by Alyse Zaftig
“I was getting married in Buffalo, New York.”
“Could you name the person in this courtroom who was in attendance?”
“Roman Vasin was a guest at my wedding,” she said.
There was a small uproar in the courtroom.
Judge Hughes slammed the gavel down “Order in the court!”
Andrei turned to the witness. “Could you please point to the defendant, so we have a clear view of who you mean?”
Mrs. Jackson pointed to his client. “It was Mr. Vasin, the man in the pinstripe suit.”
Andrei kept his smile to a minimum and said. “No further questions, you may take your seat.” He waited for her to step down. “I would like to call my next witness: Mr. Barry Jackson.”
The bailiff approached the bench. “Mr. Barry Jackson, please raise your right hand and place your left hand on the Bible. Do you solemnly swear to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth, so help you God?”
“I do,” Mr. Jackson said.
“You may be seated.”
Andrei waited for him to settle in. “Mr. Jackson, could you tell the court where you were on May 14th?”
Mr. Jackson replied, “I was getting married in Buffalo to my wife, as she stated earlier.”
“Thank you for confirming that. Your wife stated that my client was a guest at your wedding. Can you confirm that?”
“Yes, I can. I have pictures taken by our photographer and multiple guests to prove it.”
“Let the court note the pictures are evidence, which shows my client with the wedding party.” He presented the pictures to the judge. “In addition, a timestamp in on some of them to show the date they were taken.”
“Objection, Your Honor,” the prosecutor said. “We had no prior knowledge of such pictures.”
“Approach the bench,” Judge Hughes said, beckoning to him and the prosecutor. “Your client has already had two outbursts in my courtroom, and now you’re presenting this without letting the prosecution examine the evidence? It should’ve been sent to them during discovery.”
“We’ve only just received them, Your Honor,” Andrei said. He left off that he had to use some untraditional methods to pull the bride and groom away from their extended honeymoon, but that was not important.
“If you have pictures of your client being in another place, then how do you explain the use of his gun and pick-up truck during the murder?” Judge Hughes asked.
“I’d like to see your client testify about that discrepancy,” Prosecutor Bellamy said. “Unless he has a surprise twin we don’t know about.”
He smiled down at her, which made her shift. “Ms. Bellamy, Your Honor, I have a formal complaint reported by Mr. Vasin about a break in that occurred to his home just about the time of the murder, which was when his truck, gun and several other items were stolen from his home.”
“I saw the papers.” Bellamy said. “That seems pretty convenient.”
Andrei handed the report papers to the judge, who read over them carefully.
Judge Hughes stated. “Since this means this catastrophe of a case can end sooner rather than later, I’ll allow it, but your client must take the stand first.”
Andrei nodded, “Yes, Your Honor.” He could practically see the fumes coming from the prosecutor. This wasn’t going her way at all, and he took a little bit of pride at being the one to throw her off her game. He liked a challenge, and he could sense the same from her. Neither of them liked to lose. That meant someone was going to leave that courtroom disappointed; it wasn’t going to be him.
“Let the court enter these papers as exhibit number four,” Judge Hughes said. “Mr. Vasin, approach the witness stand, and I’m warning you, one wrong action and I’ll have you thrown back in lockup. Understood?”
“Yes, Your Honor,” Roman said as he made his way to the stand.
The bailiff approached the bench, “Mr. Roman Vasin, please raise your right hand and place your left hand on the Bible. Do you solemnly swear to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth, so help you God?”
“I do.” He sat down and looked at Andrei uncomfortably.
“Mr. Vasin, how did your pick-up truck and gun manage to be involved in this murder?”
“I am not sure. All I know is that while I was away at the wedding, my house was broken into. At that time, those items along with my safe and stamp collection were stolen.”
Judge Hughes sighed. “After looking over the certified documentation and hearing from the accused, I now call this case dismissed.” He took his gavel and banged it once and said “Court adjourned.”
Chapter 3
Victoria
Victoria had been side-armed and hadn’t even expected it. She was prepared to take this idiot all the way through a full trial.
She stood a little under five feet, but she never let anyone intimidate her for it. Her cocoa-brown skin wasn’t common in the District Attorney’s office either, but she wasn’t there for anyone’s entertainment. That’s why they called her Pitbull Bellamy.
She made sure she worked out when she could, but she never starved herself. Besides, she loved her curves since they made her feel more confident. Her breasts sometimes felt a little too large for her small size, but she’d found a way to make sure they weren’t too obvious to distract the men she encountered in a male-dominated profession. Extremely supportive sports bras were her closest friends. Over the past few years she dated occasionally, but nothing serious had ever come out of any of the dates, because she had buried herself into her work.
As she packed up, she could sense the defense’s eyes still on her as he talked to her client. Of course the one guy she thought was handsome would be the one to ruin her case. She needed a drink with her friends after the long day she was having.
She left the courtroom and went straight to the bathroom to splash cold water on her face. She wouldn’t be surprised if the heat made the judge speed the case up. New York heat was something else. With the close concrete buildings and asphalt in between them, it was a heat nightmare every summer.
