by Jayne Blue
I stood at my desk, shoving paperwork into my messenger bag. I was due in court on settlement conference in fifteen minutes. My client was going to meet me there.
“Well, thanks for saying it. It means a lot to me.” I walked out of my office, stopping at Bev’s desk. She beamed up at me. She’d just gotten her hair styled. She wore it in an honest-to-goodness bouffant. Flecks of her original red glimmered at her temples.
“You’ll do the right thing,” she said.
“The right thing?” She didn’t answer me though. Her eyes just glinted with whatever secret knowledge she held.
“You’re going to be late,” she said. “Judge Monroe’s running on time. His clerk just called me.”
“Thanks,” I said. “This shouldn’t take long. Livvy says Mr. Bacon told her he’s going to accept the mediation recommendation on custody.”
“Well, praise Jesus. Glad somebody was finally able to talk some sense into that asshole. Livvy’s been raising those kids as a single mom for most of their lives. This was all just him trying to push his way back into her life and mess up what she’s got going with the new guy.”
“Maybe,” I said. “Let’s just see if he does what he said he’d do.”
I threw the leather strap of my bag over my shoulder and headed out the door. “Hey, Jerry,” I called. Deputy Jerry Flynn was here on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. He sat in a chair reading a newspaper. A man of few words, he shot me a wink. Across the street, Curtis sat in one of the club’s black SUVs. I made eye contact with him as he scanned the street. I expected quiet today. I’d taken all of my appointments in the morning, clearing my schedule for today’s conference on the Bacon case. After that, I just had some last-minute filings to review.
Either Angel had a sixth sense, or Curtis had just texted him that I’d left the office. My phone buzzed with a text from him.
“Still ready to go at five?”
“Should be,” I texted back. “I can just have Curtis drive me.”
“Nah,” he answered. “You look like you could use a ride.”
I looked up from my phone and turned around. Look like? “Where are you?” I typed.
“Got some business downtown. I’ll pop in at a quarter of. I’ve got a surprise for you.”
A little flash of heat went through me. “Will I like it?” I typed back.
“Baby, you’ll love it. And I can’t wait to see you in it.”
Hmmm. My core melted thinking of the possibilities. We’d been like a couple of lovesick teenagers this past week. I couldn’t seem to keep my hands off him.
“I’ll see you later,” I typed as I walked up the courthouse steps. I had just five minutes to make it to the judge’s conference room. I sincerely hoped Mrs. Bacon’s husband stuck to his word and signed the settlement agreement. Angel had said enough to spin my thoughts.
“He’s not here,” Livvy Bacon said, near tears. “He says he’s not coming.”
I pulled her paperwork out of my bag and spread it on the conference room table. “If he doesn’t show, the judge will enter a default against him. Don’t worry. It’ll still be over if that happens. This was a good recommendation. It’s in your kids’ best interests. We stay the course. Don’t let him get under your skin.”
Her lip quivered, but she held back the tears. We’d reached the end of a long, ugly divorce. Livvy deserved to put it all behind her and I fully intended to make that possible today. Rick Bacon didn’t have a lawyer. Well, he’d had several, but he fired all of them. I checked in with the judge’s clerk. Five minutes after our scheduled conference, his clerk Dale poked his head in.
“No defendant?” he asked.
“Nope.” I shook my head. “We had a settlement agreement ready to go. I also have the proposed order drawn after the mediation. My client has already signed it.”
“Good enough,” Dale said. “Let’s go put it on the record.”
I shot a quick smile to Livvy. She followed me into the courtroom. Ten minutes later, after reading her proposed order into the record, Livvy Bacon was a free woman again. It would have been cleaner if Rick had just shown up like he said he would, but this was just as binding. Livvy’s mother was in the courtroom, sobbing with relief. I signed the order as to form and gave Livvy a quick hug.
“Congratulations,” I said. “Now go out and celebrate. I’ll send you a certified copy of your order next week. You’ll need to take it to the kids’ school.”
“Thank you,” Livvy said. “I don’t know where I’d be without you.”
