A Judge's Secrets

by Danica Winters

  “I thought you said this place was pretty well deserted for the next hour or so?” he said, giving her a half-cocked smile that, if she hadn’t been leery, would have been what her best friend Kristin called a panty-dropper.

  She’d always loved Kristin, but in this moment she could have kicked her butt for making her want to smile when she was facing down a potentially dangerous man.

  Actually, forget the potentially. Rather, he was dangerous—in so many ways.

  “Look, I don’t know if you’re trying to freak me out or if you are trying to impress me, but it isn’t working,” she lied.

  His smile widened and he looked at her like he was trying to figure her out. She liked it; in fact, she always liked surprising the people she was around. There was nothing worse than being predictable.

  “You are a funny woman, you know that?” he said, doing a quick up and down of her body. Not so much to be crude, but enough to let her know that he was actively checking her out.

  And there went her cheeks again. Before he could notice, she turned away and walked toward the employee exit and the parking lot.

  “Where are you going?” he called, and she could hear his footfalls behind her as he rushed to catch up. “I think it’s best if we stick together.”

  She stopped and huffed. Sticking together was the last thing she needed with this dude. “Look, you’re not my boss. I’ve worked my whole life to get where I am and to no longer have to put up with men who think that they can push me around or tell me what to do,” she seethed. “And strangely enough, the only man who remotely has any influence in my life is now lying on a gurney...after you were hired to protect him.”

  He went slack jawed. “What? Huh? Do you think... You are crazy if you think I had something to do with that attack.”

  “I didn’t say you did, but you certainly jumped to your own defense. Something you wish to get off your chest?” She glared at him, looking for any signs of guilt.

  “I... You...” He bristled, puffing up like some kind of porcupine.

  “I’m not just some demure woman who you can lead around by the nose just because you know you’re handsome...umm... I meant somewhat attractive.” She felt stupid for letting her inside voice sneak past her filters and spill out of her lips.

  He deflated, as if her backhanded compliment was the needle it took to bring him back down to normal size. He smiled that stupid, half-cocked smile she loved to hate. “You think I’m handsome?”

  “Whoa there, Fabio, just because I said you were somewhat attractive doesn’t mean that you can get off the hook for being a total—”

  “Hunk?” he said, finishing her sentence with a laugh.

  “Oh, heck no. I was going to go with pain in the ass,” she said, throwing it back at him.

  “And you’re a ballbuster, so what a pair we could make.”

  “Wow, you didn’t...” she said in forced outrage, but secretly her mind raced toward the picture of the wedding dress she had taped up in her bathroom when she’d been in high school—lace with full sleeves. Beside it had been a picture of Ruth Bader Ginsburg. She didn’t regret her decision to myopically focus on her goal of becoming a judge, but there had been many sacrifices in her personal relationships.

  He gave her that sexy half grin again.

  “Seriously, Fabio, cool your jets or you are going to be on your own.” She gave him a side eye, waiting to see if he’d try using working together as an excuse to find a way to sneak into her bed.

  “Not being Fabio, I swear. You are a beautiful woman, that goes without saying, but I don’t need to cool my jets because they weren’t fired up. I don’t fantasize about having sex with every hot woman I meet. I just want you close because I think it’s very possible you could unwittingly know who planted that pen in the judge’s office. You showed me exactly how much access you have to him.”

  Now she felt like the porcupine—on one hand he thought she was hot and on the other he didn’t want her, and then he also seemed to think she was bordering on inept. “I... I have known Steve since I was a child growing up in Missoula. I have worked with him since I first started as a clerk. He took me under his wing and helped me figure out the steps I needed to take to get where I am today. He has always been like a father figure to me. So yes, we know a lot of the same people, but like all judges, he has a million enemies.”

  He looked her over like he was searching for some kind of hole in her story and she hated it. Was there a part of him that thought she had something to do with Hanes’s poisoning? “It is the ones closest to us who can do us the most harm.”

  “If you think I had anything to do with this, you can stop right here and right now. I don’t break laws. I enforce them.” She could feel the burn of her words on her tongue; hopefully, he felt the heat, as well.

  He nodded, but she could feel his gaze boring into her and it did nothing for her anger. “Good.”

  “In fact, as an officer of the court, I should be talking to law enforcement right now, not a man who was hired to provide security and failed and whose vocabulary probably doesn’t include the word justice.”

  He jerked as he looked up at her, hurt in his eyes. “I know you think you probably know me and know the people I work with, but you don’t, Your Honor.”

  She had heard her title spoken by a thousand different people in as many times, but rarely had she heard it uttered with the level of derision in his voice.

  Her anger oozed from her as she looked back up at his bearded face—no one dared to speak to her as he had.

  There were gray flecks in his beard in and around his jawline that accentuated the lines around his mouth. She would bet his beard was soft, not the harsh, coarse kind that most men kept. For a split second, she imagined the texture against the tender skin of her inner thigh.

  Look away, woman. She could almost hear her friend Kristin’s voice talking to her.

