Page 76 of Shattered

Hayden nodded before she stood and made her way back to where Nico lounged beside him; until Hayden got close her features were filled with annoyance. He had to give his niece credit, not once did she acknowledge or even glance at a smug-looking Holly.

Once she reached Nico, he stood up, wrapped his arm around her before placing a soft, chaste kiss on the top of Hayden’s head. In those moments, standing there with his family, Mackenzie would’ve paid vast amounts of money to wipe the smirk off of Holly’s face.

When Holly was escorted out of the court room, Charles joined their quiet discussion. “According to Walker, Holly has pictures, which she provided to Walker at lunch, of Hayden and Nico in several inappropriate and sexual situations.” D.A. Franks turned his attention to Nico. “The Judge is going to review the new evidence, along with having a conversation with Kalkin.”

Anger burned in the young wolf’s eyes, and his entire body stiffened. “Damn it.”

“Ohmigod, her evil knows no bounds,” Hayden growled.

“What the fuck?” Royce muttered.

“There’s more.”

“Of course, there is,” Nico raged.

“Mr. Walker is demanding for his medical experts—” Franks did quotation marks with his fingers when he said experts— “to speak to Hayden or have her placed on a psych hold for seventy-two hours, so she can be evaluated by a psychologist.”

“He’s fucking nuts,” Hayden said, breaking the stunned silence. Although Hayden gave the appearance of being cool, calm, and collected, Mackenzie could see the fury flickering in the blue depths of her eyes.

“Can they do that?” Mackenzie asked.

“They can. The Judge will rule on it once he has the file. Which conveniently, Mr. Walker gave to his paralegal to make copies of before returning to the court after our lunch break. The Judge told Alexander, he has until the end of court hours today to deliver it to both the court and to me.” Charles glanced at Nico. “The moment I get the file, we’re going to have to talk.”

“We’ve got nothing to hide,” Nico stated.

The D.A. cautioned, “If the Judge rules in the defense’s favor, you could lose your job or at the very least be suspended.”

Nico shrugged, and Mackenzie spoke up, knowing what he was about to promise, Kalkin would make true. “The pack/pride will provide for them until the issue is resolved and he can return to work.”

Royce put his hand on Nico’s shoulder in support. “We all know Nico would never have done the shit he’s being accused of. Especially since Kalkin made it pretty clear he’d castrate him if he did. Plus, Nico has been a valuable member of this pack since he was a child. His word carries more weight than Holly’s ever will.”

“I didn’t need his warning, Royce,” Nico snarled. “Hayden was underage. My wolf and I were both willing to wait.”

Hayden shook her head. “This is all my fault. I should’ve just answered the question when he asked when we had sex. He would’ve stopped right there.”

Charles snorted. “No, he wouldn’t have. He would’ve gone forward with his evidence in an attempt to say you perjured yourself in court.”

“If it’s anyone’s fault, it’s mine.” Mackenzie’s heart broke at the pain his family was being forced to go through again, because of a stupid choice he made all those years ago when he laid his crazy idea out to Holly.

Hayden untangled herself from her mate’s embrace and laid her tiny hand on Mackenzie’s chest. “That’s not true, Uncle Mac. Holly was a deceitful, manipulative bitch who set us all up. She might have said she was going to leave Window Rock, but we all know, it was a lie. She’d have found another way to stay and screw us all.”

“I brought her into the family though, kiddo,” Mackenzie said.

Hayden shook her head. “No, I did. She was an extension of me. Someway, somehow, she would’ve been around us, and we’d still be standing in this same position, either way.”

“Hayden’s right, dad. You’ve gotta stop taking all the weight of the world onto your shoulders. Not everything is your fault. Considering, having the last name of Raftery, seems to be a magnet for shit happening to you, hell all of us,” Royce said with a smile.

Mackenzie didn’t respond, because quite honestly, he didn’t know what to say. His family saw it one way, whereas he saw it another way. They could repeat themselves until they were blue in the face, deep down, though, Mackenzie knew itwasall his fault.

Hayden stepped back into Nico’s arm and sighed. “Poor Emmitt. He was a mess last night, worrying about testifying today, to the point if he could have, he’d have given himself an ulcer. Now, with it pushed off to next week, he’ll be stressing about it again.”

Mackenzie looked around the courtroom. “Where is Emmitt?” Come to think of it, since they’d returned from lunch, he hadn’t seen the man.

“He didn’t want to be in the courtroom, so they sequestered him with the intent to bring him out when it was his time,” Nico answered.

“Poor kid.”

Royce snorted. “He’s not a kid, dad.”

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