As quietly as I could, I slipped back into the courtroom and left Kitt to his conversation.
Things wouldn’t be fixed with one phone call. Kitt and his family had years of negative emotions built up between them, and that would take time to fix, but I’d learned from experience that the first step toward healing was always the hardest. It had taken me years to piece myself back together after what the bell ringers did to me. Yet, as I looked over at Clay and the other witnesses who’d finally snapped out of their shock enough to start celebrating, I felt that all the effort had been worth it.
We’d suffered.
We’d fought.
Now, finally, we’d earned our justice.
CHAPTER 26
Kitt
Why was I nervous?
I had no reason to be. We’d won the case, the bell ringers were basically disbanded, and the few stragglers of the organization that hadn’t been caught yet were currently being swept up by Logan and the other investigators. I’d even managed a few successful conversations with my sister over the phone.
Yet, as I stood in the safety of my own living room, I was even more nervous than I had been before the bell ringers trial.
The doorbell rang. I counted my steps on the way to the door to ensure I didn’t rush to open it.
Jordy stood on the other side, also looking a bit nervous.
“Hey. Um... I’m here.”
He barely glanced at me, keeping his gaze on his fingers as he twisted them together.
I held the door open for him. “Glad you were able to find the place.”
It was awkward small talk and we both knew it. My apartment complex was hardly a maze. It stood proudly in the center of town, easily accessible to anyone who had permission.
Still, Jordy looked around at my living room as if I’d invited him into a museum of rare treasures.
“Thanks for inviting me. I’m glad I’ll get to see your place before I go.”
I froze. My hand hovered in the air near his shoulder. I’d been about to offer to hang up his jacket, but that thought disappeared from my mind.
“Go?”
“Oh, yeah.” He shrugged. “You know. Go back to San Francisco. The case is over now, and we’re not being hunted down, so I don’t need to stay in hiding. There’s nothing keeping me here anymore, so I figured I’d probably be returning to San Francisco soon.”
My heart beat wildly in my chest, like a man who’d dodged a bullet by mere inches.
I wasn’t too late, but I was running out of time.
I’d rehearsed this conversation in my head a dozen times. Every word was planned out, right down to the timed pauses I would need to take to give Jordy time to think.
However, all of that planning went right out the window as soon as he mentioned San Francisco. Instead, I grabbed his arm and dragged him across the living room, mumbling, “I need to show you something.”
“Show me something?” Jordy questioned as he followed my lead.
I brought him from the living room into my bedroom, before letting go of his arm.
Luckily, Jordy trusted me enough that he didn’t complain about being manhandled, and instead, just turned to me with a raised eyebrow and a knowing look.
“You need to show my something in your bedroom?” He slid his hand under my lapel and started to push my suit jacket off my shoulders. “You know, you can just ask.”
“No.” I caught his wrist and spun him around until he faced the closet by the bed. “I need to show you this.”
