Page 91 of With Wine Comes War

“Would you like me to continue the questions, Mr. Stevens?” Detective Lewis calmly tried to defuse the situation between Matt and myself, but I knew he wouldn’t allow her to take his place.

“No, detective, she doesn’t need coddling right now.” Matt said through gritted teeth not taking his eyes off me. The detective didn’t seem phased by the interaction, so I let it go and didn’t give Matt the piece of my mind that was right there on the tip of my tongue.

“Texting. That’s what I was doing?” I moved on from the tension in the room and back to the task at hand so I could get the hell out of here. The anxiety building in my chest was raging to the surface and I sure as hell didn’t want to take out this uncontrollable anger on the two of them and possibly get myself thrown in jail.

“Who were you texting?”

“Roman.” Now I’m starting to see the importance of short answers and the need to not bring up the plan with Matt or Detective Lewis.

“Roman who and who is he to you?” I smirked and huffed out a breath of air thinking this is so weird pretending when I know they know the answers to these questions already.

“Roman King and he is…was my boyfriend.” Is he my boyfriend again? I don’t even know the answer to a question as simple as that at the moment.

“Was? Why is he not now? Aren’t you living with him? Do you make it a habit of cohabitating with men you’re not dating?” Matt shot each question right out of the cannon as if I were the one on trial and I lost my senses about why I was here.

“Excuse me? I think you of all people know why the fuck I’m living with him.” Something snapped and I didn’t know how to rein it back in. I stood up and slammed my hands on the table, frustration replaced by anger.

“Alex, I’m not asking as your friend, I’m asking as if I were his attorney.” Matt’s face was unsettled, and he stood up towering over me, placing his hands on the table to lean in, bringing him down to my height. The urge to reach out and slap him was almost more than I could bear. I flopped down in the chair wrapping my arms around me, digging my nails into my biceps to control my temper and keep my hands to myself.

“You can’t behave this way in the courtroom, Alex. No matter what they ask you, you have to be in control and just answer the fucking question.” His nostrils were flared, and I knew I’d pushed too far this time. Definitely not exposing the plan to either of them now.

***

ROMAN

I followed the DA and Jack to another room just a few doors down the hall from where I left Alex. I sat down in the chair they directed me to, as they sat across from me.

“Roman, we’ve been getting some rather strange messages from the defendant’s attorneys about them filing charges against Alex for assault. This court room drama is going to be a lot on her. Can you tell us anything that could help us keep her under control in there?”

“Like what? Maybe if you could keep it out of court that would help immensely.” They looked at each other and smiled, probably thinking the same thing.

“Don’t think we haven’t been pushing for that but he’s really playing this bullshit up. Has she said anything about that night that we can use to help her case? The whole not knowing what happened and thinking it was you, isn’t really the nail in the coffin we need.”

“She hasn’t talked about that night with me other than to tell me she has nightmares about it. She said something recently that has me worried, but she said it was just because she had too much to drink. She said I wasn’t going to like it. I still don’t know what, if anything, she was talking about.”

“Well, we can’t use what we don’t know, so let’s not worry about it now.” I pushed it to the back of my mind hoping it was nothing.

We finished talking about the case and thinking about ways to help Alex remain calm in the courtroom and we concluded that it would all be in Alex’s hands once we were in that room. I shook both of their hands and thanked them for their time and what they were doing for Alex and led the way out of the room.

“Fuck off Matt. You should’ve warned me about what you were going to do here today. That was bullshit.” Alex sounded pissed as she came charging out of the room, they were in, with Matt hot on her heels and the detective trying to grab Matt’s arms while he jerked them away. I started towards Alex when Matt yelled back at her in a tone, I’ve never heard from him. It was alarming to say the least.

“Sure Alex, it’s me that needs to fuck off, right! I’ve been trying to help you. To make sure you don’t lose it in there. If you do…if you behave like that, out of control, they won’t take you seriously and he’ll win. Do you fucking understand me?” I started over towards them to get him away from her and Jack shoved me out of the way, getting right in between Alex and Matt.

“What’s going on here? Both of you back down right now.” Jack’s tone was more level but still on the verge of aggressive. Alex sure does know how to rile up the crowd, doesn’t she? Alex swatted Jack’s hand away from her and I took a few steps in her direction trying to gage how contemptuous she was and at the same time not wanting to become a target myself.

“I’m fine.” She said as she put her hands up, taking a step back into the wall, closing her eyes tight.

“Baby, it’s me. Let’s go home.” I gently took her hand, feeling the tension in her grip, watching as her face went from red to a more natural tan again. Her eyes opened slowly— I could tell she’d been crying. She nodded then threw a nasty glare at Matt and I got her out of there as swiftly as I could. I’ll have to talk to Matt later and find out what happened. Right now, I just want to forget about what I just saw.

Chapter 25

ALEX

Wednesday’s deposition, if that’s what we’re calling it, left a bad taste in my mouth. One that has me wondering if my attorneys and Roman think Tanner will get off scott free. It’s too late now because I don’t care anymore. My mind is already made up that it doesn’t matter what happens in that courtroom, I’m going after Tanner my way and he will get everything hedeserves and more.

My team and I got a lot of things done on Wednesday, despite the trip to the police station. Friday Amelia and I put together invitations for the Burrow Township residents to attend the renovation meeting for District 5 in two weeks. That should give us enough time to get through this court hearing and get the auditorium ready. Amelia was good at planning that sort of thing, according to Roman, so that was going to be her job and she was more than happy to do it.

By the end of the day my mind was totally focused on what we were going to get at the store for dinner and what our plans were with the kids tonight.

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