Page 183 of The Lonely Road

I walk to the door.

“Mr. Brooks, are you still in the fixing business because I have a job for a man with your skills.”

I turn and look across the room at him in his fucking St. Regis bathrobe. “I’m not in that business any longer—at least not on your side.”

His head bobs enquiringly. “You’re moving to the other side?”

I shrug. “Looks like it, doesn’t it?”

He smiles, and it’s the real one that says he knows where I stand. “Yes, it does.”

That night, when Taya and I had dinner together at her place, which I cooked, I told her how it went down with Tannenbaum.

“Good,” she assures me. “I want to win it cleanly. I want Colbeck to rule on the merits. I want the record to show that Clara Whitman’s 1948 water right is valid because it’s valid, not because the other side folded.”

I put my hands on her cheeks and kissed her mouth. She lets me do that now. “I’ll be there with you this time. On the right side.”

“There was a time when I was on the plaintiff’s side in such cases. And I went through a journey—just like you are to find the right side.”

“My journey was you, Taya. I’m here because of you.”

“And now that you are?”

I touch her lips with my fingers.

She lets me do that now, so I do it all the fucking time.

“I intend to stay, Counselor. I’m going to wear you down until you let me back into your life and your bed.”

She pulls away from me. “You’re a decent cook, Mr. Brooks. That’s a plus in your column.”

CHAPTER 44

mason

She drives the Wrangler. Insists on it. I think it might be a superstition—like her Hugo Boss suit, which she also insists on.

We pick up Clara on the way. She gets in the back in a dark green jacket, her hair done, mascara on.

“Good morning, Clara.”

“It’s very nice to see you, Mason.” She leans from behind and checks out Taya. “Hmm.”

“What?” Taya asks as she drives out of the Whitman Ranch.

“It’s nice to see you happy, Taya.”

Taya smiles shyly, and then she bursts out laughing. “We’re going to win today.”

The hearing is in the same room as before—Room 214, Taya tells me.

Mac is there with Amos. They both nod appreciatively when they see me.

In a small town like Wildflower Canyon, news travels fast, and the news that I helped Kaz get Jessup and that will help Clara has gotten me a whole lot of brownie points.

I sit behind the defendant’s table beside Mac.

High Mesa’s table has a junior associate—not Aldridge—and he looks like he was sent to manage the hearing to the best of his abilities and would rather be anywhere else.