Page 82 of Behind the Scenes

I looked over as woman upon woman dogpiled onto the one who did the stabbing. The other one, who was bleeding out, was trying desperately to claw her way away from the dogpile.

The guards themselves were too slow. It wasn’t every day that they got as much action as this, I imagined. Since being locked up here, I’d been pleasantly surprised by how many inmates simply kept to themselves.

Normally, I wouldn’t have even stepped outside of my cell save for the mandatory outside times. But for Laura, I did.

And I got a front-row seat to the drama as it unfolded.

“Hart,” a stern voice called. I looked to see two guards moving quicklytoward me.

Fuck, am I going to get caught already?

“What can I help you with, gentlemen?” I asked with a smile.

“Your hearing,” the one on the right said while the other all but pulled me from my seat.

A hearing?

I didn’t have a hearing scheduled. Confusion and panic washed over me.

Something happened.

Did the bastard keel over or something? Am I now being charged with murder? Did the lawyers find anything of use? Something to justify this hearing?

I didn’t ask the guards, though. They wouldn’t know. Which led to a million more questions running through my mind as they took me to court and made me wait for my legal representation, even though my lawyers were sitting behind me.

What the fuck is going on?

Lenard was at the table to my right, his lawyers there as well. He was pale and frowning. He looked much worse than when we dropped him off at the hospital, almost like the hospital time did nothing at all.

If I weren’t so worried about my fate, I might have laughed at his state.

When the doors finally opened, the click of heels against the linoleum rang through the room.

My heart jumped in my chest. I didn’t have to look over my shoulder; I knew who it was. I knew the way she walked just like I knew everything else about her.

And yet I still looked.

Seeing her was magical. The urge to go to her was taking over my entire being.

She came. Even after I fired her, she still came for me.

My agency’s lawyers were frowning at her as she walked, but I didn’t give a fuck. I knew nothing of what had transpired outside the jail cell, but I trusted Laura with my life.

She placed her bag down on the table and looked at the judge.

“I apologize for my lateness, Your Honor,” she said. “Traffic.”

Lenard let out a snort.

“We can get on with it, I have a lunch appointment,” the judge said and motioned for Lenard’s team to speak.

Laura motioned for me to sit down.

“I heard we have a motion for?—?”

“Dismissal,” Lenard’s lawyer said as he stood. “My client is waiving the charges and admitting that he was, in fact, trespassing on the property. While we still feel that Ms. Hart’s actions were a bit… overzealous… we would like to come to an agreement and forgo a trial if possible.”

Waiving the charges. Forgo a trial.