you ever been shot at?”
Her brown eyes narrowed. “Uh, yeah.”
Interesting. “You’ll hope for an outbreak of gunfire by the time lunch rolls around.”
Callie didn’t even make it to eleven o’clock. By ten seventeen, just over an hour into something called the Motions Docket, she almost did a face-plant into the desk in front of her. Sitting at the front of the room and five feet from Ben stopped her, but only barely.
Thanks to the stack of agreements and waivers she signed that morning for Mark, she’d likely be arrested if she even tried to close her eyes. As it was, she only got to keep her weapon strapped to her side after engaging in United Nations-style negotiations with the county sheriff, the man in charge of providing protection for the courthouse. He insisted the gun-carrying activity be limited to his men despite the clearances Mark had secured. She threw around Judge Samson’s name and won the argument. It paid to know people in power, or at least pretend you did.
But there was an even bigger problem with her dozing-off plan. With Ben looming above her on the raised dais he’d probably miss a quick nap, but everyone else could see her just fine.
Lawyers dressed in indistinguishable dark suits lined the pews at the back half of the room facing her. Ben had introduced Callie at the beginning of the docket only as his new assistant. A few of the older gentlemen exchanged questioning looks, but no one said a word. Good thing or she might have been tempted to draw her gun. Would have added some excitement to the otherwise headache-inducing boredom of the rest of the morning.
But nothing so interesting had happened during the last hour. As Ben had called case numbers, groups of attorneys filed up to stand at two long tables in front of Ben to argue about damn near everything. Through it all the blasting air-conditioning helped her stay awake, but the steady hum of the lights and recording equipment kept lulling her back into dreamland. She lost count of the number of missing documents and destroyed documents referenced. The entire process made her rethink the benefits of being employed.
Ben did provide some entertainment. Sure wasn’t a hardship to stare at him, either. He asked questions and broke up childish arguments between lawyers who should have known better. And the way he took notes suggested he was engaged in the circus around him. Callie had no idea how he did this part of his job. Being in charge of a big courtroom with its soaring ceilings and historic paintings probably had to appeal to a guy who liked to be in control, but this dry stuff lacked the sexiness of television courtroom scenes.
“We’ll take a ten-minute recess.” Ben banged the gavel and reached for the top file on his stack.
Then nothing.
The room grew quiet. No one moved, but everyone looked at her. It took her a few seconds to remember her one required line in this whole dreary scene. “All rise.”
Ben smiled as he passed by her and whispered low enough not to be picked up by the microphones surrounding them. “Little slow there, Ms. Robbins.”
“I think I lapsed into a temporary coma.”
“Won’t be the last time.” Ben opened the door behind the bench and walked down the short hallway connecting the courtroom to his private office.
They made it to the threshold before Ben’s law clerk, Rod Banks, appeared out of nowhere. Rod had a clean-cut conservative look about him with his oxford shirt and pressed dress pants. The kind of kid you’d feel comfortable opening your front door to if he rang the bell. Someone you half expected to be selling Bibles.
Callie didn’t like him at all. She was pretty sure the feeling was mutual. Until she showed up, Rod had been Ben’s go-to person. The one who got to sit by Ben’s side in the courtroom, as if that was some freaking prize. But now she held that job. Rod smiled through the change of power, but she saw something stormy in his blue eyes.
“Judge, I was wondering if I could talk to you later,” he said.
Rod didn’t say “alone,” but Callie knew it was implied.
Ben looked up from the file he was reading and circled around Rod to head into his chambers. “Is it an emergency?”
“No.”
“Then as soon as I’m finished with this afternoon’s docket.”
Good Lord, she had a whole second half of the day to live through. Callie vowed to strangle Mark later for this assignment. First, she had to put the kibosh on the private meeting with Rod.
She closed the door before the clerk could follow them inside Ben’s private office. Then she turned to Ben. “You can’t meet with him.”
Ben glanced up, squinting at her. “What?”
She grabbed his file and dropped it on the coffee table in front of his couch. “No one-on-one meetings.”
“I was reading that.”
“I’m talking.”
Ben sat down and slipped his arm along the back of the sofa. “Rod is my clerk.”
“I know the players in this game. So?”
“The worst thing he’s ever done is lie about his golf score at the country club.”
Ben unclipped the hook at the top of his robe. For a second, she lost her train of thought. Not that she could see anything under the big black garment. No, it was the way his long fingers moved. With precision and a smoothness that had her mind wandering to his activities outside the office. She loved strong hands. Loved it even more when a man knew what to do with them.
“Callie?”
Right. “Rich people can blow things up, too, you know.”
“You think Rod is the stalker?” The joking tone of Ben’s voice told her what he thought of the theory.
“I have no idea, but I don’t plan to give Rod a chance to be alone with you.” She sat down next to Ben. Close enough to let him see how serious she was but far enough so that they didn’t touch. “He could have a knife, a gun—”
“You watch too much television.”
“And you don’t understand just how dangerous this situation is.”
“Really? Let’s see.” He sat up straighter and started ticking off a list on his fingers. “I have my brother up my ass, Emma’s calling every two seconds, journalists want quotes for the newspaper, the administrative judge is insisting I take a vacation, and you’re falling asleep in my courtroom.”
Ouch. “You saw that, huh?”
“It was tough to miss.” Ben’s mouth broke into a sexy little smile. “I heard you snore.”
“That’s not true.” At least she hoped it wasn’t.
“And why do you think I stayed awake? One of us had to know what was going on in there.”
She cleared her throat. “Either way, no meeting with Rod.”
“I’m
