Chapter 8
EIGHT
Orla
Ijumped when the doors closed behind us, the sound echoing throughout the room. Since when did I get so jumpy?
Viper and Savage had come with me to support Sheridan, and I was sandwiched in between them on the small pew behind the prosecutor’s table.
Neal wasn’t here yet, and they’d squirrelled Sheridan away so she could be called out to testify.
She’d been in a bad way for days knowing that she was going to have to confront this, and look at her ex-husband.
She’d made sure Ace didn’t come, because Neal may not make it out of here if he did.
I’d been there through it all, through their messy divorce, through the bruises and the assaults, through the multiple rapes where she’d told me she was fine. I’d looked after the girls when she couldn’t do it herself.
If he didn’t go away for his crimes to her, let alone his crimes against this town, we were all fucked.
“Relax,” Viper leaned down to give me a pep talk. He may look like a hulking beast and have questionable morals when it came to protecting the club, but I knew how to knock the smile off his face when he needed it.
“Don’t tell a woman to relax, Hoyt Doyle,” I spat at him. “I’ll crunch my fist into your ballsack.”
Savage let out a bark of laughter just as the doors opened to Morena walking in with Hawk.
She squished her way over to sit beside me, pushing Viper out of the way.
Hawk sat on the other side of her, pushing Viper further down.
He was sulking that I’d full named him in public, but I didn’t give a damn. The boy needed to learn.
Today was the first day I hadn’t been locked up in a room with Bear, and I felt his absence more than I ought to. I didn’t even know what we were, hell I was his prisoner until Matteo was found and then who the hell knew what we would do.
We’d never been good with labels.
Fuck, that was because of me, but all I knew was I didn’t want my time with Bear to end. I wanted to stay.
The door opened at the side and Neal was guided in. He was wearing a suit, his handcuffs removed as he took his seat, looking around. His eyes caught mine and that sick grin lifted on his face as he winked at me.
I felt sick to my stomach. He really thought he’d get away with this, and for a moment, I feared he would. As chief of police he knew a lot of people; judges, lawyers, and criminals. He might get away with it.
Morena held onto my hand, squeezing it, forcing me to look away from him. I hated that he thought he would get away with it.
“Where’s Alex?” I asked Hawk.
“He’s doing a run,” he whispered back. “He’ll come here if he gets it done in time. Don’t worry, no one is going to hurt you or Sheridan today.”
I believed that. There were enough of them in here with me that no one would dare fuck with us, but I still didn’t want to be here.
You’re here for Sheridan.
I had to keep telling myself that or I’d leave. My ability to put up with bullshit was gone these days, and I just wanted to wrap myself around Bear and forget the world even existed.
The courtroom fell into a hush when the prosecutor came in, and the judge followed not long after. The jury had been bristling for a few minutes. I looked over at them and noticed a few people I recognized from around town, but no one I was too familiar with.
At least they’d picked some people who wouldn’t be biased when it came to Neal. The court fell into session, and I watched as the prosecutor gave it to Neal in not so subtle ways. Having his lawyer try and silence her was humorous. She didn’t back down. I liked that.
As the case wound on, my eyes flicked over to him as he watched with glee at the way his lawyer tried to push the prosecutor off her game, but she caught him at every jibe.
I hated how cocky he was. He was facing a fucking life sentence and he was acting like this was a show, a game for him to win. I couldn’t stand him.
I really wanted to kill him.
The realisation that I wanted to end someone’s life was new to me.
Sure, I’d shot Matteo back in Italy, but he’d fucked me in the head so bad that I was barely myself.
Bear had put the pieces back together over the last few weeks together, and I felt human again, I felt like the old Orla was coming back.
But Neal…fuck him. He had destroyed my best friend. Until Ace came home, he was trying to destroy his own goddamn daughters’ too. Fuck him. He had no rights to them anymore, not after what he did.
Hawk put his hand on mine, and I realised I’d balled my fist. “He’s not going to win and if he does somehow get off, he’ll be six feet under before he steps within a foot of Sheridan and the girls. Trust me.”
I did trust them. All of them would die for their women, or their club members’ women. They were a family.
They are my family.
I’d been brought in at a young age when I had nowhere to go and they had given me a job, a roof over my head, and the friends I would see until the end.
Even if Bear wasn’t serious about wanting more with me, I always had the club.
I hoped.