  She just needed to get laid, then whatever this craziness was that she was feeling could be stuffed back into the recesses of her stony heart and she could focus on the reality of the situation they were dealing with. Sexual tension never led to positive outcomes anywhere except for those brief moments of bliss between the sheets.

  “Okay,” she said, sighing as she looked at her car at the far end of the parking lot. “So we can both agree that neither of us would have done this to Steve even though we both could have?”

  “Same page.” Evan nodded. “And I apologize for losing my temper. I... You deserve a higher level of respect than how I just treated you. I’m sorry. As to talking to the law, let’s keep in mind that the judge didn’t want to go there, so if you can hold off on that, he’d probably appreciate it.”

  She considered his request and sighed. He was right. Justice Hanes had brought him in so he wouldn’t have to get officers involved. She could honor that request, too, at least for a little while. She cocked a brow, shocked by his reversal and self-awareness. “Thank you. I’ve worked really hard to be where I am. There are always those around who wish to tear away at my foundation in order to build themselves up.”

  “I understand that,” he said. “Which brings me to my next question—”

  “No, I’m not single,” she lied, teasing him.

  He actually looked crestfallen for a moment. What kind of game were they playing?

  She wished she could bring the words back. It was only her anger that had made her say them in the first place. In any other atmosphere and after any other day, she could have given this handsome, suit-clad man a run for his money in the bedroom department, but why did he have to saunter into her life today of all days?

  “That’s disappointing,” he said. “But not exactly where I was going with my questioning. Rather, I was going to ask if you knew of anyone in particular who would have had a motive for wanting Judge Hanes dead.”

  “I’m sure he
told you about the photo someone left on his desk? I would assume the attacker was behind the threat.” She walked down the marble steps that led to the main floor of the courthouse; their footfalls echoed out and filled the empty halls.

  “He did, but he only spoke to me briefly and at that time he didn’t mention any possible suspects. Did he tell you who may have placed that in his office?”

  “I told you everything I knew.” She sounded just a touch surly and as she realized it, she noticed the heavy look on Evan’s face. “Sorry,” she said, hoping to make things slightly less tense between them. “I just mean that if he didn’t tell you, then he sure as heck didn’t tell me. Steve was a man who kept his thoughts and feelings pretty close to his chest about most things.”

  “So you can’t think of anyone in particular? Someone who he had seen in the courtroom?” He opened the door leading out to the parking lot and held it for her until she passed by him. He smelled of expensive, fresh-scented cologne and she took it deep into her lungs.

  She started to walk toward her car. “There are plenty of people who Judge Hanes had ruled against. Between those people and their families, I would say that would put about a quarter of the city’s population on our possible suspects list.”

  It took a special breed to want to put themselves and their families at risk in order to cast judgments down in the name of justice, social mores and civil control. They all knew the risks that came with their calling. And it was partially this risk that kept her from seeking real relationships—she chose this life; she wouldn’t impose it upon others.

  “I was always proud of the rulings that Steve made,” she continued. “There is none that I can think of that was unjustified. If anything, I think he was very careful to adhere to the letter of the law even when he was aware that the truth lay somewhere in the gray area. And he was good with the members of the public who served on his juries. He is a good man.”

  “If I had any lingering doubts about you trying to murder him, I think that little speech would have cleared you,” Evan said with a laugh. “I bet he was glad to have you around if this is the kind of support you always gave him.”

  She laughed, waving him off. “Oh, we had our fair share of moments when we butted heads, but I knew my place, and he was like a father or brother to me, nothing more.”

  “And your husband?”

  There was the heat again. “I was kidding about being with someone. No husband. No kids. No boyfriend. I don’t even have a dog. So no, there is no one in my life who would have had anything against him.”

  Evan looked away from her, but as he did, she was pretty sure that she had finally spotted a bit of color moving into his cheeks. Yes, at least it wasn’t her this time.

  “As I’m sure the judge told you, his son Sven has had a lot of run-ins when it comes to the law.”

  Evan nodded. “He mentioned his son, and I’ll look into him, but he made it sound like his son was at the bottom of our list. He seems to have gotten his life squared away. And he has no motive.”

  She clicked her car’s key fob. As she hit the button there was a strange sound, a loud click instead of the slide she was accustomed to.

  Before she could take another step, Evan had wrapped his arms around her and was pushing her to the ground. As he threw her down, there was a whoomph. The air of the shockwave pressed down on her. The heat of the blast scorched the skin of her back, and her polyester skirt was forming around, and melting into, the backs of her legs.

  The bomb was deafening in the parking garage and her ears rang. There was the sensation of liquid in her ears. Blood, maybe?

  There was the scent of burnt hair and it stung her nostrils.

  Work. She had been at work. They had been walking. There was an explosion. Her car.

  There was a side-view mirror burning on the ground to the left. Reaching up, she felt the stab of shards of glass across her cheek.

  She struggled to get up, but there was a strange weight on her body. Her car. Had something landed on her? She couldn’t make sense of exactly what was going on.

