About That Night

“Right.” She smiled in farewell. “Thanks again for meeting with me. I promise to stay out of your freakishly lustrous, shampoo-commercial hair. At least for a while.”

After she left the wine shop, Kyle sat at the table, playing distractedly with his glass.

“She didn’t want to stay?”

Kyle looked up and saw Jordan standing at the table. For once, shockingly, she didn’t appear ready to harass or needle him.

“She had plans with a friend,” he said with a shrug.

“You’ve never introduced me to a woman before.”

Kyle shook his head. “It’s not like that, Jordo,” he said. “Ryla

“—an old friend.” With a soft smile, she reached out and ruffled his hair. “Got it.”

Eighteen

AS IT TURNED out, Ryla

Over the last five years she’d prosecuted cases, she’d become quite skilled at reading defendants and their lawyers at the initial court appearance. Given Qui

Instead, it took him two weeks and three days to make that call.

“I’ve read the FBI reports,” Michael Cha

“How about tomorrow?” Ryla

“Two thirty,” Cha

Clearly, it was going to be one of those kinds of discussions.

THE FOLLOWING AFTERNOON, Ryla

“You said you wanted to talk?” Ryla

Cha

Qui

“He’s correct,” she said. “Unless you were to take the stand at trial and perjure yourself. Which I strongly recommend against doing.”

Qui

Ryla

“I never told Watts to kill Brown,” he said emphatically. “I only told him to rough the guy up, that’s all. You know, teach him a lesson.”

“That was some lesson.”

“Look, Brown attacked me first. You can’t have that in prison. You get too much of that and the inmates will be ru

His tone became more angry, a quick flash of temper. “You sit there, looking so smug,” he said to her. “But who do you think watches these animals after you get your convictions? You see them at trial for—what?—a couple days, maybe a week, and then you pass the buck on. I have to deal with them for years. You and your whole office should be thanking me for doing my job.”

“Doing your job doesn’t include killing an inmate, Mr. Qui

“I told you, that wasn’t supposed to happen,” he said, getting louder.

There was a pause as the two men exchanged a look, then Cha

“Not going to happen,” Ryla

“No fucking way,” Qui

“You go to trial, and you’re looking at a murder-two conviction,” Ryla

“Or he might walk away free,” Cha

“Not true. I’ve got two witnesses who can establish both retaliatory motive and that Qui

“Witnesses who are both convicted felons,” Cha

“Absolutely,” Ryla

Qui

“And Darius Brown went to prison for his actions,” Ryla

She saw him open his mouth and beat him to the punch. “Let’s talk straight, Mr. Qui

The words hung in the air between them.

“This is not what we’d hoped for, Ms. Pierce,” Cha

“Understood.” Ryla

She made it all the way to the reception area before she heard them call her name. She turned and saw Qui

“E-mail me the agreement as soon as it’s ready,” he said. “I’ll call the clerk and have him put us on the docket for a change of plea.”

And that was that.

Ryla

She would have rather enjoyed kicking both their asses at trial.

THE REST OF the week flew by, a flurry of motion calls, witness interviews, and meetings with various FBI, ATF, and DEA agents. Before Ryla

Afterward, she walked out of the courtroom feeling good about the resolution of the case—and even better twenty minutes later in her office, when Cameron stopped by to congratulate her.

“I just saw the press release Paul is putting together regarding Adam Qui