“You’re kidding me?”
He laughed. “I’m not. I don’t know why he did it. He decided to make some extra cash on the side, I’d bet.”
“How much did the cops get?”
“A lot. All of it on video. It’s a slam dunk case.”
I laughed. “You’re not kidding. This is huge.”
“I want you to prosecute.”
I cocked my head, surprised. “Me? Why?”
“I want you to prosecute all of these mafia bastards,” he said. “This is an easy one.”
“I don’t know, Rick. I’m not sure I want to take this on. I don’t even have an apartment.”
“We can help you find one. In the meantime, forget about your dire living situation by drowning yourself in work.”
I sighed. I had to admit, I was really tempted. I thumbed through Evgeni’s rap sheet, which listed a couple counts of aggravated assault, a couple counts of intent to sell, and one account of grand theft auto. Each time, the charges were mysteriously dropped.
I knew what that meant. Either someone got bribed big time, or they made some threats that were impossible to ignore.
This was going to be dangerous, even if it was an easy case. If I took it, I knew I was going down a path that I could never get off of.
“Okay,” I said. “I’ll do it.”
“Great,” Rick said. “Take that file. We’ll send you down whatever else you need as soon as possible. I’d also get down to the station when you can.”
“Okay.” I stood. “Thanks for this.”
“No, thank you. It’s going to be tough, but I know you can do it.”
I nodded, turned, and quickly left his office.
I knew I was making the wrong choice, but I couldn’t stop myself. This case was the sort of thing that could possibly make a career. Plus, I became an ADA for this sort of thing. I wanted to put bad guys behind bars, and Evgeni was absolutely a bad guy.
As soon as I got back to my desk, my phone started to vibrate in my pocket. I pulled it out and looked at the number. I didn’t recognize it, but for some reason I decided to answer it anyway.
“Hello?”
“Hello, beautiful.”
I paused. “Who is this?”
“It’s Gage.”
That surprised me. “Gage. It’s pretty early in the morning.”
“Is it?” He laughed. “Shit, you’re right. Sorry, I had a crazy night with work. I didn’t realize what time it was.”
“Everything okay?”
“More than okay. I just wanted to see if you’d like to accompany me out tonight.”
I looked around and bit my lip. “I don’t know. I have a lot of work.”
“I won’t keep you late, then. Come on. What else do you have to do? Come meet some people, spend a little time out. You’re basically new in town, you know.”
He did have a point. I needed to make some new friends, and maybe going out with Gage would help me do that.
Who was I kidding, that’s not why I wanted to do. I wanted to be close to Gage again. There was no other reason to accept his strange invitation. What kind of collection job kept someone out all night long like this?
“Okay,” I said. “I’m staying at the Holiday Inn, room 337.”
“I’ll meet you in the lobby at eight. Wear something to impress me.”
“Gage—“ I want to tell him off, but he had already hung up.
That arrogant bastard. Who did he think he was telling me what to wear? The man was so frustrating, just the way that I remembered him. And yet the more frustrated I got with him, the more I wanted to be around him. He was an impossible conundrum.
I turned back to my desk, took a deep breath, and dove into work. I had a long day ahead of me, including going down to the police station to find out more about this Evgeni guy.
But at least now I had something to look forward to.
I was nervous as I looked at myself in the mirror. I hadn’t been on a date in months, although I wasn’t even sure that this was a date. I wore a tight black dress with matching heels, and I knew that my outfit screamed “take me home.” I couldn’t really help myself, though.
I had no clue where we were going. I checked the time on my phone and quickly grabbed my little clutch. I slipped my phone in, grabbed my keys and my cards, and then headed out. I stuffed everything into the bag as I rode the elevator down to the main lobby.
I walked across the cheap marble floor listening to my heels clack on the stone. I saw him sitting at the little bar they had in the corner, sipping a drink.
“Hey, stranger,” I said, sidling up next to him.
He smirked at me. Gage wore a perfectly fitting black dress shirt and dark wash jeans that looked like they were made for him. His watch was big and expensive-looking, and I had to admit that he cleaned up really, really well.