Reckoning (Wolfes of Manhattan 5)

“Lace?” He knocked softly on the door.

I heaved a sigh. “I’m fine.”

“You’re not, baby, and that’s okay. I’m ordering some dinner. What do you want?”

Damned tired of room service food too. There was a time I would have loved to live in this lap of luxury. Now? I felt imprisoned. Not by Rock or his family. By the situation.

“I’m not hungry.”

“Neither am I, but we both need to eat. We won’t be any good to each other or anyone else if we don’t stay fit and healthy.”

He wasn’t wrong. I sighed again, rose, and opened the door.

Rock stood on the other side, his green eyes fatigued. We were all fatigued.

“Some fish or something,” I said. “I don’t know.”

He nodded and made the call to room service while I lay down on the bed. I truly wasn’t hungry. In fact, I was kind of nauseated. I rubbed my wrists. The handcuffs hadn’t chafed me, but I had phantom pain from where they’d been wrapped around my flesh.

Only several hours. Several hours, and I was a huge mess. What if Rock and the lawyers couldn’t get me off these charges? What if I went to trial? Was convicted?

Handcuffs would be a way of life. Peeing in front of others would be a way of life.

How had it come to this?

Rock sat down on the bed and placed my hand between his large ones. “We’ll get through it, baby.”

“How?”

“Don’t give up. Not on me. Not on yourself.”

“Sometimes it seems like the world has given up on us.”

Rock chuckled then.

“Exactly what’s so funny about any of this?”

“Nothing, Lace. It’s just, I know what you’re feeling. The world gave up on me when I was fourteen.”

“Oh, Rock.”

How easy it was to forget what others had been through. My husband had been sent to military school for privileged boys in trouble when he was not much more than a child. He went through hell. Then there was Riley. And Zee.

“It’s okay,” he said. “I get it. You’ve been arrested for something you didn’t do. Something horrible. You spent half a day in custody. That would freak anyone out. But I swear to you, you won’t go down for this. I’ll do whatever it takes.”

“I know.”

“I’m not kidding. Remember when we were in Montana and that rogue deputy tried to arrest you? I said we’d ride the bike into Canada and never look back. I would’ve done it, Lace, and I’ll do it now if it’s what you want.”

Temptation loomed. But I was a lawyer. An officer of the court. Becoming a fugitive went against everything I believed in.

“I know you would.” I brought his hand to my lips and kissed it lightly. “But where would that leave your family?”

“You’re more important than my family.”

I believed him with all my heart. He’d do this for me. All I had to do was say the word. But, “I can’t. I couldn’t live with myself. Someone is going down for this. If not me, then Roy, Reid, or Riley. We can’t do that to them.”

“You sure?” He thumbed my lower lip.

His touch still sparked need in me, even in my current distress.

“I’m sure. I’m innocent, and there’s got to be some way to prove it. Their evidence all seems circumstantial.”

“Unless there’s something we don’t know about,” he said.

“They have to supply the defense with all the evidence,” I told him. “It’s the law.”

“Hayes is putting together the best defense team in the state.”

“Is Dane on it?”

“From your firm? I’ll have to ask him. We’re getting the trial in front of Baxter Foster, as well. He’s obviously willing to be paid off.”

I shook my head. “Is that really what it’s come to? I don’t want someone to be paid off. I want to get off on the merits. I’m innocent!”

“You are, baby. We all know that. But someone is trying very hard to make it look like you aren’t. They’re not playing by the rules, so why should we?”

“Because… Because the system is supposed to work.”

“Not always.”

Had he misunderstood me? Had he thought I said, “the system works”? Because I knew damned well the system didn’t always work. Sorry, Professor Huxby.

When push came to shove, I did not trust the system when my life was at stake.

This was my life. My life with Rock. We had years and years ahead of us. Maybe children and grandchildren.

“You mean the system isn’t always supposed to work?” I said.

“No, it’s not always supposed to work. There are puppet masters at work, Lace, and sometimes their job is to make sure the system doesn’t work.”

“All right,” I finally said. “Do what you have to do.”

6

Reid

“She was beaten to within an inch of her life.” Nieves closed her eyes and two tears squeezed down her cheeks. “This is… It’s all my fault.”

“What the hell is going on, Nieves?”