Page 86 of Push & Pull
Could be worse. Could be in prison with my mom.
Petra’s state-provided lawyer prepared her for the worst, even after she told him the whole story of how she only went there to help Simone and aided her in the escape. Petra couldn’t find out what Simone’s side of the story was. Either the media didn’t release it, or the sources that did remained out of Petra’s reach. Her lawyer kept his mouth shut, but that could have been to protect her. Not that it mattered in the end. Petra was soon back in her cell with a roommate who screamed in her sleep and three meals a day that tasted like fortified sludge.At least I’m not weirded out about sharing open stalls with strange women.Petra was affable and a good enough grifter that she soon had more friends in one week than she ever had before. All it took was reading into the other inmates’ personalities and deducing what it was they wanted the most. While she intended to steer clear of some of them, people like her new roommate were a boon to have around.If I learned anything from my mom, it’s that you need a tribe in prison. Some protection.Nicolette had easily fallen in with the Midwest mafia types in her first stint and the east coast ones in her second. She always swore to Petra that she would stay out of the life when she got out, but Petra also saw firsthand how easy it was to fall back in with so many mouths breathing down one’s neck – from the inside, no less.
Then, on day seven of her incarceration, her lawyer showed up to inform her that someone had paid her $50,000 bail. As soon as Petra collected her things and dressed in the street clothes she had been admitted in, her lawyer escorted her to his office downtown, where the woman who made this possible waited to talk to them.
It wasn’t Simone. It was a different Evans.
“You didn’t have to do that,” were the first words out of Petra’s mouth.
Astrid turned away from the window overlooking a nearby supermarket. “Fifty grand is nothing compared to ten million. Besides, I had to do something in return for you helping Simone. She told us everything, once she was in the mental space to do so.”
The lawyer pulled out a chair for Petra, who had no choice but to sit down. “Don’t tell me you bailed out the rest of them.”
“God, no. I’ve also hired my own criminal lawyer to come down and work with your state attorney to get your charges dropped. All of them.”
“Shit, there are more?”
“They’ve done some digging into you, Petra,” the lawyer said. “I doubt they’ll find everything out about you, but someone named Earl Olivier has some words about you. Apparently, the police tracked you back to New York and connected you to his robbery.”
“Joy.”
“I don’t want to hear these details,” Astrid said. “I’m here on behalf of my family. We paid your bail and will pay for your legal fees. Yet it’s in the courts’ hands. Your past is your own to deal with.”
“How’s Simone?”
Astrid was slightly taken aback at Petra’s inquiry.To be fair, so am I.Petra was possibly still going to trial for half of her crimes and the first thing out of her mouth was“How’s Simone?”Lord help her.
“Simone is doing as well as one can expect. Luckily, she did not sustain any physical injuries from the…” Astrid sighed. “She’s currently at home with me. We’re keeping her close.”
I can only imagine what that means.Petra didn’t doubt that Simone would acquire some PTSD from the event.I know what PTSD can do to a former addict.Petra agreed that it was probably for the best that Simone not be left alone for too long.
“Please send her my regards,” Petra said. “I really didn’t know what my father had planned.” She was still getting used to the idea that Michail was her father.It’s bad enough he’s the worst of the worst. The things he had me do…No father should ever view his daughter as a sexual commodity to be bartered for money owed to him.He did the same thing to my mother.There was something particularly insidious about him doing it to his daughter as well. “Anyway… thank you as well. You didn’t have to do any of this, but I appreciate it.”
A secretary popped into the meeting room to announce the other lawyer had arrived. Once everyone was settled, Petra was pressed to tell her whole story over again, starting from the moment she met Simone at Hailey’s party in Miami.
This was it. The moment where Petra had to face the last major decision she had been mulling over for the past week.
Should she sell out Hailey, her oldest and most nostalgic friend?
All she had to do was think of Simone to know her answer.
“I didn’tdoanything,” a bedraggled Hailey Lambert said in news footage. As Petra leaned back in the chair of her father’s local safe house, which she was forced to use as her temporary domicile while awaiting trial, she watched Hailey’s tear-stained face get led away in handcuffs. “Daddy!”
Petra turned off the TV. Her bigshot lawyer that Astrid hired came in from the other room, hanging up his phone.
“The DA is willing to grant you immunity for your further cooperation.” This was a man who didn’t look like he enjoyed smiling, yet he allowed the smallest grin to appear on his round and wrinkled face. “This is great news. We only need you to give your testimony a few more times, including possibly at the trial of your father and his…”
“I’m going to need some protection,” Petra declared. “Michail may have run a small-time operation, but it accomplished a lot and he hasmanyacquaintances who wait in the shadows like guerillas anticipating his signal to strike. I don’t know what will happen to me once he puts all of the pieces together. Trust me, I want to see him and the others put away for a long time, but…”
“I don’t think we could get you witness protection, but I can see.”
“I’m not talking about witness protection.” Petra twirled the TV remote in her hand. “I need a secure place to stay because this ain’t it.”
“We’ve swept for bugs and…”
“You’re not listening to me. I…”
When they were done interrupting each other, Petra was eventually cut off by her fancy lawyer’s phone ringing again. He held up a finger to signal he was about to take the call. Petra swallowed her words and sank farther into the couch.
