him to get the upper hand in any way.
“I’m in trouble, Hallie—” He paused, his lips thinning.
Her gaze lingered on them for a moment before she forced her eyes back to his.
“Or at least, I think I am,” he added.
“Trouble, as in needing an attorney?”
“That’s why I’m here.”
Trying to pretend he was just another client off the street, and not someone with whom she’d been uninhibitedly intimate, was one of the hardest feats she’d ever had to pull off. “Suppose you sit down and tell me what’s going on.”
When they were both seated, he blurted out, “Roberta’s dead.”
Later, Hallie would realize he hadn’t even bothered to give Roberta’s last name, because he’d known it wasn’t necessary. “When did she die? How?” Shock forced her to clear her voice.
“She was found this morning in her hotel room. She was strangled. And I seem to be the prime suspect.” When she didn’t speak, he went on, “Don’t look at me like that, Hallie. Surely you know I had nothing to do with it. But that’s not what the police think. They’ve asked me to come in for questioning.”
Questions that she had no right to ask circled her brain like vultures over a dead animal’s carcass. When had Roberta Klein come back into his life? But she refrained from voicing that personal thought, aghast that Roberta was dead and that Jackson was considered involved.
“You came to the right place,” she said, clearing her throat again. “Nathan James is the best criminal defense attorney in Memphis, maybe in the entire South.”
Jackson rose abruptly to his feet and stared down at her from his six-feet-plus height. “I don’t want Nathan James or whatever the hell his name is.”
Hallie’s eyes widened as she peered up at him.
“I want you to represent me.”
This time Hallie rose, shaking her head. “I can’t.”
“Why?”
“You know why.”
“No, I don’t. You’ve done plenty of criminal work, and as I remember, you were damn good at it.”
“You’re missing the point. The past two years, I’ve focused on divorce law. That’s become my expertise.”
“Please, Hallie.”
Those softly spoken words, backed by emotion, tore at her. Still, she held on to her resolve. “Jackson, you don’t know what you’re asking. If you’re in the kind of trouble you think you are, I’m not the attorney you need.”
“Yes, you are.”
“Okay, let me put it this way. Regardless of whether I’m qualified or not, I wouldn’t feel comfortable representing you. I don’t know how to make it any plainer.”
His mouth worked and he stared deeply into her eyes. “Please,” he said again. “I trust you, and you have to help me.”
Hallie opened her mouth, but the words froze in her throat.
Three
But I don’t trust you.
Though Hallie wanted to utter those words, she couldn’t; they dried up in her throat. Still, she was angry that Jackson had so brazenly appeared in her office, opening old wounds with both his unsettling presence and his raw demand.
“Hallie?”
The unspoken plea in his voice refocused her mind. Yet she stopped short of giving him a definitive answer, even though she knew this situation was grave and could spell disaster for him.
“I need time, Jackson,” she stalled, which was not like her at all, and he knew it. She had always been admired for her ability to think quickly on her feet, in an unpleasant situation or otherwise.
Right now, however, she was having a difficult time even thinking, much less thinking rationally. Apparently Jackson wasn’t having any qualms, or he wouldn’t have approached her. Or else he was desperate. With that thought jumping to the forefront of her mind, Hallie lifted her slender shoulders as if preparing for battle.
“I need your answer now,” Jackson said before she could break the heavy silence.
Chocolate-brown eyes met blue ones, and for a moment, Hallie couldn’t find her next breath. Jackson must have experienced the same smothering reaction, for his features darkened even more and he shifted his gaze.
“Why are you a suspect, Jackson?”
He rubbed his chin, which was beginning to show a slight stubble, further enhancing his sex appeal. “I was with Roberta last night.” His voice was brusque.
Hallie didn’t know why that blunt admission still had the power to prick her heart, but it did. She should feel bitterness and contempt. Instead, her response was far more personal. Ignoring those thoughts, she said, “You need to be more specific. With her could mean a number of things.”
Jackson’s eyes were bleak. “It’s not what you think.”
“You have no idea what I think,” she countered with quiet dignity. She was determined to keep this conversation professional and impersonal, until she could convince him that Nathan was the lawyer who could best serve him.
“You hate me, don’t you,” he said out of the blue.
Her stomach dropped, but she didn’t let on that his tortured words got to her. “Of course I don’t hate you.”
She didn’t hate him, but she did hate every second of his presence and this conversation. She didn’t want to know why he had been with Roberta and what they did. Two years ago, that woman had been a bone of contention between them, and now she was again, even in death.
“Sorry,” he muttered. “I didn’t mean to make this personal.”
“About Roberta,” she pressed, ignoring his apology.
“She showed up at the club after a long absence. She was in a mess.”
“A mess, how?”
“A mental and emotional wreck.”
“And you felt sorry for her.” Hallie paused. “Again.”
“Okay, so I felt like I owed—” His jaw stiffened, cutting off his sentence.
“I know how you feel about that,” Hallie said, “so there’s no use repeating it.”
Jackson flushed but he didn’t comment. Instead, he said, “I took her to dinner to try and calm her down.”
“Seems like I’ve heard that before.”
