3.
C AT
I kept my eyes on the bailiff in front of me and only spared a passing glance at the table where Joseph was sitting with his legal team. The sight of him unnerved me so much that I had to physically restrain myself from sprinting out of the courtroom.
You’re a badass, Catherine Abigail! A total badass who found a way to make sure Joseph couldn’t ruin any more lives or fuck over his country and government the way he had been fucking you over all these years. If you run away now, he’s going to win and you’ll never forgive yourself. Stay strong!
I opened the door on the railing that separated the spectators from the well of the courtroom and avoided looking in Joseph’s direction, but it didn’t make any difference whether I was looking at him or not. I could feel the heat of his gaze on me, his anger hanging in the air like humidity.
After living with him for years, I could gauge his mood just by the way he sat in his chair, and when the bailiff led me into the courtroom for my testimony, I saw Joseph sitting upright and tense. I cut my eyes to the bailiff’s back when I saw his body start to turn in my direction and never looked back at him.
But now, as I climbed the steps to the witness stand, I had no choice but to turn and look out over the courtroom.
Mom raised a strong and confident young woman. Don’t fail her now, Cat! Shoulders back, chin up, and don’t you dare look down like some meek dishrag of a woman. You face him just like you’ve faced the rest of the challenges in your life - head-on and ready to rumble!
He sent someone - no, multiple people - to end you just so you couldn’t make it to this place where you’re sitting right now. What would have happened if they had gotten to you? What would the girls have seen? Would they have been safe? I bet he didn’t even think about that, or worse yet, he had one of his many contingency plans for just that scenario.
He barely paid any attention to Charlotte and has never even met Mackenzie. Do you think he would have given the order to spare their lives? If he had, what would have become of them in his care?
Fuck him! Stop being a pussy and look up, Cat. Don’t let him win. Show him how strong you are!
I lifted my chin and let my eyes slowly scan the courtroom from left to right, hoping I’d find someone or something to focus on so I didn’t have to look at Joseph. I was studying the prosecutor, who was busily arranging papers on the table in front of him when movement toward the back caught my eye.
I looked over the prosecutor’s bent head and found my army of biker ex-cons watching me from their seats in the back of the courtroom, each with a look of worry and concern on their face.
Ajax winked and blew me a kiss, and I couldn’t help but smile at the audacity of the man. When I looked to his right, I found Toris baring his teeth like a wild animal before he shook his head and then threw it back in a silent roar. I had to bite my lip to keep from smiling, and when he looked back at me, I found that he was trying very hard to hold back a smile too. Lurk and Sarge were next to him, both glaring at Joseph so hard that I expected him to combust any second, but Fish was the one who made me lose control.
He stood up and pointed at me before he flexed his arms like he was a championship bodybuilder and then put them in front of him and flexed again before he gave me the same ferocious look Toris had.
I tried to hold my laughter in by slapping my hand over my mouth, but that just made me snort, which always gave me the giggles. I cleared my throat and looked at my feet when the judge cleared his throat. When I looked back at my protectors, they were all sitting sedately, wearing serene expressions as if they hadn’t just tried to make me lose it in a federal courtroom.
Fuck Joseph! On his best day, he couldn’t be half the man that any of my friends lined up in the back were, and he knows it. Everyone knows it. That’s why he’s such a dick - because he doesn’t have a personality to fall back on.
I hope my testimony wraps up the case and the judge doesn’t just throw the book at him but beats the shit out of him with it.
I tipped my head back haughtily and looked at Joseph with the most condescending look of disgust I could muster. I had to resist laughing out loud when I saw him wither - his shoulders dropping slightly as his eyes widened in fear.
That’s right, bitch! Be scared!
Joseph leaned closer to his attorney and whispered something that made his brows furrow before he looked at Joseph and then started whispering furiously. When he shook his head, I saw him get that stubborn look I’d come to hate so much. The attorney faced the front again and cleared his throat before he said, “Your honor, before we proceed, my client would like to make a motion to take the plea deal that was offered.”
