Chapter 37
Chapter Thirty-Seven
Aurora hardly spoke on the drive to the courthouse. Outside, it looked like just another beautiful morning in West Oaks. The sun shone on the ocean, and joggers and roller-bladers crowded the sidewalks. But she felt like it was still night, and she hadn’t managed to wake up.
In the seat beside her, Lana reached for her hand. “Almost there.”
Two of Max’s bodyguards sat in the front seats. They were big, burly guys, and Aurora had missed their names. More bodyguards were traveling in the cars ahead of them and behind. Max was in one of those vehicles too, commanding the whole operation of getting her safely to testify.
But the one person she wanted to see wasn’t here.
Lana had spent the morning going over everything yet again. But Aurora couldn’t seem to hold on to her thoughts. “How long did you say this would take? I’m sorry. I know you already told me.”
Lana squeezed her hand reassuringly. “It’s okay. My questioning will last for about an hour. Then we’ll have a break, and it’ll be the defense lawyers’ turn. I can’t say how long they’ll want with you. Probably several hours, and then I’ll re-direct.”
“Right.” She wasn’t looking forward to the back and forth.
And if she didn’t get her head together, she was going to get mixed up and say all the wrong things.
No matter how she felt inside, she was doing something important.
Even if Brandon Wolfson somehow deserved what had happened to him, his wife still needed justice, too.
Focus, Aurora told herself. And this will all be over soon.
Then she could crawl back into her bed and not get up for the foreseeable future. She almost laughed, remembering that she didn’t even know where her bed was anymore. She had no interest in going back to her old penthouse apartment. Nor did she want to keep staying at Max’s.
“Do you think I can stay with you tonight?” she asked. “Until I figure out what I’m going to do.”
“Of course, you can. Anything you want. But Rory, things are going to get back to normal. I know that’s hard to believe right now, but we’ll get there.”
If only she could believe that. But her life had already been on precarious ground before this, even if she hadn’t seen it.
Since the moment she’d returned to West Oaks, she’d been building her foundation on top of her brother’s success.
She had to start over and do things right this time.
Find her own way. She just had no idea what that would look like.
And the thing she wanted to know most of all?
If Devon would be part of that life. She hadn’t had a chance to get in touch with him.
She’d even looked around for Sylvie that morning, hoping that Devon’s friend would know how to reach him.
But Sylvie apparently had the day off because she was nowhere to be found.
Finally, they pulled into the courthouse and spoke to a security guard. The man let them through the barrier, and they drove into an underground garage.
Max got out of the SUV beside hers. “Everyone, get into position. I want you all to be extra vigilant until we get upstairs.”
One of the bodyguards opened her door and escorted her out. Additional guards flanked her on every side. She felt like a prisoner, rather than someone being protected. Somehow, she had felt much safer when Devon was the only one beside her.
Max and Lana walked ahead. Aurora and her guards followed, their footsteps echoing against the concrete of the parking garage.
They rode an elevator to the main floor, where police officers met them and escorted them through the metal detectors.
Max and his team had to turn over their weapons.
Aurora kept her eyes open, checking every face she passed.
But she didn’t see the Escalade driver who had attacked her and shot Devon.
Nor did she see anyone that she recognized from the invasion of her apartment building.
But according to Lana, those men had worked for the Silverlake Syndicate, and Dominic had called off any further attempts on her. She wished she could feel reassured.
All this effort proved that everyone, especially her brother, knew she was still in danger.
Finally, they made it upstairs to the small courtroom where she would testify. It was far less ornate than courtrooms she had seen on TV. It seemed more like a conference room, with tables arranged in an odd configuration, and a few rows of benches for the audience.
Max’s guards pulled her off into a corner. Lana came over and whispered, “Dominic Crane is just arriving.”
At that same moment, the door to the court room opened.
Dominic Crane walked in, escorted by officers.
Aurora sucked in a breath. It was the first time she had seen him in person since right before Brandon Wolfson died.
The man was even taller than she remembered, his form lithe and lean.
His black hair was slicked back from his face, and he wore an expensive tailored suit.
His features and pale skin had an ethereal beauty, like he should’ve been a model instead of a mobster.
