Chapter 14
FOURTEEN
RYKER
As I cooked bacon and eggs with toast for breakfast, Wes ambled into the kitchen in his pajama bottoms. Last night I hadn’t mentioned the visit with Mom. I’d wanted him to sleep.
“Hey.” He opened the refrigerator and pulled out a bottle of orange juice. “You’re up early for a Sunday.”
“We, um, we have to talk.” I turned the sizzling bacon in the frying pan as my pulse crept up. What should I tell Wes about the lawyer Casey had found? I didn’t want to give him false hope, but I’d have to tell Mom about it today in front of him.
“Okay. About what?” He poured juice into a tall glass and leaned his hip against the counter.
I set the bacon onto two plates and then flipped the fried eggs. “About Mom. We need to go visit her today.” I winced. I’d blurted it out, but there was no way to sugarcoat it.
“Today?” He stepped toward me. “But what about training with—”
“Casey knows about it.” I plated the eggs, and the toast popped out of the toaster.
“She called me yesterday when I was at his house. She says she misses us.” With a wrench in my chest, I coated the toast with butter and brought the plates to our dinette.
“Can you grab my coffee and bring silverware and the juice for me?”
“Yeah, sure.” He padded to the table with everything and set it down along with another glass. “Why would she call on the Fourth of July?” He dropped into a chair.
With a shrug, I said, “I don’t know. Maybe she remembered the times we spent the holidays with her?” I cut into an egg and the yolk spilled out. “Let’s get there early, so we can grab a shaded table.” I slid the egg into my mouth.
“Okay.” He stared at his plate of food. “Is there something you’re not telling me?”
“No, well…” I took a deep breath. “There’s a little more. Casey, through his dad, found a lawyer to look at her case for free. It’s a friend of a friend or something.” I peeked at him, his brows knitting. He was upset and trying not to show it. “Wes?”
“Yeah.” Propping his elbow on the table, he rested his cheek in his hand and pushed his bacon on his plate with his fork. “Do you think this lawyer can get her out?”
“I don’t know, maybe.” Picking up a slice of bacon, I bit into it. “Eat your food.” I pointed my fork at his plate.
“I will.” He bit into his toast. “How was Mom on the phone?”
“She sounded good.” What a fucking lie, but whatever.
“I’m calling the lawyer today. Casey sent me his cell phone number, and the guy told him to call anytime.
” It was Sunday, but tomorrow I had back-to-back repairs at the shop.
There might not be time. Plus, I’d wanted to talk to him before I saw Mom today.
“Okay.” He cut his eggs and ate some. “I’ll go shower after this and be ready.”
“Good.” Nodding, I poured some juice into a glass. I was glad I hadn’t mentioned this to him last night.
While Wes showered, I fell onto our sofa with my phone in my hand. It was time to call the lawyer and get his perspective. It was already after ten, so not too early on a Sunday. I dialed the number, and it rang a few times.
“Hello?” a man’s voice answered.
With my pulse ratcheting up, I said, “Uh, hi, I’m sorry to call on a Sunday, but this is Ryker Hart. I got your number from Casey Carter. My mom’s in jail for aiding and abetting and—”
“Oh yeah, your mom drove the getaway car and probably had no clue what she was getting herself into.” He chuckled. “I’ve already checked the court documents I have access to. She never should have taken the plea deal.”
“You have?” Shit, that was fast. Swallowing hard, I shifted on the couch. “When did you do all this?” How long had Casey held onto his number?
“On Friday,” he said. “I wanted to get a head start on it before the holiday weekend.”
“Oh.” I picked at a thread in my pajama bottoms. “I’m visiting my mom at the prison today. What should I tell her?” He’d have to speak with her, right?
“Tell her I’ll visit her this week, and we’ll need some papers signed for her to hire us.
Then we’ll dig deeper into her case and see what we can do.
” He paused. “Ryker, if she didn’t know what this Carl guy was doing, she shouldn’t be in jail.
I have a sneaking suspicion he’s a vindictive bastard and probably testified that she did.
Hence, the plea deal. His testimony against hers in a trial shouldn’t have been enough to convict, though,” he said.
“Do you have access to her cell phone? I’d like to go through their texts and see if there’s anything incriminating. ”
“I have her cell phone.” I’d have to charge it. We’d turned off the service, but the messages should still be there. “I’ll ask her what her passcode is today.”
“Good, it’s a start.” He inhaled deeply. “My husband, Jeremy, will help with the case. He’ll contact you as well.”
“Your husband?” I bit my lower lip. Casey said these guys were queer, but they worked together, too?
