1 Day to Trial
Voir dire wasa process Dylan hated. Coming from the JAG Corp, he wasn’t used to it and found it tedious. Having to ask the jurors a ton of seemingly mundane questions to screen for any potential biases was boring. Important, but boring.
Especially when the defense counsel was critical of everyone. The squat, bald Mr. Carver, McGuinness’s attorney, asked overly specific questions and required each juror to explain their answer. The poor man who confessed he knew one of their witnesses—one of the officers who responded to the original call of the body being discovered—in a “professional capacity” was pressured by Mr. Carver to explain what that meant. His answer? That the officer had arrested him previously for public indecency after he’d had one too many crushes at an oceanfront bar one night and stumbled off down the boardwalk.
This voir dire nightmare was after the long morning, when they had to put up with all of Mr. Carver’s motions. Motions to exclude testimony, motions to exclude evidence, motions on top of motions on top of motions. It was a good thing they had agreed with the judge beforehand that the opening statementswouldn’t be until the next day, because the day had been exhausting and draining enough without that tacked on.
Eventually, though, they had the jury selected and all of their motions resolved and ruled upon. All before five o’clock. It was all thanks to Judge Bolton, who took a no-nonsense approach and kept Mr. Carver from derailing proceedings too wildly. Dylan chuckled lightly at the memories of her bringing Mr. Carver to heel on more than one occasion today. His face had turned so red Dylan had expected steam to pour from his ears.
Now court was adjourned for the day, and he and Kelsi were headed back to his hotel room to discuss last-minute details for the trial. They needed to review the planned witness testimony and make sure they had all of their questions planned out in advance. When examining a witness, clarifying questions popped up organically based on the actual testimony they were giving on the stand, but some questions had to be asked in order to prove the essential elements of the crime, or to lay a foundation for evidence they wanted to admit to the court.
Kelsi was staying with her friend, Abby, while they were in town, and Dylan had booked a hotel room for himself down at the oceanfront. Things had been tense between them all day, and he hadn’t yet apologized to her. He was saving that for the privacy of his room. He still had lingering fear and anger that flared in equal measure whenever he looked at her. She had purposefully left him in the dark. It could have gotten her seriously hurt, or worse, and that terrified him.
He wanted to be someone she trusted, that she could go to and confess her fears and every detail of her day with. He’d even thought that in the past few weeks they’d gotten closer to that point again.
But this? Kelsi hiding it? It was a constant reminder of the last time he thought he had her heart, her trust, and she kept secrets from him. It hurt like a thousand paper cuts to his soul, bringing him crashing down from the high of kissing her on that dock.
No one aside from Kelsi had ever been able to hurt him this way, and he was tired of being strung along. He needed to know what had happened to them, and why she was still holding him at arm’s length, even when he could tell she didn’t want to. No, tonight they would get everything out in the open. He couldn’t wait any longer to find out the truth.
Whether his Red liked it or not, tonight her last wall was coming down, and he brought the sledgehammer.
CHAPTER 37
Kelsi
1 Day to Trial
Dylan dragged overthe armchair that was a mandatory addition to every hotel room so that the two of them could sit side by side and look over the documents.
She thought she’d been prepared to be alone with him again, but as soon as they walked into the room, Kelsi gulped. Loudly. This was the first time they had been in a bedroom together, alone, since he’d given her the tour of Pembrooke. She wiped her suddenly sweaty palms on her skirt, struggling to tear her eyes from the bed while simultaneously wanting to look anywhere else.
Dylan caught her eye, following her gaze to the hotel bed then back to her again. His lip twitched briefly, like he wanted to smile, but his expression turned serious before he angled his body to face Kelsi. “Want to run through the plans for the trial again?”
“Sure, sounds great.”
With no further prompting, he dove right into their trial strategy. For the next twenty minutes they were all business, and Kelsi relaxed into work mode. When they finished their review, though, the awkwardness crept back in.
She moved to collect her files. “I should go—we’ve got a big day tomorrow. I want to check in with my mom, too. Make sure she’s okay.”
“I asked my mom to stay with yours for the duration of the trial, and I have a military buddy of mine who will head up to watch them in the morning.” He caught her eyes and added, softer, “They’ll be safe, Kelsi. Your stalker isn’t going to be able to use them against us. We need to focus on putting on the best case we can, and then it will all be over.”
Her heart lodged somewhere in her throat. He’d found a way to make sure her mom and the dogs would be protected so they could still nail McGinness. Dylan always seemed to be quietly solving her problems. Tension she’d been carrying since that first threat arrived eased from her body.
“Thank you,” she croaked, hoping he would ask her to stay. When he didn’t say anything else, her body turned leaden and she stood to leave. She couldn’t bring herself to look at him. “When the trial is over, don’t worry. We won’t have to see each other around the office as much. I’m sure we can stay out of each other’s way.”
Dylan ran a hand through the five-o’clock shadow he was sporting and exhaled a ragged breath. “I don’t want to stay out of your way, that’s the problem. I don’t understand you. You’ve been holding yourself back from me, from us, and I want to know why. What’s stopping you from being mine?”
“I’m not sure what you mean, Dylan.Youare the one who ran frommea couple days ago.”
“I did,” he admitted. “I’ve got my own hang-ups I’m working through, but I haven’t intentionally hidden anything from you, the way you have. So, I’ll repeat myself, what’s stopping you?”
He was deadly calm, and it only fanned the flames of her anger.
“Fine!” she yelled. “I’m scared—no, terrified of being hurt again. You don’t just have the power to hurt me, Dylan. You have the power tobreakme. I thought I died when you left me all those years ago, but if you left now? After the past few weeks? I would be shattered into so many pieces that I don’t think I could ever be made whole again.”
Her answer was honest, maybe too honest, but he needed to realize how much was at stake for her. If he couldn’t respect that, they would need to figure out a way for them to not cross paths even though they lived and worked in such close proximity.
He was silent for a long, tense minute, her words hanging in the air between them. His lack of response crushed her. Kelsi was once again pouring her heart out to a man who couldn’t return her love. She turned away from him, but before she could take a step, he grabbed her hand and spun her back toward him.
