Indispensable Party (Sasha McCandless Legal Thriller No. 4) Read Online Free PDF

really
cannot bend.”
    Will not bend , she
thought. Not ever again .
    Tate was undeterred. “That
practice limitation shouldn’t matter. If any crime has been committed here, we’d
be the victim, not the actor. You’d simply have to interface with the
authorities.”
    He was right, of course. But,
still. Sasha had vowed not to leave her comfort zone again. She was a civil
litigator, not a comic book superhero. Corporate espionage sounded exciting,
and she’d had too much excitement in the past eighteen months. She wanted to
focus on the mundane aspects of practicing law: responding to discovery
requests; taking depositions; putting together doorstop-sized briefs in support
of motions for summary judgment. No intrigue. No adrenaline. No nightmares.
    “That’s true,” she said, “but, I’m
not a member of the Maryland bar.” It sounded like a weak excuse, even to her.
    “Oh, that’s no problem,” Tate
assured her.
    She looked at Connelly. He was
looking back at her, a pleading expression on his face.
    She couldn’t.
    “Mr. Tate, as much as I
appreciate the offer, I don’t think it would be a good idea,” she said.
    Tate exhaled audibly.
    “Listen. I don’t care that you
and Leo are involved, okay? That doesn’t bother me. What will bother me
is having to tell my thirteen-year-old twins—who I’ve pulled out of school for
the week—that we have to cut our trip short. And what will really bother
me is dealing with their horrible mother when she finds out I am going to want
to rejigger our visitation schedule yet again. I don’t have any litigators in
our legal department—they’re all regulatory lawyers and patent folks—but they’ll
give you whatever support you need.” He spoke in a firm tone that made clear he
would brook no argument on the subject.
    Sasha was prepared to argue
anyway, but Connelly put his hand over hers. He caught her eye and mouthed the
word ‘please.’
    She stopped.
    Connelly rarely asked her for a
big favor. Or anything, really. The last request he’d made of her was that she
marry him (maybe, that part still wasn’t entirely clear) and move to D.C. to be
with him. She’d fumbled that question pretty badly. Couldn’t she just take the
stupid case, appease Tate, and show Connelly that she was willing to put his
needs first every now and again?
    “Great,” she mumbled. “I look
forward to working with your people on this.”
    Leo blew a kiss her direction and
turned his attention back to the road, all smiles now.
    She looked out the passenger
window while he said his goodbyes with Tate. Her mouth went dry, a hard lump
lodged itself in her throat, and a knot took up residence in the pit of her
stomach. All signs that she had made a mistake. A bad mistake.
     
    ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
     
    As Sasha hurried
alongside Connelly through the hushed corridors of the sprawling Serumceutical
complex, she tried to shake off her conviction that getting herself involved in
her boyfriend’s company’s corporate espionage problem had been a mistake. She
told herself this matter was in her wheelhouse: complex commercial litigation—a
business dispute between competitors, by the sounds of it. She’d cut her teeth
on unfair competition and interference with contractual relations cases as a
baby lawyer at Prescott. And yet, she couldn’t deny the very real queasiness
that she’d been fighting ever since she’d agreed to do it.
    Connelly stopped in front of a
frosted glass door. A nameplate on the wall announced this was his office. He
waved his company ID card in front of a card reader mounted on the wall beneath
his name. A red light flickered and a beep followed by a mechanical click indicated the door had unlocked. As he pushed it open, he turned and looked at
her closely.
    “You okay?”
    She nodded and swallowed. “Yep.
My stomach’s a little upset, that’s all. Your driving being what it is.” She
threw him a grin.
    He narrowed his eyes as though he
didn’t buy her story, but then he