Big Daddy Sinatra 3: The Best of My Love (The Sinatras of Jericho County) (22 page)

And
Charles was overwhelmed.
 
She looked so
wonderful to him, in her bright green pantsuit, with her electric smile, and he
couldn’t wait to get his hands on her again.
 
She left town Monday, now it was Thursday, but he didn’t expect to see
her again until Sunday night.
 
But she
came back early.
 
That was why Charles
loved her so much.
 
That was why he was
totally devoted to her.

“Hey,”
Jenay said as they met.
 
Charles placed
his hands around her waist and she held his chin as they kissed.
 
They both wanted much more than a simple
kiss, but they were in the wrong place for more.
 
They would have to wait.

“Have
a seat,” Charles said, and Robert, who was thrilled to see Jenay too, had no
problem moving down a seat so that Jenay could sit beside her husband.
 
And they all sat back down.

Charles
intertwined his hand with hers.
 
“What
made you decide to come back so soon?” he asked her.

“You
of course,” Jenay said.
 
“When we talked
on the phone and you said the hearing was coming up this week, I knew I had to
do something.
 
So I did something.
 
I came home.”

Charles
rubbed his thumb across her hand.
 
“Your
father doing better?” he asked.

“He’s
getting there.
 
Mom’s doing what she
can.
 
But I had to come.
 
I think they understand.”

“And
if they don’t?”

“I
think they understand,” Jenay said.
 
“But
if they don’t?
 
Oh well.
 
I had to be with you.”

Brent
heard Jenay say such sweet words to his father and he realized, sitting there,
that that was what he wanted too.
 
A
woman he could truly love the way his father loved Jenay, and a woman who could
love him the way Jenay loved his father.

He
continued to feel this way when Makayla Ross entered the courtroom.
 
He felt an odd sense of thrill when she
walked down the aisle, as if it was his woman walking in.
 
She wore a tight dark blue skirt suit and
carried a black briefcase, and her long hair was partly pushed back by a
tasteful pin, and partly hanging down her back in curls.
 
She looked stunning to Brent.
 
But it was not just her physical appearance.
  
It was not just the fact that he still
remembered how it felt to be inside of her.
 
It was
her
.
 
It was her confidence and her strut.
 
It was the fact that she was her own woman
and was not about to take any bull from him or anybody else.
 
She was a woman who had a job to do and not
even Brent’s dick, in which most women who had sampled it would call it a game
changer, was not changing her game.
 

She
shook hands with the defense attorney, who stood up and shook her hand and
exchanged pleasantries with her.
 
She
stood there, arms folded, smiling only mildly as she and her colleague talked,
and then she walked over to the prosecutor’s table, the table the Sinatras sat
behind one row back.
 
She sat down and
opened her briefcase.

Jenay
leaned toward her husband.
 
“What has she
decided?” she asked.

“We
don’t know yet.”

“What
does Brent say?”

“He
doesn’t know either.
 
He slept with her,
but I don’t know if it did any good.”

Brent
heard that.
 
He leaned toward his
father.
 
“I didn’t sleep with her to
affect any outcome, Dad,” he informed him.
 
No man, Brent thought, would need a reason to sleep with Makayla Ross.

But
Charles knew what he was doing too.
 
His
son had unwittingly confirmed his suspicion.
 
“So I was right,” Charles said.
 
“You did sleep with the enemy.”

Brent
realized he had stepped right into it, and he couldn’t help but smile, but then
he returned his attention to Makayla.
 
She was pulling out notes and reviewing them.
 
Although he was a little disappointed that
she did not so much as nod in his direction, he liked her focus.
 
He liked the fact that she, like he, didn’t
take her duty lightly.
 
He was going to
see her again, he knew that much.
 
He was
going to hit that ass as many times as she would let him, before she left the
scene.
 

But
then the thought of her leaving the scene became a depressing thought to
Brent.
 
And he realized he was falling in
that trap again.
 
Searching for hope in a
hopeless affair.
 
That was why he was not
a sentimental man.
 
That was why he
maintained his hard edge.
 
Relationships
rarely ever worked out.
 
His father and
stepmother, he decided, were the only exception he had ever known.
 
And even their relationship had its’
challenges too.
 
He pulled out his cell
phone, and began checking his messages.

Once
Makayla had reviewed her notes and was now waiting for the judge to arrive, she
turned, looked at Brent and his family, and then stood up again.
 
She felt she should at least let them know
her decision.

When
Brent looked up and saw her heading his way, his heart began to pound.
 
He kind of resented the fact that she excited
him.
 
But she did.
 
He was getting an erection just sitting
there.

Makayla,
too, felt some kind of way as she walked sideways pass the Sinatra children
until she was standing in front of Brent, his father, and his stepmother.
 
She wanted to glance over at him, given his
proximity beside his father, but she decided against it.

“Good
morning,” she said with a serious look on her face.
 
This woman was all business, Jenay thought.

“Good
morning,” Charles and Jenay responded.

“As
you know, Mr. Sinatra, the state has only two recommendations it can make to the
judge.
 
We can either recommend a new
trial for your father, given the misconduct we have concluded did occur in the
D.A.’s office during your father’s trial, or we can recommend an immediate
release.”

“What
have you decided?” Jenay asked, praying for the right answer.

“I’ve
decided,” Makayla said, “to recommend against immediate release, and to request
a new trial.”

