Serving Time (The Valentine Law Series Book 1)

by Bailey West

  Averie started to stir after I’d gone to the restroom and gotten back in the bed.

  “Good morning,” she smiled before getting out of bed to go to the restroom. She opened the door to the bathroom a few minutes later.

  “Aren’t you running late? What time does your plane leave?” She asked with a mouth full of toothpaste.

  “I’m not going.”

  She rinsed her mouth out then spoke, “Samuel, no. You said you would go.”

  “No, I didn’t say I would go. You said you wanted me to go and I didn’t answer. You are not going to bully me into leaving you here when Xavier is more than capable of sitting in on those meetings for me. Besides, my hands hurt.”

  Her eyes grew wide, she took in a breath and covered her mouth with both her hands. Then she rushed toward me.

  “Baby, I’m sorry. I didn’t even consider that you are injured, and you could be in pain. Let me see your hands.”

  I wasn’t really in much pain, but I needed her off my case about staying home. I didn’t think she would go all “concerned girlfriend” on me. She carefully held my hands and examined them.

  “Did you get stitches?”

  “No, they used surgical glue. The doctor said it would heal fine since it’s not near my knuckles. I just have to be careful with getting the back of my right-hand wet since it’s glued together.”

  She put my hand to her mouth and gently kissed it then took my other hand and kissed it the same way. She rested the palm of her hand on the side of my face and said, “Thank you, Samuel Valentine. You saved my life.”

  A huge lump formed in the back of my throat and I felt the stinging of tears forming. I fought to keep the tears at bay as I responded, “I would be lost without you.”

  She kissed me slowly and sensually while still holding on to my hand.

  Her phone rang on her nightstand.

  “That’s my mother’s ringtone.” She pulled away and answered her phone. “Hi, mommy. Yes, I am awake…Yes…We are preparing to come there now…I slept okay…I will see you in a few…Love you too.”

  “Your mom is looking for you?”

  “Yes, but I can tell her that since you aren’t going, I will just…”

  “No, it’s important that she spend some time with you. I will drop you off there and come back later to check on you. I have some things I need to handle.”

  “I’m glad you’re not leaving. I want to stay with you tonight. My mom will understand.”

  “I will come back for you this evening. Stay off social media and try to stay away from the news.”

  “Is it that bad?”

  “I want you to relax. I will talk to a friend of mine about hiring a PR firm to handle some of the negative press. Is that okay?”

  “Yes, thank you.”

  “I got you.”

  I dropped Averie off at her parent’s house. Her mom and sister were waiting for her. Mrs. Patterson hugged me and said, “thank you.” There was no need to thank me. I loved Averie. I would never let anything happen to her.

  “What’s up Count?” I said after connecting the call to my Bluetooth in the car.

  “How is Averie?”

  “Physically she is fine. She is trying to be strong, but I know that she is still shaken up. I just dropped her off at her parent’s house.”

  “You want to take a ride with me?”

  “Is it about Averie?”

  “Yes.”

  “I’m on my way.”

  I met Countee at his office and rode with him to a police station.

  “This is where they brought Barry after they checked him out at the hospital. He had a mild concussion, but he’s alive. One of my connects here can get us in the room with him as long as you can keep your composure.”

  “I can’t promise that.”

  “At least try? I think there is more to this story, but I need to get it from him. Some shit is not adding up.”

  “More than he tried to murder my lady? More than he had his hand between her legs trying to open her pants?”

  I was ready to get into this room and murder this dude with my bare hands. I wanted to watch the light dim in his eyes and the life leave his body.

  “El, calm down, or this is not going to happen.”

  I took a deep, cleansing breath and said a quick prayer. I asked God to give me the ability to control my temper. I didn’t want to go back to jail but I would today if the Lord didn’t help me.

  I followed Countee into the precinct and stayed quiet while Count did all the talking. We were escorted to a room that reminded me of the room the officers had me in when I was arrested.

  “You sit here in the corner. Don’t speak. Listen. This is important, El.”

  I rolled my eyes and sat in the corner like I was in timeout.

  A few minutes later a guard opened the door, and a pale, bruised, shell of a man walked into the room. I almost didn’t recognize him. His jumpsuit was a least two sizes too big, his hair was all over his head, and his eye was a bluish-purple color. I smirked when I saw that.

  They led him to the table situated in the middle of the room and handcuffed him to the bar that stretched the length of the table.

  “We will be right outside,” the guard said to Count.

  “Good looking out.”

  The door closed behind the guard and Count sat across the table from Barry.

  “I’m not here to bullshit with you, Leathen. I just want to know how you got into the building and who told you that Ms. Patterson would be there working late?”

  “Why would I talk to you?”

  Barry stared at Countee.

