Sienna walked up the stone stairs of the old Keeneston courthouse. Keeneston was founded in the late 1700s, and the courthouse had been one of the first buildings the settlers had erected. It had been expanded over the years, but the original courthouse was still the focal point of the building. It was four stories high with beautiful shiny wooden floors. The bustle of the judicial system moved all around her.
She pressed the third-floor button in the old elevator and pulled out a tissue as she rode the rattling ancient cage. She wiped her eyes and when the elevator door opened, hoped she looked somewhat respectable.
Her mother had been in private practice in New York City before she became a witness to a corruption scandal and was forced to flee to Will Ashton for help. Once she arrived in Keeneston, she never left. Even her mom's best friend, Dani, who had been her paralegal in New York, joined her in Keeneston. Kenna married Will, and Dani married a sheik named Mohtadi Ali Rahman. Together, the two best friends started up a private practice firm in town before her mom was voted in as the town’s prosecutor.
Sienna walked down the hall to her mother’s office. She walked in and found Dani sitting at the front desk. “Hi, Mrs. Ali Rahman.”
Dani rolled her eyes. “How many times have I told you to call me Dani? One of your middle names is named after me. The least you can do is call me by my first name. When you call me Mrs., it makes me feel old.”
“Sorry, Dani.Is my mom in?” Sienna did her best to smile and act as if everything was all right, but Dani’s ice blue eyes zeroed in on her wobbly smile. Dani was up and out of her chair in a heartbeat.
“What is it? What’s the matter?” Dani asked as she rounded the desk and pushed open the swinging gate that separated the front of the room from her mom’s office. Her long dark hair still managed not to show any gray; whether natural or not, Sienna couldn’t say.
“Nothing. I just need to talk to my mom. I’m afraid I might need a lawyer.”
Dani wrapped her arms around her and pulled her into a tight hug. “Your mom’s in court. Let’s go get her. And while we head down there, you can tell me why you think you need a lawyer.”
Ryan dropped into the chair in front of his father’s desk. This was way too reminiscent of being called into Cole’s home office when he was in trouble. Old habits die hard, and Ryan found himself fidgeting with the file in his hands while he waited for his dad to come in.
Detective Andrea Braxton walked in a couple minutes later and sat in the chair next to him. “Okay, we just need to clear the air. Yes, I thought you were hot. As soon as I saw you only had eyes for Sienna, I backed off.”
Ryan felt his eyebrows rise. “Sienna was telling the truth about that?”
Andrea blushed again. “I mean, yeah. Look at you. A woman would have to be dead not to notice you.”
“So, we’ve established my son is attractive. Is this what this meeting is about?” Cole asked as he walked into the room.
“No, sir. I was just clearing up something that happened before we got here,” Detective Braxton said quickly.
Ryan saw his father shoot him a questioning look that resembled the face he gave Ryan right before he sent him to his grandparents’ farm to do manual labor as punishment.
“I wanted to meet with you all to fill you in on my case. Dad knows some, but here’s the file. Agent Packers wants you both read in on the terrorist known to us as The Suit. We also have reason to believe he is known as Rais overseas.”
Ryan filled them in on his undercover work and Abdul’s mysterious suicide while in an FBI facility. He further filled his father in on the man who attacked him and then handed it off to Andrea to share what she knew of the murders.
His father nodded as he took down notes. “I’ll send a couple of men to help with Jaylen’s detail. Detective, you can pull your men from Sienna’s detail. I’ll feel better if the FBI takes that over. She’s like family to me, and family protects their own. Ryan will be with her constantly . . . wait, who is with her now?”
“Nash is.”
Detective Braxton turned to face him. “Who is Nash?”
“Nash Dagher is the second-in-command of Prince of Ali Rahman’s security detail. He’s more than capable of protecting her,” Cole answered for Ryan.
“We don’t even know if she needs protecting,” Detective Braxton mumbled.
Ryan fell back against his chair. His father narrowed his eyes on her and was in full boss mode as he stared Andrea down. “What exactly does that mean?”
Ryan opened his mouth to try to limit the damage, but his father simply held up a hand. “Not one word, Agent Parker. I was asking Detective Braxton.”
Andrea sat up straight and looked his father, the head of the local FBI, in the eyes. “We haven’t eliminated her as a possible suspect.”
“And what evidence do you have to even consider her a suspect?” Cole asked. His voice was deadly calm, and his eyes never wavered from Detective Braxton’s.
Andrea shifted in her chair. “She dated a sports agent named Seth Hayes. He happens to be the agent for both Jaylen King and Malik Coleman. Further, while she won’t admit or deny it, Dr. Ashton was seeing both of those players as patients. It’s a coincidence and one I want cleared up.”