But it wasn’t just the heat that had her flustered. “Get it together, Victoria.” She looked in the mirror, hoping to regain some sense of control. Yeah, she definitely needed a cold alcoholic drink and fast. She rushed out of the bathroom and ran smack into something hard, which knocked her on the floor.
“Ow!” She grabbed her ankle as a sharp pain raced through it. “Watch where you’re going you—”
“I think you were coming out just as fast,” a familiar voice said.
She looked up to see Andrei Rusak and those penetrating blue eyes staring at her as he knelt down to help her.
“Of course it’s you,” she muttered under her breath.
“I’m sorry,” he said. “I didn’t see you. Forgive me.”
Great, she thought. He has to lay the sweetness on thick so I feel like the mean one. He’s the kind prince charming. I’m the wicked witch.
“Here, let me help you up.”
He didn’t give her a chance to respond. Two strong arms lifted her up from the floor as if she weighed nothing at all, until she was standing up. It was so quick and efficient that she forgot the pain in her ankle.
Until she put her weight on it.
“Ow, ow. Damn it.” She didn’t care that people were looking at her as her voice echoed. She was in pain.
“Did I hurt you?” He assisted her to a bench in the hallway and began picking up her brief case, pocketbook and scattered folders. He had literally knocked the wind out of her.
“Are you alright?”
She was staring into space trying to catch her breath. Just because she could handle hardened criminals in the courtroom didn’t mean she liked pain, and this was something that had her head spinning.
“I think I hurt my ankle,” she said.
He slid her shoe off as if he’d done it many times before. “Yeah. It looks swollen. Stay here. I’ll be back.”
Wh
ere was she going to go? She couldn’t even stand up. Just when she was trying to figure out where he went, he came back with a bag of ice, paper towels, and a bottle of water.
“Here,” he said, handing her the bottle. “Drink this.”
“Demanding aren’t we?” she asked.
“After being in that inferno courtroom, I’m sure you’re dehydrated. Drink up while I take care of your ankle.” He didn’t wait to see if she obeyed. Instead, he elevated her leg into his lap and placed the ice on her swollen ankle.
“Cold, cold.” She gasped at the shock and tried to move away, but he held her in place.
“I know, but it’ll keep the swelling down.” He took the ice off and wrapped it with the paper towel. “Is that better?”
All she could do was nod.
“Good. The ice compress should keep it from swelling more until I can get you to the hospital.”
“What?”
“I’m taking you to the ER to have it x-rayed. It might be broken.”
“No. I’m perfectly fine—”
“Sit still,” he commanded. He held her ankle gently and wouldn’t take his eyes away from it.
Victoria lost track of how long he held it. She finally opened the water and took a sip. After feeling how refreshing it was, she took a few bigger gulps until she downed half of it.
When she was done, she saw him smiling up at her.
“See? Dehydration is a silent killer.”
His fingers grazed her ankle and sent tiny sparks up her leg until they settled in her belly. She shifted under his touch.
“Now, prop your leg up here and keep the ice on it.” He turned her around so her ankle stayed up on the bench. He placed her hand on the cold pack. “I’m going to the parking deck to get my car and bring it around to the side door. Then I will be back. Okay?” he said.
“Yes, that’s fine.” It wasn’t ideal, but she wasn’t sure what to do. What if her ankle was really broken? The last thing she wanted was an ambulance to come and make a scene about getting her. That bit of gossip would make it to her office before she even reached the hospital.
It only took a few moments for him to bring the car around. From the look of it, you’d think he took great pride in rescuing damsels in distress. He grabbed her stuff and lifted her off the bench.
“Hey! What are you doing?”
“I could let you hobble to my car, but it’s faster if I carry you,” he said.
She didn’t know what to do. She didn’t want to hurt herself before she got to the hospital, but if he carried her out of the courthouse, her colleagues would never let her hear the end of it. She just knew it.
Being close up against him had her flustered again, but it wasn’t from the heat this time. She could feel the outline of his muscular chest pressing into her side. She’d been mistaken earlier. He probably weight-lifted and exercised on a regular basis the way he felt.
“North Eastern Medical is the closest hospital to us,” he said, pulling her out of her moment of body analysis. “Is that one alright?”
“Yes, that’s fine, Mr. Rusak,” she said.
He chuckled. “I think it’s safe to go by our first names now. Call me Andrei.”
“Andrei,” she said, testing it out.
“Can I call you Victoria?”
She thought about it for a second. “Since you’re literally carrying me, I guess it’ll be fine.”
“Why do I get the feeling you’re a tough one to please?” he asked as he sat her in the front seat.
She took the seat belt from him and clicked it herself. “It comes with the job,” she said. He didn’t say anything else as he closed her door and went around to the driver’s seat.
The hospital wasn’t that far away, so they got there fairly quickly. He pulled up to the emergency room drop-off area. “We need a wheelchair please,” he said to an emergency room attendant who came out. “I think she has a broken ankle.”
The attendant rushed back in and came out with the wheelchair. With both Andrei and the attendant there helping her out of the car, she felt like an invalid.