  “Humph…why would you talk to me? Let’s see.” Countee looked up at the ceiling while drumming his chin with his index finger. “A good reason to talk to me is that with a couple strokes of my keypad on my phone, I can switch your number with a regular inmate’s number and have you out of protective custody and in the general population in a matter of seconds. Another good reason to talk to me is that those guards outside that door will take you wherever I tell them to take you. They will put you in whatever cell I tell them to put you in. We both know that there are several hundred people in this prison that would love to see you dead. Why would you talk to me?” Countee snapped his fingers and then pointed at Barry, “Oh I know, probably because I have trained marksmen sitting on your wife and those two little kids at your house right now. What're their names? Rebecca and Robert?”

  “Leave my family out of this!”

  “Why? You didn’t leave my people out of it. Why wouldn’t I do the same to your family?”

  The thing about Count was you never really knew when he was bluffing. I chose to err on the side of caution and take him seriously all the time. I’ve seen things he was capable of doing. Nobody wanted that in their life.

  “Do I need to ask the questions again?”

  “I don’t know who told me! Okay? I was receiving anonymous text messages telling me how Averie had been boasting around the office about beating me. They told me she called me demeaning names and told stories of me wanting her, but she turned me down.”

  “What do you mean anonymous?”

  “I mean they never left a name and the number traced back to a burner phone.”

  “Hearing that a woman boasted about beating you caused you to go into a fit of rage?”

  “What? No! I didn’t…I don’t…I can’t remember anything about last night. I woke up in the hospital chained to the bed. The detectives told me what I’d done.”

  “Lying piece of shit…” I mumbled.

  My voice startled Barry. He hadn’t looked into the corner until now.

  “El,” Countee scolded.

  I folded my arms across my chest and willed myself to stay seated.

  I should have thrown him out of the window and watched his body hit the concrete below.

  “I…I was angry because I’d gotten a text message saying that Averie was going to go to my boss about a misunderstand
ing we’d had some years ago. She was planning on getting me disbarred for improper conduct. I went to the bar to get a drink, and that’s all I remember.”

  “Did you speak to anyone at the bar?”

  “Not that I remember.”

  “Did your drink taste funny?”

  “No…not that I can remember.”

  “You nearly killed Ms. Patterson last night and guess what, everything you heard was a lie. You were the last person on her mind. She never mentioned your name in the office, and she wasn’t coming for your license. You were played.”

  “How did you know she would be in the building alone?”

  I had to ask. It was taking Count too long to get to that question.

  “I just said I didn’t remember!” He raised his voice.

  I jumped from my corner and tried to get to him, but Countee caught me.

  “Come on, man!”

  I slapped Countee’s hands off of me and went and stood in the corner. I wanted to put my hands on this guy so bad.

  “You have no recollection of how you managed to get to her floor in her building?”

  He nodded his head but kept his eyes on me.

  “Where is the phone you were receiving the text messages on?”

  “I don’t know.”

  “What did you mean when you said that Averie may keep her little firm? You said that to us before the trial began.”

  I’d just remembered that he’d made that comment when he told us they were amending Roc’s charges.

  “I don’t know what you’re talking about. I was just goading her.”

  “Which is it? You don’t know, or you were goading her?” Countee asked.

  “I was…I’m tired of talking. Where is the guard?”

  Countee knocked on the door, and the guards came in to escort Barry back to his cell. While they were unlocking his handcuffs from the table and preparing to leave Barry said, “I never would have hurt Averie if I were in my right mind. She is special and rare. I never should have listened to them.”

  “Listened to who?” Countee asked.

  Barry didn’t respond as the guard escorted him out of the room.

  “Stand down,” Countee said out loud.

  He really did have someone sitting on Barry’s family.

  “Now what?”

  “Now we figure out what the hell is going on. Someone is after Averie’s firm. The losing streak, the visit from Bell and the attack from Leathen. We have to get to the bottom of it.”

  “Is Averie still in danger?”

  “As long as Laila is around, she will be fine.”

  Averie

  It had been almost a month since the attack. My mother insisted that I start seeing a therapist. I’m glad she did because I was impacted more than I’d realized.

  I mean who wouldn’t have some residuals from an attack that almost ended your life but beyond that, I hadn’t fully processed it until I started talking with Karen. Karen was a black woman a few years older than my mother. She was a no-nonsense type of woman that had zero tolerance for people that came into her office and didn’t really want help. I wanted help, so we got along well.

  Laila had been by my side since I returned to work. Liddy had a little bit of heartburn with me hiring a personal assistant, but I explained that Laila would be helping me with my charities since I would start working on some projects with Torrey. I didn’t tell anyone who Laila actually was, not even Liddy, and I knew that I could trust her or at least I hoped that I could.

  I was nervous about what Laila would wear on her first day of working with me, but when she stepped off the elevator, I was pleasantly surprised. She’d traded in her khaki pants and Chambers Security polo shirt for a navy blue, wide leg pants suit with a white camisole underneath. She wore her hair down in long cascading curls, and she’d polished her nails. She’d completely transformed. I didn’t know where she kept her weapon, but she assured me that she was always carrying something.

