Bulletproof Hearts

“I heard you had some excitement last night.”

There was no sympathy in John Beckett’s clipped tone, nor had she expected any. She’d known this confrontation was inevitable, but her boss had been tied up with jury selection for a conspiracy trial all morning, thus allowing a brief reprieve.

“More than I wanted,” she acknowledged, careful to keep her tone light.

“Not even a month on the job and you stumble into the middle of a murder scene. The press is going to have a field day with this,” he grumbled.

“It’s not like I went out looking to find a dead body,” she pointed out.

“You went looking for trouble,” he insisted.

“I was in the wrong place at the wrong time.”

“Then your being in Roger Merrick’s apartment building at 1:00 a.m. was just an unfortunate coincidence?”

“You hired me to do a job,” she said. “That’s what I was doing.”

“Well, you made a mess of it, and you’re going to clean it up.”

“How?” she asked wearily.

“You can start with the press.” He dropped a fistful of pink message slips on her desk.

Natalie swallowed. “What am I supposed to say?”

“Molly is typing up your statement now.” He turned toward the door, pausing only long enough to offer a parting shot over his shoulder. “Remember—your position in this office is still a probationary one.”

She didn’t need the reminder—she was all too aware of how precarious her situation was, how easily her new life could come crashing down around her. Moving to Fairweather had been a big step, one she hadn’t taken without careful thought. As much as she’d been desperate to get her son out of the low-income, high-crime neighborhood in which they’d lived, she’d been wary of the offer.

You don’t get something for nothing, Shannon had warned.

Her sister was always spouting clichés. “Look before you leap” was another of her favorites.

But in this case, Natalie believed the trade-off was worth it. Getting Jack out of Chicago would be the best thing for him. She’d agreed to let him stay with Shannon until he’d finished out the school year, and to give Natalie a chance to find a home for them. It was all she really wanted—a place where they could both feel settled. And that would happen only if she managed to keep this job.

She shoved the stack of messages aside and buried her face in her hands. She didn’t blame her boss for being annoyed. She had overstepped her bounds. Her decision to meet with Roger Merrick had been impulsive and clearly—in retrospect, anyway—unwise. But Beckett had given her the case, and complete discretion to handle it. In fact, he’d seemed more than pleased to get the file off his own desk. If he hadn’t thought she was capable of doing the job, why had he given her the case? Why had he ever hired her?

She hadn’t gotten any further than these questions when an unfamiliar figure stormed into her office. Natalie hadn’t yet had the dubious honor of being introduced to Randolph Hawkins, but she had no doubt that the immaculately dressed man with silver strands woven through dark hair and cold blue eyes glaring angrily across her desk was the infamous defense attorney.

No, angrily wasn’t an accurate description, she realized. Dangerously was much more appropriate.

“You stepped over the line, lady.” The words were as sharp and cold as broken glass.

“My name is Natalie. Natalie Vaughn,” she told him. “And I’m guessing you’re Mr. Hawkins.”

“Then you’re not a complete imbecile, after all,” Hawkins retorted.

Her back stiffened. Regardless of what had happened, he didn’t have any cause to treat her with such blatant disrespect. “I understand that you’re upset about your client, Mr. Hawkins, but—”

“You knew Roger Merrick was my client?”

“Yes, but—”

“Then why did you attempt to meet with him without my presence?”

“I didn’t request the meeting,” she said coolly. “Mr. Merrick did. I’m sorry—”

“Sorry?” he snapped. “You should be a damn sight more than sorry. You killed him.”

“Now, Randolph,” a cool, almost amused voice chided from the doorway. “You know very well that Ms. Vaughn didn’t pump those bullets into Merrick’s body.”

Natalie’s gaze flew to the lieutenant leaning casually against the open door. Creighton had been the first in line to chastise her for her actions of the previous evening, so although she was skeptical about his apparent defense she was also grateful for the interruption.

“She signed his death warrant when she agreed to meet with him.” Hawkins practically spat the words at Dylan.

“I didn’t know he was in danger,” Natalie protested.

Hawkins turned back, directing the full force of his anger at her. “Were you also unaware that meeting with a defendant in the absence of his counsel is a violation of both his rights and professional ethics?”

“I told Roger Merrick that I couldn’t meet with him without his lawyer,” she said.

“And yet you did.”

“He was the one who insisted on not contacting you.”

A brief moment of silence followed her announcement.

“Why was that, do you suppose?” Creighton wondered aloud, pushing away from the door and moving into the room.

“This is none of your damn business, Creighton.”

“But it is,” the lieutenant assured him. “Murder is very much my business.”

Hawkins chose to ignore him. “It doesn’t matter what you claim my client said,” he told Natalie. “You knew he had counsel, and you had an ethical duty to talk to him through me.”

She flinched, because she knew he was right and because it was her determination to prove herself and her eagerness to hear about Conroy that had caused her to overlook that obligation.

But again the lieutenant came unexpectedly to her defense. “You’re a fine one to talk about ethics when Zane Conroy has you on retainer.”

“Mr. Conroy is a pillar of this community.”

Creighton laughed. “If he’s the pillar, we’re all in trouble.”

“In any event,” Hawkins continued, “I came here to discuss Roger Merrick, not Mr. Conroy.”

He turned his attention back to Natalie. “I’m considering filing a complaint with the state bar association. I’ll definitely be making my displeasure known to your boss.”

She groaned inwardly, Beckett’s reminder of her probationary status fresh in her mind. She’d been on the job only three weeks and she was already in danger of losing it and all her hopes for her and Jack’s future along with it. But before she could respond to Hawkins’s threat, somehow plead her case, he’d stomped out of her office, the glass rattling in the door as he slammed it behind him.