“The deal was rescinded the second we started this trial,” the judge reminded the attorney.
“My client doesn’t want to put his wife . . . ex-wife through such a traumatic experience. He would like to throw himself on the mercy of this court and ask that the plea deal be . . .”
“No!” I yelled without thinking.
When I realized what I had done, I whipped my head around to look at the judge and found him studying me. He asked, “Mrs. Holcomb, do you have something you’d like to say?”
“My name is Ms. Smithson-Anders, your honor, and the only thing traumatic about this experience is the thought that it might drag on for even longer than it already has. I’ve been away from my children for a week now, and while I desperately want to see them again, I want to speak up about what I know. I’m willing to sacrifice a few more days without them to do that.”
The judge, apparently already fed up with Joseph’s legal team and their bullshit, looked back at my ex-husband and shrugged before he said, “She doesn’t seem traumatized at all. This trial will proceed as scheduled.”
I looked back at the men who were there to support me and smiled proudly. They were grinning from ear to ear as they held their hands up in a silent golf clap. It took everything I had to resist standing up and taking a bow.
I would never forget the pride that bubbled inside me as I watched my newfound friends silently applaud or the look of shock and defeat on Joseph’s face when it registered that the woman he’d tried to break down for years had finally found her voice and was going to use every ounce of anger and courage inside her to make sure he paid for his crimes.
It was an empowering feeling that I would never forget.
◆◆◆
“Well, this is a feeling I never thought I’d have again,” Toris mused before he slumped down on the bench and stretched out his legs to cross them at the ankles.
“What do you mean?” I asked.
“Sitting in a courthouse waiting for a verdict. Even though it’s not for me, I’m still nervous.”
Fish laughed before he said, “I was thinking the same thing.”
“I took a plea deal so I didn’t have to deal with all of this shit,” Lurk said with a shrug.
“Isn’t that like admitting that you’re guilty?” I asked.
“Abbie-Cat, I couldn’t even count the number of illegal things I’d done by that time in my life. Luckily, they only charged me with five of them.”
I winced and asked, “Did you spend a long time in prison?”
“Some people believe it wasn’t enough.”
“That was the most evasive answer I’ve ever heard,” I said as I glared at Lurk. He grinned and shrugged his shoulders. I knew I wasn’t going to get any more information, so I asked, “How old were you when you first went to jail?”
“I’d say I was probably . . .” Lurk looked up as if he was calculating something and finally answered, “Ten.”
“You went to prison at ten ?” I asked in outrage.
“You didn’t say prison, Abbie-Cat.”
“Jail. Prison. Same thing.” The men all started laughing, and I leaned forward to look at the ones down the row to my left before I asked, “It’s not?”
“County jail sucks. You’ve got short-timers who think they’re badasses and men who are awaiting trial, know they’re about to be long-timers, and are mad at the world,” Toris answered.
“And the food really sucks in county,” Ajax added with a disgusted look. “It’s much better in the pen unless you’re on lockdown and they only serve sandwiches for weeks at a time.”
“They do that?” I asked.
“It took me two years after my release before I even considered eating a sandwich of any kind,” Sarge admitted.
Fish agreed and added, “Still not my favorite thing to eat, but I can church it up with some good stuff that’s out in the free world.”
“Church it up?” I asked.
“Pickles. Lettuce. Tomatoes. Anything other than bologna, cheese, and dry bread with packets of mayo and mustard.”
“Yeah, but the peanut butter ones were the worst,” Toris complained. “Not enough peanut butter and barely any jelly at all.”
“He’s right,” Lurk agreed. “There’s a science to a good PB&J, and they don’t follow it at all.”
“And you had to eat sandwiches for lunch every single day?”
“During lockdown, we got bran cereal and powdered milk for breakfast and then a sandwich for lunch and another for dinner,” Ajax explained.
“Isn’t it illegal to feed you food like that?” I asked innocently.