“So, you think Dr. Ashton has terrorist ties with The Suit and is feeding him information about the case?” Cole asked, and Ryan felt like groaning. It was so insane to even think this about Sienna. Jealousy had turned him into someone who acted first and thought second, and that was not him.
“Yes, or what I believe to be more probable is Mr. Hayes is using Dr. Ashton to give him inside information on his players and the investigation.”
Cole turned to Ryan, and he had to struggle to remember he was almost thirty, not thirteen. “And, Agent Parker, do you hold those same beliefs?”
Ryan gulped. He hated when his dad and Sienna called him Agent Parker. It was a sure sign they were pissed. “I might have led her to think I believed that. But I don’t. It’s ridiculous to think Sienna had anything to do with it.”
“Either way,” Detective Braxton cut in, “we need to question her. I’m going to call her attorney and set up a time to meet at the police station. If Agent Parker is too scared to assist, then I’ll do it myself.”
Cole gave a cold smile. “Oh, no. I think he should join you. Agent Parker, make the call and set up the appointment.”
The way his father was grinning told Ryan all he needed to know. He was a dead man walking.
Sienna entered the lobby of the courthouse and stopped at the line waiting to go through security. Dinky and Noodle, the two senior deputies, were getting ready for a full day of court. Eugene Miller, who liked to noodle catfish—hence, the nickname Noodle—was getting ready to retire. Sienna didn’t even know Dinky's real name. He was short and the nickname just stuck.
“Knives, even those used to clean your nails, go in drawers, and you will get them back when court is over,” Dinky called out as the people groaned and started pulling out their knives.
“Guns, bats, batons, ninja stars . . . they all go in the drawers. If you can kill a squirrel with it, put it in the basket,” Noodle ordered as he looked in purses.
Dinky noticed her first. “Sienna! What brings you by today?” he asked as he signaled for her and Dani to bypass security. He stepped over and gave her a hug. Noodle quickly joined him and wrapped her up in a bear hug as if she were still nine years old.
“It’s good to see you. Here to see your mom in action?” Noodle asked.
Dani’s hands went to her hips, “You bet. Cole’s worthless son is trying to pin a murder on our girl.”
Noodle looked confused. “Wait, I thought you, Kenna, and Paige all wanted those two to get together . . .”
Dani nudged him in the stomach to cut him off. “But now he wants to question her about her relationship with a sports agent as if she is colluding with him to murder Malik and Jaylen.”
“The Thoroughbreds players?” Dinky asked. He took a bow and arrow from someone attending court.
“That’s right,” Dani told him.
Sienna just wanted to leave. She should have known better than to involve her family, and Dani was family. The whole town would know about this and a town divided wasn’t what she wanted to deal with. The citizens of Keeneston had a tendency to overstep personal space. Although, how they overstepped something they didn’t even believe existed was another question for another day.
“Right this way. Court won’t start for another couple of minutes so your mom is just working out plea bargains,” Noodle told her as he opened the heavy door leading into the mahogany-paneled courtroom.
Sienna saw her mother, McKenna Ashton—or Kenna to her friends—standing at her desk at the front of the room. Sienna walked past the rows of seating and smiled weakly to those she knew while her mother talked with Henry Rooney and Neely Grace Rooney, the husband-wife defense attorney team of Keeneston.
The sight of those she grew up with made her feel safe. Henry was in his shiny silver suit, looking like a mob boss-turned-used car salesman. His wife was in a power suit and repeatedly rolling her eyes at her husband. It brought a smile and a bit of a tear to Sienna’s face. Just this morning she had thought she and Ryan would have that. A lifetime together of teasing, laughing, and eye rolling.
As if sensing Sienna, her mother’s dark auburn hair turned, finding green eyes similar to her own searching her out. Her mother looked excited, but then, as she took in Sienna, Dani, and Noodle, her smile slipped and she rushed forward.
“What happened? Are you hurt?” her mother demanded and started looking her over for wounds.
“Not on the outside.” Sienna took a deep breath. “I need a lawyer.”
Her mother’s forehead creased. “For what?”
“Did you say you need a lawyer?” Henry Rooney asked as he and Neely Grace joined the group.
See. No personal space. “Yes. Ryan . . . Agent Parker that is, and Detective Braxton, the lead detective on the Malik Coleman murder and the Jaylen King attempted murder, think I have something to do with it.”
“He what?” Kenna yelled. The courtroom went quiet as everyone in the rows of benches turned to look at them.
“Did she say Ryan is back in town?” someone asked.
“Yeah, and he thinks she’s a killer,” someone else spoke up.
“Dumbass. I thought he was smarter than that.”
“Thank you,” Sienna smiled to Mr. Chapman, the town’s chronic bumbling public masturbator. It had started when he was in his twenties. He didn’t mean to be public about it, he had just been trying to escape his wife’s notice. But he wasn’t the sharpest tool in the shed and always seemed to be caught in a very public fashion. So now he had a standing court date to keep him in line and he’d turned into something of an eccentric legend.
