Mikalo's Flame by Syndra K. Shaw Page B

forehead,” she then said, looking at Mikalo with a grin.
    “I mean, seriously,” she continued. “This is
getting damn near ridiculous.
    “Do you guys ever stop?”
    And with a smile and a small squeeze of her
young man’s hand, she turned to go.
     
     
     

Chapter Sixteen
     
    “You have to be joking,” he repeated.
    “I’m telling you, Bill,” I said. “He sat
exactly where you’re sitting, claimed M&A as his, and then
insisted he and ‘Partner White’ --”
    Bill laughed.
    “Partner White?” he asked.
    “Yeah, the newly ordained Partner White.”
    “Does this make you ‘Partner Grace’?” he
teased.
    “No,” I said. “What it makes me is crazy and
irritated and annoyed.
    “Anyway, Abby sent Marcus to follow me around
and make sure the work I’m doing for the Byzans is up-to-scratch,
or something.”
    “That’s ridiculous.”
    “Tell me about it,” I said. “Who the hell can
focus with that cologne-drenched, greasy-haired Neanderthal
breathing down my neck?
    “Anyway we can get her to call him off? The
boy is fucking annoying.”
    “Yeah, yeah, let me have a few words with
Richardson upstairs.”
    He paused.
    I sighed, relieved Rainier Richardson,
Managing Partner, was going to get a heads-up. One word from him
and they’d have to back off.
    “I guess it makes sense now,” he then
said.
    “What’s that?” I asked. “What makes
sense?”
    “Why you were a no-show at the dinner last
night.”
    I leaned back in my chair.
    “What dinner?”
    “Ah,” he said, his eyes suddenly on his
shoes.
    “Let me guess: the Byzans had a dinner and
Marcus and Abigail sat front and center and did their best to worm
their way into their lives.”
    Bill nodded.
    “Yep. And you had no clue?”
    “No one told me,” I said.
    “Then Marcus didn’t have the okay from you to
offer them tax planning suggestions?”
    I closed my eyes and groaned.
    “He didn’t.”
    Bill nodded.
    “He did,” he then said. “And even I knew it
was bad, bad advice. When someone questioned him, he kinda
shrugged, said it was your idea and they should talk with you.”
    “Jesus fucking Christ! What is it with this
people? Seriously?”
    “Gotta hand it to ‘em, Ronan. They do have
pretty big balls to be this overtly nasty and desperate.”
    “But what’s the end game, Bill? What’s the
point of it?
    “I mean, I get that Abigail doesn’t like me.
Yeah, whatever. I don’t give a shit. I’m not her biggest fan
either. Who the fuck cares, right?
    “And I get that she really, really wants her
children to marry well, or something.
    “So if she wants to try and, I don’t know,
pucker up and kiss Byzan’s ass to try and make that happen, then
fine. Go for it.
    “I just don’t get what any of that has to do
with me.”
    “Mikalo Delis.”
    “So that’s what all this is about?”
    He nodded.
    “Janey mentioned something along those line,”
I then said. “That Abby is angry that he and I might get married or
something.
    “But I still don’t get what’s driving her to
amp her bitchery off the map. So what if I marry Mikalo someday --
and I’m not saying I am, by the way.”
    “No?”
    “I’ve known the guy five minutes! Like I told
Janey, check with us in a few years and see where we are.”
    “Listen,” he began, “whatever’s driving Abby
has nothing to do with you or whatever this is with Mikalo or your
work or your clients or, really, even the Byzans.
    “What’s driving her to sabotage you is
something much deeper and, frankly, something that doesn’t have an
answer and can’t be fixed by any sane, rational, perfectly
understandable thing you could do.
    “Simply put,” he continued. “It’s jealousy.
And, now that I think about it, I realize it’s not simple at all.
It’s complicated and deep and is something she probably has no
control over.
    “Think about it,” he quickly said, quieting
me. “You come in here fresh out of law school. Top of your class,
big offer in hand, law