Livvy’s mom hugged me too. My phone buzzed in my hand. It was Angel again. “Hey, there,” I answered.
“Hey, yourself,” he said. There was an edge to his voice. “Where are you right now?”
“I’m in the courthouse. Just got out of a hearing. Heading back to the office.”
“Good,” he said.
“Is everything okay?”
He hesitated. There was a crashing noise. I could hear him breathing heavily into the phone. “It’s good,” he finally said. Then the call dropped. It was a known issue in this building.
“Good to see you, Denning!” Marvin Bennett, one of the old-timer defense attorneys hailed me from the other side of the hallway. He was a good guy, but a notorious busybody. The vandalism at the clinic and what happened to Judd was pretty much all anyone wanted to talk about. Except for me. Marvin’s booming voice attracted all the attention in the hallway. Another judge had a criminal trial today and they’d just broke for a recess. The hall was crawling with people and I felt like all of them were staring straight at me.
“You too, Marvin.” I smiled, then ducked into the women’s restroom. At least Marvin couldn’t follow me in there. Two young girls at the mirror smiled at me, then excused themselves. I checked my make-up. My phone buzzed again, but the call failed almost instantly. It was Angel again. I reapplied some lip gloss, wanting to give it a minute before I went back out there. From the corner of my eye, the door opened. I kept my focus straight on the mirror.
I slipped my lip gloss back in my bag and waited for whoever had just come in to go into one of the stalls. I heard one of the stall doors creak open, and turned toward the door.
A figure dressed all in black blocked my path. He was scruffy, with several days of dark stubble and sunglasses. He wore a knit cap, even though it was close to ninety degrees outside. It took my brain a moment to register what I was seeing.
He looked different. Skinnier. Rougher. He slid off the glasses and hat and threw them to the floor. When I tried to move past him, Lee Corley shoved me backward and turned to lock the door.
“Lee,” I said. “Don’t be an idiot. Whatever you think you have to say to me, this isn’t the place.”
“Say?” he said. His eyes were bloodshot, unfocused. He was on something. Oh shit. “I don’t feel like talking, Miss Denning.”
“Great,” I said. My mind whirred. I had no weapons. Only my messenger bag. It weighed about ten pounds with my laptop in it. I could throw it at him, maybe take him off guard long enough to get around him.
“She’s mine,” he said. “Tonya and Cooper are mine. I’m done letting you turn them against me.”
It was in me to argue with him. Me turn them against him? I was pretty sure his fists had done that job.
He couldn’t have a weapon. He wouldn’t have made it past the metal detectors with a knife or a gun. He had those fists though. And apparently, no concern about getting caught. We were in the middle of a crowded courthouse with maybe twenty armed deputies on staff. As Lee Corley advanced, I realized with cold horror how right I was. He didn’t care about getting caught. He only cared about doing what he’d come here for.
I opened my mouth to scream but Corley was ready for that. He charged me, shoving me back against the wall, his hand over my mouth.
“You’re pretty,” he said. “Prettier than that slut sister of yours. I mean, she’s a type. I get that. You though, you’ve got that hot librarian thing going. Turns out, you’re even
sluttier than she is.”
He held his forearm under my chin, nearly choking me. He took his hand off my mouth. “You’re toast the second you walk out of this bathroom. You know that. Whatever you came here to do to me, it won’t matter. Tonya’s done with you. You won’t see Cooper again when you’re in jail. So what’s the point?”
“The point is,” he said, the stench of his breath making me sick, “it’ll make me feel better.”
“I got your message,” I said. “You can’t shut down the clinic with a brick through the window, Lee.”
He smiled. “Maybe I just did it for the look on your face. Like now. I like to see you scared. You’re not in control.”
“You’re right. You’ve got the power. But you won’t walk out of here. And you know what happens to you if you hurt me. Never mind the deputies, there are security cameras all over this floor. You’re on tape coming in here. You think jail is your biggest worry? You know who I am. You know whose protection I’m under.”
