Standing close to her side, Archer could almostfeelthe emotions rolling through her. Emotions the incredible woman refused to let anyone see. But he knew.
I can see them, baby. I can see them all.
It had only been two days since his and Cassie’s initial introduction. Two nights he’d spent sleeping under her roof. But in that time, Archer had divided his attention between the work he and his team were doing for her case and learning everything he could about the woman deemed The Black Widow Lawyer.
He knew her favorite guilty-pleasure meal was deep-fried chicken strips and curly fries. Her favorite dessert was cherry pie—served warm with a dollop of plain vanilla ice cream on top.
Archer had also learned that, on the rare occasion, Cassie would sometimes treat herself to a generous piece of Baklava from a tiny Lebanese bakery down the block from where she worked. Either to celebrate a win in court or to drown her professional—or personal—sorrows.
So of course, knowing today would likely be hard for her, he’d made arrangements for a box of the stuff to be waiting for her back at her place.
But Cassie’s taste in food wasn’t the only thing Archer had learned about the intriguing blonde. He knew the kinds of movies she liked, that she was a woman who enjoyed watching Nascar.
And Archer listened intently as she told him about the pro-bono work she did for her firm. While Russ and their other partner, Edward Yates, took on the more lucrative cases, Cassie’s focus had always been on helping those in need of legal representation but couldn’t afford the typical high-end lawyer fees often required for a quality defense.
One of the many tidbits he’d gleaned from his time spent talking with her.
Something else that had transpired over the past two days—the mostimportantthing, as far as he was concerned—was the solidification of his belief in her innocence. Could she be playing him? Anything was possible. But as far as Archer was concerned, no one was that good of an actress.
“On behalf of the Montgomery family, I would like to thank you all for coming today to celebrate the life of their beloved Russell.” The priest’s commanding voice pulled Archer’s attention back to where the collared man stood. “Lunch will be served inside the church’s main annex located on the south side of the Parish, and you are all invited to partake.”
And with that, the services came to an end.
“Were you wanting to go to the lunch?” Archer asked Cassie in a low enough tone no one else could possibly hear.
“God no,” she whispered back. “The sooner we can get away from these people and those cameras, the better.”
My thoughts exactly.
He’d tried talking her into skipping altogether, but both she and her attorney had insisted Cassie attend. Though it was a nightmare in terms of security, Archer understood why they saw the need for her to come.
Despite having separate lives for over a year, and a divorce that was all but handled, she’d still been married to Russ at the time of his death. That alone gave her the right to be here.
There was another reason behind Cassie’s emphatic insistence that she attend her late-husband's funeral…
Do you know who hides, Archer? The scared and the guilty, that’s who. Now I may be afraid of going to prison…or worse, of being killed…but I am not afraid of the press, Russ’s stuck-up family, or their so-called friends. Nor am I guilty. But if I stay home, if I don’t show my face at the services today, I may as well walk into that police station right now and confess to poisoning the man I was trying to divorce. While I understand and appreciate your concern, I refuse to be complicit in adding to the narrative that I’m a cold-blooded killer by being noticeably absent from my own husband’s funeral.
It was an argument he knew he wouldn’t win, so Archer had finally agreed. Now here they were dutifully waiting while a massive line formed so guests could pay their final respects to both Russ and his immediate family.
With the rest of the team strategically placed within the crowd and around Lake View Cemetery, Archer was able to focus solely on keeping Cassie safe. That was his job, after all. But the more time he spent with the sexy lawyer, the more personal his reasons for wanting to protect her became.
“I wasn’t sure you’d show.”
Both he and Cassie turned to see a petite brunette trying to rush toward them in heels while avoiding the soft earth’s pitfalls. He stiffened, his reflexive instinct to shift his body so that he was between her and the possible threat. But then the woman lifted her gaze from the ground she’d been watching and…
“Lori!” Cassie sidestepped his protective move and practically threw herself in the other woman’s open arms. “Oh, are you a sight for sore eyes.”
Archer stepped closer, assessing the interaction between friends with an operator’s stare. He recognized Cassie’s bestfriend from the electronic file Lucky had sent over the day before.
The tech genius had completed his deep dive into Cassie, Russ, and those who were closest to them. One of the names at the top of that list…Lori Yates.
During their initial meeting, Cassie had shared a bit about the couple. How she and Lori had met in college while the two were studying for their undergrad. According to Cassie, the two women had hit it off immediately and had been all but inseparable ever since.
Lori Yates. Thirty-one. Married to Edward Yates, Cassie and Russ’s business partner.
According to Cassie, Lori also had a law degree. But instead of following the same path as Lori and both women’s husbands, the cute brunette had decided to give up her dream of becoming an attorney, and instead, dedicated herself to being the best housewife a woman could be.
And from what he’d been told, Lori Yates could rival Martha Stewart any day of the week.