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I know what there is to know now and I decide it’s time to refocus my husband. “How’d you feel about this morning?”
“I’d feel unchallenged if not for the audio release. This case is a joke. There’s no evidence, but that audio hitting right before court, when the jury could hear it, lingers in my mind, as it will in theirs. They’ll want to convict her.”
“When you look at it like that, then maybe the DA did release the tape. He’d have gambled that you wouldn’t postpone the trial. And why wouldn’t he gamble with such a weak case?”
Reese finishes off a bite of his hot dog. “Regardless, and as it always is, the only way to one hundred percent get a client set free is to force a confession from someone else or at least prove guilt. We won’t prove guilt so we need to force the confession.”
“The boyfriend?”
“Yes.” He tosses his trash in the can next to him. “He’s all I’ve got right now. I’ve been working to keep him in her favor until he testifies on her behalf, but she’s angry with him over that leaked call.” He tilts his head. “Unless she and the boyfriend think we assume the DA did it. Then they’ll both hold steady and let me do my thing. Yes. That works.” He kisses me. “These talks with you always help.” He breathes out and pulls me close. “No one takes this, or anything, from us, and no one takes you from me, which means that tonight we make some decisions.”
“What does that mean?”
“Someone is helping Debbie, Cat. We may need to consider having Savage take you to the family ranch in Texas. Just to get you out of here until I end this.”
“No. No, you need me here. I’m in the courtroom. You can see me. We need to be together and I have Savage.”
His phone buzzes with a text. “I need you with me the rest of our lives. That means protecting you.”
“No one takes our rituals. Remember?”
“Cat—”
“I’m not leaving you. I’ll stay with Savage but, Reese, she could come after you, too. You can’t leave. I can’t take being at a distance with you as the only target. And look at your text message. You have to.”
He grimaces and grabs his phone, only for his grimace to deepen. “Dana is fighting with her boyfriend who was allowed to visit her for lunch. I have to go. We’ll talk tonight.” He stands and pulls me to my feet.
“What if I talk to Dana? Girl to girl stuff? Maybe have her over for dinner?”
He scrubs his jaw. “Maybe. She likes you. She reads your column. Right now, let’s get Savage and get back to the courthouse.” He sends a text and turns to me, his hand on my shoulder. “I do need you here, Cat. I do. You’re always in this with me, but I can’t lose you. I won’t. And lord help that woman and anyone helping her if anyone comes near you again.”
He says those words so fiercely, that it’s clear he means them. He pulls me close, under his arm, and sets us in motion and I can feel his torment radiating off of him. Am I helping him by staying or hurting him? I don’t know the right answer. Stay or go?
Reid
I’m behind my desk, and it’s forty-five minutes after I left Debbie in the conference room because she has yet to leave, which was exactly why I left her there so long; to find out if she’d stay or go. Someone with a real case walks out because they can. Because they know they are going to win. Someone faking has to stay and work for the payout before they get caught. My cellphone rings and a glance at caller ID tells me it’s Royce. “She just made a call to a man named Wilson Moore,” he tells me when I answer. “He’s an attorney who went to law school with Reese. He now practices at a local firm but he’s considered average at best.”
“And he hates Reese for his success,” I assume. “What do you have on the apartment feed?”
“We’re working on it.”
“I’ll get her to name exact times Reese was there,” I say. “That pins her in another lie.”
“More soon,” Royce says and we disconnect.
I stand and exit my office, making my way to the conference room where our scam artist waits. I enter the room to find her sitting at the long, rectangular table. I walk to her and press my hands on the desk again, leaning in her direction. “Where’s my video footage?”
“I’m not giving you that and having you blackmail people I know.”
Blackmail is on her mind, I think. “What do you want?”
“A million dollars,” she replies. “I’ve already stated this.”
“You aren’t getting a million dollars. So I repeat, what do you want?”
“I’ll negotiate with Reese himself. I want to talk to Reese.”
“That’s not happening. Why did you follow Cat this morning?”
