Chapter 6
Kourtney
I ’m not even ashamed to admit that I’m a bundle of nerves as I guide my Range Rover into the open gate. Reggie sits in my passenger seat and lets out a breath. “I didn’t expect them to be an actual motorcycle club.”
I let out a giggle. “What, you scared?”
Reggie turns a glare my way. “I’m not scared, you brat. Just shocked.”
“Come on, you big baby, let’s go live out your Sons of Anarchy fantasy.”
“If Charlie Hunnam comes out of that clubhouse, I’ll faint.”
I let out a loud cackle before getting out of my car. It’s an unnaturally hot day for the first of November, so I went with a short skirt suit. Hopefully, it wasn’t the wrong choice. The people I caught a glimpse of sitting at the picnic tables were all denim and t-shirts, with a few sporting leather vests. Even though I love dressing up, I hope these people don’t judge me for my outfit choice.
As I approach the table, I push my sunglasses to the top of my head and smile at the group of eyes peering at us. I’ve learned over time that the best thing for me is to just rip the bandaid off.
“Hi guys, I’m Kourtney.” I hold out my hand and offer it to every person I see.
I push out a sigh of relief when everyone takes my hand and smiles genuinely up at me. Reggie offers handshakes after me, and I can feel his anxiety radiating off of him from one foot behind me.
One very attractive man in particular, who vaguely looks familiar, stands to full height and shakes my hand a little longer than everyone else. He smiles down at me as his large frame towers over me, momentarily blocking the sun. Fuck, he has a pretty smile. “We talked on the phone. My name’s Tiny.”
I can’t stop the blush that hits my cheeks at the way his melodic voice curls around my eardrums. My smile falters when he lets go of my hand.
The very last man to greet me is probably the scariest of them all. The bright Arizona sun shines brightly against his bald head, and his grimace could melt icicles in Antarctica. “Ghost.”
Right next to him stands a petite, gorgeous brunette with bright red lipstick. “Lilah, right? It’s your husband that was arrested?”
“Husband?” the man who introduced himself to me as Razor guffaws. “He fucking wishes.”
Lilah nods at me. “Yeah, that’s him.”
Razor flings his gaze back to Lilah, his smile falling. “Wait, what?”
“Excuse me?” the older woman named Maria blurts.
“Ringer and I have been married for months.” Lilah waves them off as if the news of them being married is just a minute detail.
Fuck. Did I just out them to their family?
Shit.
Foot, insert mouth here.
I drop my gaze to Lilah and frown. Lilah bursts into tears, and I feel like an even bigger asshole. I wrap my arms around her small body, and she shakes with sobs in my arms. “I promise you right now, Lilah, I will get your husband home to you. I know you don’t know me from Eve, but I will do everything in my power, and then some more, to get him home to you.”
She pulls away from me and sniffles, nodding up at me. With my heels on, I’m a solid four-to-five inches taller than her, but without them, we’d probably be pretty damn close to the same height.
“Do you guys have somewhere we can go sit and get started?”
The bald-headed man steps forward, followed by the sexy man named Tiny. “We can go to my office,” Ghost nods, motioning me towards the large building that looks sort of like those barndominiums you see online.
My heel hits a piece of gravel just right, sending me stumbling. Within a breath, strong hands surround my arms as I’m pulled steady.
One hand flying to my chest and the other landing on top of the hand on my arm, I let out a breath. “Oh my God, thank you.” Turning my head towards my savior, I’m met with the clearest brown eyes I’ve ever seen. The color of freshly brewed coffee. My absolute favorite.
Most people think brown eyes are boring. I happen to think they are the most beautiful.
“I’ve been saying we need to get the parking lot paved. I’ll call the guys today so that won’t happen again,” Tiny assures me.
My eyebrow rises of its own volition. “You say that like I’m going to come here and trip on the rocks again.”
“That’s because you will be,” he says matter of fact.
I don’t even realize until Tiny is guiding me inside what they call the clubhouse that he’s held onto me the entire time and that I never released my hold on his hand. I drop my hold on him and step away when one of the guys sends a funny look our way.
“Ghost’s office is right over here,” Tiny says as he points to a hallway and leads me over.
