13. Rory
RORY
Aknock at the door interrupted my morning routine.
It stopped my search for my favorite pair of heels.
I groaned as I walked toward the front door.
When I checked the peephole, Curry stood with a bouquet in his hand.
My heart sped up with fear. There was no way I was getting a delivery of black roses to my home.
I slowly opened the door. The fear that brewed in my chest must have been on my face.
“Morning, Rory. These are from Brick. He got me playing delivery man now too,” Curry said.
“Thanks, Curry. Appreciate you,” I replied as I took the flowers from him.
Relief filled me as I unwrapped two dozen red roses. I looked around for a note, but my phone rang instead. It was Aasim. “Good morning,” I greeted him.
“Morning, sweetheart. Do you like the flowers?” he asked, sounding groggy.
The image of him lying on his back in his black fitted boxers made me miss him.
“I wish you’d come instead,” I admitted.
“Shit got hectic yesterday. Why don’t you pack a bag? I’ll come scoop you after work. I missed you sleeping next to me.”
“I can’t wait. See you then, love.”
We disconnected the call, and I headed back to the closet.
I packed my overnight bag and found my favorite heels.
The black patent leather So Kate’s went perfect with my red pantsuit.
After grabbing everything, I headed out the door.
Dobbs grabbed my overnight bag as we went to meet Curry at the car.
When Aasim suggested having them around, I was skeptical.
Dobbs and Curry had given me a sense of safety since they had been around.
The traffic was minimal, so we made it to my office quicker than usual.
Before heading in, I stopped at the coffee shop next door to get my favorite drink.
A large hazelnut shaken espresso was my current fixation.
Dobbs and Curry stayed in the car in front of the building while I went into the office.
Mark was already at his desk when I walked. “Good morning, Mark.”
“Good morning, boss lady,” he replied.
I made my way into my office, put my bag and coffee down, then sat at my computer.
My thoughts went to Aasim. I hated we had to cut our time short yesterday.
Colors and Linda were very special to me.
I never imagined taking a man to the place that I called my peace.
Being with Aasim made me do things I said I wouldn’t do.
His painting was horrible, but I appreciated the effort he put in.
I’d been in my office, prepping defense on a new case, when my email dinged.
It was a message from Danny asking me to come to his office.
I rolled my eyes at the thought of having to speak to him.
He didn’t mention what he wanted, which really annoyed me.
I didn’t head to his office right away. Thirty minutes later, I locked my computer, grabbed my phone, and headed to see Danny.
The walk down the hall wasn’t long. I waved to a couple of people I saw along the way. When I reached his slightly ajar office door, I lightly knocked.
“Come in,” Danny said.
I walked into the office and said, “Hey, I got your email. What did you need to see me about?”
“I’m working on a RICO case similar to the one you did a few years ago for Devin “Dez” Thomas. I figured you could give me some pointers.”
I took a seat across from him, unbuttoned my blazer, and folded my hands in my lap. As long as we’d been working together, Danny had never asked for my help. Devin’s case was a hard loss for me. The loss was even worse because Devin took it so hard.
He acted like my defense strategy was the issue. The real issue was he wasn’t honest about everything he dabbled in. In the end, the case of the state against him was strong because there were several informants. To this day, I still lose sleep some nights because of the loss.
“Why would you want pointers on a case that I lost? It’s a little odd, even for you to ask me about any case, but especially that one. What’s going on here?” I asked with a hint of annoyance in my voice.
The smirk that came over Danny’s face made me uncomfortable. “The great Rory Towns lost such a high-profile case. I just want to know what you would have done differently?”
What an asshole. I got up without another word to Danny.
I hardly ever spoke to him, and suddenly, he was calling me to his office to discuss one of the hardest cases of my career.
An eerie feeling formed in the pit of my stomach that I couldn’t shake.
The moment I got back to my office, I closed the door and dialed Aasim’s number. He answered on the first ring.
“Hey, sweetheart,” he said.
“Hey. I just had a weird conversation with one of my coworkers.”
“Weird how?”
“He brought up a case I lost a while ago, pretending he needed advice. It wasn’t so much what he said. It was the way the entire conversation made me feel.”
