Black Rainbow (17 page)

I had never felt more comfortable in all my life.

In the back of my mind, I kept thinking of that Gatsby quote;
“You see, I usually find myself among strangers because I drift here and there trying to forget the sad things that happened to me.”

But I wasn’t drifting anymore. Because of Levi, I had found a place to rest.

“I’ve missed you too,” I whispered into the darkness.

Thea,

I know you wanted me to wake you up, but you looked so peaceful that I just I couldn’t. You’re technically on break, enjoy it. I’ll be back soon to collect my prize. Until then, my place is your place. Breakfast is in the microwave.

Yours,

Levi.

Crawling out of bed, I was disappointed that I couldn't be in court with him right now, especially after I had worked so hard on this case. But between all of his associates, and the media, there was simply not enough room inside that courtroom to fit all of us. We were students, so of course they had left us out of it.

Grabbing my shirt up off the ground, I put it on and headed downstairs.

“Levi,” I groaned, noticing that he had cleaned up the mess
and
made breakfast before going to court.

On the microwave he left another note:

Slightly burned French toast with bacon and no coffee. Still weird, but whatever.

Levi.

He had remembered everything, but then again, I knew how he liked his breakfast too. Hearing my phone ring, I grabbed the glass of orange juice he’d left for me, before heading into the living room.

Reaching under the couch, I grabbed my phone.

“Hello?”

“Are you watching?” Vivian asked me.

“Give me a second.” I searched for the remote.

“How are you not watching this already?” Atticus snapped.

I hadn’t realized they were both on the phone.

“I overslept.”

“You overslept? I’m not buying that—”

“Shh!” Vivian hushed us. “We should so be there, it isn’t fair.”

“How much work did you even do?” Atticus questioned.

“Well, with Thea coming in like a knight on a white horse all the time, who can do anything?”

“Damn, you somehow tricked us into being your backup singers, Thea.”

“I didn’t trick anyone. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to watch Professor Black kick ass, while I eat my breakfast,” I said as I hung up.

As much as I enjoyed their antics, I just didn’t have the energy this morning.

When I saw Mr. Nash’s daughter take the stand, I jumped onto the couch and turned up the volume.

“
Ms. Nash, is it true that you left your family home a year ago?”

You son of a bitch,
I grinned wildly. He was using my approach.

“Yes,”
she answered into the microphone.

“Why?”

“I had a drug problem, and I decided to go to rehab.”

“No you didn’t!” I yelled at the television.

“And how did your father feel it about that?”

“Like any father would, he was angry and disappointed. He cut me off.”

“So then how did you pay for rehab?”

“I stole some of their jewelry. But I called him later about it, and told I him what it was for.”

Damn it, the prosecution was making her go with some version of the truth. Mr. Nash’s daughter was the only person we could serve up as with a solid enough motive to want her father dead.

“And you were you there for the whole year?”

“Yes.”

“Where was the rehab you attended located?”

“
West Seneca
.”

“And you—”

“Objection your honor; is Ms. Nash on trial here?”
the prosecutor asked as he stood up to face the judge.

Levi turned to him and raised his eyebrow. Strangely enough, he looked pleased.

“Your honor, I just want know whether or not Ms. Nash is in the right frame of mind to be on the stand, after years of substance abuse.”

“I’ll allow it.”

“Thank you, your honor. I’m sorry, where did you say your rehab was located Ms. Nash?”

“Seneca Falls.”

Wait.

“Seneca Falls or
West Seneca Ms. Nash? Those are two different places, about two hours apart.”

“I mean West Seneca—”

“But the rehabilitation centers in West Seneca are charity owned and run. Where did you spend the two hundred thousand? Are you sure it wasn’t in
Seneca Falls?”

“Yes, I meant Seneca Falls, I’m sorry.”

“Ms. Nash, you do know that lying on the stand is a criminal offence right?”

He had her.

“Yes.”

“Ms. Nash, you couldn’t have been in
West Seneca, and you couldn’t have been in
Seneca Falls, because their program only runs for 160 days. So where were you?”

“I—”

“Did you actually go to rehab?”

She faltered, then went red.
“I plead the fifth.”

Levi went on as though she had actually answered,
“So, if you weren’t in rehab, then where did the money go?”

“I plead the fifth.”

“If you didn’t go to rehab, then you didn’t get clean. So when you came home to find out your father was going to cut you out of the will as your step mother had asked him to do, were you not upset?”

“Yes,”
she said with tears in her eyes.
“But he never thought about it, until she put it in his head.”

“Three weeks later, you found out that your father had been murdered, isn’t that right?”

She opened her mouth and then shut again.

“I have no further questions for this witness.”

“YES!” I jumped up and down on his couch. When I heard my phone ring I answer it immediately. “Bomb goes the
dynamite
! Did you see that? Genius! Pure genius!”

“THEA!”

I stopped finally looking at the ID of the caller on the phone’s screen—.“Selene? Sorry, I thought you were someone else.”

“I figured. I’m sorry to bother you, I can call you back later—”

“No, no. It’s okay, I’m good, I just got a little worked up over a case.”

“Grams, said that another one of dad’s appeals failed today. So I thought I'd write my first letter to him today, and I wanted you to read it. I know you’ve been writing to him since you found out, and I didn’t want him to think that I didn’t care or that we aren’t paying attention to what’s happening to him.”

