by Lexi Blake
“Be careful around him.” Carey’s Oklahoma accent was a deep comfort to her. “Keep in touch with me, Isla. I worry about you.”
“I promise.” She wiped away a stray tear. The truth was she hadn’t been alone the whole time. She simply had to reach out and Carey would have been there. “I have to get ready. We’re going to have to deal with the press or the ADA will control the whole story.”
“You go get ’em, and you let me know if there’s anything I can do.” He hung up the phone.
Before she could put the phone down, it rang again. She didn’t recognize the number, but then she couldn’t afford to miss Trey’s call if he managed to remember her. “This is Isla Shayne.”
“So, do you have him? Was last night’s break-in all a cover-up for you finding a place to hide your client?”
She bit back a groan at the sound of Royce’s voice. “No. I was as shocked as you. Probably more shocked because I know how sick he is. I would like to know how he managed to get out of the restraints. He’s a strong man, but he’s not an escape artist.”
“I would agree that he had help.” Royce paused as though for dramatic effect. “I would like to know where you were between one and three this morning.”
Asshole. Well, if he wanted to know, she would tell him. “I was in bed and I wasn’t alone. Well, I might not have been in bed, exactly. There were several spots in this penthouse where I wasn’t alone.”
“Way to use the whore’s excuse, Isla. I wouldn’t have expected that from you.”
“And I wouldn’t have expected you could be such a massive asshole. That was a horrible mistake on my part. Now, if you would like to send the police down here to verify my alibi, I’ll let my boyfriend know. I’ll also get you the report on the alarm system that was turned on after you left last night and wasn’t turned off again until Noah came in this morning.” At least that would be her bet.
His huff came over the line. “Boyfriend? Are you a teenage girl mooning over the quarterback?”
“He played safety.” She belted the robe around her waist and started to walk into the bathroom. “Now, if you’re done insulting me, I need to get ready for work.”
“Funny, I’ve already been at work for hours,” he chided. His voice suddenly went low. “Isla, don’t make me destroy you. I don’t want to have to drag you through the mud, but you’re making it hard on me.”
Like he hadn’t already done exactly that. “And what would it take to get you to stop dragging me through the mud?”
“Look, you know Adams is the guy,” he insisted. “There’s no way this was some random killing. He lost his shit and killed his wife. Hand him over to me. If you do that, maybe, just maybe, I won’t get a judge to freeze all of his assets. How are his kids going to get by without Daddy’s cash?”
“You are a bastard of the highest order.”
He chuckled, though the sound wasn’t amusing. “Oh, sweetheart, I’m merely getting started. I also want you to dump the asshole you’re playing around with. I get the message. I didn’t call and you got mad. Fine. I’m jealous. Dump him and we can start over again.”
“I’m hanging up now.” She was done with him.
“Isla, don’t play this game with me. You can’t win. Like I said, I understand I made a mistake. You were kind of a bitch to me and I decided to let you stew for a while, but this is taking it a little far. This is an important case. The DA is retiring in a year. This is the kind of case that puts me on the path I need to be on. I am going to be the next DA and someday I’ll be the governor. You don’t want a man like me angry with you.”
“Wow, threats. That’s quite the romantic gesture, Royce.”
“There’s nothing romantic about this,” he replied. “It’s pure logic. You know I’m going places and you’re the woman who can help me get there. So are you staying with the dumbass, I-defend-criminals lawyer who’ll probably go the same route as your friend Trey, or are you going to be sensible? I’m going to be the governor one day. My family has been grooming me for the position since I was born, and moving through the ranks at the DA’s office was part of the plan. You can be by my side or I can view you as a speed bump. I don’t like speed bumps.”
“And I don’t like threats,” she shot back. “I need you to understand that I realized dating you was a terrible mistake that first night. I let a friend convince me to give you another shot and you weren’t half-bad that night or the third date. Do you know why I broke it off with you? Because you were absolutely a selfish bastard in bed. I haven’t been waiting for you to call me. I’ve been waiting to get the bad taste out of my mouth so I could try again, and let me tell you, I won’t be letting go of David Cormack anytime soon. He’s a man and you’re a selfish, overprivileged little boy. And you haven’t seen a speed bump yet, you ass.”
She hung up, her whole body flush with anger. Though she hated it, tears pricked her eyes because she was stupidly emotional. How had she ever made that mistake?
“Selfish bastard?”
Damn it. She hadn’t heard David come back in. She held the phone and didn’t turn around. “Yeah, you know how exes are. I wouldn’t even call him an ex.”
“Did he threaten you?” His voice had gone low, hard.
She didn’t want David to have to get involved in her poor decisions. “It’s nothing but talk. I can handle it.”
His hand was on her shoulder. “Isla, if he threatened you, I want to know. What happened between us last night meant something to me. It definitely means that I get to be the one who deals with assholes who threaten you.”
She turned, letting him see her as she was. “He wants me to fire you. He’s afraid of you.”
David stared down at her, his thumbs brushing away her tears. “He should be. In the courtroom and out of it. I’ll handle him. Now, come on. Let’s get cleaned up and ready.”