“Which was?”
“Uneasy. It made me feel uneasy. There’s been a knot in the pit of my stomach since I left his office. I know this is going to sound crazy, but he goes to this bar after work. Can we follow him?”
“We can do whatever you want to do. Do you think this has something to do with the black roses?”
“Maybe. It could be nothing, but it feels like something.”
“Alright. I’m making my way to you now. We can leave and head over to this bar he goes to.”
We disconnected the call, and I hopped on my computer.
I looked at Devin’s case file before. At the mention of his name, I needed to revisit it.
This time, when I looked him up, it mentioned his recent release from prison.
He’d been out for a month, which was right around the time I received the first set of black roses.
While I went through the pages of the case, I remembered how angry Devin was, how he continued to blame me, even when I tried to recuse him myself.
One of the last things he said to me was I would pay for getting him sent to jail.
His case made me hate my job. I was na?ve to think he wasn’t the criminal mastermind the district attorney painted him out to be.
After working together to build his defense, I realized just how wrong I was.
His case caused me so much inner turmoil.
It was the first time client confidentiality made me uncomfortable.
While I sat in the testimony and listened to the informants speak on some of the ruthless acts he committed, it became harder to defend him with a clear conscience.
Every day at trial pushed me to the limits of professionalism.
Regardless of how I felt, I argued his case the same way I would have any other client.
When he lost and questioned my defense, I questioned myself.
I drove myself crazy for months, going over every question I’d asked witnesses.
It took Ava literally shaking me to my senses one day to make me realize I was driving myself crazy.
The thought of Devin made shivers roll down my spine.
He was a calculated, smooth-talking, criminal mastermind—a man I never wanted to cross paths with again.
A little after five, I got a text from Aasim.
Sim: Outside
Me: Be right there.
I grabbed my bag then headed downstairs to meet him. As I exited the building, I noticed his and Curry’s cars parked on the corner. Dobbs handed Aasim my overnight bag from this morning. Aasim smiled when he saw me walking toward them. He was posted up in front of his car, looking handsome.
“I missed you,” I said as I reached him.
He pulled me in for a hug and kissed my cheek. “I missed you more, sweetheart.”
“Danny should come out of the building any minute now.”
“Then let’s make sure we don’t miss him,” Aasim said then winked at me. He opened the passenger side door for me to get in. Once I was in the truck, he closed the door behind me and walked over to the driver’s seat.
“Are Dobbs and Curry coming too?” I asked.
“They’re going to trail him with us to make sure we don’t lose him. Once we get to wherever he’s going, it’s just you and me.”
Aasim’s tone was calm and reassuring, while my heartbeat palpitated in my chest. I looked out the rearview mirror, keeping a look out for the window of my office. Music from the radio filled the quietness between us. We weren’t there long before I spotted Danny coming out of the building.
“There he is. He just hopped into the black BMW coupe that was parked right in front of the building,” I said.
Aasim picked up his phone and sent a text; I assumed to Dobbs and Curry.
We didn’t move until Danny’s car came into view, and then we pulled out.
The traffic caused us to almost lose him, but we found him again.
Danny drove like a crazy person, but Aasim kept up.
Eventually, he pulled up to the strip bar Lush City.
We parked across the street from the bar but still kept a view of the door.
“Now, we sit and wait to see what he does next,” Aasim said.
“I’m sorry about all of this. I know this isn’t what you had in mind when you told me to pack a bag.”
Aasim turned to look at me. “Do you think anything is more important to me than keeping you safe? We’ll have plenty of time to have relaxing evenings once all of this is behind us.”
I reached for his hand as he took mine into his and kissed the back of it. The simple gesture made me melt under his touch. We sat in the car for a couple of hours before Danny walked back out. I looked on in disbelief while I noticed who he walked out with.
I covered my mouth in shock at what I saw. “I can’t believe him. That’s Devin, the former client he was asking me about. What the hell is he doing here with him?”
“In my world, he’s known as Dez. If he’s here with Danny, that dude is up to no good,” Asim said.
“Wait. How do you know Devin?” I asked.