“Do I have a choice?” I stared up into his face.
“Not really, no.” He gave me a sad smile, and I hated the way he was looking at me, eyes all squinty and sympathetic. I glanced around the room and some of the jurors were staring at the floor. Others were giving me the same types of squints. One man in the back row of jurors had his teeth bared in disgust and shook his head at me. I dropped my gaze to my lap. My guts twisted into a knot and my heart ached. Trev and Tatum had nearly destroyed me, and I’d almost finished the rest.
“Then I’ll be here when I’m needed. Can I go?”
“Yes.” He turned away, and no one told me I had to do anything else, so I left while the getting was good, took my cane, and rushed to freedom.
No one led me out of the courtroom, but that was fine. I’d had my escape route planned two minutes after I sat in front of the microphone, and there was no one waiting to enter the courtroom when I left. I wasn’t sure if they were finished for the day or if they didn’t want the witnesses to see one another.
As I hobbled out, I glanced back over my shoulder as the jurors began to whisper together. No one had asked me about my ex-wife, Angela, which made me think she hadn’t been identified among the dead. I’d been half afraid she would. If she ever did turn up as a victim of Black and the AS, what would happen to me? Would I go down for it? My stomach turned. I’d liked her well enough to have a kid with her. I hated that all I was worried about was myself. I really didn’t want her dead. I wanted her alive, somewhere, doing well without me. Living it up. I felt so selfish, but I finally had something I wanted—someone who made me want to be a better man.
When I came out through the front doors of the courthouse, the summer heat smacked me in the face and the sun beat down on the top of my head, chasing off some of the lingering chill in my chest. Down the street, Drew leaned against the yellow Jeep, and he must have been on the lookout because he sprinted and met me at the bottom of the cement steps. I wasn’t ready for it when he wrapped his arms around my middle and practically lifted me off my feet as he dragged me close. The rich smell of his musk and cologne had my head spinning, and I buried my face against his chest to get more of it.
“You were in there so long, I was worried you’d gotten angry and told them all to go to hell and I wouldn’t see you again.” He ran his hands along my shoulders and leaned back to grin down at me.
“You told me it would be fine!”
“It was fine. But I worried.” He shrugged and gave me a goofy smile that had me laughing. I hugged him back, and then I kissed him. He felt so good against me.
“Oh, now I get it.” There was a chuckle. Someone patted my shoulder. Drew set me on my feet, and I rested the tip of my cane on the sidewalk. Laken was still too damned skinny, but his dark hair was longer and framed his face pleasantly, and the happiness he’d carried around with him inside hadn’t dimmed at all. His bright blue eyes danced with excitement and his smile was wide.
“Hey there, kid.”
He hooked his arm around my shoulders and gave me a side hug.
“No one to yell about touching you here. Thanks so much, man. I cannot believe you’re being so nice to me.”
Patting his chest while my face heated, I said, “You need a hand. And I have a home with Drew now. I own a house, and nothing is going on with it as far as I know. It’s just sitting around, taking up space. You might as well stay there.”
“We’re probably going to have to call and get the utilities turned on,” Drew said, and I nodded along because we’d discussed it last night. “If that happens, and it might, you can stay with us for a few days until it’s worked out. And Peter has to call and see what’s going on with the taxes. If there are back taxes, you should still be able to stay there, but we won’t strand you. If for some reason we can’t take care of things right away, we’ll get you settled somehow. I know someone else who has a house he hasn’t been staying in, and you could park it there, too.”
“Thanks,” Laken said. “I mean it. No one’s been this nice to me in a long time.” He seemed ready to vibrate apart. The clothes he was wearing were almost worse than what he’d had in prison, a ratty black T-shirt and jeans with more holes than cloth. I wanted to fix that, too.
My eyes welled up with tears and my tie strangled me. I cleared my throat and tugged at my collar. “Don’t worry about it.”
“What would you have done if we weren’t helping you?” Drew asked.
Laken shrugged and glanced away. “Oh, you know. I would have figured it out.”
Drew grunted. “Well, I don’t want you doing anything that will make this a pointless gesture on Peter’s part. Catch my drift?”
“Hey,” I said softly, but Drew narrowed his eyes on Laken.
“No drugs in that house, no parties that will trash it, nothing dangerous or stupid.”
“It’s my house,” I grumped.
Drew ignored me. We definitely hadn’t fucking talked about thislaying down the law, and irritation burrowed into me. “We’re going to stop in and check on you. Take you for groceries and stuff once a week.”
Laken’s pout slid off his face and his expression brightened again. “Why?”
Drew sighed and knocked a fist lightly on Laken’s shoulder. “Because Peter likes you, and I hate seeing guys like you take another walk through prison. You seem smart enough and nice enough, and you’re not going back.”
He beamed at Drew, and I held out my hand to Laken and he shook it. “That’s a deal, then, what Drew said, right? You’re going to listen to him?”
Laken flicked his hair back with a practiced gesture I could see him using around girls. “Yes, sure. I can do all that. I don’t snort or smoke anyway. Things that people party in big groups with. I used to do heroin.”
Startled, I stared at him, and he shrugged. His smile slipped sheepish and he gazed at the tips of his shoes. “Yeah, it’s terrible for you. I have a heart problem because of it that I have to keep an eye on. Anyway, even if I did start up again, all I’d do is go to sleep somewhere. It’s not a huge social drug for me.”
