Page 4 of Inside the Maelstrom: Part Two
I shuffled backwards and sat down. The judge handed the bailiff back the wad of papers, and received a new stack.
“Well, while we are here, Hendrick Kenley. You are charged with assaulting a police officer.” He frowned at the report in front of him again. “It says here that private security was trying to take you to a mental health facility by force?”
Hendrick nodded. “Yes, Your Honor.”
“Not that it will matter much to your bail, but why did you hit a member of the NYPD and not the private security?”
Hendrick shrugged, and I tensed. Shit, this was not the time to be irreverent. “I knew that if my father managed to put me in a psych ward, I’d never be let out, regardless of my mental health status. Hitting a cop was going to get me taken to the station instead. I just needed time.”
Our lawyer hissed out a breath, and even the judge raised his eyebrows. “Your father, Senator Ted Kenley?”
Hendrick stood tall, his face looking older than his twenty-three years at that moment. “Yes, sir. I have bipolar disorder for which I’m medicated, and I stick rigorously to my treatment plan. But when you are campaigning, it’s better to hide your family secrets away where they can’t cause waves.” There was no mistaking the pain and bitterness in Hendrick’s voice. “I hit the officer, for which I am truly sorry, but he was a casualty in the fight for my life.”
There was a loud murmur around the room, but Hendrick didn’t move his gaze from the judge. He was laying it all out there, written across his face, and the judge was reading all of Hendrick’s ugly history in seconds.
Finally, he banged his gavel. “Silence. Hendrick Kenley, your bail is set at one million dollars, and you’ll hand over your passport.” Hendrick nodded, sitting back down.
District Attorney Rodriguez was protesting on the other side of the room. “Your Honor, I request that the transcript of these proceedings be sealed, due to the risk to national security.”
The judge raised his eyebrows. “Does the boy know state secrets? Or is it more likely a risk to someone's national platform?” He stink-eyed the D.A. “There is a division of power laid out in the Constitution for a reason, and I suggest you read up on that little document before you approach others with your request. Court dismissed.”
I shot a look at Hendrick as the bailiff came and led us away, but he was staring at Otto with so much pain that it tore at my own heart.
Shit. Otto’s parents hadn’t known. I mean, I knew they wouldn’t have cared—they loved Hendrick, and this was hardly the first sex scandal Hendrick had been involved in. But there was a difference between accepting your son was bisexual, and seeing it plastered all over the tabloids.
I touched my cuffed hands to Hendrick’s. “It’ll be okay, man. Otto will forgive you, and his parents already love you. They’ll understand.”
“He didn’t deserve to have his shit plastered everywhere just because my father is a fucking homophobic cunt,” he growled, and I shrugged.
“Actually, you could mostly just see your shit. Hell, it could have been me behind you, giving you the Sampson Rubio treatment.”
“You wish, dickhead.”
Chapter3
Evan
We’d fucked around enough in Hong Kong. Not literally, since I was still trying to be considerate of her feelings. Sampson and his boys had fucked with her feelings enough, and I selfishly didn’t want to be her rebound sex.
Yeah, I was pretty damn selfish.
I watched her as we landed in New York, the lines of her face dragging down in sadness. I’d wanted to keep going, to extend this time where I had her all to myself for a little longer, but it was just delaying the inevitable.
Aviva, despite her tough exterior, was so fucking vulnerable. She’d hate that I thought of her that way, but I did. She was like a barely healed stab wound, ready to tear back open at any moment if we made the wrong move.
I grabbed down her bag and slung it over my shoulder, scowling at the businessman huffing and puffing in front of us. “I reached out to a buddy of mine. I thought he could try asking questions at the facility you were in, see if anyone remembers your guy.”
She gave me her haughty look, the one that made my dick hard. “What exactly is he going to ask? Did you have a guy here that liked to read?”
I cuffed an arm around her shoulders, tugging her back into my chest. Jesus, I couldn’t stop touching her. Kissing her. “Have a little faith in my skills, Chaos.”
Okay, the look she threw me then definitely made me harder. “I have one hundred percent faith in your skills, Evan. I’ve seen them firsthand.”
I swallowed down a groan. “Dammit, Aviva, you can’t say that in public,” I purred in her ear.
The businessman gave us a disgusted look. “No, you can’t.”
I straightened, pushing down the rage that curled my fists. “You’re going to want to turn back toward the front before I make you.”
