“You think she’ll clear out before she sells out to Valenzuela, playin’ both ends?” Speck asked.
Joker shook his head. “She doesn’t know jack about us so she’s got nothin’ to give. She’s stupid enough to share she shared, she’ll be in the morgue by morning. Heidi might not be much, but she ain’t stupid.”
Speck didn’t reply.
They mounted their bikes but before they went their separate ways, Boz called, “Sharp on patrol.”
And when he said it, Joker felt it.
Something new.
On patrol, Joker didn’t give a shit what went down. He did what he had to do for his Club to protect what was theirs.
But right then, he knew he’d be sharp on patrol.
Not that he wasn’t before.
Just that, should the uncommon happen and things got ugly, he was going to make certain it didn’t get ugly for him.
And Joker had plans tomorrow night he was no way in hell going to miss.
Chapter Ten
I Drink Beer
Carissa
“IF WE GET a judge who’s buddy-buddy with either of the Neilands, I’ll ask that he recuse himself. I’ve no idea if he will. But if he doesn’t, it sets him up for appeal.”
It was the next evening and we were in the conference room at Gustafson, Howard and Pierce—Angie, Joker, Travis, and me. And Angie was explaining her strategy, which was essentially to obtain child support, revise custody so my very young son spent most of his time with his mother, as it should be (according to me, and now Angie), and lastly, to do her best to slap Aaron and his father on the wrist, hard, for what they’d been doing to me.
A strategy I agreed with wholeheartedly.
She kept talking.
“I’m actually surprised the judge you had didn’t recuse himself. He’s known to have a longstanding close relationship with Judge Neiland.”
That was something I knew. Heck, the man had come to my wedding!
I didn’t have a chance to share this before Angie continued, “Your last attorney is very good, but my feeling is that he didn’t ask a judge he knew should recuse himself to do so because it would set him up for the man’s displeasure. Judges have long memories. They’re supposed to be objective, but they’re also human. If they don’t recuse themselves, they don’t like to be asked. They also don’t like threats of appeal. I don’t have the same problem as your former counsel. They know that, and that should work in our favor.”
I wanted to jump across the table and kiss her.
Instead, I just smiled at her before I turned my head to Joker, who was sitting beside me.
It was then I wanted to kiss him.
This was because Joker was feeding Travis, who was sitting happily on his thigh.
It was Travis’s dinnertime. We couldn’t wait for Las Delicias and a high chair. My boy needed his food.
And Joker told me I needed to focus.
So when we settled in, I focused on Angie and Joker focused on my son.
Now, with surprising ease, he was shoving carrots in Travis’s mouth, the jar on the table in front of him, his attention on Travis, but I knew he was listening to Angie.
Taking him in, I thought he’d never been more handsome.
“I already have paralegals working on the motion we’ll be filing,” Angie continued and I looked back to her. “We’re hoping to do that tomorrow, latest the next day.”
“That’d be great.” I gave her my understatement.
“I’ll warn you that usually, as a first step, counsel would approach opposing counsel to try to negotiate things like this outside of court. However, I think we’re beyond that at this juncture.”
I nodded. “I agree.”
She nodded back. “Now, if Mr. Neiland does or says anything that makes you angry or uncomfortable or that you find questionable in any way, you document it. Starting with what happened with Travis and his croup last week. Dates. Times of phone calls. What’s been said. Et cetera. Everything you can remember. You also report it to me.”
I nodded.
“I have high hopes for this, Carissa,” she told me. “It’s unconscionable what’s been going on. My gut feeling is that if we don’t have the luck of the draw with which courtroom we land in, it will simply mean your circumstances will take more time to change. But I’ll do everything in my power to deal with this swiftly.”
“I don’t know what to say,” I replied. “Thank you.”
She grinned. “Don’t thank me. I’m getting paid. But regardless, I love my job. But when I get this kind of case, I love my job.”
I was glad about that. I liked her. She seemed nice and bullheaded, and in this instance, both worked for me.
Still.
“Thank you anyway,” I returned.
“My pleasure,” she said then looked to Joker and back to me. “Feel free to use this room to take care of Travis. But I’ve got a few more things to do before I go home. So if you don’t mind, I’ll leave you.”
“Of course not. Please go. And thank you for your time,” I said.
She nodded to me, did the same to Joker and moved out.
I looked to Joker and wheeled my plush leather chair his way.
“She’s amazing,” I whispered excitedly.
“Club’s not gonna retain morons,” he replied, any bite to his words nonexistent since his lips were curled up very slightly.
It might have been a very slight curve, but I’d take it.
I looked down to Travis then to him. “You want me to finish?”
“Got it.”
He certainly did.
“We can finish with the carrots and give him the yummy pears at LD,” I said.
“Right.”
“You’re good at that,” I observed carefully, because I didn’t want to seem to be prying.
I still wanted to know. The man was a biker. As far as I knew he had no children (something, even at this early juncture between us, I would hope he’d already have shared with me). But he was very good with them.
“Long time ago, rented a room in a basement,” he returned easily. “Woman needed the money. She had a man who was a dick. Gone more than he was home. She had kids, one was a baby. She worked. She also jacked down rent if I helped out. I needed her to jack down rent, so I helped out.”
That explained that.
“That was nice,” I noted.
“Her kids were the bomb.”