Charles
exhaled.
 
Jenay and the others were
pleased.
 
“Thank-you, Ms. Ross,” she
said.

Makayla
glanced at Brent.
 
She couldn’t help
herself.
 
Brent kept his tough exterior,
but he gave her the slightest of nods.
 

But
as she was leaving, she heard one of his family members, one of his brothers,
make a comment that stunned her.
 
“Good
job, Brent,” he said, and she turned in horror.
 
Did his brother just imply that he had slept with her to exact a new
trial rather than a release outcome?
 
Had
his brother just implied that Brent had used her last night?
 
She looked at Brent.

As
soon as Brent heard Tony’s crazy comment, and as soon as he saw that sad, hurt,
angry look on Makayla’s face, he knew he had to act.
 
He stood up immediately, made his way toward
her.
 
He gave Tony a swift kick on the
ankle as he walked by, causing Tony to wince in pain and grab his ankle.
 
But Brent grabbed Makayla by the arm and
escorted her out of the courtroom.
 
When
they were in the corridor, away from curious ears although some people were
milling about, she reminded him that the judge could arrive at any moment.

“Hear
me out,” Brent said.

But
Makayla was pulling away.
 
“I’ve got to
get back in court.”

“Don’t
you dare think what my brother said is true,” Brent said, holding her
there.
 
“I didn’t sleep with you because
of this case.
 
It was this case that kept
me away from you!
 
I slept with you
because I find you one of the most desirable and intriguing women I’ve ever
met.
 
It had everything to do with how I
view you, and nothing to do with this case.
 
Understand me?”

Makayla
stared into his big, green eyes.
 
She saw
nothing but sincerity there.
 
She
nodded.
 
“Yes,” she said.
 
“And thank-you,” she added.
 
But then she tore away from him and hurried
back into the courtroom.

Brent
glanced over and saw that one of his men, a young uniformed officer, was
standing within earshot, smiling and looking at his boss as if his boss would
approve of his eavesdropping.
 
Brent
frowned.
 
“What the fuck are you looking
at?” he asked him.

Terror
suddenly appeared on the young man’s face, and he stood erect.
 
“Nothing, sir,” he said.
 
“I was just . . . I wasn’t . . .”
 
The young cop, knowing that he had been
caught red-handed, took off down the corridor rather than face the wrath of his
boss right now.

Brent
exhaled.
 
He knew he was too hard on the
kid.
 
But all of this court shit, his
unhealthy infatuation with Makayla Ross, his concern for his father, was
beginning to stress him out!

He
went back into the courtroom.
 
By the
time he sat down, by the time he gave Tony another angry look, the judge
arrived, everybody stood up and sat back down, and the hearing was now in
session.

“Bring
in the prisoner,” the judge ordered from the bench.
 
In Jericho County, no prisoner was allowed in
the courtroom before the judge had been seated and actually ordered his
arrival.
 
But as soon as the judge gave
the order, Charles gripped Jenay’s hand and stared at the side door that was
now slowly opening.

Salvatore
Luciano “Luke” Sinatra entered the courtroom in wrist and ankle chains.
 
Every Sinatra was staring at him as if they
were staring at a phenomenon.
 
Sprig blew
him a kiss as he walked in, but he didn’t so much as glance her way.
 
He was searching the courtroom, not for
Sprig, or even his absent son Mick.
 
It
was Charles he wanted.
 
His oldest
boy.
 
The only child he ever produced
that was, in Luke’s mind, worth a damn.
 
The one child that turned on him with a bitter turn.
 
But he didn’t have to look long.
 
The man near the front of the courtroom, the
man with the most intense green eyes ever created, was staring daggers right
back at him.

Luke
actually smiled and nodded at Charles, as if, as he’d told Tony he did nothing
wrong.
 
But Charles had a completely
opposite reaction.
 
He was not angry, he
wasn’t even repulsed by the sight of his father again.
 
To Charles’s amazement, he did not feel
anything.
 
No love, no hate.
 
Nothing.
 
He looked at his father, who was now rail thin and beat-up looking in
his once handsome face, with his once beautiful black hair now short and matted
against his small head, and he did not feel a damn thing.
 
It felt like a triumph to Charles.
 
It felt as if he had faced down the devil,
and the devil was a lie.

And
the proceeding went on without a hitch.
 
The prosecution went first, explaining to the judge in what Charles
thought was excellent detail why Luke Sinatra should not be granted an
immediate release.
 
Makayla acknowledged
that the Jericho County’s D.A. office thirty-six years ago were guilty of
misconduct, but she also acknowledged the state’s belief that the misconduct
did not rise to the level it needed to rise for immediate release.
 
A new trial, where all of the evidence could
be exposed, would be the fair and equitable outcome.
 
The defense argued just the opposite,
claiming not just misconduct, but gross misconduct. The judge agreed to grant
both parties the right to amend their arguments prior to his decision, and that
he would make his decision sometime within the next two weeks.
 
Court was adjourned.

Jenay,
Brent, and all of the Sinatra clan looked at Charles when court was adjourned
as his father was led back out of the courtroom.
 
Charles stood up, and with Jenay he went over
and shook Makayla’s hand, and then he and Jenay headed out of the courtroom
too.
 
Although he believed he was fine,
even better than fine, Jenay knew better.
 
He was clutching her hand so tightly that her hand had gone to sleep.