Page 162 of State of Affairs (First Family 1)

“We’ll drop the murder charge.”

“In exchange for what?”

Sam buzzed with an adrenaline high as the pieces fell into place. “Information on another case.”

Lopez glanced at his attorney. “What other case?”

“Calvin Worthington.”

In a single second, Sam saw the truth in Javier’s eyes before he seemed to catch himself and school his expression. That second was all she needed to be certain she was right about what’d happened to Calvin. “Ring a bell?”

“I don’t know anyone by that name.”

“Now that’s just a bald-faced lie, Javier. I know for a fact that you went to high school with him, got into a fight with him, got expelled because that was your sixth fight that year, and had a major beef with him after he told you off in front of your friends.”

“You don’t know shit.”

“Really? So what part of what I just described was untrue? Did you go to high school with Calvin Worthington?”

He shrugged.

Sam rifled through papers to find the one she wanted, which was actually the DNA report on the gang rape. He didn’t need to know that. “I have here a statement from Ballou High School that puts you and Calvin one year apart in school. Do you still want to deny that you went to school with him?”

“I don’t remember him.”

“You don’t remember him calling you a douchebag in the lunchroom after you were unkind to a friend of his, a girl named Maisy? You don’t remember punching him in the face after he said that or him tackling you and both of you getting in trouble for the incident? Seems to me that something like that might stand out in my memories of high school, but I heard you got suspended so many times, you probably can’t remember them all. One last chance… Did you know Calvin?”

“Answer the question, Javier,” Kincaid said. “Did you know the kid?”

“What if I did?”

“Must’ve made you mad to have him call you out that way in front of everyone at school.”

Javier shrugged as if it had been no big deal, but the set of his shoulders and the tension in his jaw told her how he really felt.

“I talked to some of your homies.” She read the names from the list that Green had given her. “They said you were pretty spun up about it. ‘Enraged’ was the word one of them used.”

“That’s bullshit,” he said, sounding less nonchalant after hearing the names of his friends. “They’d never say shit about that to you.”

“Why’s that? Were they there maybe when you decided to do something about the kid who embarrassed you in front of your friends?”

“I didn’t do anything. I didn’t care about him.”

“That’s not what your friends said. According to them, you cared very much about him disrespecting you that way, especially over a girl like her.”

“She was a fucking loser. Everyone knew it.”

“Not everyone. Calvin liked her, considered her a friend. He didn’t like how you treated her, and he told you so, didn’t he? That must’ve made you really mad. A kid like him, calling you out, sticking his nose where it didn’t belong.” Sam kept it up while Javier silently seethed. “What business was it of his to talk to you that way?”

“It was none of his business.” The words fairly exploded out of Javier.

“Something like that… I mean, I imagine it’s a point of honor. You can’t let him get away with disrespecting you like that in front of people. What would they say about you if you let him do that? You had to do something about him, right? You didn’t have any choice.” Sam kept tightening the screws. All the while, the blood zinged through her veins. These were the moments she lived for. Come on, Javier. Give it up. “You couldn’t let a pussy like him say something like that about you and continue living. Isn’t that right, Javier?”

She let him stew in that for a second, starting to fear that she wasn’t going to break him. “Your friend Monty… He said he’d never seen you so pissed off than you were after Calvin mouthed off. He said you were out to kill. Were you out to kill, Javier?”

“Don’t answer that, Javier,” Kincaid said.

“You’re fucking right I was!” Javier exploded. “That motherfucker had no idea who he was fucking with when he got in my face.”