Yale…

She had begun making it a habit to text me when she arrived to tell me she was shutting off the cameras. If I was lucky, I would catch her at the panel before she did it. She was always clothed then, of course, but I didn’t always get down to the café now that the Reeves case was in full swing when it came to trial. Closing arguments had been given, and the jury was in deliberations. It had been one of the most exhausting cases of my career to date and I wasn’t at all sure I was going to win it.

I’m here; I’m turning off the cameras now.

I quickly signed into the app governing my home security system and felt my chest ease when Ally’s pretty face came into view. Colorless, of course, due to the cameras, but no less lovely, even if I missed the startling color of her green eyes. The cameras disengaged and the screen went black with the pop-up message asking if I wished to re-engage them. I hit ‘no’, as good as my word, just as one of the city’s paralegals stuck his head into my office.

“Verdict on the Reeve’s case is in,” he declared, grimly.

“What? Shit! Already?” I stood up quickly and shoveled the folders I’d taken out of my briefcase back in. They hadn’t deliberated more than a couple of hours at this point. That typically meant bad news for the prosecution. Very bad.

“Chrissy!” I barked, and she looked up from her desk in the office across from mine, her phone pressed to her ear. She said something into the receiver at the look on my face and dropped it onto the cradle.

“What’s wrong?” she called out.

“Reeves verdict is in, let’s roll!”

“Wait, what?” she said, alarmed, “Are you kidding me? Please, tell me you’re joking right now!”

“I wish I were.” I shrugged into my jacket, and we hauled ass down to the street, to the courthouse around the next block. We moved briskly through the other pedestrians on the sidewalk and Chrissy tried to placate me.

“We laid the case out as clear as could be. Even a toddler could follow along. As a matter of law, she’s guilty as sin. The jury has to know that,” she said, her breathing becoming more labored.

“The defense played to the jury’s emotions. Those people saw a scared, barely legal teen on that stand,” I snarled.

“Look, Yale, we don’t know,” she said. “We won’t know until we hear the verdict.”

“That girl buried that baby alive; they’d better not let her off,” I growled.

We took the courthouse steps two at a time and returned to our designated courtroom. The air was thick with tension, the atmosphere crackling with apprehension. My adrenaline raced, my pulse throbbed in my temple. I gripped the back of my chair as the bailiff commanded we all rise.

“The Honorable Judge Angela Marie Bendyk is now presiding.”

I liked Judge Bendyk; she was both tough and fair. Also, as far as a lot of the judges went, she was easy on the eyes. She wore her long brown hair pulled into a severe bun, and subtle makeup that didn’t look like she wore any at all. Her brown eyes were quick and I liked a woman who could be shrewd, which she was ‒ she didn’t let either side get away with bullshit, which in turn usually made my job easier. Very rarely did it make it harder.

I went through the motions, sitting, the jury being led in, listening through all the bullshit legalese we all spent way too much time and money to learn just to hear the fucking verdict which was…

The courtroom held its collective breath; we had shot hard for depraved indifference homicide, and if this little bitch got off, my faith in humanity was going to be irreparably damaged.

Come on, lady, come on, lady, come on, you bastards, do the right thing! My brain chanted at them. The forewoman looked up and said the magic word.

“Guilty‒” and the rest of what she said was drowned out by the gallery leaping to their feet and cheering. A sentiment from which Chrissy and I were not immune, we just couldn’t show it.

“Oh, my god, I need a drink after that!” Chrissy said, fanning herself as soon as we hit the street.

I hailed a cab, “You and me both.”

It was a mistake; I didn’t usually make mistakes. Not of that magnitude.

We went to the 10-13 and I had just enough to drink that it was just this side of too much. I was pleasantly buzzed as I pushed back from the bar and declared, “After that shit-show, I think I have earned myself a good night’s sleep.”

Chrissy giggled, and Youngblood put his arms around her as she said, “Don’t worry, I’m sure the next horror show to keep us up at night will be along shortly.” The proclamation held the bitter edge of one of the rest of us rank and file, and as a lawyer, I could appreciate that even as a defense attorney in the big firm she’d come from, that she had heard and seen some things to damage the psyche.

“Have a fantastic evening,” I told them both. “I am sure you are absolutely correct, but for now, we’ve earned at least one evening.”

“Just one,” Chrissy agreed, and raised her wine glass in salute.

I chuckled and picked up my briefcase from the floor beside my barstool, plucked my trench coat from the bar and tossed it over my arm.

“Night, Yale!” they chimed in unison, and I smiled, giving them a wave over my shoulder.

Youngblood whispered something in her ear and she giggled. He was sober, but she was probably just a little bit tipsy. I gave a sharp nod to Skids who was at the other end of the bar talking to a waitress, and he raised a hand in farewell.

I pushed out of the 10-13’s front door into the late summer heat, stepping up to the curb and hailing a cab. The ride home was relatively short, I could have walked it, but I was feeling lazy. I should have walked it – because when I keyed my way into the apartment, there was Ally, frozen like a deer and just as graceful, in my kitchen, nude and perfect.

I blinked, long and slow, and let my gaze rove what I could see of her, from her face down to where she was hidden behind the counter.

“My apologies,” I said with all sincerity. “I should have texted I was coming home early.” Which was the truth. In the furor the early verdict caused, I had completely forgotten she was here. “You may absolutely get dressed if you’d like…”

Her wide green eyes blinked once, and the tension riding her shoulders eased as she glanced me over from head to toe and back again. She swallowed hard and asked, “Why would I do that?” and stepped around the end of the counter so that I could see her better.

I felt my lips curve into an appreciative smile and more tension eased out of how she held herself. I fully blame the alcohol when it came to my lack of control for what I said next…

“Dear god, I want to play with you.”