“I hate that Sher has to do this,” I whispered to him.
Hawk nodded. “Me too. There’s a reason Ace ain’t here today.”
I could only imagine.
“Is he with Alex?”
Hawk nodded. “Yeah, he needed to keep busy.”
“The prosecution calls Sheridan Sullivan to the stand,” the prosecutor said loudly. The doors opened, and I heard the tapping of her boots on the floor as she passed us. She held her head up high as she passed Neal’s table without giving him one glance.
Good girl.
You’re strong, Sher, you got this.
She took her seat and sat there waiting for the questions to start.
I listened to her tell everyone about what that asshat did to her, and what he tried to do to their daughters. The tears pricking her eyes were real, and I chanced a glance at Neal to see him absolutely seething.
He leaned over to say something to his lawyer.
He knew this was damaging.
I felt a smile tug at the corners of my mouth. It was my time to put my hand on Hawk’s, his fist clenching on his jeans.
“If we knew it was this bad, we would have come home sooner,” he said, softly.
I could hear the anguish in his voice, the same that I’d heard in Ace’s when he had found out.
We’d all been thick as thieves in school.
Ace, Hawk and Bear were my best friends as much as Sheridan was.
For a time, I blamed her for them leaving.
They followed Ace, and he was heartbroken.
But I knew it wasn’t her fault. It was just my hormonal and broken mind at the time, and yet she hadn’t let me push her away.
“That’s all the questions I have.”
The prosecutor made her way back to her table. She never gave anything away with her expressions. It was both impressive and thoroughly annoying.
“We have just one, your Honour,” the defence lawyer said, standing and buttoning his jacket. My eyes shot to Neal who had looked over at me, a cocky look to his face.
“Oh shit,” I said softly as I looked over at the dickhead making his way over to speak to Sheridan. I saw her body stiffen but she didn’t flinch away, she waited for his question. We were all on needles, including the prosecutor, waiting for this asshole’s question.
“You say you were beaten, raped, verbally abused,” he started. “But while all this was going on…did you ever say no?”
The air left my lungs in an incredulous gasp. “Is he fucking serious?”
“Shh,” Morena tried to hush me. “Don’t give him the reaction he wants.”
“Did I tell him no to hitting and beating me?” Sheridan asked.
“Did you ever tell your husband no when he supposedly raped you?”
“That fucker,” I hissed out. “She was too scared to.”
The prosecutor turned around and held her finger to her lips. “Don’t let him rile you up. The judge will lock you up for disturbing the court. Look at the faces on the jury, they aren’t buying a thing. We expected this, just let it play out.”
I did as she asked, and I looked over at the jury who were horrified that the question was being asked of her.
“To answer your question, no, I didn’t say no to being raped.
It’s implied that I don’t want to be raped, hence the negative connotation on the term itself.
I also did not ask to be beaten to a bloody pulp, have bones broken, have concussions and to have my daughters subjected to witnessing their mother being beaten by their father. ”
“But you never actually told him no, so how can this be anything but a little bit of rough sex?”
“Rough sex does not usually end up-”
“Thank you,” he cut her off before she could finish. “No further questions.”
Hawk was trying to stand, but both Morena and I pulled him back down. “No,” I said. “You can’t do anything. It will only go toward freeing him.”
“You are free to go, Ms. Sullivan,” the judge declared. She got down off the chair and walked past without looking at us, holding her head up high. I didn’t miss the tears tumbling down her cheeks though.
The judge called for a recess before the next witness was called, and I all but ran out the doors to find Sheridan. She was in the bathroom, sobbing in a stall. I opened the door, and she looked up at me, her eyes red and puffy already.
“Come here,” I pulled her up into my arms, just like all the times she couldn’t leave the asshole through the years. “It’s okay. He’s not going to get away with it. I promise.”
After a few minutes, Sheridan pulled from my arms with a sad smile before she splashed her face and dabbed it dry.
“Come on,” she said, taking my hand. “Let’s go to your shop. I need a tattoo.”
“Actually, you may need to come with me. My stuff isn’t there.”
“Why?” she asked, confused.
“Long story, just come to Alex’s.”
“No one knows where he lives,” Sheridan replied in shock as her eyes bugged out of her head.
“Wait…so no one knows he’s kept me locked up in his house since we got back?” I asked her, just as the others joined us in the hall.
“Has he?” Sheridan asked, her smile turning into more.