Blade

 

Robby had managed to find me a new lawyer through another MC, the Ghosts. I was escorted from my cell, again, to a room where we could meet privately, which I knew meant we were the only two in the room, but there was probably someone sitting on the other side of the window listening in to us. So, there wasn’t much we could say to each other.

 

Elizabeth “Liza” Collins walked in dressed in a black suit and skirt with a red shirt under her jacket. She had hair the same deep red as her shirt. She was cold. Her presence chilled the room. She was legendary. There was no question about whether or not I could trust her. She’d won a handful of impossible cases, keeping guys out of prison who probably should have gone in. She was also known for sticking up for MCs when the law got out of hand with us.

 

Everyone wanted to know what The Ghosts were paying to keep her on their payroll. Someone like Liza shields couldn’t have come cheap. I personally wondered what it was going to cost the Vicious Thrills to have her for me.

 

“Before we talk, Mr. Shaw, I am sure you are aware our conversation is likely being recorded by the police. In the interest of maintaining our confidentiality, I’m going to ask you to keep your answers simple and not to divulge any information today that could incriminate you on these or any pending charges,” Liza said coolly when she sat down.

 

“I was thinking the same thing,” I said, letting a confident smirk play across my face. I liked her. We needed her on our side.

 

“Good. Well, it is a pleasure to meet you, I must admit,” she said with a genuine light in her eyes. She glanced around the room. “Honestly, I don’t know if I should regret the circumstances or be thankful for them,” she added.

 

“Funny.” I sat back in my chair and crossed my arms. Liza had requested no shackles for our meeting, and, surprisingly, the police complied.

 

“Well, let’s get down to business,” she said. “I’m sure they’re going to cut our time short. The judge has it out for you, which is usually the case in biker cases. It’s just because you’re in an MC. I’m going to talk to him to see if we can’t get you out on bail.”

 

“Thanks. I understand it will probably be high,” I told her. “I can pay anything.”

 

“I’m aware. Also, we need to establish your innocence and show you were framed. You were framed, weren’t you?” she asked.

 

I laughed. “I’m afraid so. I had some girls who I suspected were up to stuff like this. The cops had been putting some pressure on me to do something about it. They told me they were convinced there were drugs in my club and that there were a couple of girls trying to turn tricks on the side using the club. I got rid of the girls and had the MC do a full sweep of the place to make sure there wasn’t anything in there. The place was clean,” I explained.

 

“Right. Robby told me about the problem with the girls,” she said. “Now, if drugs were found, is there any evidence that may show they don’t belong to you?”

 

“Yeah, there are security tapes. If anyone planted anything, it should be on those tapes,” I said. “Of course, if nothing was found, I’m pretty sure it’s on there, as well,” I added.

 

“How do I get the tapes?” Liza asked.

 

“Talk to Robby. He can get you in there.”

 

“Great. They said they actually found something, so I’m sure there is evidence somewhere. If it was planted, like you said, we’ll find something on those tapes to get the case dropped. Either way, once we get you out of here, we can talk more,” she said, standing.

 

“That’s it?” I asked. “No strategy or anything like that?”

 

“Nothing for now. Right now, my biggest concern is getting the charges dropped or getting you out of here on bail,” Liza told me, standing above me. “I’ll let you know what happens.” She walked to the door and knocked on it.

 

An officer came in to escort her back down the hallway while another came in to grab me and take me back to my cell. We didn’t say a word. I wasn’t really in the mood to antagonize the cops, and there wasn’t much to say between us anyway. I walked quietly back to my cell and sat on the bunk. I had been moved to a real cell, no longer contained in the holding cell with just the bench. I had a bed now. I was moving up in the world.

 

I waited. I knew nothing was going to happen overnight. I needed to get comfortable and wait patiently. I wondered how Lucy was doing. Surely, she’d been released by the hospital by then. She was probably back at the clubhouse wondering what was going on with me. I knew the guys had probably talked to her about it. Robby certainly would have told her why he was taking her to the clubhouse instead of back to my place. Once I was out, I was going to fix everything.

 

Liza came back the next afternoon. I was surprised to see her again so soon. We met in the same room. I was led in, like before, without any shackles. She was already waiting for me, in another black suit. She sat in the chair on her side of the table as the officer led me to the other side and sat me down. He walked out of the room after that, leaving us mostly alone.

 

“I’ve got news,” she said.