Next, the other two defendants came inside, but they were in prisoner jumpsuits instead of designer threads. Aurora guessed that Crane’s henchman hadn’t made bail like he did, but she didn’t care enough to ask Lana how it all worked. She preferred that these men weren’t out on the street.
She studied each man in turn. There was the guy with a pointed nose and glasses, who looked every bit as mean as the last time she’d seen him.
And then there was the man who’d pulled the trigger.
Eric Madden. His gray hair was pulled back into that same ponytail, and his hard gaze roved over the room, meeting hers. A tremor ran through her body.
The day they’d killed Brandon Wolfson, these men hadn’t known she was in the room. But she wasn’t hiding anymore. And she refused to be afraid. These men, or someone trying to help them, had wanted to silence her. But today, they would hear her voice. They wouldn’t be able to stop her.
“When can we start?” she asked Lana.
But Lana was staring at her phone, frowning. “Hold on, I just got a message from Eric Madden’s lawyer. It looks like he’s having some sort of delay.”
She got up to confer with the other two defense lawyers. They were all whispering furiously, as if they had no idea what to make of this development.
A woman came in carrying a tray of drinks. She made for Aurora’s side of the room, and Max stepped in front of her. “Can I help you with something?”
“Sorry, I’m with the clerk’s office. I was assigned to help out today. I thought you all might be thirsty.”
“Max, it’s fine.” Aurora waved the woman over. “I’d love a drink, thanks.”
The woman handed her a paper cup of coffee. It tasted terrible, but the clerk kept hanging around, smiling, so Aurora sipped as much of it as she could. Besides, the extra caffeine wasn’t a bad thing.
Lana came over to explain that they would have to wait a bit longer for Eric Madden’s lawyer. He’d had some kind of emergency, and no one else from his law office could fill in.
“If we don’t wait for him, we’re going to have to cancel and reschedule. I don’t want to do that.”
Aurora agreed. So, there was nothing they could do but wait.
But after about half an hour, her stomach started to gurgle in a concerning way. She dismissed it at first as just nerves. But after several more minutes, the churning got worse, and she had to ask for the bathroom.
“Wait a minute,” Max said. “Let me get my people in place in the hallways to secure the path.”
“Max, anybody in this building had to get past the security and the metal detectors. I cannot wait. This is an emergency.” If she didn’t get to the bathroom soon, she’d vomit in front of everyone. She didn’t want the defendants to see her in such a state.
Aurora barged past her brother, with her bodyguards scrambling to trail behind her.
The ladies’ room was just down the hall. A bodyguard went in first to confirm that no one else was inside. By then, Aurora was getting desperate. At the bathroom door, Max said, “Go ahead. But if you take too long, I’m going to have to send someone in to check on you.”
Without another word, she rushed inside, glaring at Max to leave her alone. She really didn’t want any witnesses for whatever her stomach was doing. She barely made it to the toilet in time before she started to retch.
What was going on? She’d barely eaten anything since yesterday. She couldn’t imagine that she had food poisoning. The coffee hadn’t been great, but this seemed like an extreme reaction.
Thankfully, Max didn’t make good on his threat to send anyone after her.
She felt like her body was turning itself inside out.
After a while, though, there didn’t seem to be anything else left in her digestive system.
But she was sweaty and feverish and felt completely gross.
She would have to clean herself up as best she could to make herself presentable.
Hopefully, washing her face and running her fingers through her hair would be enough.
She would’ve paid a hundred bucks for a toothbrush.
But when she exited the stall, she found someone standing by the sinks. Aurora gasped, jumping back.
It was Jennifer Scoville, Brandon Wolfson’s assistant.
Jennifer raised a finger to her lips, indicating that Aurora should stay quiet.
“You don’t seem to be feeling so well.” As if it were otherwise perfectly normal for her to be here.
“How did you get in here? Why are you at the courthouse at all? What is—”
Jennifer’s hand moved from behind her back. She was holding a small black revolver.
She pointed it at Aurora.
“You are going to stay very quiet and do exactly as I say. Either that, or you aren’t going to make it out of this building alive.”