“He won’t. He won’t have time to get over it. He’s privy to see my witness list before we go to trial and with me already bringing it up, you know he’s going to look.”
“Yeah.” I sigh as I shake my head.
“He’s willing to do whatever it takes to make sure that you don’t come away looking bad.”
“Yeah, and Darren’s betting on that.”
“I don’t know what else to do.” She seems defeated as she looks down at the paperwork in front of her.
“What if…” I trail as try to put my plan together as quickly as possible. “What if there was a way which they wouldn’t cross examine?”
“How are we going to do that?” She asks me.
“We’re not going to do a fucking thing.” I laugh as I shake my head. “You are going to be oblivious to it, but you’ll know when you see it.”
The door swings open as Zeke looks at me, flustered, gasping for air as it looks like he ran the entire way here. “You left me at the fucking hospital.”
“Sorry.” I grimace, but Sherri laughs out.
Although, in my defense, I wanted Zeke to be oblivious as well.
?
I barely remember the night when I finally wake up in the hospital room, cuffed to the hospital bed.
“Zane…” I hear the familiar voice say to me as she walks into the room.
“Lynette.” My voice is gravely as I say it.
“What have you gotten yourself into?” She snickers to herself as she comes over, looking down at me. “Don’t worry, I’m not letting any of those men inside here. They can stay right outside this room, and none of the other staff will let them as well. Many people here remember Caroline.”
“Thank you.” I whisper as the door opens and a second pair of shoes comes inside.
“For fuck’s sake, kid, you gave us a fucking scare.” I recognize Dan’s voice as he comes to stand next to her. I can’t help but laugh out as I shake my head, looking at them. “And you’re gonna be mad, but they came by earlier.” I somehow know that he’s talking about Tatum and someone else, maybe my brother. “We set up a diversion.”
“How mad was my brother?”
“Your brother wasn’t that bad,” Lynette starts. “However, when that little thing of yours slammed her ex into the wall, I thought I was seeing things.”
It brings a fucking smile to my face, or as much as I can smile before I wince at the feeling of the split in my lip trying to separate.
“How you going to get yourself out of this one?” Dan asks me, sitting down in the chair next to the bed.
“I don’t care if I do. She’s out, and that’s the most important thing.”
Sherri comes and meets with me a few times in my room and I’m surprised when she tells me she’s got the trial date moved up, and only a few days before the date am I released from the hospital. With thanks to the staff and them trying to keep me safe.
I meet with Sherri in a conference room before we’re about to go into the courtroom, and I look over the documents when she hands them to me. Looking over the witness lists, my brother, a couple girls from the club, a couple of character witnesses.
Yeah, I’m going to be convicted of this.
She explains to me that there wasn’t murder weapon found, even after they combed through my house, the clubhouse, every single business that the club owns, which is a plus. More than that, I’m so glad that Tatum was up in purgatory cause I have no doubt Darren was there the entire time, trying to snag her and drag her back to his home.
The first day drags on. I don’t pay a lot of attention to what’s being said, because really, what control do I have over all of this?
And if I pay too much attention, all I’ll be able to think about is Tatum watching me and the tears which I’ve caught a few times trailing down her cheeks.
Day 2, I’m not expecting anything much better than the one before. The prosecution calls several witnesses. We break for lunch, and then the prosecution gets to the end of their witness list.
