Kate Sherwood - Dark Horse 03 - Of Dark and Bright (2 page)

“He’s meeting with another lawyer. Someone who does a lot of criminal work. He says that we need to be careful, and be prepared.” Dan sounded as if he was repeating the last part word for word.

Another thing to be jealous of; Chris actually had a useful function to perform. All Jeff could do was stand there and watch horses graze.

“Were you busy?” Dan asked. “You didn’t need to come over. I’m fine. This is… it’s weird, but it’s not bad. It’s good, really, as long as we can get her… I don’t know. It’s good if we can help her.”

“And Chris is on the job with that,” Jeff said. So, yeah, maybe he hadn’t needed to come over. Maybe he was completely unnecessary. But he’d made the drive, so he’d stick around. “I was on my way, anyhow. I thought I might go for a ride, clear some cobwebs out before I started a new project.” He felt like a sap, but he leaned over anyway and pressed a kiss to the spot just below Dan’s ear. “I missed you.”

“You saw me this morning,” Dan said, but he didn’t really sound like he was objecting.

 

“Yup,” Jeff agreed easily. “I did. And now I’m seeing you again.” He smiled. “And soon we’ll see Evan.”

“Yeah,” Dan agreed. “It’s… it’s a weird situation. But we’ll sort it out, right?” His voice was mostly confident. Mostly sure that his partners would be there for him. But, as always, there was that tiny trace of insecurity that threatened to break Jeff’s heart.

“Absolutely,” Jeff said firmly. He shuffled back and to the side, not far, just enough so that he could wrap his arms around Dan’s warm shoulders. “We’ll sort it out.”

Chapter 2

D
AN had been waiting for the phone to ring, but it still startled him when it did. He took a moment to look around Evan’s living room before he answered. He needed a little time to collect himself, but it was also nice to be reminded that he had people on his side. Chris was there, looking calm and interested, as if this was all an intellectual challenge developed for his amusement. He was sitting on the sofa next to Susan, the criminal lawyer he’d recruited. Evan was in the wide doorway that led to the dining room, leaning against the wall, and Dan could tell that he wanted to be moving, wanted to be doing something. Evan wasn’t a big fan of waiting. Jeff was standing behind Dan’s chair, ready as always, and he reached a strong, steady hand down to grip Dan’s shoulder.

“It’s an opportunity, Dan,” he said in his gravelly voice. “If you can get her to come in, we can help her get things straightened out.”

“Straightened out,” Dan repeated. He had no idea how straight things could hope to get, not with the long list of charges against Krista, but he also couldn’t imagine her being on the run for the rest of her life. Surely there needed to be an end, eventually. Maybe it was time. He hit the button to answer the call. “Hi,” he said.

“Hi, Danny.” Krista sounded more in control than she had earlier. “It’s me.”

“Yeah. Look, Krista, before you say anything… I talked to a lawyer. She says that if you tell me where you are and I don’t tell the police, I’m committing a crime. So don’t tell me anything you don’t want the cops to know, okay?” Dan really wasn’t sure what he’d do if it came down to it. He wasn’t sure if he’d betray his sister in order to follow the rules, in order to keep himself out of trouble. He didn’t think so, but he didn’t want to put it to the test.

“Oh. Okay.” Krista sounded unsure. “Is this… I don’t want to screw things up for you, Danny.”

“No, it’s okay. I want to help. We just need to be careful.” He looked over to the couch. He wished Chris worked in criminal law, but he didn’t, so Susan would just have to do. “The lawyer’s here now, if you want to talk to her. I can give her the phone, or I can put you on speaker. But there’s some other people here too. Friends. People you can trust.”

“Danny, I just wanted to talk to you. I wanted
you
to help me.”

It had been a long time, but Krista was still his baby sister. It hurt to say, “I can’t. It’s not that I don’t want to, I just don’t know enough. All I could do is get the lawyer here.” And he hadn’t even done that, really; Chris had. But Dan would pay for her, at least. “She seems nice, Krista.” Dan didn’t know where to go with this. He had a feeling he needed to keep Krista on the line; if she hung up, he really wasn’t sure she’d call him back. “She seems smart. And she looks professional. She’s younger than I thought she’d be.” Dan had no idea why he’d started this; it was kind of nerve-racking to describe somebody while she was sitting there listening to him. But Krista hadn’t hung up yet, so he kept going.

“She kind of reminds me of Mrs. Clayton. She was my secondgrade teacher; you had her too, right?”

