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gathered me by one arm and began
to lead me from the room.   “If you’ll
excuse us, I need a few minutes to confer with Miss Bloom.”
    Tucked away at one end
of the corridor, at a distance from the scattered clusters of people chatting
in the hallway, Ullman folded his hands thoughtfully at his waist and regarded
me for several silent moments. “I’m going to assume you didn’t just meet Adrian
Knight,” he said in a cool tone he reserved for serious fuck-ups. This was the
first time I’d heard it directed at me.
    It didn’t help that he
was a full foot taller than I was, that I had to look up at him like a school
child regarding her principal. “No,” I admitted, “we met on his island during
my leave of absence last month.”
    “I take it Mr. Knight
was the reason for your leave.”
    And I nodded. “Look, I
can’t justify horning in on this case and showing up here uninvited, but I do
have information pertinent to Knight’s defense. Names that
need to be followed up on because there is more going on here than meets the
eye.”
    “Oh, I can believe
that.” Ullman’s dry humor again.
    “Really, Frank, I know.
I know what kind of trouble I’m in with the firm for being here, but my
information is good. You need it.” I synced my PDA with Frank’s and gave him a
moment to review my notes.
    With a deep breath, my
mentor—the man who’d taken a big chance pushing to get me named a junior
partner—focused hard on me with those steely gray eyes I’d found calming and
almost fatherly up until now. “Yes, this information definitely warrants
further investigation. I’ll have my clerk on it before lunchtime. And, yes,
you’re in it deep, missy. I’d suggest you do whatever is necessary to get back
to the offices before any more of the seniors find out you’re AWOL. You’re
going to need the time between now and the end of this case to prepare your
argument for why you shouldn’t be let go from Ferris & Hale for a good half
dozen ethical breaches I can think of just off the top of my head.”
    “Sir,
I—.” My protests faded in my mouth. There was no point.
I wasn’t leaving Brazil, not until I’d exhausted my every resource and Adrian’s
cause was either saved or lost. But telling Frank that, here and now, served no
purpose. If I had to burn this bridge—and I did—I could at least have waited
until we weren’t standing on it.
    You
really didn’t think this through, did you, Chloe ?
Linda and Frank weren’t the only ones I was disappointing, and I hadn’t taken
that into consideration. There were friends and coworkers who wouldn’t be able
to understand what had gotten into me all of a sudden. A creeping sense of
shame climbed the back of my neck, as the voice of my little inner demon
taunted me over what I was throwing away because I couldn’t stop thinking about
Adrian Knight. Even right now. Was he back in the conference room having the
same kind of disappointed conversation with Obray? Of course, it was a little
different when it was Adrian’s name on the paychecks.
    Finally, I just nodded
and told Frank I understood. Better than he did, but I didn’t add that part.
Then he walked away from me back into the conference room, shutting the door
behind him, and I stood there just a little lost, adrift as one more piece of
my pre-Adrian life broke away from me. What now? Back to the hotel for a quick
bite, then a call to see if Karl had turned up anything new based on the
information I’d given him a couple of hours ago? Without an office to report
to, without meetings dissecting my day into little easy-to-digest units, I
felt…too free. And I chuckled, perhaps a tad forlorn, at the thought that I
missed the way Adrian had laid out my duties at the villa. Again, he was my
security, my direction. My purpose.
    “Excuse me, miss.”
    A warm, older male
voice drew my attention like a smile from a stranger. I was already turning to
face the direction it had come from when it occurred to