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The media lines the street outside of Luca’s condo building. No matter where we are, they hound us with questions, but they’ve already convicted me in the public eye. Luca has my hands squeezed in his. “Don’t let go, baby, you hear me?” I nod with Bristol and Caroline attempting to shelter me.
Flashes of the cameras leave it hard for me to see, but out of the corner of my eye, a familiar person catches my attention. I turn my head, but Bristol is in the way. Leaning forward, I can’t help but recognize the woman. She’s distinct, with curly red hair, a petite frame, and tattoos on the knuckles of both her hands. It hits me in less than a second, and I loosen Luca’s grip around me, passing through the crowd.
“Wait, Tawny! Tawny Shandy. Hold up.” She backs out of the crowd as I race through it to catch her. My stature is taller than hers, but she can move as we break through my media storm. Her strides are hurried in tennis shoes, whereas I’m trying to keep up in my heels. “Tawny, please! I know you can help me.”
Why else would she risk being seen? My name is called by both my sister and Luca, but I won’t stop, not when the person who holds my freedom in her hands is currently sprinting from me.
A streak in black clothes sprints toward us. The person running is as fast as Tawny, but as Tawny attempts to evade me, her head turns to me more than looking forward. The person in all black jumps on Tawny tackling her to the ground. I stop a foot away, watching as Tawny tries to push her attacker off of her, but she can’t. Baffled by this odd turn of events in front of me, the person holding Tawny Shandy to the ground is Caroline.
“What?” She pulls Tawny up with her. “Anthony was in the car, he drove me up the block, and I came back to stop her.”
I’ve never seen Caroline in this light before. “Remind me never to get on your bad side.”
After the police take our statements, they hold Tawny as a person of interest, but it doesn’t get me out of my arraignment.
On the way to the courthouse, Luca leans over. “If anyone has ever deserved a raise before, I think it’s Caroline.” He’s not wrong.
* * *
Tuck is in front of the double doors leading to the courtroom. “We need to talk.” He swings his attention to Caroline, her Vera Wang pantsuit ripped at the knee, a cut on her forearm along with her unkempt hair, is all indication she took down another person today. “Maybe you should play for the Chicago football team,” he teases, giving Caroline a wink, then pointing toward a conference room across the hall.
He escorts us to Penn who is pacing back and forth. “Fuck, are you okay? What an actual cluster fuck.” But somewhere in Penn’s tense nature sits a tight smile that begins taking over his face.
“Please tell me Tawny is talking?” I ask.
“Not sure. I was going to send Tuck over there until he arrived with this.” He pushes over the case files. “Guess what we found?”
I pull at a chair, my attention on old IRS forms, birth certificates, and the smoking gun we’ve needed to prove my innocence. “Is this for real, Penn?” I ask.
“As real as the charges that will put them away for life, starting with murder.”
For the first time in the past several days, there’s a sliver of hope that my life with Luca won’t be taken away from me.
“I’ve requested a meeting in the judge’s chambers. I’ll give the DA a chance to do the right thing, too.” I remove my grip on the evidence, and he tugs it to his person. Leaning down, his hand covers mine. “We’re close, Ani. And for the record, I hope you realize I never doubted you.”
Luca and I are left by ourselves. “Wow, I didn’t see that coming,” I concede, unsure how to process everything I’ve just read.
His hand lands protectively at the small of my back, leading me to the double doors of the courtroom. “Let me use the bathroom first, Luc.” I lean up on my tiptoes, planting a kiss on his lips. I begin to pull away, but he doesn’t let go, tugging me back to his hard body.
“Marry me?” he asks, and my ears must not be working. They can’t. “I had a plan, but after this week, I don’t want to wait.”
“I’d marry you today, Luc.” In my declaration, he drops a kiss onto my lips.
“I’ll hold you to it, Heaven.”
“Did we just get engaged?” I’m back on my tiptoes, searching his eyes.
“I think we did, baby girl.”
I don’t want to let him go, but when his phone rings, his eyes glower at it. “It’s Penn. I’ll be here waiting for you, future wife of mine.” He drops another kiss on my head, and I turn the corner toward the nearest restroom.
I know the courthouse like the back of my hand, and around a corridor sits a bathroom that never gets used. Passing the stairwell leading to the first-floor steps and all the exits, a hand grabs onto my arm, a cloth covers my mouth, and I lose all consciousness, only thinking of Luca.
CHAPTERTHIRTY-SIX
The phone call from Penn isn’t the news we’d wanted. The DA isn’t dropping the charges. The arraignment is going on as planned and I need to hurry Anisten up. Walking to the nearest restroom, calling her name at the entrance, an unhappy woman exits, pointing to the end of the hallway. “There’s another restroom down the long corridor, so you may want to try it.”
Anisten knows the courthouse better than me. I hurry, following the signs, passing something shiny laying on the floor near the stairwell. Leaning down to get it on the way to Anisten, my pulse quickens with the inscription at the top near the chain.