I look back towards the room we’ve walked through, realizing that it wasn’t even a door. Just a large hole in the wall with thick plastic hung up.
“What happened to the door?” I ask Tiny as I follow closely behind him.
“That’s part of the reason you’re here.”
Both of my eyebrows shoot up at that. “Oh.”
“Lovely,” Reggie mutters from behind me. I forgot he was even here, to be honest.
I snort out a laugh at my friend’s obvious discomfort. Once inside the large office, Tiny guides me to a seat across from the large desk. I pull my iPad from my bag and flip it open so that the keyboard is against my lap. Reggie mirrors me. With the two of us here, things should go much faster. I open a new document and crack my thumbs before starting.
Ghost takes the seat across from me and my fingers start flying across the keys as they all recite the events of the evening before from different perspectives.
I’m vaguely aware of Lilah sniffling behind me when they get to the part where they returned from the hospital and the officers were waiting.
“What I find really interesting is the arresting officer just so happens to be the brother of the victim from years ago. I’m going to look into that. Most places don’t like pursuing cases with conflicts of interest,” I say aloud as I type the name of the officer and his brother in my document.
As I take time researching Ringer’s case in the database from years ago, the phone on the desk rings. Lilah jumps to her feet, running to snatch the device off the table. Her eyes light up as she presses on the screen, I’m sure accepting the call.
“Ringer!” She breaks into sobs.
I focus back on my screen while Ghost takes the phone from her, telling his brother about Reggie and me and that we hope to have him out today.
Nervous butterflies twitch through my stomach. Let’s hope it’s not a lie and we can actually do it.
Pulling up to the jail with the sounds of motorcycle engines surrounding my car is a new sensation for me. I’m not used to motorcycles in general. I have never even ridden one before. So, to say that the loud roaring of multiple bikes all on top of each other really overstimulates my ears at first would be an understatement, but I slowly start to get used to it. Just when that starts to happen, the engines all cut off one at a time.
Luckily, I haven’t removed my sunglasses yet because I get to ogle Tiny as his large, muscular legs guide his bike backward until the rear tire is pressed against the curbing.
“You have some drool there,” Reggie says sarcastically as he wipes his thumb against my chin. I swat his hand away, knowing that he probably just fucked up my makeup.
Asshole.
He laughs when I roll my eyes and push my sunglasses to the top of my head.
Taking the steps up to the door of the jail, I let out a small chuckle at what we must look like barging in here as a big group.
I check in at the front desk while the club is all escorted into the waiting room. I shiver, thinking about how long this may take and the lot of them waiting in the small, uncomfortable metal chairs.
I’m met with one officer first and paste on my sugar-sweet smile. This is the first client I’m meeting here in this new town, so I don’t want to make enemies my first time coming here. Although I do have a feeling I’m going to have one enemy before leaving here today.
“Can you point me to Officer Truden, please?” I smile and bat my lashes dramatically at the wet-behind-the-ears officer near the check-in desk, who also hands me a pass. He smiles back at me, popping his dimples, and points to a man maybe a few years older than me. He’s sitting at a desk with his feet kicked up, and yes, you guessed it, eating a fucking donut.
“Perfect.” I wink at the young man and glance at his badge. “Thank you, Officer Miles.”
“You’re welcome, Ms. Walker.”
I cross the large office with a purpose. Even with all the rowdy noise going on, I can hear my heels clunking against the hardwood with every step.
The man doesn’t even see me coming, and I toss the thick manilla folder down on the desk right next to his legs. Once smiling and laughing with his coworkers, the smile drops as he turns a sneer on me, his hard eyes scanning over my body. At the sight of my bare legs, his gaze turns appreciative before they snap back to mine. “Can I help you?”
I shove my hand out to him. “Kourtney Walker, nice to meet ya,” I say in my best Harley Quinn impression. “I’ll give you a little while to read through that while your beautiful friend here gets me into a room with my client.”
I smile up at the blonde female who shares a desk with him, reaching my arm out to her. “Kourtney Walker. Do you mind being a sweetheart and showing me to a room where I can meet with Emmett Mack?”
Officer Truden scoffs and practically rips the folder when he aggressively flings it open on the desk. The female, who introduces herself as Rose, guides me to a hallway and then into an empty interrogation room where I can wait for Ringer.
