“You look like shit, man.” Roman leaned back in his chair and lifted his boot-covered feet onto my desk, crossing them at the ankles. Normally, I’d knock them off, but I didn’t care enough this morning.
“All the traveling has caught up to me.”
“Yeah, that’s the reason.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“Nothing. What do you need?”
“I want you to tail Emerie for me.”
“What the fuck for? Isn’t she across the hall from you half the day?”
“She moved out.”
“When did that happen?”
“Sometime over the last few days, I assume. Got back at midnight, and her office was cleared out.”
“Guess that explains you looking like you haven’t slept in two days.”
“I just need to know if she found a new place to rent. I found a small house to lease down in Atlanta. Dave Monroe is going to join me part time here, taking over some of the work that my clients won’t care if I don’t handle personally. Between that and working remotely, I’m thinking I can come back twice a month for a few days instead of the back and forth every week. There’s no reason she can’t stay here. It would be easy to avoid me.”
“So you’re really doing it? Going to leave your practice and move to Atlanta?”
“What choice do I have? I’ll appeal, but there’s no guarantee it’ll change anything. Beck feels the limbo I’m in. I can’t live in a hotel room—he’ll never settle without being able to have his own place to sleep and keep his things. He needs to feel like he’s at home, that I’m there if he needs me—school events, doctor’s appointments. He just made a pee-wee hockey team. What would I do when his games were on days I was in New York every week? Plus, I can’t go back and forth fifty two times a year, cramming forty hours of work in two days. It’s tough after a while.”
“How long is the lease at the house you found?”
“A year.” My shoulders slumped. “Figure it’ll take nine months before I even get a date for oral arguments on my custody appeal.”
“You sign it yet?”
“Not yet. Meeting with the landlord when I go back down at the end of the week.”
“Good. Give me a few more days.”
“For what?”
“I got a guy down in Atlanta working on something for me.”
“Do I even want to know?”
Roman smiled. “Fuck no. Then you can’t be implicated.”
It was the first time I’d laughed since…I wasn’t sure when. That was Roman—a man with a plan who always had my back.
“Well, whatever it is, thanks.”
“So what do you want done on Emerie? Just tail her? How about a hint on what I’m looking for?”
“I just need to know she’s okay. See if she found office space and if it’s in a safe neighborhood.”
Roman raised a brow. “So you don’t want me to find out if she’s fucking someone?”
I clenched my jaw so hard I nearly cracked a tooth. “No. If you find that out, don’t even tell me that shit. Especially if it’s that asshole Baldwin—because he’ll just screw her over.”
“Like you?”