I had to get you out of there.”
11
Court
I had no words.
I couldn’t believe that Jane hadn’t taken a plea deal. She wasn’t stupid. In fact, she was incredibly smart. That was how she had swindled her way into my life and the Upper East Side. She couldn’t think that a trial was going to be more favorable to her. If they kept digging through everything she had done, it could only get worse from there.
And even though she had wrecked my life—used it and abused it and completely fucked it all up—for a moment, I wanted to protect her. Tell her not to do this. But I couldn’t do that. I couldn’t speak to her.
Not that I’d even know what to say to her. But it would look horrible.
I hadn’t seen her since the night of Natalie’s party when we were arrested together. Jane had gone catatonic. She hadn’t even told me what was going on.
Though she had confessed to someone at a later date that I’d had no clue about what she had been doing. I was thankful that she’d admitted the truth. And wondered why the hell she’d done it. Any of it. Why me?
“Court, say something,” English said gently.
Too gently for her. She wasn’t gentle. She was fierce and hard and determined. Not… this.
“Why didn’t she take the deal?” I asked, my eyes cold and empty as I turned to look at her.
She straightened at that look. “I don’t know. I just heard about it on the news.”
“You haven’t even heard it from a lawyer or the source or anything?”
She shook her head. “I wanted to get to you as soon as possible. I figured if we just got you out of the public eye, then we could formulate what we were going to say while we figured everything else out.”
“God,” I groaned. “Just… who the fuck is representing her? Are they even doing their fucking job if they told her not to take the plea deal?”
Her head tilted slightly. I could see something shift in her expression. This wasn’t what she had been expecting from me. After her assessment of my previous relationship at the primary victory, I shouldn’t have been surprised. I didn’t correct people’s initial judgments of me. It was easier to let them think the worst.
“Does it matter?” she finally asked.
I turned back to face forward. “I guess not.”
She opened her mouth like she was going to say something. Maybe offer me an apology. But I didn’t want to hear it.
“Let’s just get back to my place and then talk.”
She closed her mouth and didn’t say another word until we pulled up in front of my building. I couldn’t believe that there were already two or maybe three news people with cameras set up in front of my apartment. It had been months since Jane and I were arrested. Why did they even care?
“If any press approach us, just say no comment,” she said before pushing the door open.
We stepped onto the sidewalk and were immediately accosted.
“Court, we just heard that Jane Devney refused to take the plea deal. Can you comment on why she did this?” a reporter asked.
“Are you going to be at the trial?” another asked.
“Have you spoken to her about her thought process?” the first one butted back in, shoving the microphone in my face.
“Let him through,” English snarled. She was a force, walking through the press with her head held high and her gait exaggerated. “No questions. Just let us through.”
“Court, can you tell us how you feel about Jane’s impending trial?”
“No comment,” I said brusquely and then followed English into the building.
She hurried forward as if the press was going to come after us and jammed her finger on the elevator button. We stepped in together. I sighed and slumped back against the wall when the doors closed. But she was a ball of anxiety and energy, impatiently tapping her foot as we soared upward.
When the doors opened into my apartment, she marched inside like a drill sergeant. And I went straight for the wet bar.
“Can’t you do anything but drink?” she snapped irritably.
I ignored her and poured myself a double.
“I need you sober right now.”
I held the glass up to her and swallowed half of it in one gulp.
She narrowed her eyes and began to pace. “We’re going to have to figure out what the hell to do about this. We need to get our story straight. Then, we’re going to need to plan an interview