 

“Yeah.” A pause. “Does she have the glasses?”

“No. Jesus, Krista, I wouldn’t trust my baby sister to a lawyer wearing bright red glasses.” He’d forgotten that feature of Mrs. Clayton’s appearance. “I was thinking more of the hair. And her smile. Mrs. Clayton always had a nice smile.”

“Yeah. She did.” Dan could practically feel Krista’s indecision, but finally she said, “Okay. Give the phone to her. I don’t want to be on speaker.”

“Okay,” Dan agreed. “And, Krista—I’m glad you called me. I really want to help, okay? Don’t….” He wasn’t sure what he wanted to say. He thought of himself when he was younger, and how many chances at redemption he’d probably missed because he’d been too distrustful to see other people’s good intentions. “We’re family, Krista. I want to help.”

She didn’t respond, so he leaned over to pass the phone to the lawyer, and Jeff’s hand slipped off his shoulder. Dan hadn’t even realized that Jeff had still been touching him. But once the lawyer had the phone, he leaned back and Jeff’s hand returned. “Good job, Dan,” Jeff said. Dan brought his own hand up and twined his fingers through Jeff’s. He’d done what he could, and he would stand by to do more, but he had the uncomfortable feeling that the whole thing was largely out of his control.

E
VAN moved as soon as he heard the front door open. It felt good to finally be active instead of just sitting there in the living room, listening to one side of a long and detailed conversation. At one point he’d gone and found a cell phone charger, in case the conversation kept going forever, but that was all he’d been able to do.

Now, though, he had a mission. He lifted a finger to his lips and shushed his sister before she’d even shut the door behind her. “Important phone call in the living room,” he said quietly. “Keep it down.”

“Keep
what
down?” Tatiana replied somewhat impatiently. “I haven’t said a word.”

 

“Okay, yeah, just keep it that way, okay?”

“This is nice, Evan.” She sounded testy, but at least she was whispering. “‘Welcome home, Tat. Hope you had a good trip, Tat. Come on in and tell us all about it, Tat….’” She raised an eyebrow at him and waited impatiently for him to respond to her prompts.

But Evan wasn’t going to get sucked into that trap. Lord knew Tat had been a pain in the ass lately, full of independence and resentment for any limitations he tried to place on her behavior, but he absolutely had the trump card for this hand. And he was happy to play it. “Dan’s sister called. She’s talking to a lawyer, and they’re trying to persuade her to turn herself in after a ten-year multistate crime spree. But, you’re right, we should cut that off and have you tell us about your time in Sacramento. It’s the state capital, after all.”

Normally Tat would have something to say about his sarcasm, but the first part of his message had caught her attention, and she stared at him with her jaw literally dropped. “Dan’s sister! Really?” She grabbed Evan’s arm. “This is huge, Evan! Is she okay? Is
he
okay? Is Chris here? Is he handling it?”

“Slow down, brat. Chris is here, but there’s another lawyer doing the talking. A criminal lawyer.” He eased a little closer and dropped his voice even more. “This… don’t get carried away, okay? It’s not going to have a happy ending, Tat. Not the way you’re thinking.”

“If she turns herself in, though… that’s like saying she’s sorry, right? And Dan could help her. We could all help her. We could give her somewhere to live, and she could have a job….” Tat saw the expression on Evan’s face, but she frowned angrily back at him. “It’s rehabilitation, Evan! That’s the point of the justice system, right? To get people to follow the rules. If she turns herself in, and agrees to follow the rules….”

Evan loved his sister. She was seventeen, sweet, and naïve when she wasn’t being rebellious and cynical, and she made him believe that anything was possible. But “possible” wasn’t “probable,” and he hated to see it when her optimism was crushed by reality. He spent a lot of his time with her just trying to soften that blow. “That’d be great, Tat. But it’s not all about rehabilitation. There’s supposed to be punishment too. That’s what she’s going to have to get through.”

Tat looked unconvinced, but she didn’t argue. Instead, she peered past Evan’s shoulder, trying to get a look into the living room. “Can I go listen?” she asked.

Evan rolled his eyes. “Trust me—you don’t want to. It’s mostly Krista talking, and you can’t hear that part, so everyone’s just sitting in there, listening to the lawyer say ‘Go on’ every couple minutes, and trying to figure out the story.” But Tat was like Evan; she couldn’t just sit around while someone she cared about was having a hard time. And, just like him, if her energy wasn’t given an outlet, it tended to get out of control. “Let’s go make snacks,” he suggested. “It’s Tia’s day off. We could make those mini-pita pizzas.”