  Having a shadow took some getting used to. I’d walked past the new security guards on my floor on my way out of the building. They promptly stopped me until they could contact Laila to follow me. She gave me a stern talking to about not leaving her behind. Since then, I’d learned to let her know my moves. I thought that she would just sit around and watch me work, but she asked for real work to do to keep herself busy. She had made donor calls and set up viewings to see event spaces for future events. She had been great to have around.

  There hadn’t been any threats since Barry, but Countee was still concerned. He was still working to get to the bottom of the things happening at my firm.

  Luckily, the negative press blew over without a mention of my name. The firm’s name was in every print and web article for days, but somehow, they never mentioned me. The negative press did nothing to help me in the pursuit of getting my clients back, but I was still working on them and finding new ones.

  Laila and I were on the way to a meeting at Valentine Law with Countee to discuss his progress on my case. We’d decided that we would not meet at my firm because we didn’t want anyone to associate him with me and know that I was looking into things.

  Ray opened the door to my old war room at VLG. It felt like it was ages ago that we’d tried that case. So much had happened since then.

  Samuel was ending a call but stood to greet me.

  “Babe,” he smiled. “How has your day gone so far?”

  “Better, now,” we kissed briefly. “What about you?”

  “Brighter now,” he smiled again. “Hey, Laila. How is it working with us civilians every day?”

  “I actually enjoy it. I get a break from all the testosterone in the office. I am going to run to the restroom while we are waiting on Count.”

  She left out of the room leaving Samuel and me alone.

  “I have something I want to talk to you about once this meeting is over. Will you have time to stick around?”

  I looked at my watch.

  “Yes, I should have time. Is everything okay?”

  “It’s good.”

  “Morning,” Countee said as he walked into the room.

  We both replied.

  “I have a few things to go over with you bef…”

  Laila walked into the room, and Countee paused. More accurately, he froze. He watched her like he’d never seen her before. He didn’t move or speak until she had taken her seat at the table.

  “I’m sorry. I had to run to the restroom,” she announced oblivious to Countee staring at her.

  She was a strikingly beautiful woman in her soft pink pants suit with a black lace camisole. She continued to wear her hair in soft, loose curls that rested beyond the middle of her back.

  Samuel and I looked at each other and smirked. Countee’s reaction to Laila was hard to miss.

  Countee cleared his throat and continued.

  “Um…things like I was saying that I want to go over with you. My team is combing through the footage of the surveillance cameras near the bar where Leathen said he went before the attack. They haven’t found anything yet, but they haven’t finished with all the footage. I’ve decided to put someone on all of the senior associates. We need to see what they are getting into after hours and who they are speaking with.”

  He continued to run down his case while I listened and made mental notes. It seemed as if he had everything covered. I felt secure with Laila at my office, and I was secure in my home with the new security system that Samuel insisted they install.

  “Laila, can you stay behind and debrief me on what you’ve experienced while at the firm?”

  “Sure,” Laila shrugged.

  “Averie and I will be in my office when you are finished,” Samuel announced.

  I followed him to his office. He closed the door behind him and motioned for me to take a seat next to him on the couch.

  “What did you need to speak to me about?”

  “I would like to take you away for a few days. There is a place we cou
ld get that is private and in a tropical location.”

  “El, you know I can’t leave right now,” I stood to my feet and started pacing.

  “When was the last time you were on vacation, Averie? I don’t mean a day here or a day there, but I mean a real phones off, computers closed, off the grid vacation?”

  “I’ve never been on that type of vacation because I haven’t gotten to that point where I can relax like that. You earn that type of vacation.”

  “You have earned it.”

  “How El?” I threw my hands in the air. “How have I earned it! I’m nowhere near where I want to be financially or professionally. With all this stuff going on right now, you know I can’t leave! Why would you be so selfish as to ask me to leave right in the middle of a storm? I could lose my firm behind this bullshit, but you say let’s take a break? Your firm is on solid footing mine is not!”

  “It’s selfish for me to want to take you away from the craziness for a few days? That’s your definition of selfish?”

  “Yes!” I yelled. “You’re at a point in your life and your career where you can do whatever you want! You have a team of people that could run this place without you. I stepped away from my firm for a second and my employees tried to run it into the ground.”

  “I’m sorry for trying to help you relax just a little.”

  “Relax? By leaving! If I were a man would you…”

  “Here you go with that bull again,” he stood from the couch and walked behind his desk.

  “So, it’s bull when I ask a simple question about gender?”

  “No, it’s bull when you always revert to it during a disagreement especially with me,” He stabbed his finger into his chest. “It’s bull because you know damn well that the way I treat you has nothing to do with your gender and everything to do with how I feel about you. But you know what? Fine, Averie. I don’t want to take your crying, victimized, grudge-holding ass nowhere. Stay here and be miserable. And before something falls out of that slick ass mouth of yours, that you can’t take back, get out of my office,” he pointed to the door.