Chapter 23: Court Day

The county courthouse had one courtroom big enough for a crowd, and by ten to nine the gallery was full.

Forty bikers sat in their vests along the left side, with their helmets in their laps.

Ginny sat in the front row in a black dress and her good reading glasses.

Bree sat next to her, in the clean sweater, with her hands knotted together.

I sat beside Cade at the front, with his ring on my left hand.

I did not look at the man at the other table.

He had come in wearing an orange jumpsuit.

His hair was not combed, and he looked smaller without a vest.

The judge was a woman in her sixties with white hair and a dry, flat voice.

She read the charges in order.

Theft by deception, from the club's till.

Theft, from the woman at the front of the gallery, of her grandmother's ring and a sum of money.

Violation of a no-contact order.

"Mr. Doyle has pleaded guilty to all of it," the judge said. "I have read the sheriff's file."

She paused.

"I have also seen, I'm sorry to say, a video from a veterinary waiting room. It has been watched by more people than live in this county."

A few men in the gallery grinned.

"Ms. Prescott. You asked to speak."

I stood.

My knees were not steady, and Cade's hand brushed my back once and let go.

I walked to the podium with the page I'd written the night before in my hand.

I put it down and did not look at it.

"My grandmother's name was Edie," I said. "She raised me, and she left me a ring and some money in an envelope with her handwriting on it."

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