“You know I can’t. I’ve got business in Phoenix tomorrow. But you’ll take my plane.”
“What are you going to take?”
“Four-hour drive. No biggie. Don’t worry about me. You go deal with that, and let me know if you need me to come. Then I’ll get there.”
That was fair enough for Gemma. “Thanks,” she said. “Now get out of me so I can take a bath.”
But Sal wasn’t ready to go. He began kissing her neck. “How about another round, sweetheart?”
“You don’t have it in you, old man,” Gemma said with a smile.
But then she realized Sal was already grinding again. And getting bigger and bigger again. And as he went deeper into her again, she realized just how wrong she was. Sal most definitely had it in him.
CHAPTER EIGHT
Gemma sat stoically beside another high-profile client, former Hockey star Jedidiah Hearst, as they sat in the gallery of the Vegas courtroom and waited their turn. Max McAlister, her co-counsel and an attorney in her law firm, sat on the opposite side of Jed. He was waiting too. Everybody was tired and grumpy. The judge’s docket was grossly behind because of his first case, slated for eight am, that dragged on and on until it was now in the afternoon and he was still hearing the morning cases. Jedidiah was getting antsy.
He leaned against Gemma’s narrow shoulder. “How much longer?” he asked her. “We were supposed to be heard at ten this morning. This is ridiculous!”
Gemma looked at her client. He was accused of a particularly heinous stabbing. She had miraculously managed to get him out on bail so that he didn’t have to sit in jail during their numerous pre-trial motions. But he was still ungrateful. He was considered a great man in the hockey rink. He was not a great man to Gemma.
“After this case,” she said, “there’s one more ahead of us.”
“Damn! One more? I thought we were next.”
She had already told him the schedule. He had apparently not been listening to her. “No,” she said. “We are not next.”
“Damn,” Jedidiah said again with irritation in his voice and flapped his suit coat closed. He was behaving as if the delay was Gemma’s fault. As if she was the one who caused his case to be set back by several hours. As if she wasn’t two seconds away from slapping the shit out of his arrogant ass and walking out.
But she was known as a consummate professional and wasn’t about to ruin her reputation. To avoid cussing his ass out, and getting herself disbarred, she opened her folder, put on her reading glasses, and began reviewing her notes. She was a defense attorney. Defending creeps was part of the job. But defending major league creeps like Jedidiah Hearst? Sometimes she wondered if it was worth it.
“State versus Sylvia Pendle,” the bailiff announced from the well of the courtroom and a woman in hand and leg shackles entered from a side door and was escorted by guards to the defense table.
Jed leaned against Gemma again. “My case will be heard after this one, right?” he asked her.
Gemma, a little annoyed but good at not showing it, looked up as Sylvia Pendle was seated at the defense table. “Yes,” she said. “We should be next.”
“Should be?” asked Jed as he looked at her with alarm in his already wild eyes. “What do you mean should be?”
Jesus, give me strength. “We’re next,” Gemma said, barely hiding her own irritation, and looked back down at her notes.
“What’s the allegation, Counsel?” the judge asked the district attorney in the Sylvia Pendle case.
“That she operated an illegal baby-stealing ring, Your Honor,” the assistant DA in charge said. “A ring that was just recently exposed because of the dogged determination of one of the mothers.”
Although everybody in the gallery of the courtroom seemed fascinated to hear the details, Gemma continued to review her notes. She was a veteran lawyer who had seen and heard it all. A baby-stealing ring was no news to her.
But when the judge asked where did the crimes occur, and the lawyer for Sylvia Pendle said Memorial-Mayhew School for Girls in South Bend, Indiana, Gemma looked up then.
“That’s the only location in question?” the judge asked.
“So far,” said the Assistant DA.
“Extradition?”
“She refuses to waive it, sir.”
“How did the ring work?” asked the judge, and Gemma listened to the many details. But when the judge asked what years were they talking about, and the lawyer recited the years involved, Gemma’s pen fell from her hand. They had the right place. They had the right year. But when the assistant DA began reciting each count and specifically naming the days in those specific years that each count occurred, she waited with bated breath. And when it happened, when that certain day and certain year was recited, Gemma lost all strength and her hands gave way. Her entire legal pad crashed to the floor.
Jed and Max looked at her. She looked ghostly to Jed. “What’s wrong?” he asked her.
As the judge asked the prosecutors what the State’s recommendation was on extradition for Sylvia Pendle, Gemma sat in what appeared to be a catatonic-like state.
“Gemma, what’s wrong?” Max leaned over and asked. She looked weird to him too.
But those details that lawyer had recited kept echoing in Gemma’s head. Told the mothers they were born dead. Funeral arrangements handled. Channeled through a backdoor. Memorial-Mayhew School for Girls. South Bend, Indiana. Told the mothers. Funeral arrangements. Backdoor. “I’ve got to go,” Gemma said as if she was in a state of perpetual terror.
“Go?” Jed asked. “What are you nuts? You can’t leave. My case is next!”
“I’ve got to go,” Gemma said again, as if she was terrified and had to get away. Bail for Sylvia Pendle was denied, and Sylvia was being led back through that side door, but Gemma was already heading out of the courtroom as fast as she could walk. Although her keys and her phone were in her suit coat pocket, and therefore with her by default, her briefcase was left behind.
Jedidiah and Max were both shocked. But there was no delay. The judge was already desperately behind. “State versus Jedidiah Hearst,” the bailiff announced, and Max quickly stood up. “Get up,” he said to Jed.
“But what about my lead attorney?” Jed asked.
“I can handle it,” said Max.
“I don’t have all day, counsel,” said the judge.
“Go,” said Max irritably. He was no fan of Jed’s either.
As Jed finally stood up and made his way into the well of the courtroom, Max quickly grabbed his boss’s briefcase and legal pad and made his way into the well too. He glanced at the back of the courtroom to see if the boss had come to her senses and was heading back to help represent their very high-profile client. But Gemma was gone.
CHAPTER NINE
The electronic gate at the Gabrini compound swept open, the guards at the gate waved, and Gemma’s Bentley sped through. She could barely see in front of her, let alone see some muscle men giving her smiles and waves. She drove as if she wasn’t on a driveway, but was on a speedway, until she came to a screeching stop at the steps.