Rocco Page 3

  I didn’t care if they had their own way of doing things, and I hated that the cops let them get away with so much of their own crap. They were bound by the same laws as the rest of society, and I didn’t know why they thought they were above the law or able to make their own.

  Sure, they might take care of a lot of their own drama on their own turf, but that turf happened to be in the middle of our town. And, if this man was nearly murdered by one of the men in the MC, then they should be held accountable for it.

  Where was the line drawn? When was the moment when everyone agreed they had to do things like the rest of the world and play by the same rules that the rest of society was bound to? I wondered. This was a big deal, and I didn’t care what this man may or may not have done to piss off a member of the MC.

  They weren’t the judge and jury, and it wasn’t up to them to carry out any order they deemed fit. Sure, I knew I was speculating, but I wasn’t convinced I was too far off the mark, either.

  But, being in a town that cared so much for the MC, I didn’t know if anyone else in the bar had any affiliation with them. And considering the fact someone had just been arrested in relation to the attempted murder of this guy who was part of that same MC, I wasn’t going to say anything that could get me in trouble.

  I didn’t know who was affiliated with whom, and my job was already one that made me unpopular with a lot of people. No, it was better to just set aside the topic and move on to the other things we had to do that day. I had a long list of cases to get to after lunch, and with how my phone kept buzzing on the counter next to me, I knew it was going to be another late night.

  “Forget about it,” I said as I changed the subject. “Will you make sure you get those calls done for me this afternoon? I know we talked about getting them done later, but I really want to work on that plea deal with the prosecution, and the sooner we know where Mr. Potts stands on his case, the better.”

  “I’ll do it as soon as we get back to the office,” Sarah said with a nod. She folded the newspaper, and I knew that was the end of the conversation. If there was one thing I appreciated about Sarah, it was her ability to move on from something quickly.

  She didn’t feel the need to talk a subject to death, and I was grateful for it. I had more things on my plate that afternoon, and the last thing I wanted to worry about was what was going on with a man who nearly got himself killed in his restaurant a couple days before.

  He had his problems, that was for sure, but as far as I was concerned, they had nothing to do with us. We might have to get involved with the case if he wanted to press charges against the accused, but I would deal with that when he was well enough to get an attorney.

  I would go up against one of the MC members – I wasn’t afraid. It would almost feel good to see one of them get a taste of real justice.

  But, I wasn’t even sure I would get caught up in the situation. There were still a lot of things unfolding about the case, and it would likely be a week or two yet before attorneys came onto the scene.

  There was still plenty of time to read how it would unfold and see what came of the case. I just knew I wasn’t going to get caught up in everything. I had more to do with my day, and I was going to focus all my time and energy on that.

  Chapter 5

  Rocco

  I’d talked to Draven and Jett and scraped together what we assumed would be enough money to post bail for Roman, but we still had some hoops to jump through.

  Roman hadn’t made any phone calls or tried to get out of jail yet since I told him I would be there to get him, so we didn’t know how much money they were asking for his bond. But, more than that, I had questions myself. I wanted to know why Roman was the one arrested in this case, and I wanted to know what he had really done with himself when he rode off the other day.

  There had to be something going on with him. He had been acting so weird that evening. On edge, really. Sure, we had just pulled off a good run, which was enough to make any of us be amped up, but there was something different about him.

  He wasn’t just acting agitated about what we had done. He didn’t want to hang out with the rest of the gang after the fact, and that in itself was strange. There had to be some reason for it, and I wanted to know what that reason was.

  But, to get to the bottom of it, I was going to have to talk to him face to face. I wanted to hear in his own words what was going on and what went down. I could go through what the cops were saying or what was in the paper all day long, but unless I talked to him and heard from him what happened, I didn’t have a lot to go on.

  So, that’s what I was going to do.

  I got my things together and headed down to the jail. It wasn’t far from my place, which was convenient considering all the men I knew who wound up there through the years. But, I wasn’t often a welcome face when I walked through the doors.

  Today was evidently no different.

  The women who worked the front desk knew who I was, but despite the fact I was nothing but polite to them through everything, the looks they gave me made it clear what they really thought of people who were in the MC.

  Sure, they’d had to deal with quite a few of us, but that didn’t change the fact that I wasn’t often incarcerated myself. It had happened occasionally. But that was just because of the job we worked and the life we lived. It was inevitable we would end up behind bars at some point. But, that didn’t mean I was doing anything wrong coming up to see what was going on with one of the men behind bars.

  And just because he had been arrested in the case, didn’t mean to me he was guilty. Sure, we had all been on the other side of the gun when someone had ended up shot. That was yet another thing that just went along with the territory.

  If Roman had done this, then there had to be reason for it. But, as much as I knew this could be possible, I just didn’t see it as very probable. After all, Roman wasn’t one to go off and stab someone. He wasn’t that sort of guy. I knew him well enough to know that.