“I am going to park the car and come right in,” Andrei said.
“You don’t have to do that,” she said.
“I know I don’t have to. I want to.”
She didn’t know how to respond to that, so she let the attendant push her to the intake window. It was a miracle the emergency room wasn’t busy. If there’d been some sort of shoot-out, she would’ve had to wait a while with an ankle that might or might not be broken. She wouldn’t be at the top of the triage list. She was lucky that a possibly broken bone put her at the top of the list for now.
They took her information and carried her straight back for x-rays. The swelling had increased since she couldn’t have the ice on it in the car, and she was having more pain now. The nurses gave her new ice packs, something for the pain, and a pill to help with the swelling.
She waited in the sterile room for the doctor to see her. She hated hospitals, the way they looked and smelled, like death, urine, and cleaning supplies. Waiting alone in this empty room was starting to irk her. After what felt like forever, the doctor finally came in to discuss the results.
“Hello, Ms. Bellamy. I’m Dr. Smith,”
“Please tell me it’s not broken. I have too much to do this week.”
“Well, you’re going to need to stay off it for a few days first. It’s not broken, but you do have a very bad sprain. I am going to wrap it with an ace bandage and give you some pain medicine and an antibiotic to fill. You’re going to need crutches for a few days, too. I want you to stay off it for at least a week, or you’ll risk making it worse than it is now.”
“I can’t walk for a whole week?”
“If you want this to eventually turn into a long-term injury, then you’re more than welcome to try walking, but you’ll get back to your regular routine after you let it heal. I’ll give you a note for work, but you’ll also need to follow up in two weeks with the orthopedic clinic upstairs. Continue to use the ice packs. That was a smart move to use. It helped the swelling from being a lot worse than it is.”
“Thanks,” she said. She wasn’t an eye-roller, but she couldn’t help the motion as the doctor basically commended the guy who had cause her to fall in the first place. “Can I go now?”
“Yes. Your boyfriend is waiting out there for you now?”
“Boyfriend?” It took her a minute to realize he was referring to Andrei. “He’s not my boyfriend.” The doctor nodded with disinterest as he wrote down notes in her chart. He probably had a lot more patients to see.
“Don’t forget. Keep weight off that ankle.”
She nodded at him. He walked out of the room. She tossed her head back and closed her eyes, praying for strength. The day was turning into one of the longest days ever.
Chapter 4
Andrei
The nurse had asked Andrei if he was Victoria’s boyfriend, and he’d simply said yes. Andrei figured that would keep them from shooing him away, since he wasn’t a friend or family. He didn’t really have the right to be here, but he figured that he was the only person she had at the moment. Until he knew she was safe and taken care of, he wouldn’t leave her.
She’d came out of nowhere in the courthouse, and now he felt like he at least owed her for playing a part in here being there. He’d already called his father and updated him on the case. Now, he had the rest of the afternoon free, so he stayed there waiting for Victoria.
She didn’t seem too happy when they wheeled her out from the back, so he didn’t say anything about the boyfriend comment. The woman was probably still in some pain to.
He carried her out to the car in the wheelchair. “Should I take you home now?”
“Yes,” she said. She gave him directions to her building and sat back as he drove her given route.
“Do you have someone to help you at home?” he asked.
“No, it’s just me,” she said. “I’ll be okay. It’
s not like I have any stairs in my apartment. I’m on the first floor.”
“Well, I am going to give you my number, so you can call me if you need anything,” he said.
“That’s not necessary.”
“I know, but I’m giving it to you anyway. If you need anything, just call me on my cell number.”
“Thank you,” Victoria said, “but I’m pretty sure we can get in trouble for this.
“For exchanging numbers?”
“We are rivals in the courtroom. I doubt we’re allowed to socialize outside of there. It’s not professional.”
“There is no hard rule to say we can’t talk outside of court. Lawyers do it all the time. In fact, some lawyers are friends with prosecutors.”
“I know that, but for me. It’s a matter of ethics. I don’t want to lose my job.”
“Technically, our case is over, so there’s nothing to keep you from going out with me.”
“Going out with you?”
“That is what we’re talking about, isn’t it?”
“No! I meant socializing as friends.”
“Oh? Cause it sounds like you were arguing against going out together, which I think is a big mistake.”
“Really? A big mistake?”
This time he helped her out of the car, he at least gave her some dignity of hopping on her good foot while he took the pressure off the injured foot. He thought she would hit him if he lifted her up again.
“I can be very charming when I’m not knocking women out in hallways,” he said.
She tried not to laugh, but she failed miserably. She looked less stressed out as he helped her through her building. The pain pills must have been kicking in. She smiled and looked a little groggy.
“Does that laugh mean you’ll have dinner with me?” he asked as they neared her apartment. “One dinner to make up for the trouble I’ve caused, and then you’ll never have to see me again. Promise.”
She unlocked her door and hopped into her apartment. He gave her a long stare, and then he asked again for good measure.
“A fancy dinner will take your mind off that ankle, so what do you say?”
