Page 42 of Accidental Fire
I turned to Antel. “He’s yours.”
The lawyer went into the room and closed the door. The guard opened the next door, and Barton waved me in. River and Goldie both looked like hell. I walked over to River and saw he wasn’t cuffed to the table, thankfully. “You okay, sweetheart?”
“I’m embarrassed as hell. I didn’t think. I’m such an—”
I put my hand gently over his mouth to keep him from disparaging himself. “It was a stupid mistake, but nobody got hurt. That was the most important thing. We’ll discuss this when we get back to the hotel. We need to get you out of here,” I said as I kissed the top of his head and sat next to Barton Reardon.Not very covert of me.
“Gentlemen, I won’t ask what you were thinking because you weren’t. Tell me what happened, please.” Barton Reardon was polite and scolding at the same time. I liked the guy.
An hour later, River, Goldie, and Arlo were sitting in a room with a CCTV camera while their lawyers were in a courtroom on another floor with the magistrate to get their bail set so we could get them out of jail.
“My client hasn’t been proven to have had underage sex with Miss Deerborn. The fetus she carries hasn’t been proven to be his, and it hasn’t been proven that the young woman is even pregnant. We request that bail be set so my client can continue his work as a keyboardist for a touring band. We’ll notify the court of his whereabouts at all times, and he will return to California to face these charges and enter a plea at his own expense during the last two weeks of August. We object to extradition to California because Miss Deerborn’s father has tried to extort money from my client,” Antel addressed the magistrate.
I was sitting in the courtroom as a spectator so I could bail them out if they were granted bail. I had my fingers crossed in my lap.
“Bail is set at ten thousand dollars, and the defendant is required to notify the Santa Clara County prosecutor of his whereabouts at all times.” The magistrate smacked the gavel and turned to the clerk. “Next.”
The clerk announced the case, and Barton stepped up to a podium. “Barton Reardon for the defense. I’m representing both defendants, Your Honor.”
He then went on to explain that while they were stupid, they weren’t lawbreakers. Luckily, they had no priors, so they were out on their own recognizance and would return to Phoenix in August for final dispensation.
Once the hearing was over, we left the courtroom. “So, we need to get a bondsman to bail Arlo out.”
“I’ll put up his bail. He won’t run out on me. Also, send your invoices to me. I’ll pay for this. I appreciate you coming to their defense.”
We returned to the first floor, where the Central City Precinct was housed. After I posted bail for Arlo, we took a cab back to the hotel. “Kensington is missing.”
River turned to me. “Do we know why?”
“Nope. We’ve been trying to get in touch with the fucker all day, and he’s not answering for anyone. Oh…your new tour manager is at the hotel. She’s a ball buster, but I like her. Do you want to meet with her tomorrow or this evening?” I wanted to pull him onto my lap and hold him in my arms. We needed to talk.
The three of them looked at each other, having a silent conversation. Finally, Goldie spoke. “Let’s keep pulling off the Band-Aids. We need to meet her and figure out what the fuck is going to happen.” He wasn’t wrong.
“Okay. Please take us to Hyatt Place Phoenix,” I told the cab driver. He sped into traffic, and I put my left arm around River. He glanced at me and mouthed, “I’m sorry.”
All was right in my world for the moment.
Chapter Sixteen
River
Scared?Fuck yeah, I was scared.
I’d never been arrested in my life, and sitting in the police station after being hauled away in zip cuffs was fucking humiliating. Thank heaven Kit showed up with lawyers. Getting out of jail was a goddamn relief.
“Thank you for picking us up.” I glanced at Kit, who had his arm around me in the back of the cab.
“You’re welcome, and I’d do it a million times again. You need to know I’d do anything for you, River. You can count on me, I promise.”
I almost couldn’t catch my breath at his words. I nuzzled into his neck and breathed in his scent. “You’re sweet.”
“Sweetheart, I’m here for you. I want you guys to succeed, and I’ll do whatever I can to help.” The sincerity in his eyes made me speechless.
There was only one thing to say. “Thank you again.” The kiss on my forehead was perfect.
Meeting Olive Chevalier was intimidating as fuck. She wasn’t one to be toyed with, and I could see Kit had mad respect for her, though I found her a little condescending.
“We’re glad to have you jailbirds back on track. We’ll deal with these issues, but what we need to concentrate on is this Saturday night. I’m going to invite some press to the show in hopes that your performance will outweigh anything that could possibly hit the papers about the arrests,” Olive said.