“Yeah, he’s still in law school at ASU, but he works as an intern at my dad’s firm, and he loves the detective shit. Hell, he wanted to be a detective at one point.” He chuckled. “He has backdoor ties to the police department, so he’s great at sniffing around.”
Damn, Casey had found a winner here. “That’s reassuring, Gabe, thank you.” The stiffness in my chest relaxed. Was this really free? It seemed like a lot of work for him. “Are there any fees for this?”
“No, I don’t charge for cases like your mom’s.
I enjoy this kind of work, and it balances all the mundane bullshit I normally have to deal with.
” He sighed. “I’d be working as a public defender, but there’s so much politics involved and, for now, my dad needs me at the firm.
So, letting me take cases pro bono that I enjoy is how he placates me. ” He snickered.
This Gabe was a good man. I could trust him. “Thank you, Gabe. I can’t tell you how much my family appreciates this.”
“I hate seeing people sitting in prison who shouldn’t be there. It’s my pleasure.”
“Well, thanks again.” I glanced out the window at the sunny afternoon. The visiting yard would be sweltering, but I had good news for Mom.
“You’re welcome, and I’ll be in touch. Bye.”
“Bye.” I ended the call. I’d talk to Casey later. First, I had to see how badly off Wes would be after seeing Mom.
After getting through security at the prison, a few guards escorted a group of us to the visitor’s yard. I made a beeline for the picnic table under the mesquite trees and sat on the bench.
Wes wandered behind me, his head lowered, and his hands stuffed into the pockets of his athletic shorts.
“Hey, you okay?” I patted the seat next to me. “Talk to me.” He’d been silent the entire ride here.
“I’m fine.” With a huff, he fell in next to me and folded his hands on the concrete table. “It’s just that with every visit, she looks so much older.”
“I suppose being in jail would age a person.” But she couldn’t color her hair, or chose not to, and hadn’t cut it since she came in here. So, not only was it growing gray, but it was straggly. No wonder she looked older.
Inmates entered the yard through a doorway in their orange jumpsuits and wandered around, finding their visitors.
I spied Mom, her brown hair falling past her shoulders. The uniform hung off her frame, more than at our last visit. She was wasting away in this place. I held up my hand. “Mom.”
Wes flinched and clenched his jaw.
The first few times, he’d run to see her. Not now. As my gaze met hers, a broad smile stretched across her lips, and she hurried to us.
“Boys.” She patted Wes’s shoulders from behind, kissed his cheek and then mine. “Look at you both, handsome as ever.” She sat across from us, her eyes wrinkling at the corners.
“Hey, Mom.” The edge of Wes’s lip twitched.
I wiped sweat from my brow. “It’s hot today.” I focused on her. “How are you doing?” If I informed her of the letter, what would her response be? I couldn’t. Especially in front of Wes.
“I’m okay. Best as can be.” She scanned around her. “They’ve got me working in the laundry. I thought you boys were hard on your clothes. Honestly, I don’t know what these girls do to ruin these fancy jumpsuits.”
“Yeah…” I forced a quick grin. “I spoke to the lawyer today. His name’s Gabe Johnson, and he’ll be contacting you. He seems to know his stuff.” I peeked at Wes.
“Can he help?” Wes chewed his lower lip.
“Sounds like he might.” I eyed Mom. “He believes Carl told them you knew about the burglary, and that’s why they offered you a plea deal.” She had to understand that Carl was bad news.
She looked away for a beat, pursing her lips. “I heard more about Carl. He was violent, so they extended his sentence.” She rubbed her fingers down the sides of her nose. “He’s still trying to find me and what happened to me.”
Maybe he wrote the letter to check whether she was incarcerated. “So, you don’t want me to contact him anymore, right?”
“What?” Wes glared at me and then turned it on her. “Mom, why would you want to contact that asshole?”
“I…I was weak. I had an off day and…I don’t know, honey.” She freed a ragged sigh. “But then I heard he made a shank and stabbed another inmate.” She shook her head. “I want nothing to do with him.” She set her jaw.
“He stabbed someone? In prison?” I stared at her.
The guy was not just an asshole. He was dangerous.
I had to get her out of here. Sure, this was a minimum-security prison, but anything could happen.
“Mom, I’ll need your passcode for your phone.
Gabe wants to get into it and review your text messages with Carl. ”
“Why?” She raised a brow.
Leaning forward, I said, “Because if there’s no hard evidence you knew about the burglary, he might free you. Maybe even expunge your record.” I studied her. She’d always seemed so resigned to her fate.
Her cheeks pinked. “But there are some things you shouldn’t see.” She tensed the corner of her mouth.
“Like what?” I furrowed my brows. I could handle almost anything, but…oh. “You didn’t, uh…”