Page 3 of Dirty Judge

“No.” She paused. “Apparently, he was setting two hundred of them free every night in the hallway, in hopes of making his neighbors move.”

I blinked.

“He also has an OnlyFans where he, uh, touches himself while they crawl all over him. Oh and?—”

“Don’t tell me anything else,” I cut her off. “Put a red check on that one. What about the next three?”

“You’d hate me for telling you.” There was a smile in her voice. “You’re going to have a long day, sir.”

I figured…

“I’ll have plenty of coffee and treats ready for you in your chambers.”

“Thank you, Mara.” I slid behind the wheel of my McLaren. “I’ll see you in court soon.”

“Wait, one last thing,” she said. “Don’t hang up.”

“What is it?”

“We still have an outstanding bench warrant from three months ago,” she said. “Do you want me to resend it to the police?”

“Who has the audacity to ignore my warrant for three months?”

“It’s a Miss Olivia Spencer, sir,” she said. “Maybe she moved to another county?”

“Or maybe she’s testing my authority.”

“I highly doubt that, sir,” she said. “Maybe I can send it out to nearby counties as well?”

“Yes, do that,” I said. “And mark it for today…”

OMISSION (N.):

FAILURE TO PERFORM AN ACT AGREED TO, WHERE THERE IS A DUTY TO AN INDIVIDUAL OR THE PUBLIC TO ACT (INCLUDING OMITTING TO TAKE CARE) OR WHERE IT IS REQUIRED BY LAW.

OLIVIA

“And the final winning lottery numbers for the latest Powerball are…” The man onscreen was pausing far too long, as if he didn’t have my life hanging in his hands. “Seven, eighteen, twenty-five, thirty-seven, sixty-four, and three. And the lucky Powerball number is forty-three!”

“Ugh!” I tore up my ticket. “Who the hell picks these types of numbers?”

“Thank you to everyone who purchases tickets for the lottery,” the man continued, “Because of your tickets, we are able to donate a big chunk of proceeds toward ending poverty nationwide.”

“Why haven’t I received a check then?” I turned off the television because he could launch into all the other “amazing” things the lottery did for people.

Amazing things that never seemed to trickle down toward me.

Between all the ‘lucky’ tickets, scratch-offs, and pick-style games I’d played, the most I’d won was five dollars.

Well, that and a handful of free losing tickets.

Still, for some odd reason, I couldn’t stop playing; I honestly believed that my life had swung so far into suckage territory that the universe was bound to start making things better soon.

At least, I needed it to…

“Yo, Olivia?” Sam, my roommate’s on-and-off boyfriend called from down the hall. “You still out there?”

Nope…I bit my tongue and grabbed my jacket.