“I thought you couldn’t take a shower with me.”
“I changed my mind.” He leaned over and picked her up. “We have time. I’ll make time.”
He carried her to the shower and she was able to stay in her safe place a few minutes longer.
* * *
• • •
David finished knotting his tie as he watched Henry on the massive TV in the living room. Naturally, Henry looked perfect, the Hollywood version of a lawyer. Henry Garrison was polished, his Ivy League roots showing in how he comported himself. That was a man who’d never once worried his brain would stop functioning. He was a walking, talking legal encyclopedia and he knew it.
Noah and Margarita looked just as cool and collected at Henry’s side. They’d left to join him twenty minutes before, wanting to present as much of a united front as they could.
“Yes, I would like to know how the hospital we placed our client in managed to allow a very sick man to get lost.” Henry turned slightly as a reporter shouted a question his way. “No, we don’t consider this an escape. First of all, our client isn’t accused of anything. There has been no arrest. Mr. Adams was being held on a 5150 psychiatric hold due to the nature of his illness and his state of mind following the death of his beloved wife. We are incredibly worried about our client and ask that anyone who sees him calls our hotline. We do not believe Mr. Adams is an imminent threat to the community, but he is very likely disoriented and could be easily upset.”
“He’s awfully good at that.” Isla stepped out of the bedroom wearing a pretty black-and-white dress that clung to her curves but managed to still be professional.
“He’s had a lot of practice with damage control,” David allowed.
“It doesn’t hurt that with him giving a statement to the press, no one will be looking for us. They likely won’t notice where we’ve come from,” she said, settling her phone in her bag. “I’m ready when you are. Are we heading to the hospital first?”
“I don’t think we have to,” he replied. “Liam said
he’s on his way up and he has news.”
“News about what?”
“Not sure, but he went to the hospital this morning.” Li and Erin had been up and working while he and Isla were cuddling.
He wished they were still cuddling. There were days when he kind of wished he’d become a boring corporate attorney with a boring job where the press didn’t swarm him on a regular basis.
“I was thinking about the fact that Portia took a trip to Paris last year. Then six months ago she went to London, both trips without Trey. She called them girls’ holidays,” Isla said. “I’m wondering if that’s where she met Kristoff Paloma. Is there any way we can see if the dates line up?”
He hated the blank look on her face, hated how hard this had to be on her. “I can have Liam look into it with his Interpol ties. They’ve been tracking him. They might know where he was on certain dates.”
“I also need to talk to Cressida. I called Miranda and asked if she could bring her aunt here. Cressida traveled everywhere with Portia the last few years. If her sister had an affair, Cressy would know. She might try to lie, but after a couple of martinis, she’ll give it all up. It’s precisely why Portia wouldn’t let her do Real Housewives of New York City.”
The last thing they needed was another reality show. “Did Portia learn anything from the show about the Guardians?”
“It’s funny. That show was kind of different. It was definitely more of a documentary. We didn’t play out ‘story lines.’ They really did try to show the inner workings of the everyday professional sports organization. I didn’t like it, but Portia thought it humanized Trey. He came off as the hardworking heart of the team. Before that show, he was kind of hated for being perfect. You know, perfect wife, perfect career. That television show drew the curtain back and let the public see how hard he worked, how hard it was to be on the team at all. Suddenly he wasn’t someone who’d had everything given to him.”
David shuddered at the thought of how they’d humanized him. “Cameras followed him around everywhere?”
“Sometimes, but it was more organic than that. There were places where the crew simply wired the whole room with cameras. There wasn’t a camera guy there but they caught a lot of authentic moments. The locker room, workout rooms, coaches’ offices were all covered in cameras.” She sat down on the barstool. “It wasn’t that bad. Yes, they caught pretty much everything, but I made sure nothing was broadcast without Carey’s permission. The team had the final cut and let me tell you, we cut a lot.”
He couldn’t imagine having his every move filmed. Henry’s wife had done a reality show years before, but at least that had been heavily scripted. Some things should be private and the locker room was a sacred place. He wasn’t sure how he would have handled it if his team had tried something like that when he played.
The elevator opened and Liam and Erin strode in. There was a look on the Irishman’s face that told David he’d found something good.
“Tell me.”
“Bastards tried to delete the camera footage,” Liam said. “Bloody hospital trying to cover its own arse.”
Erin smiled and pulled out her tablet. “Luckily I’ve learned a few things over the years. You hang with the nerds, you’re going to get better with computers. They didn’t have time to erase the cache. I pulled it down. Watch what happens next.”
She handed over the tablet. A black-and-white scene played out on the screen. There had been a security camera trained on the hallway outside of Trey’s room. A police officer sat in front of the door. He glanced down at his watch and then looked up and down the hall. He then stood and stepped away from his post.
“We think he went to the bathroom,” Liam explained. “But someone was waiting.”
A woman dressed in scrubs stopped in front of the door, placing her palm on it almost reverently before disappearing behind it.
“Do we have her face on camera?” David asked.
“Is she a nurse?” Isla leaned into him.
