Chapter 28
Two days later, Nina was woken up at seven a.m. by a call from her attorney. ‘I’m sorry for the early call,’ Linda began, ‘but I wanted you to hear it from me: the LAPD arrested Alexander Cane last night on suspicion of breaking and entering, sexual assault, and grievous bodily harm.’
Nina’s brain, still cloudy from sleep, struggled to process the momentous news for a few moments.
But once it had, several emotions sped through her, one after the other.
Shock: how was this happening so fast? Relief: if he was in prison, he couldn’t hurt her or anybody else.
Loneliness: because all she wanted to do was call Mav and tell him to come and pick her up.
The last few days had been the loneliest days of her existence. Even with Markus’s infallible support, it felt as if, now that she had found Maverick, every day without him felt off. Empty. Lonely. Terrifying.
‘That’s good, right?’ she asked, pushing all thoughts of Mav to the back of her mind.
‘Yes. To be honest, I was wondering what Aiden’s next step was going to be. Yesterday, he told me that the fingerprinting from your house came back.’
‘From over three weeks ago?’ Nina asked.
‘Hey, that’s record time in the LAPD. Their backlog usually takes two to three months.
Anyway, Cane was arrested a few years ago for a DUI.
He contested the field testing and got off, but his prints were in the system.
Nina … They were all over your house.’ She cleared her throat.
‘And on the pants the doctors cut off you.’
‘But he admitted to being there,’ Nina said, refusing to feel relieved. ‘Can’t they argue that his prints were there from when I allegedly let him in.’
‘Yup. But it’s where they were found that was incriminating,’ Linda stated. ‘The outside and inside doorknobs of the back door.’
‘Which is where he must have broken in from …’
‘If you let him in as he claimed, you would have let him in the front door. His prints would have at least been on the doorbell. But they weren’t. Instead, they were all over the outside back doorknob.’
‘I had opened the front door before he grabbed me,’ Nina remembered.
‘Which is why his prints weren’t on the front door at all. That’s strike one against his statement already, and Aiden will use it to trap him. And, uh, I know it’s hard to hear this, Nina, but the pants were really helpful too.’
Nina swallowed the bile that rose in her throat. ‘How?’
‘His statement said he went there to talk to you, and you got into an argument. He stated that you pulled a knife on him and that he overpowered you, but nowhere does he mention touching you intimately. Your statement said that he grabbed you from behind and ripped your pants open, and the fingerprinting pattern corroborates that. He’s left-handed.
We know that from the bruises on your face, the majority of which were on the right cheek and jaw.
And the thumbprint on the button of the pants was from his right hand, which corroborates that he had his left around your throat.
His concierge doctor is going to be subpoenaed too, so we’ll know more about the knife wound eventually. ’
‘So, could this send him away?’
A long silence prevailed, and when Linda broke it, she said, ‘I think it’s more accurate to say that this is probable cause for an arrest and questioning in relation to your allegations.
It might still be his word against yours, but this will be brought up in court and it will make a difference, Nina.
We’re on day two and it’s already looking bad for him; that’s great news. ’
Nina’s heart sank. ‘But it’s not concrete.’
‘Nothing’s concrete in the courtroom anymore.’ She sighed. ‘Hell, we’re even having to submit video evidence for testing prior to court these days because AI doctoring has gotten so good. But, Nina?’
‘Yeah?’ Nina rasped.
‘I’m good. I’m one of the best. And I will catch him every time he slips up. And when he does, I’m going to cast so much doubt on every word out of his mouth that a jury will have no choice but to believe you.’
‘I trust you,’ Nina replied, and considering she couldn’t summon the strength anymore, it was damn reassuring to have someone so confident and competent in her corner.
‘Aiden picked up Alexander from a red-carpet event he was attending,’ Linda continued.
Nina almost smiled. ‘Not very private.’
‘If there’s one thing Aiden is a master at, it’s optics. Better yet, Alexander was drunk. He threw a punch. Aiden’s going to add resisting arrest and assaulting a police officer to the charges.’
‘Will he stay there – in jail?’
Linda’s tone was cautious. ‘I want to say yes, but my job is to prepare you.’ She sighed.
‘His defence team is good. Some of the best. He’ll probably get out on bail even though we’re pushing the violent felony angle.
’ Before Nina could speak, Linda added, ‘But this is good news! It’ll go towards his character testimony. ’
‘Okay.’
