Page 109 of Kane's Awakening
Chapter Thirty
Ryker
The month of May brought with it all the crazies. The office was busy all day, every day it seemed, and the phones rang off the hook so much, I heard the annoying ring even when it was silent.
Since the majority of my cases were family law, most of the parents wanted to put on a show for their children through the holidays, so it was slow around that time. However, once January hit, my work load blew up all the way through to the summer and into the fall with custody battles and divorces.
With it being near the middle of May, I wasn’t even surprised. Kids were about to go on summer break and parents going through divorce wanted to ensure their custody rights and all that for any summer vacations. Add random DWIs, small car accidents, the occasional possession of drugs or drug paraphernalia cases, and the case I was helping Felicia with on top of that, and I barely had time to eat, let alone have a personal life.
Thankfully, Kane didn’t mind.
“Sorry, I may have to work late tonight,” I said into the phone as I walked into my office that Wednesday morning and saw the chaotic state of my desk. “The dinner and movie will probably need to be postponed for next time.”
“That’s fine,” he answered, and I heard his truck start up. “I’ll order a pizza and stay in tonight. You still gonna try to come over after?”
“I’m not sure. Maybe not.” I hated the thought of not seeing him—again. It would be the third night in a row where I’d had to bail on him. “I’ll make it up to you. I promise.”
“Don’t worry about it, Rye. I understand.”
I only hoped he really did and wasn’t just saying that to make me feel better.
After ending the conversation with him, I went to the kitchen to get some coffee and returned to my desk, being careful not to spill it on any of the documents in front of me. That’d just be my luck with the hectic week I’d had: spill coffee all over a motion and have to re-print and correct the thing.
I had court the next day for a custody dispute case and another that same afternoon for a client that’d gotten a warrant for failure to appear in court. She had been in an out-of-state hospital due to a car accident when her court date for a previous charge had approached, so an arrest warrant had been issued. After her arrest, she’d hired me to get the charges dropped and the fees waived.
Busy. Busy.
I pinched the bridge of my nose between my thumb and forefinger, taking deep breaths.
When so much was on my plate, my anxiety acted up. As Kane would say:fuck it. I grabbed my prescription of Xanax, shook a pill out in my hand, and cut it in half before popping it into my mouth and swallowing. I’d save the other half for later if I needed it.
Seeing how shitty my days had gone as of late, it was pretty much guaranteed I’d be taking it.
One set of interrogatories looked over and approved turned to two and then three, all with about one-hundred questions and answers each. As I grabbed a letter to a client to check, someone knocked on my door.
Felicia poked her head in. “Hey, got a sec?”
I nodded and motioned for her to come in.
“What’s up?” I asked, looking down at my empty coffee mug and wishing more would magically appear.
“Some new information came to my attention about the Martin case,” she said, leaning forward as most people with exciting news did. “Yeah, Kyle was in the house with the drugs, as were the other guys, but it turns out thattheywere working for someone else. Someone bigger. Their job was to get the drugs and make the money, but they had to answer to someone higher up on the ladder than them.” She bounced her knee and fidgeted her hands. “The shooting was unfortunate, but our client wasn’t armed, so that helps his case a bit more.”
I rubbed at my jaw as I mulled over her words. “So, you want to try to propose a plea deal in order to get him a reduced sentence?”
“Yeah,” she answered with a bright expression. “We can talk to the prosecution to see if they’ll go for it. Kyle is just a kid anyway. What benefit would the state have by sending him to prison? Why slay a small fish, when you can bait him and leave a trap for the bigger one?”
“It’s not a bad idea,” I agreed. “Kyle knows he’ll have to change his plea to guilty, right? And it will need to be approved by the judge first before we can move forward with it.” After she nodded, I asked my next question. “Have you heard anything about the other men involved? If they catch wind of Kyle’s plea deal, things could go south real quick.”
The other men that were in the house that night had all lawyered up, too, and were being represented and tried separately. If they discovered the plea bargain, they could possibly turn the tables on Kyle by agreeing to be tried at the same time, pinning it all on him, and getting a better deal for themselves.
I’d seen that happen more times than I could count.
“Kyle will keep it under wraps, I’m sure,” Felicia said, nodding. “I’ll give Kingston a call and see what he says.”
The day drew on after that. I never got any less busy, but time still went by so slow—maybe because I kept watching the clock and wishing it’d move faster.
I checked my phone and saw my lock screen: a selfie Kane had taken of us.
