Gritting my teeth, I stare down at my desk and blink the tears away. “Ray…” My voice cracks, breaks. I take a sip of coffee and follow it with a long, deep breath. “You said you had bad news. Let’s discuss that.”

“Right.” He tosses a disk on my desk and leans forward. “You asked me to find out why the women on the witness list you put together from the names you got from Jill Jackson suddenly started canceling their interviews and stopped returning your calls this week. I visited everyone on that list. No one will talk. And I mean no one. It’s like Farnsworth knew exactly who you were going to contact and got to them first. Some of them were definitely scared.”

“So, you’re saying he had the list? Maybe that’s what the intruder took when he broke in. The witnesses didn’t start clamming up until after Jake and I…” My throat tightens. “After the break-in.”

Ray leans back and crosses his ankle over his knee, brushing his thumb over his lower lip. “Could be. Or maybe someone hacked into your computer system. I’ll call a guy I know and get him to sweep the place for surveillance.”

“Sounds exciting for my humble little office.”

“Sounds f**king suspicious.” Ray leans forward in his chair. “You should be more worried.”

Swallowing hard, I shrug. “I would be, but to be honest, I’m thinking of giving up on Farnsworth…and my new firm. The things he’s done so far are only the start. Every day he files a new motion or makes a new request, or comes up with another way to make my life hell. I can’t keep up, and as we get closer to trial, it’s only going to get worse. Max’s in-house attorney has been helpful but I can’t call him every day. Farnsworth has all the resources of Farnsworth & Tillman, LLP behind him. I have me. Even if I hired someone to do the work, either contract lawyers or even a firm, the fees would kill me.”

Ray’s mouth tightens into a thin line. “You have Penny and me. You have friends and family. You have colleagues that left the firm. After everything that’s happened, all the work you’ve done, you’re going to let him win because you still can’t bring yourself to ask for help?”

Sweat trickles down my back. He makes it sound like it was an easy decision, but it has kept me up night after night. I’ve thought through all the options and possibilities but, in the end, although I may have a case, I am an unarmed, impoverished David to the Goliath that is Farnsworth & Tillman.

“No one could help me, Ray. Even if I asked.” With a sigh, I slide a check across the desk. “I settled Sandy’s case for her last week. There was just enough to cover office rent and expenses, your contract fee, and Penny’s salary. I don’t have the money from the house sale yet. I can’t take out any loans with Max’s loan outstanding. And, except for a few small cases I’m doing for a couple of the Redemption fighters, I have no more paying clients. The big case I’m doing for them, I’m doing for free ’cause they’re like family and they wouldn’t have been in that alley if it wasn’t for me.”

Ray frowns and leans back in his chair. “Thought you were a fighter too.”

My brow creases. Who is Ray to judge me? He doesn’t understand what I’m dealing with. He isn’t drowning under a sea of Farnsworth & Tillman embossed paper. He isn’t alone.

“I’m no fighter. I went through all that training. I suffered through Get Fit or Die. And for what? An intruder showed up at my office and what did I do? Did I rush into reception and knock him over with a double-leg takedown? Did I wrap him in a gogoplata? Did I hit him with a right hook? No. I locked myself in my office, screamed, and busted my microwave. There was a message in there for me. I’m an attorney. I should do what attorneys do, and really the best place for me to do that is in a big firm where I can work hard, bill high, and maybe one day make my parents proud.”

Ray studies me for a long, uncomfortable moment. “And Redemption?”

“I’m cleaning out my locker today. Even if I wanted to stay, it’s Jake’s gym. He trains there. He teaches there. Those guys are all his friends. They won’t want me around now.”

His response, a disdainful sniff, sets my teeth on edge.

“So that’s it. You give up. What about justice? What about the pro bono clients who think the world of you and who have nowhere else to turn? What about Pen? Did you know she left Farnsworth & Tillman on bad terms after storming up to Farnsworth’s office to give him a piece of her mind? How will she get another job without a reference? What about the next woman Farnsworth blackmails, and the next? Whether you like it or not, you created something here. Something you believed in. And you made others believe in it too. You can’t just walk away.”

He pushes himself out of the chair and stalks across the room. Just before he opens the door, he hesitates and then turns.

“Although you’re hell-bent on pushing people away, you are not alone.”

***

Saturday afternoon, after another hellish week fighting Farnsworth, fielding visits from the police about the break-in, managing workers sent by Jake to fix the door and install a security system, and dithering over whether to close up shop forever, I am awakened by my phone vibrating on the night table.

I pull the pillow over my head to block out the sound. No. This is the one day I need to catch up on my sleep if I’m to keep up the pace of long days and longer nights. I need a break. A big break. A quiet break.