Read Online Been In Love Before: A Novel by Bryan Mooney - Free Book Online Page B

work out, okay?”
    “Sure, Mary Kate. Thanks for everything.” She walked onto the elevator, and Mary Kate watched her face disappear behind the closing doors. She had an eerie feeling as she watched the elevator doors close on the frightened woman. Calley’s timid wave gave Mary Kate shivers down her spine. Could this be the last time I see her? Alive?
    She had spent the whole morning doing paperwork, and in a rare Sunday meeting with the firm’s senior law partners. Then she had met with her uncles and father, and last, with Calley. Four hours later, she was done for the day, and her Sunday was almost gone. It had been a long day.
    When she left the deserted high-rise office building, she walked down the stairs since the elevator was off after hours. It was dark until the motion detectors switched on the lights, and she finally opened the door to the garage and went to her car. Then she made herself comfortable, turned on her music, and was ready to head home.
    Graw removed her suit jacket, laid it carefully on the car seat next to her, and unbuttoned the top two buttons of her blouse. She pressed the release lever on the dashboard of her red sports car and the convertible top dropped quickly into the rear compartment.
    She shook her hair in the warm evening air and was off. She still had paperwork to review at home and then countless wedding details, all of which demanded her attention. At a stoplight she could feel eyes wandering over her body. Looking up, she caught sight of a truck driver ogling her long, lean, athletic legs, now revealed by her skirt, which was hiked high up her thighs. That was the only problem with a convertible, she mused. She hit the gas, and the pounding engine surged as she pulled away from the stoplight in her powerful red machine, leaving him in the dust. Creep.
    Looking at her bulging briefcase sitting on the passenger seat, she figured she had at least three hours’ worth of work left to do that evening. But she didn’t mind; she loved her job.
    She had graduated at the top of her class in her Ivy League law school, and she had fielded many job offers nationwide before she finally took a position with the respected Delray Beach law firm of Block & Sawyer. It was run by one of the most respected attorneys in South Florida, Irwin “Sonny” Block. She knew she could make more money in New York, but she wanted to stay in Florida, near her family. Then her mom died, and she wanted to be close by her dad. He seemed so lost.
    The law firm was involved in divorce and corporate law; it was tough, and the firm was relentless in pursuit of justice on its clients’ behalf. Graw fit right in with the rest of the firm. Clients loved the firm and referred their friends. The business grew by word of mouth when clients told others about the good work it did and, more important, that it could be trusted. Threats and unsigned notes came with the territory. “Don’t worry about the threats, but don’t ignore them either,” said the senior partner, Sonny, on her first day of work.
    Graw pulled into the garage at her apartment complex and took the elevator up to the fourth floor. She threw her briefcase into her darkened home office, kicked off her shoes, and untucked her blouse from her skirt.
    God, it’s good to be home. Now she had to look over all her texts and e-mails about the wedding, the rehearsal dinner, and the hundreds of other details that needed to be handled. She still didn’t know if Mickey’s parents were coming to the wedding. Is there something else going on? Could it be they don’t approve? How could that be? Yet try as she might, she had never met his parents. Strange, very strange. She needed to talk to Mickey; there was not much time left.

Chapter Nine
    Early Monday morning Robert Macgregor sat slumped over his desk in his office at the secondhand shop as his employees began to show up for work. Word had spread quickly about the fire and the total destruction of his home,