Page 105 of A Legal Affair
He shook his head. “It’s not important.”
She pursed her lips together but decided to let his evasion go.Baby steps, she told herself, gently caressing the raised scar with her fingertips while he watched her face.
“Does—”
“No,” he said gruffly before she could finish her sentence. “It doesn’t hurt. Not anymore.”
“That’s good.” She gave him a whimsical smile, hoping to lighten the mood. “I can see why you like Komodo dragons. They’re pretty fascinating creatures, aren’t they? I mean, they’re the largest lizards on earth and super deadly. They’re apex predators who have a permanent suit of armor and can take down enormous prey. Did you know they can eat eighty percent of their weight in one sitting? And they can run twelve miles per hour?”
Caleb’s eyes glinted with amusement. “Someone’s been doing research.”
“Maybe.” She grinned. “I’ve been lowkey obsessed with your sexy tattoo ever since we met.”
“Highkey, you mean.”
She laughed, shaking her head at him. “Why you gotta call me out like that?”
“Just saying. It’s so obvious.”
She giggled and hid her face against his chest. “I hate you.”
“Your posting history suggests otherwise,” he said smugly, and she burst into fresh giggles.
Chuckling, he cuddled her closer, stroking his hand down her back and kissing the crown of her head. Long after the playful moment passed, they were both silent, basking in the warmth and affection that flowed between them, reinforcing their growing bond. It filled Daniela with beautiful, bittersweet melancholy. He wasn’t gone, not yet, but she missed him already.
After a few minutes, she lifted her head from his chest and searched his face. “Can I ask you a more serious question?”
He hesitated, scanning her eyes before he gave her a tight nod. He was trying to accommodate her, trying to let down hisdefenses. She appreciated him for that, although she had no right to know the inner workings of his mind or his heart.
“Is there anything you miss about practicing law?” she asked quietly.
She felt him tense beneath her. Predictably, he didn’t respond.
“See? That’s what I mean.” She placed her hand on his rigid chest, his heart beating faster under her palm, betraying his aggravation. “Your former career…it’s more than just a sensitive topic for you, Caleb. It’s a landmine.”
He didn’t deny it, his jaw clenched so tight the muscles bulged in his neck.
She took pity on him. “I’ll withdraw my question.”
“No, you were right,” he said grimly. “Certain topics make me clam up. My former career is definitely one of them. I saw a lot of ugliness in the criminal courts. I saw the worst of humanity, on both sides of the law, and I’ve tried like hell to put it all behind me.”
“And I keep bringing it up,” Daniela murmured, her voice thick with guilt. “I’m sorry, Caleb.”
“It’s fine,” he said darkly. “I’m not fragile. Just a little fucked-up in the head.”
Daniela’s throat tightened. “You don’t have to tell?—”
He was already speaking again. “One of my last cases involved a sixty-three-year-old grandmother named Odessa Perkins. She was charged with first-degree murder for killing the co-owner of the daycare center her grandchildren attended. He’d assaulted and abused her youngest granddaughter, along with thirteen other babies under his care.”
“Oh my God,” Daniela whispered in horror.
“It was a death penalty case. Despite the heinous nature of the victim’s crimes, the state wanted to make an example of Odessa to deter vigilantism. She had decades-old priors fromher days as a community activist—resisting arrest, disorderly conduct, verbally threatening a police officer. She wasn’t a dangerous woman, and she’d been a model citizen for more than thirty years. But the state was determined to leverage her priors to establish a pattern of violence. She’d been raising her grandchildren since losing her daughter to cancer the previous year. Those kids were all she had, and she would do anything to protect them. When she found out what happened to her grandbaby, when she spoke to the pediatrician and read the medical evaluation…” Caleb trailed off, his hand clenching into a fist on the armrest. “Odessa confronted the scumbag and his wife, and they denied any wrongdoing. So she followed him home one night and shot him dead. Once in the chest, twice in the genitals.”
Daniela forced herself not to react to the gruesome detail, giving him space to continue.
“You asked me before if I ever knowingly defended a guilty client, and the answer is yes. Of course I did. More often than I’ll ever admit even to myself. Odessa’s case was…complex. I did things I’m not proud of, but there’s no fucking way I was going to let her die in prison for taking out that sick, twisted monster. She got justice for his victims and stopped him from ever hurting another innocent child. The day she was acquitted, I went home and slept like a baby. If I had to do it all over again, I wouldn’t change a goddamn thing, except to make myself the one who pulled the trigger that rainy night.”
Daniela felt a rush of tenderness for him. She couldn’t help it. She admired his ferocity, his sense of justice, his unshakable resolve and the strength of his convictions.