Kenna grabbed her daughter’s hand and dragged her through the open door. “I need your chambers, Your Honor,” Kenna said as she dragged Sienna and half the town with her past the judge getting ready to take a seat at the bench.
Sienna, Kenna, Dani, Henry, Neely Grace, and Noodle crammed into the small office. Her mother pushed her down in a chair and turned a serious look on her. “Now, tell me everything.”
“Kenna just told Sienna to spill it,” Mr. Chapman’s muffled voice called out to the spectators in the courtroom.
“Get out of the way!” a woman’s voice said from the other side of the door. “Don’t make me break this broom over your head. It’s my fifth of the year and I’m rather fond of it.”
The door to the chambers burst open and Miss Lily, Miss Daisy, Miss Violet, and their husbands poured in.
“We heard. I can’t believe Ryan did this. I thought he was such a smart young man,” John Wolfe said solemnly.
“And I had twenty bucks riding on an engagement by this weekend,” Miss Violet groaned as she sat down.
“Would you like Anton to make you a special dessert to drown your sorrows over the love of your life betraying you? I think something with dark chocolate,” Miss Violet’s husband, Anton, a French chef, said sweetly.
Sienna nodded. “That sounds lovely, Anton. Thank you.”
Miss Daisy handed her a hanky and that was when Sienna realized she was crying.
“Now, dear, tell us everything and we’ll find a way to fix it,” Miss Lily said softly.
Thirty minutes later, Sienna sat back in the chair. “That’s everything.”
“That’s not everything from what I’ve heard,” Miss Daisy sent her a wink and Kenna shushed her.
“This is my daughter, not some object of gossip. So, this Detective Braxton has the hots for Ryan, huh?”
Sienna shrugged. “I don’t know. She was definitely interested when she first saw him, but it was clear he was there to see me. I mean, he has an eight pack. Of course she’s going to be . . .” Sienna paused and looked up. All eyes were on her. The Rose sisters and their husbands looked as if they were trying not to burst out laughing.
“Eight, huh?” Kenna said with a quirk to her lips. “Your father only had six.”
“Eww, Mom!” Sienna groaned and the others laughed. Sienna had tried not to give away the extent of her and Ryan’s relationship, but it was clear they all knew.
Their laughter stopped when Kenna’s phone started to vibrate.
“McKenna Ashton,” her mother said in that scary professional voice. “Ah, Detective Braxton. I’ve heard so much about you.”
“The detective just called,” Mr. Chapman’s muffled voice was the only thing that could be heard as Kenna waited while the detective spoke.
“No, that just won’t do. If you wish to speak to my client, you can meet at the Rooney and Rooney Law Offices in Keeneston at three today. No other time is available,” Kenna said as she looked at her daughter and winked.
“I don’t care if that doesn’t suit you. It’s either three o’clock at Rooney and Rooney or get an arrest warrant.” Her mother was quiet for a second as Sienna worried her heart might beat right out of her chest. “Fine. I’ll see you then. Oh, and Detective Braxton, tell Agent Parker I look forward to seeing him as well.”
Her mother hung up the phone and the entire room let out its collective breath.
“Who knew my mom was a badass?” Sienna chuckled.
“You haven’t seen anything yet.” Kenna promised. “Henry, do you and Neely mind if I borrow your conference room?”
“About that,” Neely started. “You know she’s going to play the mother/daughter angle. Let us help.”
Kenna nodded and then smiled. “And I think we should give Henry a very long leash.”
Henry’s lips turned up into a huge grin. “Can I, honey?” he asked his wife. “I’ve been working on some great material.”
“And I would love to hear it,” Neely, along with the rest of the room, snickered. Henry was the king of horrible pick-up lines and nothing threw people off their game faster than a well-placed corny line.
A knock sounded at the door and Charlie, Miss Daisy’s husband, answered it. The judge poked his head in. “Mind if we start court now? If we need to make it to that three o’clock meeting, we better hurry.”
“We?” Sienna asked.
“You didn’t think I would miss this, did you? I’ll even wear the robe and look intimidating,” Judge Cooper, who should have retired a decade ago, said as he wiggled his bushy white brows.
“Judge,” Kenna said, shaking her head, “don’t you think that would be improper?”
“Hey, I’m retiring at the end of the year. Let an old man have some fun.”
Sienna should have felt embarrassed, but instead she felt loved. This town loved her, and this town would stand beside her.
“I’d be honored to have you with me. Thank you, Judge Cooper.”
“Can I come, too?” Mr. Chapman asked, and everyone cringed.
“No!” they all responded together.
“I didn’t mean it that way,” Mr. Chapman mumbled as he walked back into the courtroom, and the room dissolved into laughter.