“I didn’t do it.” For the second time, I wished I’d kept my mouth shut, but now that I knew Edge hadn’t killed him and Steel probably hadn’t either, I needed to start sticking up for myself.
Both men looke
d at me, but only Edge spoke. “I know you didn’t.”
The lawyer pulled his phone out of his pocket and looked at something on the screen. “We’ve got our hearing.”
Edge squeezed my hand. “When?”
“Three hours, which means we have a lot of work to do.” He pulled out a chair and sat down at the table. “Edge, it would be best if you let me confer with my client alone.”
“Bail is set at one hundred thousand dollars.” The judge banged his gavel on the bench.
Great. Any hope I’d felt after meeting with the lawyer—Hammer, as he insisted I call him—vanished. I doubted I even had ten dollars in my wallet, wherever that was being kept, and in the bank, I had even less.
The tips I made tending bar at the Long Branch were decent, but before that, I’d lived paycheck to paycheck, working a crappy waitressing job at the Barton Creek Diner.
A bailiff escorted me out of the courtroom, but instead of taking me back to the jail, she took me to a meeting room like the one where I’d met with my previous lawyer. A few minutes later, she returned with a bag.
“These are your belongings. Change your clothes, and when you’re ready, knock on this door and I’ll come back in to take you downstairs.”
“I don’t understand.”
“You made bail, honey.”
“How?”
She shrugged. “Ask that fine-as-hell-lookin’ man. Maybe he posted it.”
When we walked out of the elevator and through the glass door, I could see Edge talking to Hammer. As if he sensed my approach, he turned his head and looked straight at me.
“I wish you the best,” said the guard, leaving me at the door.
“Thanks,” I responded, not knowing what in the hell I was supposed to do next.
“I’ll be in touch.” The lawyer said to me before he waved and walked out, leaving me alone with Edge.
“Ready?” he asked.
“For what?”
“We’re leaving.”
I motioned to the door. “Can we talk outside?”
“Of course.” He motioned for me to go ahead of him. “Listen, I know you may be pissed, but it was the only way.”
I lifted my face to the sun and shielded my eyes. It had been so long since I’d felt it on my face. “Pissed? About what?”
“The condition of your release. You’ve no reason to worry. I’ve a guest room, and you’ll have all the privacy you need.”
I loved the way he said “privacy,” with a short I instead of a long one, but I couldn’t get distracted by that right now. “What are you talking about?”
He took my arm and moved me out of the way when two other people came out the door. “Hammer was able to negotiate your release, but it had to be into my custody.”
“Your custody? Are you a cop?”
“Something like that.”