Bailed Out (The Anna Albertini Files #2) - Rebecca Zanetti Page 0,75
to sleep.”
I yawned as the room spun a little around me. “What’s your business with Rich Pucci?”
“Sleep, Angel. Nothing else but sleep right now,” he said softly, running a palm down my arm. “I’m exhausted and you’re drunk. Sleep now.”
My eyelids closed even as I struggled to stay awake. We needed to talk. Why did it feel so right to be next to him like this? “Aiden?”
“What?” Now he sounded grumpy.
“Will you be here in the morning?”
He kissed my head again. “Yeah.”
Fair enough. I fell into a wild sleep where I rode unicorns through the golf course. After several great dreams, I tipped into the nightmare of Jareth Davey and becoming his wife. I sat up, gasping, holding the sheet to my chest. Dawn had broken outside, leaving the lake sparkling like diamonds.
“Jesus Christ.” Aiden sat and pulled me close, tucking me against him. I shuddered and gulped in air, trying to keep my heart from blowing up. “I have to take care of that guy, Angel. You can’t live like this.” He stroked my hair away from my face, and he was so gentle I wanted to cry.
Instead, I took another deep breath. “It’s okay.” Jareth Davey was biding his time, but someday he’d be back. I was ready.
Aiden’s phone buzzed on the table, and he answered it. “What?” He stiffened. “No.” He waited. “Fine.” He hung up.
“You have to go,” I said, sorry to be losing him.
“Actually, we have to go,” he muttered. “Remember that favor to Pucci? He just called it in. Get ready, Angel. You’re going to court again.”
Chapter 27
Okay. My head did hurt. A lot. Maybe mixing the bourbon with the tequila and red wine throughout the day had been a bad idea. I stumbled in my white kitten heels into the courthouse, walking up the beautiful marble stairs to the district courtroom where I didn’t belong. I was still a misdemeanor attorney. “What is going on?”
“I don’t know,” Aiden said, dressed in jeans and another Lordes T-shirt. “Pucci said to meet him here and act like a lawyer. Since you are a lawyer, I figured you could handle it.”
All right. So Aiden was a mite cranky. I wasn’t sure if it was because he’d picked me up seriously drunk with another guy last night, or if I had said anything to tick him off, or maybe because Pucci was giving me orders. Either way, his jaw was tense, his shoulders back, and his muscles rigid. A tough-guy vein bulged in his left hand.
We reached the district court level, where Pucci and Krissy Walker sat on a bench outside of courtroom three.
“What’s going on?” Aiden asked.
Pucci smiled. “I fired my attorney because I figured Anna would come cheaper. So get me out of this. You work for the prosecuting attorney’s office.” His hair was slicked back, and he looked all right in beige dockers and a white golf shirt.
“I was fired yesterday.” I pushed my unruly curls away from my face and tried really hard not to burp up tequila. “You can’t be in trial today.”
“He is,” Krissy said, standing next to Pucci. She wore a white pantsuit that didn’t have a smudge on it.
This was crazy. I strode over to the list of cases with assigned courtrooms tacked to the bulletin board to read. “Elk County vs. Richard L. Pucci,” I read out loud. “Set for trial today.” My stomach rolled over, and I swear some bourbon popped on my brow. I turned back to him. “We can’t go to trial today. Where’s your attorney?”
Pucci shrugged. “I don’t know. I told him if he showed up I’d break all his fingers, so I guess he didn’t show up. He was a hack, anyway. Didn’t even have a good plan for trial.”
Crap. I leaned back to read the sheet. “Okay. You’re fourth set.” That could be good.
Krissy tucked her blue Chanel purse against her side. The gold hardware was stunning. “What does fourth set mean?”
I gulped down panic. “So many cases settle right before trial that the court sets several for the same day and time. There are three before us, so if any of those goes, we get rescheduled.”
Aiden nodded. “So Pucci’s case will get rescheduled.”
“Maybe,” I said. “There’s a good chance the others have settled. We can’t do this. I won’t do this.”
Pucci leaned in toward Aiden. “Control your bitch, Devlin. You owe me.” He grabbed Krissy by the elbow and shoved her toward the courtroom. They quietly entered.