  He was more likely to handle something with his fists than with a knife. Sure, we would all carry knives with us, just like we did our guns, but did that mean he was going to resort to that sort of thing if he got into it with a guy?

  And, from what I was able to see through the reports in the paper, it sounded as though this guy had been attacked and murdered at work. It wasn’t Roman’s style to do things that way. No, there had to be more going on than what met the eye, I was sure of it.

  And, I was going to get to the bottom of it quickly.

  By now, I knew right where to go at the jail, and I hardly had to say two words to the women at the front counter before they were ushering me into the side door where I could speak with my friend. I had done it so many times, I even had a particular seat I normally chose when I went to visit someone who was locked up.

  They were all in the same room, sure, but at least they were on the further side of the room from the door, making it a lot easier for me to talk without worrying someone on the other side of the glass was going to hear the wrong part of our conversation.

  I waited, and as always, it took nearly fifteen minutes before Roman appeared on the other side of the glass in his jumpsuit. He was wearing orange, as was standard for those of us who wound up in jail.

  There were times when we were put in red, but perhaps they didn’t have enough evidence against him to put him in maximum security. I didn’t know, and I wasn’t going to get into that. For now, I just wanted to know what was going on in his head and what happened that night.

  “How you doing in there?” I asked.

  “About how you would expect,” he said with a shrug. “How about you?”

  “There’s a lot of rumors floating around out here,” I told him. “Care to shed any light on that?”

  “I didn’t do it, if that’s what you’re asking,” he said with a shrug. “What, you think that I did?”

  “I’m thinking there’s a chance you might have had more to do with it th
an you’re letting on,” I told him.

  “What makes you think so?” Roman raised his eyebrows, and I looked back and forth before leaning into the glass. I knew we had to be careful about what we spoke about. The conversations were both recorded and monitored. Still, I was going to get as much of the truth out of him as I could.

  If only to find someone who would be willing to take on the case for us. We had to get this taken care of – and the sooner, the better.

  “Okay, so I was in the area,” Roman said. “Like I told the cops. I was in the area. But I wasn’t here when the guy got himself killed, I can tell you that much. And, I wasn’t there when the cops came swarming down on the place, either. If I had been, don’t you think I would have been taken into custody right then and there?”

  I nodded. If he had been present, then they wouldn’t wait to make the arrest. But then, why had he been in the area, and why had the guy said he was the one who did it? I wondered. From the sounds of things, he didn’t call out Roman by name, of course, but he did say without any doubt it was a man in the MC, and, well, there wasn’t any denying that Roman was in an MC. Plus, he just admitted to me he was in the area.

  “So what were you doing over there?” I asked casually. “Why were you there if you weren’t doing anything with that guy?”

  “I was looking for my cousin,” he said. “I thought he worked at that restaurant. I knew he worked somewhere over that way, and I was going to see if he wanted to go do something to help burn off more of the adrenaline I was feeling. But when I got to the restaurant, there wasn’t anyone around.”

  “But you went inside, from what I saw in the report?” I gave him another look. Roman knew he had my support no matter what, but I had to know the truth. I wasn’t going to try to help when I wasn’t entirely sure of the whole situation.

  “Yes, but I was looking for my cousin, like I said,” Roman replied with a shrug. “It wouldn’t be the most unheard of thing in the world for him to have been in the back, if you know what I mean.”

  I smiled. I knew what he meant, but we weren’t about to discuss drugs further on a police line. There wasn’t any need to incriminate Roman for more than what he was already accused of.

  “So, what happened?” I pressed. “You didn’t find him, so what did you do?”

  “I left. That’s really all I know,” Roman continued with a shrug. “I didn’t think anything of it when he wasn’t there. Just that I must have the wrong place. I didn’t see anyone there, so I figured it was closed and took off. It wasn’t until later that I heard about the whole thing with the guy getting himself stabbed and everything.”

  I nodded. I had heard the emergency vehicles myself.

  “I think I’m going to need a lawyer,” Roman said. “Do you have the money for the bond amount?”

  “I brought the money, yeah,” I said, “but I think you’re right. The sooner we get you a lawyer, the better. You’re not going to want to be on the wrong end of this case.”

  “Amen to that,” he said with a nod. “Let’s figure out how I can get out of here first, and then you figure out who’s going to convince the world I didn’t do this. Because trust me, Rocco – I might have killed a man or two in my day, but I didn’t stab this guy.”

  “I believe you,” I told him as I rose from my seat. We were out of time to talk, and I knew I had to get things going if I was going to get him out of there that day. I knew even when we did get him out, we still had our work cut out for us.

  I believed Roman. I believed him in a heartbeat when he told me he wasn’t responsible for the attempted murder of that man. But, I also knew my belief in him wasn’t enough.

  We were going to need to find a lawyer who would believe him – and who would take on this case, too. After all, it was going to be hard to convince a jury he was innocent after what the victim had said.

