He had somewhere else he’d rather be. Home with Brooke. Better yet, back in bed with her and his arms wrapped around her.
Two days later, he walked into the courthouse and courtroom 3 for Kristi’s bail hearing and stood at the back of the room. Kristi was sitting next to her attorney with her hair up in a twist, her back ramrod straight as she faced the judge. Her parents sat behind her.
Her attorney pleaded her case. “Miss Randall is an upstanding member of the community. She has a job and has no prior record or arrest. Miss Randall will hand over her passport and post a reasonable bail if it is granted.”
The DA stood up. “After a witness saw Miss Randall set the fire at the bookstore and she knew she was going to be caught, she tried to flee by plane to a country with no extradition treaty. She is a flight risk and a threat, not only to Brooke Banks but to the community at large. She set the bookstore on fire when it was packed with people. If not for a bystander putting out the fire quickly, who knows how many people may have been hurt or killed. There was a tenant upstairs and people in the adjoining café. She had zero regard for any of them.”
The judge rendered his ruling quickly. “Bail denied. The suspect will be remanded to prison until her trial date.”
Brad was standing next to him, showing his support, and smacked him on the shoulder. “Yes. She’s going down.”
Cody turned to his friend. “Thank you for getting me in to see your dad the way you did.”
“Cody, you’re a respected attorney. He would have taken your call and a meeting if you asked for it.”
“I know he paid special attention because of our friendship. I appreciate it.”
“Yeah, well, don’t be surprised if he callsyoufor a favor next time.”
Cody expected it and he was willing to pay up when the time came. Within reason.
Kristi stood and turned to her parents, but went still when she spotted him. Her face flushed red with anger. “You did this.”
The court security guard moved closer to her.
Kirk stood and turned to him. “It didn’t have to be this way.”
“No, it didn’t. She should have left Brooke alone. You shouldn’t have tried to have me fired. I guess her need for revenge comes from you. Just remember you both lost coming after me. If I were you, I wouldn’t try it again.” What he really wanted to say wasif you do, I’ll make you suffer. But with so many witnesses, probably not a good idea.
Kirk turned to Kristi. “We’ll figure something out. It’s going to be okay.”
Don’t make promises you can’t keep.
Kristi was not getting out of jail anytime soon. He’d made sure of that.
Brad hooked his hand on Cody’s shoulders. “Come on, man. I can’t wait to see your fiancée.”
Cody had invited the DA and Brad to lunch at the house. Mostly so Devin could assure Brooke that Kristi was not going to be a problem anymore.
DA Whitlock followed him and Brad out. “She sounds…resilient.”
“Yes, she is.” More than she had ever thought she’d need to be.
He couldn’t wait to put all of this behind them and marry her.
Chapter Thirty-Eight
They stood in the hallway with her back to her bedroom door, Cody pressed along the front of her, kissing her neck. Well, the room wasn’t hers anymore. After Adam’s suicide, she’d moved into Cody’s room—their room—permanently and they’d had her old room redecorated as a guest bedroom for now. That was five months ago. Nearly Christmas now.
So much had changed since then. She’d gone through another difficult depression that included meds and lots of therapy. Mostly the Cody kind of therapy, where he spent as much time with her as possible, usually naked, loving her. But the talking kind, too, with Cody and her therapist and their grief counselor. They’d stopped seeing the latter in September, both of them feeling like they’d worked through the rush of feelings they’d had when they lost her and had settled into life without their little girl, though they still talked about her with each other from time to time.
She’d gone to Adam’s grave at one point to have a chat with him. He’d gotten his say. She hadn’t gotten hers. It felt strange but cathartic to have a clear head and heart about what he had done, what he took from her, and how he’d left her behind to deal with the fallout.
Luckily, Cody shielded her from most of it, though reporters had tried to get her to make a comment and tell her story.
But soon there was another big headline they were chasing: the governor had stuck to his word and tried to keep the focus on Adam’s mental health issues and what he was trying to do for others.
Last she’d seen, his approval rating was up.
