For The Defense. M.J. Rodgers

she was driving the car.”

      “She didn’t see the guy run in front of her car?”

      “She saw him.”

      Jack let his mind quickly dig through the other possibilities. “It was self-defense,” he said as the obvious answer came through. “The guy was coming at her, threatening to do her bodily harm, and the only weapon she had to defend herself was the car.”

      “No,” Diana said. “It wasn’t self-defense.”

      Jack was stymied. He couldn’t think of anything else that made sense. “Okay, I give up. What happened?”

      “Connie Pearce saw Bruce Weaton in front of her car and she hit him.”

      Jack was more confused than ever. “If that’s what she has admitted happened, then what do you need me for?”

      Diana locked eyes with him as she leaned forward in her chair. “I need you to help me get her off.”

      CHAPTER TWO

      JACK STARED at Diana for sixty very long and silent seconds. Did she really have the audacity to ask him to help get a guilty client off?

      He understood that most defense attorneys didn’t care if their clients were guilty. All they cared about was making sure that the accused was tried according to the dictates of the law. Didn’t even matter to them if a guilty client ended up slipping through a legal loophole.

      It mattered to Jack. He was a little disappointed to learn that Diana was proving to be one of those attorneys. His father had given him the impression she had integrity. That was one of the reasons he’d wanted the case. Now he had a strong urge to get up and leave.

      Only the straight, no-holds-barred challenge on her face combined with the total absence of any apology kept him in his chair. A woman who could face him this squarely didn’t strike him as one who would sell out her conscience.

      He wasn’t going anywhere until he learned what the hell was going on.

      “All right,” he said, settling back in his chair, “tell me why you want Connie Pearce to get away with murder.”

      Something that looked suspiciously like surprise flashed across Diana’s face. So, she had expected him to leave. He found that very interesting.

      As she studied him quietly, he returned her assessment, trying to read what thoughts or emotions were going on in that lovely head of hers. But this attorney knew how to keep both well hidden when she wanted to. Damn if she didn’t intrigue him more by the minute.

      Without warning, she got to her feet. “I’d like Connie to tell you the story in her own words.”

      “We’re going to see her now?” he asked.

      “I called early this morning to let her know I’d be stopping by.”

      Diana grabbed her briefcase and headed toward the door, slipping the long strap of her bag over her shoulder without so much as breaking stride.

      “I’ll drive you over,” he said, hurrying to keep up with her. Most men probably found themselves getting lost in this woman’s wake. He had no intention of making the mistake of most men.

      “I have my own car, thank you,” she said.

      “Riding together will give us an opportunity to discuss the case.”

      “I have to pick up my daughter from class and drop her at home before going to see Connie. You can either follow me or meet me at the jail. Up to you.”

      A daughter? Damn. His hopes for something personal developing out of this assignment took an immediate and definitive nosedive.

      Jack was very particular about the women he dated. And one of the things he was most particular about was that they not have any children.

      “I’ll follow you,” he said.

      SIZING UP PEOPLE quickly was an essential skill for a trial attorney, one that couldn’t be gleaned from a law book. Diana paid attention to all the signs and made her decisions accordingly.

      Jack’s good looks and background in the entertainment field had prepared her for the kind of man who presented a convincing image, but who couldn’t handle the hard facts of life or come through when it counted.

      She had personal experience with the type. For a brief time in her younger and far-less-wise years, she’d been married to a rock musician.

      But her openly expressed and brutally honest reservations about Jack’s abilities hadn’t seemed to bother him a bit. He’d barely even flinched when she told him she wanted his help in getting her guilty client off.

      This was not going well.

      She had counted on him turning tail and running for the nearest exit. That would have given her the perfect excuse to phone Charles Knight and convince him of the need to free up Richard or David to help her on this case.

      Only Jack hadn’t run. He was hanging in there, even displaying an open mind. Damn him. She needed an investigator with a proven track record, not some TV star who had decided to play at being a private investigator until another role came up.

      She stopped her car in front of the school, feeling the weight of yet another problem she did not have the time to handle. But the moment her daughter opened the passenger door and got in, Diana felt a smile on her lips.

      “Hi, Mom.”

      Definitely two of Diana’s favorite words.

      “Hi, Cute Stuff. How did astronomy class go?”

      “The universe is expanding at an ever accelerating rate,” Mel said in her typically matter-of-fact tone as she buckled up. “With all that extra space being created, you’d think we could find a new place to live.”

      Diana checked her mirrors before pulling away from the curb and reentering the stream of traffic. “We’ll resume apartment-hunting tonight after dinner.”

      “You’ve given up on finding us a house?”

      Diana watched as Jack’s car mimicked her actions and moved in behind her.

      “Finding a house doesn’t look too promising,” she said. “I’ve exhausted every lead from the newspaper and friends alike.”

      “Grandma did say we could stay with her as long as we wanted to,” Mel said, trying to sound nonchalant, but not quite pulling it off.

      Diana knew that her daughter hated the idea of moving as much as she did.

      “Your grandmother loves us so much she’s willing to compromise her privacy and maybe even her chance for happiness with Ray. We have to show her how much we love her by not letting her sacrifice those things.”

      “We’re not going to see Grandma nearly as much now that she’s marrying Ray,” Mel said, obviously not pleased with the fact.

      “Maybe not as much, but we’ll still see her. She’s not moving away.”

      “But Ray’s moving in. Everything’s going to change.”

      That was true. Diana knew pretending otherwise would be foolish. Besides, she never lied to Mel.

      “Everything changes, Cute Stuff. Embracing change—even when we think the change less than ideal—is the best way to handle life if we want to be happy.”

      Mel thought about that a moment before glancing over at her mom and asking, “Do you suppose the universe is embracing the fact that it’s continuing to expand?”

      “Only if it’s not female,” Diana said.

      Mel burst forth with a happy giggle.

      Ah, to be nine again and able to giggle like that! Women needed daughters if for no other reason than to help them remember those