“They can’t exactly trust the inmates with flatware in their cells, even if they are plastic, so they only give you basics when you’re on lockdown.”
“How can you eat ham and Swiss without pickles and lettuce? That’s just . . .”
“Ham and Swiss?” Ajax asked. “Did you miss the part where he said bologna and cheese or peanut butter and jelly? There was no ham, and the cheese wasn’t Swiss. It was that shit that never goes bad.”
“Never goes bad? What do you mean?”
“I tested the theory while I was in solitary,” Lurk chimed in. “I took a slice and stuck it to the wall beside the door to see how long it would stay. Damn thing never fell down, it just got hard and crusty. By the third week, it looked like an orange square of drywall.”
“Man, I kind of miss Thursday chicken,” Fish said wistfully. “That shit was good, and there was a guy who worked in the kitchen who would give you an extra piece for three dollars in stamps.”
“Fish Fridays. Those were good too,” Lurk agreed. “Not great fish, but at least it was something different.”
“I liked the chicken patties. I’ve never been able to find those on the outside, though.”
Ajax leaned forward and looked at Toris before he said, “Sam’s Club.”
“Really?” Toris asked in awe. He pulled his phone out and started scrolling before he said, “That’s freaking awesome!”
“So, you’re telling me that prison food is like a more horrible version of school cafeteria food.”
“Yes,” they all said at the same time.
“And jail food is even worse than that?” Again, they agreed in unison. “Well, I guess I should make sure I stay out of trouble, huh?”
“There are many reasons you shouldn’t get locked up, and food is the least of them,” Ajax pointed out.
“If he doesn’t get convicted and they let him out, he’s going to kill me. I can’t let him do that, so I’m going to have to figure out how to kill him first.”
“Shit!” Ajax yelled as he sat forward and looked at me in horror. Toris, Sarge, and Fish were staring at me with the same expression, and the look on their faces was almost comical.
At the same time, Lurk reached over and nudged my shoulder. When I looked at him, he put a finger in front of his lips and then swirled it around in the air before he touched his ear.
“Are there people listening to us?” I whispered.
“Even if there aren’t you never, ever admit to a crime in mixed company, Abbie-Cat!” Lurk hissed.
“Oh, my bad.” I winced before I whispered, “Sorry.”
“One of us needs to teach this girl some self-preservation,” Lurk mumbled before he leaned back against the wall. He frowned at me before he said, “As if we wouldn’t take care of shit if it came down to it anyway.”
I wasn’t sure, but I thought he had just implied that they were planning to kill Joseph if he got out of prison. I wanted to ask, but I kept that earlier scolding in mind and planned to ask them later when we were out in the open and I was positive no one was listening.
“I can see the wheels turning in your head, Abbie-Cat, and let me just say that there is always someone listening.”
“Not always.”
“Siri!” Fish said loudly. Three phones made a sound, and a robotic voice in a British accent asked, “How can I help you?” Point made, Fish smiled smugly and said, “See what I mean?”
“Holy shit.”
“Yeah. Ain’t nothing holy about how hard it is to commit a crime these days. It’s downright shameful,” Lurk grumbled.
“Uh, yeah. That’s what I meant.”
Lurk didn’t think I was funny, but the other guys were still laughing when the bailiff opened the door and motioned us back into the courtroom for the verdict. Ajax nudged me ahead of him, and when I still hesitated, Fish grabbed my hand to tug me in that direction.
I was happy that he didn’t let go when we were seated, not that he had a choice. I was sure that my grip was probably beginning to cut off his circulation.
It felt completely natural to throw my arms around him and bury my face in his neck when the judge announced that Joseph had been found guilty on all charges and wouldn’t be leaving prison anytime soon.
As happy as I was, it made me a little glum when the judge started banging his gavel and Fish let me go so I could face forward again
I looked at him as he leaned down, touched his forehead to mine, and whispered, “I told you that you were a badass!”
“How could I be anything else with you in my corner?”