Page 87 of Omega's Fever

“Maybe.” She pauses at the door. “This better be everything you’re promising, Warren. Because if it’s not, your client’s going away for life, and I’ll make sure you join him for obstruction.”

“It is.”

She leaves, and for a moment we all just sit there, breathing. Then Penelope makes a small sound that might be a sob or a laugh.

“Did we just do that?”

“We did.” Milo sags against me, and I wrap an arm around him automatically. He fits perfectly against my side, like he was made to be there. “God, I hope we did.”

“You got the evidence?” I have to ask. “Really?”

Something passes between the three of them, a silentcommunication I can’t read. “We got it,” Milo says finally. “Everything we need.”

There’s a story there, something they’re not telling me. But now isn’t the time. Now we need to face Melkham and hope Sutter sells our deal.

The walk back to the courtroom feels different. Lighter, somehow, even though nothing’s certain yet.

Melkham looks up as we enter. “Please tell me you’ve sorted this out.”

“We have, Your Honor.” Sutter stands, professional mask firmly in place. “The State needs to request a continuance while we investigate new evidence that’s come to light. This evidence potentially impacts the charges against Mr. Hayes.”

“How long?”

“Seventy-two hours should be sufficient.”

“Seventy-two hours.” Melkham looks at Milo. “Defense has no objection?”

“None, Your Honor.”

“Fine. We’ll reconvene Monday morning.” He looks at me, and for the first time there’s something almost like sympathy in his expression. “Mr. Hayes, you’ll be remanded to custody until then.”

“We’re offering protective custody, your Honor,” Sutter interjects.

“Seriously?” Melkham sighs. “Fine but Mr Hayes has already demonstrated a willingness to change his mind at the last minute. He better be here on Monday, nine AM. And people? No more surprises.”

I nod, not trusting my voice. This time when courthouse security comes to get me, it’s for my own protection, not to take me away. We’re almost to the door when I catch movement in the gallery.

Joey Vaughn sits in the back row, phone already out. His eyesmeet mine.

Sutter better come through with that protection, and fast. Because if she doesn’t, if she delays or plays games or tries to leverage more from the deal, people are going to die. Milo is going to die.

26

Milo

The marshals are giving us five minutes before transport to the safehouse, and I need to make this count. I pull my phone out of my pocket, the screen seeming too bright in the dim corridor as I navigate to the secure link Kao set up.

“What are you doing?” Kellen’s voice is low, watchful.

“Sending Sutter the evidence.” I copy the link, paste it into an encrypted email. “She needs to see what we have.”

The folder structure appears on my screen—dozens of files, each one meticulously labeled. Financial records. Scanned documents. Digital photos of ledgers. Hours of security footage compressed and uploaded. “That’s everything?” Sutter appears at my elbow, making me jump. She moves like a predator.

“Everything.” I hit send, watch the email disappear into the ether. “Bank records, the real books, security footage from the six months before the raid. It’s all there. That’s the digital data. The physical is in my office at Schmitt and Peterson.” Anne is going to have a heart attack when she finds out but I don’t care. I’m not going back.

Her phone buzzes immediately. She checks it, fingers flying across the screen as she accesses the drive. Her eyes widen slightly—the first real emotion I’ve seen from her.

“This is...” She scrolls through file names, opening random documents. “How did you—”