Chapter 4 #2
She leans back in her chair, exhaling so heavily the hair that sweeps across her face dances briefly. It’s sexy as hell, despite how pissed off she is about the situation I’ve forced her into. “How the hell have you avoided jail for so long?” she deadpans.
“Money.” I shrug obnoxiously.
“So why can’t you pay someone off this time? Why do you need me?”
“Because it’s different this time.” My words hold a hostile tone as I think about where I actually was that night. Where I was when I was apprehended.
“How so?”
“Aren’t you going to ask me if I did it?” I tilt my head, my voice rasping slightly as I change the subject. “I bet you’re dying to know how I got into the Mayor’s office undetected. How I put a gun to his head, and?—”
She visibly shudders .
Eventually, she shakes her head. Maybe she’s starting to understand that not all questions have answers, and some are just better hidden. Her presence today means she recognizes that she doesn’t get a say in this. I made it clear last night; she belongs to us now. She belongs to me.
“They say you’re the best. So prove it.”
She sighs out loud, exasperation warring with her exhaustion. “I don’t know what you expect me to do. If you don’t give me something, I can’t?—”
“I thought we agreed on no games, Cassidy.”
She shivers as her name falls from my lips.
It irks me that she’s acting innocent when I know full well that fucker who she represented only yesterday was just as guilty of his crimes as I am of my previous ones.
The asshole has been painted all over the news.
There’s no escaping it. He did the crime, but Cassidy Caruthers saved him with her ruthless ambition to fight the law.
“Do your job,” I snap.
“I can’t speak to the judge without the right information. So either you help me or you get moved to a penitentiary and await a trial.”
That’s all it takes for me to realize the gravity of the situation.
Prison doesn’t scare me, I’ve paid my time more than once for misdemeanors when I was younger.
It was a way for my uncle to keep me in line.
It worked; to a certain extent. However, I’m not in a rush to return to those walls, confined to my own solitary because I know that’s where I’ll be heading if Cassidy fails.
“I’m here to help,” she reminds me. “Nothing more to it.”
“Get me bail and we won’t have a problem.”
Cassidy huffs, standing up from the table while glaring down at me. She’s not trying to intimidate me, though. She’s biting her tongue, and that only makes me want to hear more of her feisty words. “You know, it wouldn’t kill you to ask nicely.”
My lip curls and I raise a brow. “You don’t know that.”
Another huff fills her chest as she slowly packs her things into her bag, annoyance etched across her face.
When she hooks her bag over her shoulder and gathers her coat, she gives me one last look.
Whatever crosses her mind, she seems to hold back on, pacing towards the door and waiting for the click of the lock. “I’ll see what I can do.”
She leaves without a backwards glance, sliding past Trigger as he enters.
He’s wearing a look of triumph that I can’t ignore. “It’s done,” he declares, waving his phone in the air. “It was almost too easy.”
I can’t help but smile at that. I asked him to track Cassidy’s phone, a precaution mostly, but I won’t deny there’s some personal gain to be had from it too.
“Keep me updated. We need her.”
“You think she’ll run?” Trigger poses the question.
I doubt she will; the woman has a life here, an entire career built in the city.
She’s a force of her own, something I’ve already recognized and I’m eager to see more of that tenacity.
But it’s her counterparts I have more wariness for.
A detective for a best friend and her less than perfect boyfriend.
I wouldn’t be me without doing my due-diligence—or at least asking Max and Trigger to dig for me.
“Want me to pay a visit to the boyfriend?” Trigger asks with a knowing smirk that grates on my last nerve.
I snap my gaze up to him. Just the mention of another man around Cassidy seems to throw me into a spiral, one I can’t shake myself out of. There’s that sliver of possessiveness again. Why?
“He’s not our concern,” I growl, though I even hear the lie as I say it.
“Sure,” Trigger snarks.
“What’s that supposed to mean?” I raise a brow. Whatever the asshole has to say, he better spit it out because I’m not above knocking him out. But this is Trigger all over; he loves to get a rise out of people. We’ve known each other for so long that he knows just what button to press .
Trigger shakes his head at me, kicking his feet off the table to stare me down. “Your mouth says one thing, but your actions say something else.”
Ignoring his jibes, I swiftly change the subject. I should know better. I should be able to handle him and his fucked up personality. He’s just as unhinged as the rest of us, but the one thing I can say about Colombo is he’s loyal as fuck.
Trigger raises a brow, waiting for my answer, but I just shake my head slowly.
“No,” I eventually answer. “She won’t run. She’s not built like that.”
“She doesn’t seem too thrilled about being your lawyer.” He snorts, crossing his arms over his chest as he leans against the wall. “And she sure as hell doesn’t like you.”
“She doesn’t know me yet.”
“Right.” Trigger rolls his eyes. “You gonna tell her what you were really doing that night?”
I glance up at him with a look that kills the question dead in its tracks. “And take you all down with me? No.”
Trigger exhales hard through his nose, but he doesn’t push it. We’ve been through enough shit together for him to know when a line’s been drawn. Still, his eyes flicker with something unreadable before he mutters, “Fine. Just don’t expect a miracle if you don’t give her anything to work with.”
I lean back in the chair, letting my head fall back until I’m staring at the ceiling. The overhead light is flickering. “She doesn’t need to know,” I murmur.
Trigger gives me a look like I’ve lost my goddamn mind. “She’s a lawyer, not a magician.”
“No,” I agree, letting a smile tug at the corner of my mouth. “But she’s smart. I know she’ll get me bail.”
He studies me for a beat, then shrugs. “Your funeral.”
I close my eyes, listening to the fading echo of Cassidy’s heels down the corridor, committing the sound to memory.
She’s not like the others. She’s sharper, hungrier, and not afraid to go against her morals.
Morals only get you so far in this world.
Especially when you’re standing in the path of someone like me.
She’ll help me, because if there’s one thing Cassidy Caruthers can’t resist—it’s a challenge.
And I’m the biggest fucking one she’s ever faced.