 

“Is it good news or bad news?” I asked. The way she said she had news so simply and plainly made me nervous.

 

“It’s interesting news. I got the tapes yesterday and delivered them to the court. Today, the judge said he hasn’t seen them, and when he tried to pull the records, they weren’t there. They hadn’t been logged,” she told me.

 

“That would definitely be bad news.”

 

“It also lends credence to your position, that you were framed. Unfortunately, since there is no official record that they were even delivered to the court, there’s no official record that they were lost. So, the security footage doesn’t help us at all in court.”

 

“Okay, so what’s next?” I asked, growing impatient. If the footage was “lost” by the court, it meant Lucy’s dad had someone on the inside, someone besides the cops who framed me for him. It made everything a little harder.

 

“Well, I’ve filed to have the logs themselves released into evidence.”

 

“Can you even do that?” I asked.

 

She just smiled at me, like I should have known the answer to that already. “I’m going to keep working this case. I’m going to continue looking for angles that I can work to get you out of here so we can build your defense or find a way to get the case dropped,” she explained.

 

“Thanks, I guess,” I told her.

 

“Don’t act like this is charity, Blade. It’s my job. While I do focus on MCs because of the way the law treats you guys, I don’t do this out of the kindness of my heart, so no thanks necessary. Got it?”

 

I’d never been scolded for being grateful before. It was a new experience for me.

 

“I talked to Robby. He told me what you guys think is really happening here. I’m going to do some digging to see what I can come up with. If that’s what’s really happening here, we’re going to get to the bottom of it, and he’s going down for what he’s doing,” she said, and I believed her. I didn’t want to be on the receiving end of her wrath.

 

“Just get me out of here,” I told her. “I can do a lot more on the outside than I can in here.”

 

“That’s my main focus right now, Blade.”

 

I was surprised she was using my street name so much. I figured for the sake of keeping everything professional, she would have used my real name more than she was. However, given her confidence, she probably didn’t feel the need to dance around what was really going on any more than absolutely necessary.

 

I sighed. I was getting anxious. The longer I was locked up and the longer my lawyer was tied up in the court’s little games, trying to get me out, the stronger the case against me seemed to be getting. The longer I was out of the way, basically, the more opportunity Bryan Smithfield had to work against me to keep me in and keep me away from his daughter.

 

That wasn’t going to fly, though. I was going to get out and put a stop to all of it. The woman sitting across from me was going to handle it. I had complete confidence in Liza’s ability.

 

“All right, make it happen,” I told her, tapping the table. This time, I was the one who got up to call the meeting to an end. I walked over to the door and tapped on it to let them know we were done.

 

The door opened, and the officer glanced past me to Liza, confused by the fact that I was calling an end to the meeting or making sure she was okay.

 

I smiled at him and shrugged. “She’s all right,” I said. “Our meeting is just over. Take me back to my cell.”

 

I was led back to my cell as an officer entered the room behind us to escort Liza out. If she had thought anything of my early exit from our talk, she hadn’t shown it on her face. She’d just sat there as I got up to walk away. If anyone understood what I was thinking or how I felt, it was Liza. She’d worked with so many of us over the years that she was probably thinking the same things we were.

 

I had to keep my mind busy. I was starting to get worried about everything again. I had to have something to occupy my time. It did me no good to sit around thinking about how Mr. Smithfield had been able to manipulate every detail of my case so far. At least I had a lawyer who was beyond his reach, and I knew the guys in the Vicious Thrills were beyond his reach. Hell, he hadn’t even been able to find Lucy through us, and we had her while he was asking questions.

 

Once I got out, I knew Lucy was going to be my only real shot at taking her father down. I was going to have to use her to get to him. It was great knowing that, but, at the same time, I dreaded having to use her like that, especially against her own dad. I knew she still loved him. I knew it still bothered her that she’d been cut off. No one liked to be shoved aside by their folks. At the same time, he was drawing some pretty serious lines for her.

 

Then, it occurred to me that while I was locked away, he was probably going to try to get to her. He’d already gone looking for her once, and their little talk before the raid on the club had gone poorly. I had even more reason to get out. Even with Lucy staying at the clubhouse, I wasn’t sure if she were completely safe from her father’s influence.

 

Unfortunately, all I could do was wait to hear back from Liza about my bail. I lay on the bed and stared up at the ceiling, knowing my world was more than likely falling apart outside the jail.