Conlan wanted some of that for himself. But unless Kat walked out of that courtroom a free woman, it wasn’t going to happen.
“I’m sure Ambrose is going to do exactly that, but he’s having to tiptoe through this mess pretty carefully for a lot of reasons. The first being that he didn’t want to have to charge you for taking off with his prisoner, followed by all the other crap you two pulled.”
Conlan had actually been wondering why he was still walking around free. “I’d rather he locked me up than Kat.”
Another voice joined the conversation. “I’ve already done that once, Conlan. Didn’t like doing it the first time, and I’m not about to let you go to prison in her place again.”
Conlan turned to face Ambrose. “Where is she?”
“She’s still in custody and will be for a while yet. I’ve made my recommendations as chief chancellor for the Coalition. It’s up to the court if they’ll be accepted or not.”
Ambrose was one of the few men in this world that Conlan trusted implicitly, but this was Kat they were talking about. Damn, he wanted to punch something—or better yet, someone—but that would only cause complications.
He realized his friends were all staring at him. “What?”
Joss stared at his hands, which were clenched in fists. “Rather than use those, why don’t you ask what those recommendations were?”
“Fine, I’ll bite. What are they?”
It was Rafferty who answered. “They’ve agreed that Kat was wronged by her former employer and also exonerated her for the death of Jacobs. By the way, he also confessed to killing the third researcher, rigging the brakes on the guy’s transport to fail.” He gave Conlan a sympathetic look. “But Kat did have an outstanding warrant and the law is very clear on what happens when a felon escapes custody like she did.”
“Execution.”
And if that happened, they might as well shoot Conlan while they were at it.
Ambrose met Conlan’s gaze head-on. “I’ve been arguing for a long time that these laws need to change or at least build in some way that we can show mercy when it’s deserved. It took some arm-twisting, but I convinced them that a life sentence was more in keeping with the situation.”
Okay, Conlan needed to sit down. Granted, what Ambrose was suggesting beat an immediate execution, but how would Kat survive locked in that hellhole for the rest of her life? How would he survive living on the outside without her?
Still, he knew his friend had tried.
“Thanks, Ambrose, I know you did your best.”
Then his friend grinned. “Yeah, I did. There’s more. I told the court that Rafferty has claimed responsibility for Kat and her nieces as members of the O’Day Clan. As such, he could supervise her if the court would approve parole for her at some point in the future. I pushed for sooner rather than later on that, especially considering her testimony is the first break we’ve had in tracking down these bastard purists.”
Okay, neither Joss nor Rafferty had mentioned any of this. Before he could call them on it, Rafferty spoke up.
“We hadn’t said anything yet because while our custody application for Maggie and Rose has been approved, we weren’t sure the court would accept our affidavit on Kat’s status. Neither of us wanted to get your hopes up too soon.”
Back to Ambrose. “So did the court buy that?”
“They’re not averse to the idea, but they feel that as head of the clan, Rafferty can’t risk being the one responsible for supervising her case. If she were to take off again, the same law that resulted with you sitting on your ass in prison would still apply to Rafferty.”
Joss spoke up. “Conlan, I love you dearly, and I even like Kat. However, I won’t let my husband risk ending up behind bars for her. I’m sure you can understand that.”
Yeah, he did.
Rafferty’s big hand came down on Conlan’s shoulder. “I told them I pay my chief of security to handle situations like this. We’ve been waiting to hear their response to that suggestion.”
For the first time since watching as Kat was led away in chains after the medic had patched her up, Conlan felt a flutter of hope. At the time, if Finn and two more of his men hadn’t been holding Conlan back, he would’ve attacked the Coalition chancellors who’d taken her into custody. It had almost killed him to watch her leave.
Ambrose continued with his explanation. “Well, that’s why I’m here. When the court asked if Kat