Total pages in book: 87
Estimated words: 84635 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 423(@200wpm)___ 339(@250wpm)___ 282(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 84635 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 423(@200wpm)___ 339(@250wpm)___ 282(@300wpm)
Then there was Madison.
She was just standing there—mouth open, palms flat on the defense table—like she’d pulled a grenade pin and only now realized it was live.
I followed her gaze back to Pierce. They were staring at one another as if they were the only two people in the room.
Had they planned this together?
How much did Pierce know?
Fuck.
Shouldering my way out of the courtroom, I reached into my Birkin bag for my phone.
A man in the lobby ran up and grabbed my upper arm. “What happened? What did I miss?”
I flung my hand up to his shoulder and rammed my knee into his groin. The man fell to the ground in a fetal position. Careful not to scuff the leather on my Louboutins, I kicked him aside and kept walking. I dug through my purse for the wrinkled yellow Post-it note.
The number wasn’t saved in my phone—strict orders, no contacts, no call log. It was dangerous defying him this way, especially with his irrational temper, but honestly, who memorized phone numbers anymore?
He answered on the first ring. No greeting. Just that flat, expectant silence before the demand.
“Is it done?” he asked.
I had to cover one ear in order to hear him over all the excited conversation. The murder trial was scandalous enough for our sleepy little town without the addition of a delayed verdict.
“Not exactly,” I responded.
“What do you mean?”
I turned toward the wall because I couldn’t hear him. “What?”
His voice was harsh as he repeated, “What do you mean?”
My grip tightened on the phone. Of course, what did they say about shooting the messenger?
“She jumped up and shouted ‘wait’ just as the verdict was about to be read.”
There was a long pause.
I checked my phone screen to make sure we were still connected. “Are you there?”
“What did the judge do?”
“Besides throwing his gavel at the dumb bitch? Nothing. The whole courtroom erupted into chaos. The guards dragged Madison off. They never read the verdict.”
“Was Pierce there?”
I bit my lip. “Yes, and here’s the thing...he didn’t look surprised.”
“Do you think he suspects something?”
“Yeah! I’m kind of freaked out. First, he believes it was an accident. Then he doctored the video. Now he orchestrates things to have her released? It doesn’t make sense. What if he was playing us this whole time?”
There was no answer.
“Hello? Hello?”
The line went dead.
I shouldn’t have been surprised. He was always like that. The question was, what was I supposed to do now?
CHAPTER 12
MADISON
Oh my god, what had I done?
I faced Finkle. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to—I don’t know what came over me. I panicked.”
Turning his back on me, Finkle opened his battered briefcase and shoved a pile of file folders inside.
Uncaring about the various pieces of paper which fell out and scattered about the floor around us or his usual crushed peanut butter sandwich.
He snapped the lid down, crushing the files. When it wouldn’t close properly, he scooped the whole mess into his arms and hugged it to his chest like a shield. “You’re on your own now. I can’t help you.”
He turned to leave.
I snatched at his wrinkled suit jacket. “Wait! You can’t leave me! You’re my attorney.”
He shrugged me off. “Not anymore!”
Before I could grab him again and plead with him to stay, there was an angry shout from the judge.
I spun to see him raise his arm and launch his gavel at me.
I ducked, and it sailed past my head.
A creepy guy who had been leering at me during the whole trial cried out. “Ow! My nose!”
Thick red blood gushed from his nose to soak the grimy Big Johnson T-shirt he wore.
If it had been a nice person and not someone who’d offered his “services” for one last fuck before I was carted off to prison, I might have cared.
My so-called attorney vanished into the unruly crowd.
Looking over the heads of the various reporters who were shouting into their phones, I found Pierce across the room.
Leaning nonchalantly against the wall with his arms crossed. The bastard actually checked his watch. Then winked at me.
Two guards clasped their hands around my elbows and dragged me backward.
My friends called out from somewhere in the crowd, desperate to reach me, but I couldn’t take my eyes off Pierce.
Bile burned the back of my throat. What if the jury had been about to find me not guilty?
The great Pierce Worthington would not have tolerated that insult.
I had played right into his hands.
What better way to turn the judge and jury against me than to get me to stop the verdict myself?
Hailey and Rylee screamed my name as they waved their arms and pushed back at the people rushing past them.
I pulled against the guards’ grasp as I rose on my toes. “Hailey!”
One guard twisted my arm behind my back.
He forced my forearm against my lower back and shoved me out of the courtroom.