from law school. After all, Morgan was a pretty common last name.

But a quick Google search and a few phone calls had confirmed that was exactly who it was.

He looked over at Burt O'Connor who was still standing awkwardly behind his desk, red-faced and sweating, holding the stack of papers Mike had given him just before Stevie walked in.

"Why don't you take those with you, O'Connor, and give it some thought."

The man visibly swallowed. "Yes, I – that's a good idea." He walked around the desk and crossed the office, avoiding eye contact with Stevie when he passed her.

She looked at Mike and raised an eyebrow in that way she did at meetings in the law review office when questioning his judgment on a submission or some other issue. Then she reached back and shut the door and turned to face him.

"You just threw the man out of his own office."

"It won't be his office for long. Those are severance papers. If he's smart, he'll sign them. And have his resignation letter on my desk by 5:00 today."

"What's going on here? What are you doing here?"

He leaned his hip on the desk and watched confusion and speculation run across her face.

"I was about to ask you the same thing."

"Should I assume there's been a hostile takeover?"

"Only hostile to the fool that was mismanaging this company for far too long," Mike said, gesturing toward Burt's empty chair.

She lifted her chin and met his eyes squarely. "Do you have a set of those papers for me?"

Was she actually afraid of losing this job that had to be a ridiculously major step down for her? What had happened at her old firm, and what was she doing taking a job as general counsel for a company that had been practically run into the ground already by an executive who talked a good talk to his board of directors all the while having his head up his ass?

He hoped she wasn't hiding out here in the aftermath of some scandal at her old firm that he had yet to hear about. Because if that was the case, fond memories notwithstanding, she'd be out the door in a heartbeat. His job was to rebuild this company, then flip it for a nice profit. The last thing he needed was complications.

"I thought it would be a challenge," Stevie said, as if she'd read his mind.

A challenge was the deal he read about last year that she'd brokered for one of her firm's clients in Brussels. And the negotiations he'd heard rumors about between a major U.S. corporation and the government in Hong Kong, where he understood she was based.

But when he'd make discreet inquiries yesterday about whether the Stevie he knew was even still with the global law firm, all he'd been able to find out was that she'd taken a leave of absence a few months ago for personal reasons. Other than that, there wasn't even a murmur.

"So tell me, Stevie," he said. "What the hell are you doing here?"

* * *

No. This was not happening. What was she going to do in Miami – where she'd just signed a lease on a condo and barely gotten Maddie settled into her new home? Now she was going to have to uproot her again? This was a nightmare. There was no way she could work with Mike. She'd closed that door a long time ago, and reopening it could destroy everything she'd worked so hard to build. But it was pretty obvious he didn't want to work with her either, so maybe that wasn't even going to be an option.