“Thanks, hon,” I smile sweetly at the woman, who I can tell is a little flustered by my attention.
Listen, if I have to flirt with a light pole to get what I want, I will do it to get exactly what I want.
A few minutes later, the metal door scrapes open. I’m met with a rather attractive man who must be Lilah’s husband and my new client. My first client here in Desert Rose.
I reach my hand across the table as soon as Rose releases him from his handcuffs. “Emmett? I’m Kourtney. Your wife hired me.”
“Call me Ringer,” he says with a firm nod while shaking my hand and taking a seat across from me.
“Perfect.” I lean back in my chair, unzipping my large bag and pulling out my blue notebook. “I’ve already petitioned the judge before coming in here to release you immediately on the grounds of these fucking small-town, idiot cops not having a damn lick of evidence. They arrested you based solely on the small word of two druggies with rap sheets longer than a CVS receipt. I anticipate his response within the hour, but until then, I need you to tell me if you did, in fact, attempt murder yesterday so I know what the fuck I’m actually dealing with. Your brother told me that the cop who arrested you is the brother of the man you accidentally killed in 2013. Is that correct?”
His eyes widen comically before shaking his head, yet he stays silent. I get it. If I was in his shoes, I wouldn’t really trust anyone either. For all he knows, I’m just some random bitch in Prada. What he doesn’t know is how dedicated I am to getting his name cleared.
“There are no cameras or mics in this room. You can speak freely, Ringer. Either way, I will not let you go back to prison. Now, your brother said you might not want to say certain things because of your history, but he told me about the bakery, and he told me about the box in the kitchen in full detail. He told me to tell you that he told me so that maybe you could trust me too.” I drop the sugar-sweet smile and school my face to look at him earnestly.
He finally nods, “I can see why my wife likes you.”
“I’m hard not to like,” I shrug.
Ringer goes on to explain the same story everyone at the clubhouse told me and then even a little more from what happened outside.
After an hour of writing down every single detail, no matter how small, the lock on the door clicked, and the door screeches open.
The female cop comes in first, followed by Officer Truden, who has a sour expression on his face. “You’re free to go,” he grunts through clenched teeth.
I clap my hands, smiling. “Ah! Wonderful.” Pushing off the hard, uncomfortable seat, I turn to the male officer. “I will also be filing a request with the court that you will no longer be handling this case. As you hold too much personal history with my client, I’m afraid your opinion of him may be a little altered. Should this case be extended to the courts, which I don’t see why it would need to,” I shrug. “You will not be welcome in my courtroom, Officer…” I pretend not to know his name and flick my eyes down to his badge. “Truden.”
“Officer,” I wink at Rose again, who blushes.
“Holy shit,” Ringer mutters behind me as he follows me down the narrow hallway towards the exit.
“I know, I’m quite impressive,” I say cockily. “Just you wait, Ringer. I have a feeling today was the start of a wonderful relationship.”
“If you can do shit like that every time we get in trouble, I would say so. Shit. ”
I let out a laugh and wave sweetly at the young man with the dimples. He unlocks the door leading out to the waiting room. I push through it and am almost trampled as Ringer rushes out the door at the sight of his wife.
I watch in amusement as the little spitfire flings herself at him, and after a minute and a half of kissing him on every open surface of skin, she slaps him clear across the face.
I laugh. I like this girl. Letting out a loud whistle with my pinkies, I wink at Lilah. “Me-ow! I love a kitty with claws.” I wave at the rest of the group and nod at the ringleader, who seems to be staring daggers through my soul. His stare doesn’t scare me per se, but it does force me to stand a little taller. I paste a smile back on my face. “It was a pleasure doing business with you all, although no offense, I do love a little more excitement and a fight. But with you bunch, I’m sure I’ll stay entertained. Ringer, I’ll be in touch because this isn’t over, unfortunately. You guys give me a call with whatever you need.”
Reggie pushes up from his chair and grabs my hand in his, leading me towards the exit.
Right before stepping through the door to leave, I look back towards the waiting room, where I saw Tiny sitting last. I blush when I find his eyes already on my retreating form. When he catches eyes with me, he winks, sending a flutter of butterflies through my stomach.