  It could be done, I was sure of that, but it was going to take someone who really knew what they were doing in the courtroom. It would certainly be help out case if our lawyer believed in his innocence, as well.

  But as things stood right now, I knew that would be easier said than done.

  Chapter 6

  Amelia

  Another busy day in the office, and I was doing my best to stick to my own space as much as possible. I worked in an office shared with five other lawyers, and there were some days it seemed we were all being worked right into the ground.

  During those days, I did my best to stick to my own cases and get my own work done, not worry about what was going on with the rest of the firm. But even with the best intentions, there were still times when it was hard for me to focus on my own work and not get caught up in the noise of the rest of the place.

  I didn’t mind, mostly. Not when I knew what I was working on and had the material in front of me to get it done. I could close the door to my personal office and focus on my own cases, trusting Sarah to get the phone calls with clients and take care of the smaller errands I needed her to run.

  At the end of the day, we were where we needed to be regardless of how busy the rest of the place was.

  Most of the time, anyway.

  I had to admit, though I was buried in paperwork and doing my best to focus on what was right there in front of me, my attention was taken from what I should have been doing to what was going on in the rest of the office when I heard someone shout in the other room.

  “You can’t be in here! You’re supposed to make an appointment! Sir! We’ll get to you when we get the chance to see you! Sir!” The voices were calling after someone who was clearly ignoring all of them.

  “You might want to come see this…” Sarah poked her head through the door for only a brief moment before disappearing again, and I rose from my desk. I was curious, that was for sure, and I wanted to know what was going on. It wasn’t often we had someone so bold walking through the office, and I wondered who it was and why they were so eager to talk to one of us.

  Then, I realized it was me he was after.

  As soon as I got to the door of my office, I stopped short. There was a man dressed in leather from head to toe, and several of the other lawyers and their assistants were trying to stop him.

  “I need to speak with Amelia Vance,” he said. My heart nearly froze in my chest. It was rare for anyone to be so insistent to see me at all, but to have someone like this looking for me was nearly insane.

  More than that, I couldn’t believe how struck I was with the man. He was tall, dark, and handsome. The pure embodiment of perfection, as far as I was concerned. The mere sight of him was enough to make my heart skip a beat.

  He was muscular. Almost too muscular for his shirt. His arms were stretching the sleeves to the limit, making it harder for me to keep my eyes up on his face.

  He was tall. A lot taller than me. I knew I was shorter than most girls, but there was something about his presence that made him nearly tower above the rest in the room. Then again, I knew it could be the mere fact he was the most confident man I’d ever laid eyes on.

  I could barely tear my eyes away.

  Brandon, one of the other lawyers – and someone who had had a crush on me for practically forever – was stepping in, making it clear he didn’t want this guy to come through without an appointment.

  “You need to call ahead. We all have very busy schedules, and we can get back to you when we have the time. With the heavy caseloads that come through here, you have to understand that there are times when you have to wait for us to be open to take on your situation,” he was saying. But once the stranger’s eyes fell on me, he completely ignored Brandon and stepped forward.

  “I need to talk to you,” he said.

  “As they were saying, you’re going to need to call and make an appointment,” I told him. “I can let you speak with Sarah, my assistant, if you like.”

  I gestured toward Sarah as she stood next to me, and with the way she looked at me, I knew she was feeling just as intimidated by this man as everyone el
se in the office. But, there was a heavy dose of curiosity hovering around us, as well. We all wanted to know what he was there for, and we all wanted to know why he was looking for me specifically.

  We worked together in the firm, and though we all took on our own cases, there were times people who consulted us would have to take someone else in the firm who didn’t have such a tight caseload as the individual requested.

  But, this stranger clearly wasn’t going to change his mind. He was after me, and he wasn’t going to take no for an answer.

  “I don’t have time to talk to your assistant,” he said. “If I had the time for that, then I would have called and undergone the whole song and dance of jumping through all your hoops or whatever you call it. I need to talk to the best lawyer in here, and that’s got to be you. Now would be a good time for me.”

  I was caught off guard. In all the years I’d been a lawyer, I had to admit there were times when I was dealing with certain people who were pushier than others, but no one had ever come in and called me the best lawyer in the firm.

  It had to step on the toes of some of the others. Even if we did all get along and worked together happily, that didn’t change the fact I was far from the senior in the group. It had to be hard for some of the others to hear that, but I didn’t have the time to talk about it.

  He was on his way toward me, and he was looking to talk, right now.

  It didn’t seem to matter to him whether I had the time to talk to him or not. He wanted to talk to me, and that’s what was going to happen. So, I merely took a step back. Sarah gave me a questioning look, but I just nodded.

  “Alright, I’ve got a few minutes. I can talk to you now, but we’re going to have to count it as your free consultation. If you need more advice beyond this, you’re going to have to set up an appointment and expect a bill out of it,” I told him.