“That’s right. Biker slut. Just like your little sister. You’re welcome for her, by the way. You think they cared whether she was with that kid when they blasted him? Those bullets would have cut right through her too.”
My head spun. Lee. He knew about the hit on Judd. He wanted me to thank him for sparing her? Oh God. What did he know? How did he know it?
“It’s over. You know that. You overplayed your hand. They won’t just kill you.”
“Yeah,” he said. “But think of how much fun we can have before they find me.”
“What,” I said. “You think I’m going to just walk out of here with you? You’ve lost it.”
“Shut up!” He shoved me harder against the wall. “You have no idea who I am.”
“What did they promise you?” I asked. I knew enough. Angel kept secrets, but I knew they suspected the Hellz Rebels M.C., a rival club, of carrying out the hit. “The Rebels are using you. They wouldn’t sanction this. That’s why they wouldn’t go after Judd if my sister was with him.”
Lee’s eyes flickered. I’d hit on the truth. But I’d overplayed my hand too. Realization dawned on him. I was in even more danger than before. He shoved me again, knocking the wind out of me.
Then all hell broke loose. The door smashed open. Angel came barreling in followed by two deputies that were trying to hold him back. They failed.
In two powerful strides, he came down on Lee Corley like an avalanche. He pulled him off his feet and slammed him against the opposite wall. My breath came back but my knees gave out as I sank to the floor.
Chapter Twenty-Two
Angel
I would have murdered him with my bare hands. For the rest of my life, I figured I’d have nightmares about Deputy Cross fumbling with her keys as she tried to unlock that goddamn bathroom door.
“For the millionth time,” Maura said. “I’m okay. Really.” She sat at the bar sipping an ice water. I wanted Mo to give her something stronger, but Maura insisted she didn’t want it.
“I just don’t get it,” she said. “How stupid could Corley be? He knew he was never going to get away with anything in that courthouse.”
“Not stupid at all,” Sly said. He’d been cool and calm throughout this. Switch was down at the sheriff’s office. They were interrogating Corley. His contact down there would likely feed him any new info Corley spouted, but it wouldn’t be much. Their hands were tied. And that’s exactly why Corley was smart.
“He knows he’s in better hands with the deputies than he would be with me,” I said. I took a shot of whiskey. Water might be enough for Maura, but it wasn’t for me.
She rubbed her temple. “You’re saying he took a calculated risk. If he was hellbent on getting whatever revenge he wanted, better to do it surrounded by law enforcement?”
“That’s what I’m saying,” I said.
“And he’s making a point,” Sly said. “He’s gonna do time for this. Hard time, probably. He figures the Rebels will protect him on the inside.”
“Then he’s a bigger dumbass than I gave him credit for,” Dex said. “The Rebels aren’t gonna risk offering him protection. He’s not worth it to them. It could cause too much of a rift with the men we still have loyal to us.”
Dex would understand prison politics better than any of us.
“Then he deserves whatever he gets,” I said.
“Stop,” Maura said. “I think I don’t need to hear any more. You may be protected by attorney-client privilege, but not if you’re organizing some retaliation against Corley that’ll cause him harm.”
“Doing no such thing,” Sly said. “Lee Corley thinks he’s better off in the criminal justice system. So now he gets his wish.”
We had a hell of a lot more to talk about. As far as I was concerned, Curtis needed to earn a full patch after this. He’s the one who saw Corley go into the courthouse after Maura did. He’d acted on a gut feeling, following her down there. I’d been two blocks away when he called. No power on this earth would have stopped me from racing through those doors to get to her.
But the fact remained, we had some answers. Maura said Corley kept on talking about her sister. He as much as admitted to being the one to tip off someone in the Hellz Rebels as to Judd’s movements. He’d been smarter than all of us had given him credit for. The bricks through the clinic window, the death threats on her car, it had all been to make us think Maura was who he was after. He was. But he’d been tailing Bailey up until today. The idiot probably thought the Rebels would save his ass. Dex was right. They wouldn’t waste their capital for some low-level shit like Lee Corley.
