“I want to take you to dinner.”
“Not that I would go to dinner with you anyway, but Marj and I are just about ready to sit down to eat. Felicia made some awesome spaghetti.”
“Oh, I think you’ll come to dinner with me.”
“And why in hell would I do that?”
“Because if you don’t, I’m going to make things really difficult for both you and Talon Steel come Monday morning.”
My heart lurched a bit, but I—hopefully—concealed it, willing myself to remain calm. “Seriously? You’re going to threaten me? Threatening an officer of the court? Threatening a defendant?” I looked over at Marj. “You’re my witness. He just made a threat.”
“That wasn’t a threat, Jade,” Colin said. “It was just a fact. You think this kind of thing doesn’t happen in court all the time? God, you are naïve.”
“If you don’t leave now,” Marjorie said, “I’ll call the cops and have you escorted off my property.”
“Simmer down, Marj,” Colin said. “This is between Jade and me.”
“Well, Jade is on my property and currently under my protection.”
Colin let out a snort. “Under your protection? What are you, a gangster now?”
“It’s a good thing my brothers aren’t here,” Marj said. “They’d kick the shit out of you again, and neither one of us would stop them.”
“You’d better watch what you say too,” Colin said. “That sounded kind of like a threat to me.”
“Just a fact.” Marj curled her lips into a saccharine smile.
I shook my head. “Colin, you think you’re so damned smart, but really what you are is arrogant. You don’t know anything about how the law works. Now get out of here.”
“Not until you agree to have dinner with me.”
“She will do no such thing,” Marj said.
“She has a mouth. Let her speak for herself.”
“I’ll tell you what. If I agree to go to dinner with you, will you be gone by Monday and just let this deal happen?”
Colin was silent a moment, his jaw clenched. Then, “All right. You’ve got a deal. You go to dinner with me tonight, and I won’t appear in court on Monday.”
“Fine.”
“Jade…” Marj began.
“And Marj is coming with us.”
“Oh, no. That wasn’t the deal.”
“The only deal was that I would have dinner with you, Colin. You didn’t specify that it would be a private dinner.”
“Come on, you know exactly what I meant.”
I pulled my best innocent face. “I’m afraid I didn’t. You know how naïve I am.”
“Fuck this. Forget dinner. I will see you in court on Monday at nine a.m. sharp.” He stomped off the deck.
Marj was gnawing on her bottom lip. “I hope he doesn’t make things really bad for Talon.”
I shook my head. “I don’t think he can.” I hoped to God I was telling the truth. “I’m the city attorney. This is my call. As long as the judge agrees to the plea…”
“What?”
This time I bit my lip. I didn’t know anything about the judge in the Snow Creek Municipal Court. Could Colin buy her off? He certainly had the money, and he was mad as a rabid dog right now, thinking Talon was going to get off after beating him to a near pulp a couple weeks ago.
“Do you know the judge, Marj?”
She shook her head. “No, not well. Everybody knows who we are though.”
Even if Colin couldn’t pay off the judge, he could still show up in court and outline all the conflicts I had in the case and screw up the deal. I couldn’t take the chance. I had to protect Talon. Without saying another word to Marj, I ran the other way through the house and caught Colin as he was getting into his car.
“I changed my mind. I’ll have dinner with you tonight, if you promise to leave and not come to court on Monday.”
Chapter Twenty-Three
Talon
My brothers and I drove into town to Murphy’s Bar for a little celebration. It wasn’t every day we decided to dig up the past so we could bury it once and for all.
I ordered Peach Street, of course. Jonah ordered a CapRock martini, and Ryan ordered a glass of his own wine.
Sean Murphy chuckled as he poured it. “You come in here and pay me for what you get for free, Ry. Now that’s a damn good customer.”
“We like to support the businesses of Snow Creek.” Ryan lifted his glass.
Sean, being the nonintrusive bartender that he was, turned around and focused on his tasks at hand, leaving us to talk.
“I guess I’ll go back to that Dr. Carmichael,” I heard myself saying.