Rage zipped up her spine like a line of firecrackers. “You’re out of your mind.”
“Rebecca,” he warned.
“You can take the program funding,” she said, the words like bullets. “I can’t control that, but you can’t make me drop a case. That’s my call.”
Her father’s face went even redder. “If you take it, I will let you go from the firm. No partnership and no job.”
An icy chill splashed over her, like she had tumbled backward and landed in cold water. No partnership. No job. All her work to get to where she was at the firm gone. She breathed through the rush of panic and put a firm picture of Steven’s anguished face in her mind, his desperate need for help when he’d put that gun to his head. “Then I’ll start my own firm.”
Her father pointed a finger at her. “Don’t play poker with me, young lady. I will not sacrifice the reputation of my firm and this campaign so that you can take on some pet project for your boyfriend.”
Her fists clenched. “Are you hearing yourself right now? This is not poker or some game. I will walk. You know I can. You’ve always pushed me to be the best. Well, mission accomplished. I have the money, the reputation, and the skills to do this on my own. You can’t force me to give in.”
“I don’t want to, Rebecca, but I can. And I will do it if you force my hand, because it’s what’s best for you. You are flushing everything you’ve worked for down the toilet right now for nothing,” he said, his tone deadly. “I knew early on that you had a piece of your mother’s impulsiveness in you, a part of her reckless personality. I did everything I could to train it out of you, but some things are rooted deep. I will not stand by and let you ruin everything like she did. You will not destroy all that you’ve worked for, all you have, for a whim. For some tattooed punk who can’t give you anything but a broken heart and an empty bank account down the line. By the time your mother realized her mistake, her exciting boyfriend had dumped her with nothing to her name. She had to crawl to me for help.”
A hard jolt went through Rebecca. “What?”
She came back?
“She wanted it all back. Her life with me. The stability. The money. You. But it was too late. There is no coming back from mistakes like that. I gave her money and told her to leave us be. But if she had controlled that impulsive urge when she met Mr. Excitement, she’d have her family now, a good life. I will not let you turn out like her.”
Rebecca’s eyes swam with tears, and Wes grabbed her hand. She didn’t know if she was devastated, angry, or both. “She came back? How could you keep that from me? She was my mother.”
“I did it for your own good. And I’ll do that again if you don’t come to your senses on this case. I don’t want to do this. I’m asking that you don’t put me in this position.”
A loud buzzing had started up in her ears. I don’t want to do this. He’d been making threats. She’d thought he only meant the loss of her job, but something about the way he’d said it made cold dread go through her. “What position?”
He gave her a grim look. “If you don’t drop this case, you’re going to force me to go to the press with an explanation of why you have such a bleeding heart for a young criminal.”
Rebecca choked, the floor feeling like it was tilting beneath her feet. “Dad…you…”
He reached out and put a hand on her knee, his gaze earnest. “Despite what you may think right now, this is the last thing I want to do. I love you. Everything I have done your whole life is because I love you and want what’s best for you. I don’t want to hurt you. But you’re not seeing reason. You’re going to mess up your life.”
“You wouldn’t do that to me,” she said, the words spilling out. “Just to save your campaign. You wouldn’t.”
“No, I wouldn’t. Not for the campaign. I would do it to save you. All you have to do is drop the case and cut your ties with this program. Then no one else ever has to know. The press will go away. You can go back to your normal life. A life you seemed to be happy with not that long ago. If you get your head clear and sit down and think about it, you’ll see how obvious the decision is. This is not a hill worth dying on. Some other lawyer will take this kid’s case and do fine.”
The words were a cyclone in her head, the emotions muddying up her thoughts. He can’t. He can’t. He can’t. Panic pushed at her frayed composure, threatening to overtake. “I—”
“She’ll consider it and get back to you,” Wes interjected.
She turned her head sharply, and the room spun a little.
Wes gave her a pointed look. “Rebecca has been up all night and under a tremendous amount of stress. This is not a good time to be making decisions. Nothing is going to happen with the case for a little while. You both need to take a break from this conversation and talk in a day or two. Right now, emotions are running too high.”
Her father harrumphed. “So you can get ahold of her and rally her to your side?”
Wes’s teeth clenched, and he turned to look at her father. “Your daughter broke things off with me yesterday, so the magical spell I put on her has apparently worn off. I must not have put enough eye of newt in the cauldron,” he said, the words barbed. “But your daughter is exhausted and has been through hell in the last twelve hours. You are making it worse. So maybe save the blackmail for after she’s gotten some sleep and a little food in her.”
Her father stood like someone had poked him with a cattle prod. “Blackmail—”
But Wes wasn’t getting interrupted again. He got to his feet, using the three inches of height he had over her dad to full effect. “And you, Mr. Lindt, also need to step away from this because my guess is you really do love your daughter. But you’re about to set fire to that relationship and burn it to the ground. I don’t think that’s what either of you wants. So whatever your agenda is, whatever reasons you’re giving yourself for giving her this ultimatum, maybe think about if that’s worth losing your only kid over.”
Her father’s face went full red, but his attention jumped to her.
Rebecca stood and held her ground despite everything imploding inside her. “Wes’s right. I’ve got to get out of here.”
“Rebecca—”