“My gut tells me no,” Erin replied. “I think she’s a whack job who’s been planning this. And yes, we’ve got her face. I’ve already got a name, but I’m waiting on the candy man to get me a location.”
“Candy man?” He had to ask.
“It’s what we call our tech guy,” Liam replied.
On the screen, the door opened again and the woman led Trey Adams out. He was now wearing scrub pants and a T-shirt, a ball cap on his head and no shoes on his feet. She held his hand and he shuffled behind her.
They turned toward the camera and then walked off the screen.
“This woman has Trey?” Isla shook her head. “She walked in and took him?”
On-screen the police officer returned, settling into his chair. He didn’t check the room, merely took his station back.
“From what we can tell,” Li agreed. “The question is what do we do with this? You want us to turn the footage over to the cops or deal with this ourselves?”
He needed to figure out how Trey walking out of his own volition affected the case. How could he use this to strengthen his argument?
“We can prove he didn’t perform heroic feats of strength and agility to get out,” Isla said. “But none of it matters if we can’t find him. Do you think he’s still with this woman? I don’t recognize her.”
“I think she’s either a fan or a reporter looking for a story,” Erin said.
David groaned at the thought of either.
Liam’s cell phone trilled and he looked down. “Hutch has her name thanks to Adam and he’s found her cell phone. I’ve got a longitude and latitude.” The Irishman looked up, a frown on his face. “It looks like she’s in Central Park. Not five minutes from here.”
Then that’s where they needed to be.
* * *
• • •
He held Isla’s hand as they raced across Fifth Avenue toward the entrance to Central Park. At this time of day, the streets were teeming with commuters trying to make it to work on time. Liam led them past the long line of open-air carriages waiting for tourists. They pressed on into the park, the world behind them fading away with each step inside. David loved the park, loved the fact that concrete and steel gave way to a lush green world.
“What happens if he runs when he sees us?” Isla asked.
“Somehow I think these two can handle him,” he replied. Liam and Erin walked ahead of them. They’d been given explicit instructions to stay back until they were able to assess the situation, but he was worried Isla wouldn’t obey that particular order. “Besides, we don’t know if he’s here. We only know the woman who helped him has her phone here.”
“He’s here,” she said. “And I know where we’re going. We’re going down this path for a bit. There’s an ice cream vendor, and a little behind him there’s this set of huge rocks. Trey would bring the kids here when they were young, and he and Portia would sit on the rocks and eat ice cream and watch them play. It’s a special place to him.”
“Maybe you should stay back.” Tears made her eyes shine and he had no idea what she would do if Trey got violent. He didn’t want her there if Liam and Erin had to get physical with him.
They hurried down the path, passing joggers and tourists and people out enjoying the morning air.
“I think we’re not going to be alone.” Li pointed to a spot ahead where two cops stood beside an ice cream vendor cart. There was no vendor there, merely the cops and they were staring at something David couldn’t see because of trees blocking his line of sight.
Something was wrong. They were simply standing there.
Isla picked up the pace and he had to nearly jog to keep up with her. A third cop came into view, moving to the side of the first two. They seemed to be surrounding a space.
“That’s our helpful fan,” Erin said, gesturing to the woman talking to another set of police office
rs. They were off to the side, the walkway between them and the cart.
Why were they standing there? It was clear one of the three sets of cops was talking to the woman who’d led Trey out of the hospital, but the other four cops were simply standing watch.
Had something happened to Trey? How would Isla cope with that?
“Officer?” Isla dropped his hand and moved in.
The two officers nearest them turned. The larger of the two nodded their way. “Move along please, ma’am. There’s nothing to worry about here. Thank you.”
David stopped because the officer was wrong. There was totally something to worry about. He could see what he hadn’t before. A large man sat on a rock, his head down and bare feet on the ground, a thick line of trees at his back. Trey Adams was why the cops were standing watch. “I can’t move on, Officer. My name is David Cormack. I’m a lawyer and I believe that man is my client.”
Now he had the officer’s attention. “Thank god. Reynolds over there recognized him and called for backup, but Adams hasn’t done anything. He sat there and cried for a while. We have no idea how to handle him. He won’t talk to any of us. I can’t knock out a Super Bowl MVP and throw him in the back of my squad car.”
The shorter of the officers nodded. “That man is a damn hero, and I don’t buy that he killed his wife. I don’t care what the DA tells us to do. I’m not taking him out of here like he’s some animal. That man sitting in there is the only reason I have a relationship with my oldest son. We fought about everything except the Guardians. I knew that once a week I could be a good dad, you know. We could watch the game and he would wear his Trey Adams jersey and we would have a good time.”
It paid to win the Super Bowl. In far more than simple cash. “Let me talk to him. My colleague is an old family friend. Let us go talk to him and see if we can do this quietly.”
The two officers looked at each other and seemed to come to some decision.
“Okay,” the first one said. “He’s not armed. According to the crazy lady who let him out, he wouldn’t go anywhere but here. She was trying to take him out of the city, but he came here and sat down and nothing has forced him up.”
