19 Kimber
I’ve never been afraid of Vinny before, but right now, he could change my fate with the club.
It sounds dramatic in my head, and I can’t imagine saying that out loud, but Jo seems set on her decision.
I need a stupid piece of paper to prove to everyone that I didn’t go out of my way to purposely kill someone, and since David is now my attorney, I’m really hoping he has something up his sleeve.
We spoke earlier in the day, but I gave him a bare bones version of things and skirted around the finer details.
He started talking about a lot of legal things, and it kind of turned my brain to soup, but he told me to not be concerned about it over the weekend.
We have nothing to do with the courts until sometime next week.
Taking a shuddering breath, I look around the office as Vinny leads us inside.
I rarely ever come up here, but it looks cramped.
David follows on his heels, leaving me to trail behind with Rich, who kisses my cheek, gripping my arms for a moment before whispering in my ear, “it’s all going to work out. ”
I need positivity like that in my life, but right now, all I can envision is this blowing up in my face.
“Tell me you have something for me that you didn’t just pull out of your ass,” Vinny says, sitting in a large chair behind the biggest desk. David leans on the same desk, and doesn’t bother sitting down.
He reaches into his suit jacket and pulls out a folded page that Vinny takes, skeptically looking around at the three of us. I really wish we had some time to chat before coming up here, but I guess David’s confident enough to wing it.
Vinny groans. “This is a proposed document. It hasn’t even been accepted by the court yet. This isn’t going to cancel out the mark on your background check unfortunately, Kimber. This technically doesn’t do anything.”
“It will absolutely cancel it out,” David says helpfully, and I shoot Rich a look. He’s completely focused on the two men, and despite the fact that this is supposed to be about me, all I have to do right now is stand here. “The case is bullshit Vinny.”
“I didn’t read the specifics,” he drawls, looking back towards me. “The background check doesn’t go into details like that and we didn’t dig further.” His eyes settle on Rich. “Are you supposed to be up here eavesdropping?”
Rich lifts my hand, kissing the back of it, and I’m startled enough I don’t even make a comment. “Kim can always kick me out if she wants to.”
Vinny glances at me, and I nod. What else am I supposed to do? “Fine then. It’s a manslaughter charge on your record, Kim. That’s why we’ve hesitated on keeping you as a member. I’m not saying killing whoever he was isn’t justified, but we have rules-”
“Rules bend,” David interrupts, crossing his legs at the ankle. I blink at him, surprised how relaxed he is, and wonder if this is how he acts in court too, “when they need to.”
“And how do I know that they need to?” Vinny asks dryly, looking between the three of us. “Give me something to prove Kim is in the right, and we don’t have to worry about this again.”
David glances towards me, and I shrug. I have zero idea what he’s waiting for me to say. “Read the second page of what I gave you, Vinny. It should help.”
Vinny shakes his head but picks the paper up again, flipping over the page to read whatever David wrote. He mentioned working on a statement for the courts that we could tweak once I gave him more details, but I can’t imagine what he came up with after our brief chat.
I had to tell him about the DV, for obvious reasons.
The times that Jonah caught me off guard, and the moments leading up to the night I feared for my life.
Everything was over the phone, so I don’t know exactly what David did or didn’t note.
It’s the only thing I can think of that he might have worked on today, since he said he still needed to enter into the case to represent me before he could get unmarked copies of the official court proceedings.
When Vinny looks up again, his eyes are darker. Angrier maybe? It’s hard to tell, and I’m busy shifting from foot to foot trying to not look nervous. “Is this true?”
“You’ll have to let me show Kimber,” David says, wiggling his fingers until Vinny hands the paper back. “We’re supposed to go over it next week together, but I thought it might come in handy tonight.”
Vinny hands the paper back, and I frown as it makes its way across the room to me.
I didn’t even think about what it might say, much less that David might’ve improvised since I didn’t give him a whole lot to go on.
When Rich slides it into my hand, I look down at the document, a small section bracketed in red ink like David knew he needed to point out where people should look.
It’s the sum total of seven months of my life shrunk down to three short sentences. I read them twice over.