And just like that, my excitement was gone and I crumbled back onto the couch. I didn’t even know one of his appeals failed today. Usually the “lawyer”, if I could call him that, spoke to me.

“He won’t write back,” I said to her. “I know he gets them, he just never writes back. Don’t read anything about him on the internet, okay? If you have questions, call me.”

There was nothing but hate on the internet when it came to him. Once you dove in, it became a black hole that shredded you on the way out.

“I know. I just want him to have something of mine. Can you read it over for me?”

I didn’t want to.

“Sure.”

I wasn’t sure what I was expecting to find when I got back to my place. Half of me figured she would have run home, and the other half of me hoped that she was still in my bed, curled up and naked. However, it was neither of those things.

My living room had been converted into a small office, with files and photos all over the coffee table. She sat with her cat in her lap, and headphones on, flipping through pages upon pages, and highlighting large blocks of text. It reminded me of the night I walked into the conference room to find her still working.

Dropping my things onto the couch, I came up behind her, kissing her neck before taking off her headphones. “I thought I told you to relax. I honestly don’t need that much help with the case anymore.”

“It’s not your case, it’s mine,” she whispered, looking back up at me. “Well really, it’s my dad’s case.”

I looked around the room at all the boxes stacked around her.

“Did you collect all of this?”

“There wasn’t that much to his trial, so I basically started from the bare bones. If I see anything, I send it over to his lawyer, but that’s only happened twice. It was useless. I’m sorry about the mess. I promise I’ll get it cleaned up before I leave. I just couldn’t be at my house right now.”

Jesus
.

Sitting down next to her, I pulled off my tie. “It’s fine, really. I have space, but I’m just confused, why are you looking at this now?”

“My sister called me today, to tell me his appeal fell through again, and that she’d written him a letter,” she said, as she handed me her phone to read the hand written note her sister had scanned and emailed to her.

Dear
Father,
Mr. Walton,
Ben,
Dad,

I’m just going to skip the introduction. I’ve written it so many times that I’m almost out of paper. I don’t know if you remember me, I’m Selene, your other daughter. I wish I remembered you, because from what Thea can recall, you were pretty cool. She’s becoming a lawyer to get you out herself, and believe me, if there is anyone in the world that can do it, it’s Thea. She’s like a mule; once she puts her foot down, she isn’t moving until the jobs done. Believe me, I know this because she’s basically raised me all my life. So what I’m trying to say is, we got your back, and I hope that you’re doing okay… as okay as you can be at least, given the circumstances. I can’t really do anything but cheer Thea on right now, but just know that we haven’t forgotten about you, so just keep holding on for us.

See you soon,

Selene.

Putting the phone down on the table, she rested her head into my lap without saying a word. I wasn’t sure
what
more there was to say.

“I’m working as fast as I can—”

“You’ll kill yourself with this, Thea.” I paused, trying to think about the best way to phrase my next question. “Why haven’t you asked me? You said you hated the lawyer that’s working on it now, so why didn’t you come to me?”

“I did, months ago. When I called about it, the person I spoke to, I think it was Raymond, said that you don’t handle death row convictions. I called dozens of lawyers and they all said the same thing. When I met you in the bar I had no idea who you were, but during our week together you told me your name and I put two and two together but it didn’t matter anymore. I had decided to handle it myself. I would never have thought you were going to be my professor.” she confessed keeping her eyes closed.

I hadn't known. All the cases were brought to me by Tristan or Raymond, and from there, we screened the ones that were either the highest profile, or that we were passionate about.

“I also didn’t want to drop this on your shoulders. If I did and you didn’t believe him, or if we lost, I was scared about what would happen between us. I’m selfish like that. I can’t see anything new here, and neither can his lawyer. I would be setting you up to fail. I feel like I need to undo this myself and… I don’t know.”

“Alright,” I said, taking her hand and kissing the back of it, “when you need me, just call on me and I’ll be there. But for right now, I have your back.”

She sat up, bringing her face close to mine. “You never say, or do, anything that I think you’re going to do.”

“That’s a two way street,” I said touching her face. “I want to go out with you.”

“Aren’t we doing that?”

“No, we aren’t. Going out means going to the movies, dinner, games. We can go outside the city if you’d like.”

Her eyes went back and forth, as if she were scanning my face for some sign of something.

“Hmmm… outside of the city, that sounds really nice,” she said as she tilted her head at me. “And you must already know, but you were amazing today.”

She leaned in and kissed me.

“Does that mean I get my prize now?”

She nodded, and stood up. Taking my hand, she pulled me up off the ground, and I let her drag me upstairs, towards the bedroom, where she pushed me onto the bed. She stripped down right in front of me with ease, and when she was naked, she crawled on top of me and began unbuckling my belt. She slid down between my legs, staring directly at me as her fingers found their purchase, and began their magical work. She licked her lips, and bit her bottom lip, and I twitched in her hand.

“Thea…” I couldn’t look away from her.

“Yes?” she asked politely, as she stroking me with both hands.

Fuck
.

Placing my hands behind me, I tried to hold myself up.

“You’re so hard, Mr. Black,” she whispered as she stretched upwards to kiss my neck. “Tell me what you’d like me to do.”

“Uh…What?” I asked, as my brain was no longer communicating with me.

“Tell me what you want me to do, Mr. Black,” she repeated once more with a grin.

She ran her thumb over my head, applying just the right pressure to make any man go insane with pleasure.