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“I am, your Honor,” Trinity agreed.
“You are fine with having your sister represent you, Ms. Gaines?” he asked Charity.
“Yes,” her sister said. Trinity poked her again and she quickly added, “Your Honor.”
“All right then, let’s proceed,” he said, nodding to Trinity.
“Your Honor, my sister has recently gotten herself involved with a man who’s led her down the wrong path. You have the toxicity report and can see the results of my sister’s poor judgment,” Trinity said.
The judge studied the file and nodded. “I can see that,” he agreed.
“Your Honor, this is Charity’s first offense and in my opinion, she doesn’t deserve to be behind bars. She needs help.” Trinity stopped talking when the judge looked back down at Charity’s file folder and then back up to where she stood.
“I have to agree with you, Ms. Gains,” he said.
“What does that mean?” Charity whispered. “Am I free to go?”
“No,” the judge said. “You are not free to go, Ms. Gaines. You are to be remanded into your sister’s custody and taken directly to the Inpatient Drug Rehab Center. You will have an officer escorting you to the facility. That is where you will stay for the next six to twelve months, or until you are deemed recovered. If you leave the facility before you are released by the staff there, you will be arrested and brought back here to stand before me. At that time, I will issue you the maximum sentence that I can give you—twelve years in the county prison, maximum security. There will be no in-between here, Ms. Gains. If you do not agree to this, you will stand trial for the charges that I read earlier.” The judge dropped the file to his desk and looked over his readers at the both of them. “Do you understand what I’ve just told you?” he asked.
Charity nodded, “Yes, your Honor,” she agreed.
“Yes, your Honor,” Trinity said. “Thank you.” He nodded and dismissed them and Trinity felt as though she could breathe again. Her sister wasn’t out of the woods yet but she’d finally get some help and Trinity saw that as a win. They gathered their belongings and walked to the back of the courtroom to find Ace standing in the corner. Trinity wasn’t surprised to see him there—it was just the type of guy he was. He might pretend to be a big, bad biker but deep down, Ace was just a giant softie. She nodded to the door, signaling for him to follow them into the hallway.
The guard had Charity back in handcuffs and Trinity hated that they were necessary. “Are those necessary?” she asked.
The guard shrugged, “You know how things work, Trinity. I have to follow the rules just like you do. We need to go.”
“Can you give us just two minutes?” she asked.
The guard stood back against the wall, “Two minutes,” he agreed.
“I take it you heard the whole thing?” she asked Ace.
“I did,” he said. “Thank you for what you did.” He looked over at Charity and Trinity didn’t miss the way her sister couldn’t seem to look him in the eyes.
“You need to work the program, Charity. Get the help you need and maybe when you get out, we can talk about you seeing Arabella again,” Ace promised. Charity nodded and thanked him, still not looking him in the eyes.
“Times up,” the guard warned. “We need to head to the facility now, Ms. Gaines,” he said, to Trinity.
“I’ll be home as soon as I get Charity settled,” she promised Ace. He dipped his head and gave her a gentle kiss and she looked over to find Charity watching them. “Ace,” she warned.
“You helping your sister doesn’t change things between us, Trinity. If she’s going to be a part of Arabella’s life at some point, she’ll need to get used to the two of us being together.”
“We can talk about this later,” she said. “I need to get going now.”
“I’ll go back over to the office and take care of things on that end, Trinity,” Beck offered. “See you in the morning.”
“Thanks, Beck. If anyone needs me, I can be reached on my cell. I’ll be working from home,” she said.
“No problem, boss,” Beck said. Trinity turned and waved back at Ace, wishing that she could take the hurt scowl from his handsome face, but she was sure that wouldn’t be an easy feat.
* * *
One month later:
“Shit,” he grumbled.
“Something wrong?” she asked. Trinity just finished feeding Bella and burped her. It was pretty damn cute when her niece fell asleep on her shoulder, mouth gaped open, softly breathing in her ear. It was her favorite time with Arabella. She knew that putting her in the crib was probably the best call, but all she wanted to do was rock and snuggle her niece for a few extra minutes before putting her down in the nursery for her nap.
