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“Ahoy, Swyteck!”
Jack recognized the voice right away, not to mention the six-foot-three frame. “Theo?”
Theo Knight was Jack’s best friend, bartender, therapist, confidant,and sometime investigator. He was also a former client, a onetime gangbanger who easily could have ended up dead on the streets of Overtown or Liberty City. Instead, he landed on death row for a murder he didn’t commit. Theo was the one innocent client Jack had represented during his stint at the Freedom Institute, where Jack spent the first four years of his law career specializing in “death cases.”
“Permission to run aground, sir?”
Jack was certain he meant “come ashore,” but it was the weekend, which meant the tequila was doing the talking.
“Don’t come any closer, or you will run aground,” shouted Jack.
Andie walked up beside him. “Whose boat is that?”
“Definitely not Theo’s. Unless he won the Lotto and forgot to tell me.”
Theo disappeared inside the main cabin, and Jack’s cell rang. It was Theo.
“Hey, Jack. Imani wants to talk to you.”
“Very funny.”
“I’m serious. We sailed over from the Garcias’ house on Venetian Island.”
Jack did a double take. It looked exactly like the boat docked behind the party.
“Theo, what’s going on?”
“I’ve known Imani since she was an eighteen-year-old nobody fresh out of Miami Senior High playing shithole bars all over south Florida. She even played my place a few times.”
Theo owned Cy’s Place in Coconut Grove, a nightclub he’d purchased with the settlement money Jack got him from the state of Florida for his wrongful conviction and incarceration.
“Are you seriously telling me Imani is on that boat with you?”
Andie’s eyes lit up, and Jack had to fight off her attempt to snatch the phone from his hand.
“Dude, she’s right here next to me, and she wants to meet you,” said Theo.
“Why?”
“Because you left the party too soon. The reason you got invited was she needs to talk to you.”
“About what?”
“Shit, Jack. Do I need to spell it out? She needs a lawyer,” he said, his voice turning very serious. “A fucking good lawyer.”
Jack glanced at Andie, then back at the yacht, which was way too big for his dock. “Stay right where you are. I’ll get in my boat and come to you.”
Chapter 2
Jack felt like a shark sucker latching onto a great white as he rafted up his little fishing boat alongside Imani’s sleek yacht. Theo helped him aboard and took him to the main salon, which was bigger than Jack’s living room and definitely more luxurious. An abundance of chrome, leather, and glass, with a mix of direct and indirect lighting of various hues and intensities, made the cabin glow like a South Beach nightclub.
Imani was not quite as tall as she had appeared on stage, but she walked toward Jack and shook hands with a confidence that said,Don’tbullshit me.
“I hear you’re the best,” she said.
Jack had expected his prospective client to be a walking advertisement for designer clothes and accessories, but she wore faded, cutoff blue jeans, a yellow top with a scalloped neckline, and flip-flops. The only jewelry was a diamond stud on the right side of her nose and a gold ring on her left-middle toe. Jack found her more beautiful without the stage glitter and makeup. She looked less like a pop star and more like one of the young mothers at morning drop-off at Righley’s elementary school.
“That’s very kind of you to say,” said Jack. “But you don’t want any lawyer who claims to be the best. You want the lawyer who’s best for you and your case.”
