Total D*ck(70)

Charlotte coughed into her palm to cover as she said, “Breeder.”

“I don’t want to talk about that right now. The defense is set to put their witnesses on the stand.” Lincoln glanced up, his green eyes focusing on something at my back. “Hang on. They want to talk.” He strode past, his frame taller and broader than Kennedy’s, though not by much.

“I’m not much for men, but like I’ve been saying, he might make me switch teams.” Charlotte licked her lips as Lincoln met with the lead defense attorney and engaged in a whisper conference.

“Have you seen his fiancée?” Kennedy asked, but before he gave her a chance to answer, he continued, “She’s a looker, and she would claw your eyes out if she heard you talking about her man.”

“She sounds more interesting by the second.” Charlotte purred like a cat, the sound realistic in an unnerving way.

I had to agree with Kennedy. “Trust me. Evan is, for lack of a better term, a bad bitch. You don’t want to mess with her.” In the times I’d met her over the past few months, she’d certainly made an impression. She and Caroline, Wash’s girlfriend, and I had formed a little “Granade Girls” club, as Kennedy called it. And I was all set to be Evan’s bridesmaid on Saturday when she married Lincoln.

“Hey, what did I miss?” Carey walked in and straightened his black skinny tie. His dirty blond hair had grown long and shaggy, making him look even younger.

“Nothing. Well, except Charlotte’s amazing testimony. She’s taking one for the team.”

“Yeah, Lynx texted me earlier, asking how it was going. I told him all seemed to be on track since Charlotte hasn’t gotten cuffed and stuffed yet.” He grinned and elbowed her.

“Not funny. Being around all this law enforcement”—she glanced to the bailiff—“makes me itch.”

“They aren’t so bad.” Carey shrugged. “Lincoln’s a fed and he’s doing you a solid.”

“Doing me a solid. Mmm.” Charlotte purred again, and we fell into the necessarily awkward silence.

Lincoln strolled back over to us. “They want a deal.”

“No.” Charlotte crossed her arms over her chest, black and green ink snaking from beneath her shirtsleeves.

“I haven’t even told you what the deal is yet.”

“If it means they walk, I don’t want it.” Charlotte’s earlier banter was gone, and steel lined her voice. “They killed Fluffy. They tried to kill you both, not to mention what else that piece-of-shit Eric tried to do to you.”

I stiffened. Since everything had happened, I’d awoken a few times in the night, crying and shaking. Kennedy was always there, wiping my tears and promising me I was safe. I hadn’t had one of the night terrors in a few weeks, and hoped they were done for good. But I wanted Eric put away. Just thinking of him gave me the creeps.

“They can’t just walk away.” She shot an acid stare at Eric and Frank.

“That’s part of the deal. They don’t want to have to go through two trials before landing in a penitentiary. This is the first trial, federal charges only. They still have to go through a state trial and a state sentencing on the murder and other charges.”

“I know.” Charlotte rolled her wrist in a “speed it up” motion.

Lincoln glowered but continued. “They want to avoid a Louisiana state prison and the possibility of the death sentence. They came to me, offering to take twenty years apiece.”

Charlotte. “They can’t—”

He held up his hand. “Hear me out. That’s what they wanted. I countered with life sentences, no chance for parole, in medium-security facilities.”

Charlotte tilted her head. “Medium? Why not low? I thought this sort of white-collar shit got minimum-security prison time.”

Lincoln narrowed his eyes at her. His stare was like a lead weight, suffocating and unyielding. “Because if I were to put them in minimum security, something tells me they would make it maybe a year at most on the inside before someone put a well-placed knife between their ribs.”

“Why, whatever would give you that idea?” Charlotte simpered in her best imitation southern accent.

Kennedy and I exchanged a look, and he pulled me tighter into his side and away from Charlotte.

“I think you know. And I think this is the best way to keep you out of trouble. There’s no guarantee they’d be convicted in state court, especially since the main victim was a world away. And, with this deal, we get them where we want them—behind bars for the rest of their lives. You get what you want, too—ridiculous payday and amnesty for all members of Discord.”