Nine
Asia
“I’m listening,” Jack said, and I released a breath I didn’t even realize I was holding.
But I didn’t speak, suddenly less confident in my idea than I was seconds before.
And Jackson didn’t make this any easier.
His hard stare pinned me in place. He looked at me, studying me like he was waiting for me to prove I deserved the protection I was too prideful to ask for.
Even more than that, he was assessing me, ready to tell me I was a moron.
Or worse, tell me that I was going to get myself killed and that I wasn’t worth the risk of saving.
The way he looked at me left me feeling vulnerable, and that was fucking terrifying.
But Kathleen and Levi Griffin didn’t raise no bitch, and now wasn’t the time to pretend they had, not with everything—including my life—on the line.
“Shit’s bad,” I said, stating the obvious, and falling back on my years in the courtroom.
I knew how to lay out an argument and sway people to my side, and something told me I’d need every skill I had with Jackson.
When he said nothing, I continued, “Plan A is dead.”
I left no room for argument. Because I knew it was true.
I loved my condo with its thirteen foot ceilings, polished concrete floors, one bedroom, one and half baths, and a study that I turned into the reading nook of my dreams.
My home.
One of the few places I’d ever been able to call that.
Concrete proof of the little life I had managed to carve out for myself .
But it wasn’t safe.
I didn’t know if anywhere was safe, but as much as I loved my place, I was a sitting duck there.
Jack just stared at me, his expression still giving nothing away.
“So we need to find somewhere safe.”
He didn’t react to my “we,” which was interesting.
I wasn’t sure when that happened, when Jackson and I became a we . I told myself it was only common sense.
Jack was clearly strong, smart, and capable.
Sticking with him was the right call.
All that was true, but my gut told me it was more than that.
Jack and I as a we felt right, and given the absolute fucking horror around me, I had no interest in questioning it.
I prayed he felt the same.
“ If it gets sorted out,” he said, and I grimaced.
“It will,” I said with no hesitation. But as I glanced at the monitors and noticed even more of those people crowding the lawn, some of that certainty was called into question .
No.
I wouldn’t even allow myself to consider any other possibility. But until then, we needed a place to go.
“Your hotel is out of the question, and I don’t think going to the airport right now is a good idea, but you already know that,” I said.
He crinkled a brow. “I didn’t think lawyers got paid by the word. Want to get to the point, Counselor?”
“Ha-ha,” I said. “I’m just trying to paint a picture.”
“Trust me, I see the picture. What’s your idea?” he asked, shifting to cross his arms across his chest.
His massive biceps flexed, and while I was sure the posture was supposed to convey ease, it did just the opposite. Jack wasn’t sure he bought what I was attempting to sell, and my old tricks wouldn’t close the deal.
“Well, I clerked for Judge Hanlon. Do you know him?” I asked.
It was a stupid question. How would he know Judge Hanlon?
His expression told me he agreed with that assessment, but he still said, “No, I don’t know Judge Hanlon. Was that him in the courtroom?”
“Yeah, that’s him. Anyway, before he was a judge, he was a big-time personal injury lawyer. Made a fortune.”
“Interesting story, Asia,” Jack said.
He tapped his fingertips against his biceps, the only sign of his impatience outside of the dryness in his voice.
I felt myself smile. “Am I losing you?” I asked.
It wasn’t generally in my nature to tease, but when he wasn’t being scary, something about him brought out a more playful side. Maybe even because of the confusing, deadly situation we were in.
Still, I was never known to be the most easygoing person in the world, but Jackson gave me a run for my money.
“Asia, get to the point,” he said.
Despite the underlying harshness in his words, I got my desired response. He looked incrementally less tense than he had just moments ago, and that was something.
“Anyway, in Judge Hanlon’s personal injury practice, he ran across all types of people. Some good…others, less so,” I said.
“In personal injury? I mean, we’re talking about fender benders and chiropractors. What’s shady about that?” Jack asked.
“Yeah, that’s true, and for the most part, personal injury plaintiffs are just people who’ve been hurt trying to get what little compensation they can.
A lot of those people are broken and will never be whole again.
But there are scammers. In fact, there were rumors about twenty years ago that Judge Hanlon was a part of a ring.
They’d go around the Southeast staging car accidents and skimming ten, fifteen, twenty thousand from insurance companies who thought the cases were more trouble than they were worth pursuing.
It was a nice little racket for him,” I said.
“But?” Jack asked.
“But it made him paranoid. He was sure that eventually, someone would catch on. Or worse, the people he worked with would turn on him.”
“And so?” Jack arched a brow.