Ms. Aldridge chose to no longer be a victim when she turned her weapon on Mr. Biggins.
As the court has already ruled her actions to be self defense after suffering in silence for months preceding the fatality, any additional measures create extenuating hardships for the victim.
As traumatic as this was, Ms. Aldridge is ready to put the experience behind her for good.
It’s cold and to the point without digging into the details, and I flicker my gaze back to the two men by the desk. Rich soothes a hand down my arm, reading over my shoulder, and I have to clear my throat twice to respond to Vinny. “It’s accurate.”
“We haven’t really talked about all the details,” David explains, pushing off the desk.
“The case is supposed to be dropped. I called and spoke to her former council and he admitted as much. It’s stalled because the opposing party wants to charge her with something, anything. Is that good enough for you?”
Vinny blows out a breath, looking between the three of us. Rich, who’s been quiet almost the entire time, rubs the scars on my wrist, tracing the old marks. It’s both soothing and jarring at the same time.
After a moment, Vinny shrugs. “Good enough for me. You’re sure the courts are going to drop it?”
David nods. “It’s slow over there right now but yes, it’ll be dropped. And we’ll be addressing the new charges soon, which should be easy to dismiss as well. Judges don’t like cases that have no business being in court. There’s already been a ruling, and a pissed off family won’t change that.”
I wince. The opposing party David’s talking about includes Jonah’s parents. He’s not alive, so they’re trying to claim an unjust death. It doesn’t matter if there’s proof that he hurt me first; his parents only see a killer when they look at me, and it makes me feel like one too.
“Jo’s going to have such a fit,” Vinny says, but he looks like he’s fighting a smirk. “She’ll be happy you’re still here, Kimber, but she’s all about paperwork right now. It’s a pain.”
“Where is Jo?” Rich asks, and I twist my arm until I can squeeze his hand. Hopefully Vinny takes the hint and stops asking me questions.
Standing, Vinny smirks and circles the desk. David straightens as he moves. “Oh, she’s tied up at the moment.”
I seriously doubt that’s just a joke, and David snorts at his words. “Of course she is. You left her alone that long?”
Vinny grins, eyeing the three of us before gesturing to the door. “I wouldn’t really say she’s alone. Now get out of my office so I can go see my wife.”
“So… I’m okay?” I ask worriedly, eyeing him. “No one’s going to kick me out?”
“You’re fine,” Vinny tells me, crossing the room. He pauses at my side and squeezes my shoulder. “We like having you. And if you’d like to give the guards downstairs a list of the people who are currently accusing you, we can ensure they don’t ever join the club for any reason.”
I might die if I saw either of Jonah’s parents at the sex club. I just nod and Vinny pulls away, stepping into the hall and holding the door until the three of us file out. I think that’s the most physical contact I’ve ever had with the man.
Downstairs again, the club is still crowded and bouncing.
“Where to?” Rich asks me, pausing beside the bar. I blink and look around, finding that both David and Vinny bled into the crowd and disappeared once we came down here. I can’t even determine what direction they went.
Usually I’d find someone who would pay for a private room or likes dungeon play and partner off.
When it’s crazy like this I try to go somewhere where the crowds are thinner.
But Rich doesn’t have a private room; the closest he has is the store.
And that place is made entirely of glass, so anyone would see us. It wouldn’t provide a lot of privacy.
I spy Callie wandering over, and right now I don’t think I can take more questions from anyone. Listening to David do all the work upstairs was surreal enough. At least this time, I feel like my attorney will do everything he can for me.
Catching Rich’s wrist, I pull him away from the bar before I have to talk to anyone. I need to laser in my focus on him right now. It should help with my nerves. “Roof. Let’s go to the roof.”
Gripping Rich’s hand I guide him through the club, and thankfully right now it’s too busy for anyone else to spot us.
Knowing the owners won’t kick me out helps, and I owe it all to David.
At least he’s prepared. But I don’t want to keep thinking about everyone else when Rich brought me here to be nice, bringing me back to my happy place, and I feel I’ve barely paid attention to him.