Dragon's Second Chance Romance - Riley Storm Page 0,45

like you’re more nervous than I am right now?” she asked. “Is something wrong with your clothing?”

“Not used to wearing a suit,” he muttered.

“Well, you look good,” she said, looking him up and down. “Maybe you should wear it more often.”

“Don’t you put that evil on me,” he joked.

Claire laughed and then allowed herself to be gathered up in one of his signature hugs. She’d had plenty of them over the past three days. There hadn’t been much to do while at Trent’s house, at least not at night, and she’d spent much of it wrapped up in his arms, whenever he wasn’t out hunting down the vampires.

It was something she was dearly going to miss once she was in prison. In fact, she was going to miss everything about him.

I told you not to go and fall for him before you get locked up. Now you’re just going to be pining away for him while you’re gone. Because that’s definitely going to help the years pass.

And years was no doubt what Claire was looking at facing once the judge pronounced her sentence. At least she wouldn’t have to wait much longer. Another couple of minutes and then hopefully the wait would be short and sweet after that.

By now, Claire had come to terms with it as best she could and, more than anything, she just wanted to get it out of the way. To get started on her sentence so that it could be over that much sooner.

“Shall we go inside?” Pietro asked, gesturing at the large double doors that led to the courtroom.

“I suppose,” she said.

Pietro had insisted on accompanying her to the sentencing, despite her telling him it wasn’t necessary. It was eleven a.m., she’d said. There were no vampires anywhere in sight. She would be safe.

“I’m not going there to keep you safe,” he’d said. “I’m going there to be with you. To stand at your side because I care for you.”

She still remembered those words now, a day later. It was the first time either one of them had truly admitted to having feelings for the other.

Not now, she chided herself, staring up at the spot at the head of the room where the judge would soon take her place and dole out Claire’s fate. That knowledge was more than enough to sour her mood.

She paused at the gate, giving Pietro another hug before moving to take her chair next to the court-ordered public defender. The harried, overworked man didn’t even look up, just mumbled a generic greeting, buried deep in his phone.

Shaking her head, she sat down, facing forward, tuning out her incompetent help.

“Tell him he’s fired.”

Claire jerked in surprise at the familiar voice from behind her. “Dad? What are you doing here?”

“Tell him he’s fired,” her father repeated tightly, looking at the public defender.

Claire frowned. She’d not expected her father to show, let alone come to help defend her. Yet that’s almost exactly what it looked like was happening.

“You heard the man,” she said with a shrug, gesturing for the defender to get out of the chair.

He just grunted.

“I said you’re fired!” Claire shouted, slapping a hand on the table to get his attention.

The man looked up at her and then behind her where her father stood. “Sure, whatever,” he said, and then left the room with what seemed like relief in his stride.

“What are you doing here, Dad?” she asked as her father came and sat down next to her.

Chuck Owens focused a stern, heavy gaze on her. “You are my daughter, Claire. I might be disappointed in you. I might be more disappointed in myself. But it doesn’t change that fact. So, I’m here to ensure you get the fairest possible sentence. You will then serve that sentence properly and with all duties expected of you.”

“That was my plan all along,” she said tautly, trying not to let her emotions get the better of her. “That’s why I pleaded guilty from the start.”

It had taken him some time to get over things, to recalibrate his view of her, but in the end, her father had shown up. He was here to support her, to see her through the toughest time in her life. Claire wasn’t sure how much good it would do at this point, but the gesture was what mattered.

“I know,” her father said as the judge appeared and they rose. “So just go along with this okay?”

Claire frowned, wanting to ask what he meant by that, but there was