“And so he really got into self-defense. Started taking martial arts and swears to God that he is an expert in Krav Maga. ”
Jack’s lips turned down. “The guy who sat on the bench today?”
“Yeah, him.” I chuckled. “Anyway, that unleashed something in the judge, and he fell deep down the rabbit hole. Became a prepper and said he was going to be prepared for whatever might come,” I said.
“Meaning?” Jack asked.
“Meaning that when I was his clerk, in addition to my legal tasks, I was responsible for ensuring his stockpile was properly updated and maintained and that items were rotated out. Clearly the highest use of my legal degree.”
That got a smile out of Jack, and then he turned serious. “So you think the judge’s house might be the place to go to try to ride this out?”
“Yeah. In fact, it’s the only place I can think of. Like I said, my place is out of the question, your hotel is out of the question, and I don’t think wandering around the streets hoping to find somewhere safe is a good idea. But if we can get to Judge Hanlon’s, he’ll take us in,” I said.
“You sure about that?” he asked.
“I am. He’s…eccentric. But we always got along, and even though he has never, not once, cu t me any slack in court, he thinks fondly of me,” I said.
“So what’s the catch?” he asked.
“I wouldn’t really say it’s a catch, but there was one piece of advice Judge Hanlon didn’t take from his prepper friends,” I said.
“And what was that?” Jack asked.
“Everything I’ve read said to really make it for the long haul, you need to get away from population centers.
But while he waited for the end of the world, Judge Hanlon definitely enjoyed the creature comforts of city life.
So his house is on a half-acre, but it’s right in midtown.
One of those population-dense areas,” I said.
“One of those fancy McMansions I drove by on the way here?”
“Yeah.”
“You mean one of those places that screams, ‘Come loot me’?”
I nodded. “Yes, exactly that kind of place. But Judge Hanlon did make modifications. I don’t know all the changes, but I know he has custom windows, the walls have been fortified, and he has plenty of supplies. And it’s better than staying here. ”
Jack pushed off from the conference table where he was leaning and started to pace. He was thinking, and as anxious as I was to be privy to those thoughts, I held my tongue and let him work it out.
My instinct was to push, explain, argue him down until he came around to my way of thinking.
But I knew that wouldn’t work with him.
Just like I knew I couldn’t get to Judge Hanlon’s without him.
I hated that.
Hated that my future hinged on someone else. But I was also realistic. Jack was my way out, and it would be foolish—suicidal—to pretend otherwise.
“It could work,” he finally muttered, a thick finger stroking his jaw.
Not exactly a ringing endorsement, but I would take what I could get.
“It will work,” I said with a certainty that I didn’t necessarily believe, but one that I would indulge, because entertaining any other thought was completely beyond the question.
“So how do we get past those things?” I asked, glancing at the monitor .
Jack went silent.
Or more silent would probably be the more accurate way to describe it. It wasn’t like he had been gregarious before, but he was deep in contemplation now.
“They move slow. Uncoordinated. But enough of them together…”
I thought back to the carnage in the hallway, to the frantic, unyielding, unrelenting way Jorge tried to get to me.
“And you think a dark parking garage is probably not the place you want to try to figure them out?”
“The lawn, either,” he said.
He walked toward the monitors and then pointed at the one in the lower left. It was true that the things that gathered in front of the garage thinned, but what I saw on that monitor froze me in place.
There were dozens, thirty to fifty of those things, just meandering in front of the courthouse.
“So we can’t get to my car, and we can’t get to yours. Which means?” I said, turning my eyes to him, hoping he wasn’t going to say what I knew he would .
“Which means we’re on foot,” he said.
I snorted. “Fucking fantastic.”
But the pathetic attempt at a joke died in my throat when Jack locked his gaze on mine.
“Are you going to slow me down, Counselor?”
His voice was rough, threaded with menace that slid right under my skin.
I tried to laugh it off but sounded timid, even to my own ears. “I hope not.”
He didn’t even blink. “Not good enough. Try again.”
My pulse lurched, and I rolled my eyes, knowing I was stalling but needing a second. I looked at him again. His gaze hadn’t wavered. “You’re actually serious?”
He thinned his lips, and I couldn’t stop myself from thinking about the way they’d felt against my skin.
I locked my gaze on his.
He still didn’t relent. “Say it.”
I swallowed, gaze still steady on his. “I won’t slow you down, Jackson.”
For a long, terrible second he just stared at me. Then his lips lifted a fraction, his eyes bright with dark promise .
“Good girl.”
I squeezed my thighs together, trying to calm the insistent pulse that beat in time with my heart.
Fuck.
I was so screwed.