  On top of her was Evan. He was staring at her and yelling something, but she couldn’t hear him. Instead, she could only see his lips moving. All she could think about was the fact that someone, some stranger, wanted her dead.

  Chapter Four

  Thanks to all his working security, this was certainly not the first time he’d been asked to escort and guard a high-risk target, but it was the first time he had two attempted murders within such a close period. Not only that, but the methods were so innately different. It was one thing to be schooled in the art of chemical warfare and be proficient enough to sneak into a courthouse and into a judge’s chambers without being noticed, but to have a suspect who was also more than capable in car bombs was unusual. In a terrible way, their perpetrator was incredibly skilled; that, or they weren’t working alone.

  This level of desire to kill was reminiscent of Evan’s time in Beirut when it was at the height of civil unrest. If asked, he wouldn’t even be sure that this wasn’t worse. In Beirut he was constantly barraged by a variety of enemies—from Hezbollah to radical political leaders—but the one thing they all had in common was that when they attacked, they didn’t hide who they were or why they were doing it. They wanted the world to see they were strong, and they wouldn’t shy away from striking down anyone who stood in their way.

  This perpetrator wanted to hide in the shadows and fears created by their crimes. Whoever was trying to get her into their sights literally could have been standing behind them and they would have never known.

  The one thing every country and culture had in common was that danger lurked everywhere.

  Judge DeSalvo sat on the curb and looked at what had once been her Honda Accord. Its shell was still burning, and he could make out the shrieking wail of fire trucks and ambulances as they careened through the downtown streets toward them.

  After assessing she was all right, he’d helped her up and away from the fiery vehicle, making sure her injuries were superficial, and she wasn’t going into shock.

  By now someone in dispatch had to be taking note about the many mishaps taking place at the courthouse. Next, snipers would be lining the roof and bearing down in a show of force that would hopefully prove to be unnecessary.

  “Judge DeSalvo, are you okay?” he asked.

  She simply nodded, staring out at her car, her gaze unwavering.

  “Judge Hanes recommended we try to keep whatever happened under the radar. How do you think we should handle this?” He knew she would feel compelled to work with local authorities more than ever now.

  Finally, she looked away from her car and up at him as he hovered over her. “I know he hired you for his protection, but he couldn’t have possibly foreseen this level of violence. If he had, there’s no way he would have asked you to keep this from law enforcement.”

  He nodded. There was only so much hiding and sweeping under the rug that could be done—especially when it came to such a public attack. “Whatever you choose to do here, know that as long as you’re in someone’s crosshairs, I’m going to be here to protect you. My team and I will do everything in our power to keep you safe and neutralize your enemy.”

  She ran her hands over her face, leaving behind little trails of fresh blood on her cheeks. “I’ve always prided myself on standing against vigilante justice. There’s a reason we have laws and there’s a reason that I am the one the general assembly elected to enforce them.”

  He should have known that this would be her response. Justice could be sought in other places besides the courtroom. Yet, he wasn’t sure that now was the time to argue the value of striking an enemy down without the law ever being involved. If he tried, she would think that he was some kind of masochist, or sociopath.

  Sometimes, his greatest ally was silence.

  It was one of the things he l
oved the most about his world and his teams. They didn’t require anything beyond knowing what their objectives were and what it would take to reach them. Once the mission was completed, they didn’t expound upon their glories or celebrate the wins. The only time they even spoke about past missions was to correct major flaws in their future procedures.

  The sounds of the sirens grew nearer and as they approached, the anxiety in his gut intensified. Many former contractors with military-style organizations became law enforcement officers, but that didn’t mean he would get an easy ride when the LEOs rolled up on this scene.

  Just because someone had the same mentality at one point in their life didn’t mean they presently had the same goals. Law enforcement officers had to answer to a hierarchy and public opinion, whereas contractors had more freedom—so long as they didn’t take advantage of it.

  Being in the limelight was for suckers.

  He wasn’t a sucker. “Judge DeSalvo, I know you want to do the right thing here, but I think we need to get you to a safe location.” He wrapped his arm around her shoulders, and surprisingly, she didn’t pull away. She seemed so strong, physically and emotionally, and yet, she leaned into him like she yearned for his support.

  She nodded, weakly.

  He held open his hand and she took it, allowing him to help her stand. She still gripped her briefcase as if it connected her to her life before the explosion. “You don’t need to sit out in the open and wait to take a bullet all in the name of doing the honorable thing.”

  She spit out a laugh, the sound in direct contrast to the serious scene around them. He was relieved to hear it, and happy he had been able to give her the ability. He walked with her, leading her toward his truck—the only place he knew that she would be guaranteed safety. As he helped her into the passenger seat, the first set of ambulances arrived.

  Her hair was disheveled, the blood was starting to dry on her cheeks and there was gravel on her chest from where she had lain upon the pavement, but aside from that she appeared outwardly unscathed—emotionally was another matter, but no ambulance or medical professional would be able to whisk away the trauma she had just endured.