Evan had known that would get her attention. “Dan likes the Hawaiian ones,” Tat agreed. “Do we have ham?” She led the way to the spacious country kitchen and they began to rummage through the fridge.

Evan thought about Dan and Krista, and he reached out and wrapped his hand around Tat’s shoulder. He pulled her toward him, and she let herself be manhandled, then returned the hug. “We’re going to help her, right?” she whispered.

“We’re going to try,” he agreed. He couldn’t promise any more than that.

J
EFF stretched his legs out and rested his feet on the coffee table. Dan was nestled in against his ribs, Evan was sitting on the floor, leaning back into the space between Jeff and Dan’s legs, and everything was perfect. It was peaceful, and quiet, and safe.

Evan lasted about a minute before he started fidgeting, and Jeff smiled down at him. “You planning things down there?” he asked.

Evan spun around so quickly that he jammed his back into the coffee table, knocking the mini-pizza remnants onto the floor on the far side. “I think Susan’s great,” he said. When Evan had an idea, he spoke with his whole body, an evangelical zeal shining from his eyes. “But I think we need to be more aggressive on this one. I think we should get a whole dream team of lawyers. I can call down to LA, see who’s hot down there, and we’d keep Susan on board, sure, but she needs help. This story hasn’t gotten a lot of press, and if we can keep it that way, then there’s no real pressure on the DA to be a hard ass. If we come on strong enough, we can push them right off balance, and get a really good deal. Or maybe she doesn’t even want to confess— maybe we should be fighting for a not-guilty situation.”

Dan didn’t look convinced. “There’s a lot of evidence, it sounds like. Video recordings and everything. And it’s probably going to be a federal thing.” Jeff tightened his arm just a little around Dan’s shoulder, and Dan relaxed and leaned into him before saying, “That’s what Susan said. Well, she said there’s some California stuff too—the armed robberies were all down around LA. But they robbed two banks, and there’s links to organized crime.” Dan sounded tired, and Jeff wanted to help, somehow. But what the hell could he do? Dan said, “Maybe you’re right. Maybe I should get more lawyers. I don’t know. I can, I guess. But it’s not going to just go away, Evan.”

“What about the pregnancy?” Jeff asked. “How far along is she?”

“About six months, she thinks.” Another sigh from Dan. “I guess maybe I should get ready for that. I mean, if she turns herself in… if she’s in jail… she’ll need someone to look after the baby. I don’t know anything about the father, but….”

“Babies are excellent, Dan.” Evan’s hand rested gently on Dan’s ankle. “We can get a nanny, but we can do a lot of it ourselves too. We can make it work.”

“Don’t get too far ahead of things,” Jeff said. He’d never been able to understand how Evan could be as successful in the business world as he was. He’d been running his family’s multinational company ever since his parents had died, and the business was doing very well. So Evan must have some sense of proportionality in that world. Maybe he just saved all of his sudden enthusiasms for his private life. “Don’t go furnishing the baby’s room or anything. We don’t have any idea what’s going to happen.” And then the harder part. “And we don’t know how long Krista’s sentence will be. Or anything about her, or about what she has planned for herself. Do you really want to get attached to a baby and then have it taken away when its mother gets out of jail and decides to move?”

When Evan frowned, the resemblance to his sister was uncanny. How a six-foot-six man could look like a seventeen-year-old girl was a mystery, but Evan managed. “We can make it work, Jeff.” Jeff smiled in spite of himself. Evan complained about having to be the heavy with Tat, having to try to keep her from being disappointed by life; Jeff never complained about playing the same role with Evan. Evan’s passion kept Jeff young, and trying to control his enthusiasm made Jeff feel useful.

“Let’s take it slow,” Dan said. He leaned forward and stretched his hand out toward Evan’s face, and Evan lifted himself up and shifted in. The kiss was gentle, and affectionate, and it made Jeff’s smile soften. “Thank you, Evan.” Then Dan turned to Jeff and twisted around until they could kiss, Dan’s lips warm and sweet. Jeff knew he was probably imagining it, but he liked to think he could taste just a hint of Evan. “And thank you,” Dan said.

“I haven’t done anything,” Jeff replied.

Dan didn’t say anything in response. He just snuggled in tighter and laced his fingers through Jeff’s. It was the only answer Jeff could ever imagine himself wanting, and he relaxed back into the cushions of the couch and let himself enjoy the moment.