“You really think Tonya’s safe?” Maura asked. “I’m afraid he’s tried to call in some favor with this club you’re worried about.”
“We can put some feelers out,” Sly said. “But no, these guys are a lot of things, but they’re not going to hurt some woman and her child for the likes of Corley. Once they figure out what he did today, they’ll try cutting ties. He was acting on his own today. I’m sure of it.”
I was too. It didn’t make me any less worried about Maura. For now, I just wanted to keep her someplace safe. I wanted to get her up to my room and hold her tight. The nightmares had stopped since she more or less moved in with me. I knew they’d start again soon.
“Let’s call it a day,” she said, reading my damn mind. “I’m tired. And I’m not going to let this asshole throw me off. I’m going back to work tomorrow. Business as usual.”
“Maura …”
She lifted a finger in warning. “You said it yourself. Lee’s not going anywhere. He was acting alone. I’m fine. If you want to know the truth, what I really am is pissed. He wanted to hurt Bailey. He would have if ... God ... I can’t believe I’m saying this. She’d be dead if that Rebels hitman couldn’t think for himself.”
“Enough,” I said. “Come on.”
She grabbed her water and followed me upstairs. I locked the door behind us. Everything just seemed to hit me all at once. I pulled Maura into my arms. “Baby, I’m sorry.”
“Sorry?” she asked. “For what? I don’t think Corley was dumb enough to kill me. And believe me, I was ready to put up a hell of a fight if he tried. But you got there, Angel. You did everything you said you would. You didn’t let anything happen to me. This wasn’t your fault. This wasn’t club business. I didn’t get caught in some crossfire. This was me. This was a risk of my job, not yours.”
“I’m never letting you out of my sight again,” I said.
“And you know that’s not practical. And it’s over. Corley can’t hurt me. He can’t hurt my sister. And he can’t hurt Tonya or that child ever again.”
“That’s a promise,” I said. “No matter what.”
“Shh.” She put a finger to my lips. “I don’t want to hear it. I told you. And I don’t want to give that asshole another second of air time between us. Right now, I just want you to hold me. I just want to ... be. You know?”
I did. I wished the door to my bedroom could sh
ut out the entire world. It was going to take everything in me to let Maura go back to work tomorrow. She wasn’t going alone, that was for sure. She may not be ready to let Lee Corley put her off, but I was But there would be time enough to talk about that later.
She kissed me then took a shower. I wanted to join her, but she gave me the sense she needed just a few minutes to herself. No matter how tough she was, she’d have to process what happened in her own way. She’d take back control.
I slipped off my cut and my boots and stretched out on the bed. Maura’s soft voice singing from the shower lightened my mood. She came out draped in a towel, her hair slicked back.
“Come here,” I said. “Let me rub your shoulders.”
“Mmm,” she moaned. “You, sir, are a prince. That sounds like heaven.”
She was heaven. Her skin was so soft and supple. My fingers slid over her; she was still damp from the shower. Her towel fell away. Maura leaned back, sighing against me. She was so small, but so strong. She’d faced down a monster today and barely flinched.
I would protect her with my dying breath if that’s what it took. She said the danger today came from her life, not mine. I knew better. Corley used her and her sister’s association with the club to try and do them harm. He’d used Bailey to get to Judd and he was dead because of it. If Bailey had never walked into this bar, if Maura hadn’t …
She looked up at me with drowsy eyes. “What’s going on in that head of yours?” she asked.
“It’s nothing,” I said. I ran a lazy finger over her breasts, loving how quickly they responded to my touch.
“Bull,” she said, smiling. “I’ve spent enough time with you to know when something’s bothering you. I told you. I’m okay, Angel. Really. Maybe tomorrow it’ll hit me more. Maybe I’ll fall apart. But we can worry about that then. Okay?”
“I love you,” I said.
Maura turned, facing me. She was on her knees; the towel fell completely away. She looked like some goddess. A Greek statue carved out of marble. Her breasts hung heavy. I slid my hands down, loving the curve of her fine ass. Mine. She was mine.