‘There’s one other thing I’m legally required to ask you.’
Nina closed her eyes. ‘Shoot.’
‘His team reached out yesterday. Obviously, they can see where this is going because they wanted to know if you’d go for an alternate dispute resolution.’
‘You mean settle out of court?’
‘That’s what they’re calling it, but I have to warn you, because this is a criminal case now, it would require you to recant your statement.
We’d essentially be pulling the rug out from under the criminal case, and, although Aiden would try to protect you, there might still be legal repercussions for you. ’
Nina hated that she was even remotely tempted by the offer.
Not by the money – millions – she would receive, but by the possibility of ending this.
Now. If she settled, she could be back with Maverick on Hunt Ranch in a few days.
She could start piecing together what was left of her career.
She could move on. ‘I hate that I’m even considering it,’ she whispered over the line.
‘You’d be a fool not to.’
Because she needed the strength just then, she pictured Poppy.
All that innocence and joy and brightness, and it was enough to remind her why she was doing this.
‘But I can’t let him get away with it anymore.
We know there was at least one other woman before me.
And if I don’t do something there’ll be more after me too.
And the damage is done now. My career is either over or it’s not, but changing my story now would only do more harm than good. ’
‘I’m hearing “No”?’
‘No,’ Nina said firmly. ‘We finish this.’ And because it felt really good to say it, she added, ‘Let’s bring the fucker down.’
‘Atta girl.’ She exhaled a huge breath. ‘Now, I’m going to ask you to do something and it’s going to be really unfair …’
‘I’m ready,’ Nina said, and her voice was firm with conviction.
‘In California, victims of a serious felony are given reasonable opportunity to be heard prior to pretrial release.’
Nina felt sick to her stomach. ‘You want me to speak?’
‘It’ll be a quick statement. We’ll draft it beforehand, and you can read it off the paper tomorrow at the bail hearing. But given how important optics are going to be in this case, I’m going to advise you to do it. But it has to be your choice. Because it’ll be hard, Nina.’
‘Everything about this is hard.’
‘I know.’ But Linda didn’t say more, only waited.
‘I’ll do it,’ Nina said even though just the thought of speaking about the attack in front of all those people made her feel sick to her stomach.
It wouldn’t be acting, where she pretended to play out a horror that ended the moment the cameras stopped rolling, a horror that wasn’t hers.
This nightmare would continue indefinitely.
‘I’ll draft it and send it to you in a few hours. You can edit it how you want and send it back to me for final review by the end of the day. His bail hearing is tomorrow at nine. I can pick you up – if that’s easier?’
‘Ah, no. Don’t worry about me. Markus will want to drive me.’
‘If you need anything, let me know. I understand how hard this must be for you, but I promise you that we are making excellent progress.’
‘Thanks, Linda.’
‘I’ll see you tomorrow.’
‘Yeah. Bye.’
‘Bye.’
Nina hung up the phone.
Because she was still in bed, she flopped onto her back and sighed. Her stomach roiled, forcing bile up her throat. Her skin crawled with anxiety.
She had to physically resist the urge to call Mav.
Because he would have come, instantly and without question.
And because she had a few hours before Linda sent her the draft statement, she shut her eyes, curled into the foetal position, and tried to find momentary peace the only way she knew how: sleep.
It was Markus who called Maverick once the bail hearing time was set.
Maverick answered the phone immediately, his: ‘What’s happening?’ pulling a tired chuckle from Markus.
‘Alexander’s been arrested and his bail hearing’s tomorrow morning. Nina’s going because Linda asked her to give a public statement.’
Frustrated, Mav ran one hand roughly through his hair as he paced the barn’s breezeway. ‘Fuck.’ I should be there, he thought. And instead of saying it, he said, ‘Fuck!’ again, this time loud enough that Zeph popped her head over her stall door to check what all the fuss was about.
‘So, here’s the thing,’ Markus continued. ‘I think you should be there,’ he said, as if he’d read Mav’s thoughts.
Mav stopped pacing. ‘She specifically asked me to give her space,’ he explained. ‘Christ, Markus, you think I don’t want to be with her while she goes through this?’ he demanded. ‘I’m going crazy knowing I’m not there for her. But my hands are tied.’
‘Mav, do you trust that I know what Nina wants? What’s best for her?’
‘Of course.’
‘She doesn’t have any experience relying on other people. The way she was raised …’
‘Yeah,’ Mav sighed. ‘I know.’