Page 44 of Queen's Ransom

“We don’t know that.” Avery tilted her head toward where Dex sat in the front row with the other defendants waiting their turn. “Maybe it was a message for that asshole.”

“You think he’s worth all this hassle?”

Avery shrugged. “It’s a lot of debt, and he’s a known flight risk.”

True, but Helena still didn’t see it. A borrowed car, jacked with custom parts, then abandoned. Because of Dex? “August said it wasn’t his brother. So it’s Lenny gone rogue, Lenny gone stupid, or Lenny working with Zima to climb the Bratva ladder.” She recalled what August had said yesterday. “These scenarios aren’t getting any better.”

Avery shifted on the bench, crossing a leg toward her and stretching an arm out on the bench behind her, giving up any pretense she was paying attention either. “And this prevents you from pursuing something with Celia how? And don’t pretend like you don’t want to.” She lowered her voice and leaned closer. “If you don’t, you’re fucking blind, because one, she’s hot as fuck, and two, she’s good people.”

“Which is why I need to steer clear. I’ve got nothing to offer her.”

“That’s utter horse shit.” So much for keeping her volume low and so much for courtroom manners. Avery flipped off the few people left in the gallery who’d turned to glare their direction. They turned back to the proceedings, and Avery turned back to her, her dark gaze resolute. “You are smart, dedicated, and gorgeous.”

“I’m dangerous.”

“Stop making excuses. You always do this, come up with some reason to push people away. Your brothers won’t call you out on it, but I’m tired of watching you be alone. You get to be happy too.”

“I can’t expose—”

“Boss, can you honestly say she’s in any more danger from you than from Chris or any of us or from her ex or any of those other criminals he’s sitting up there with?”

Helena hung her head, chuckling softly.

“I was in danger too.” The drastic shift in Avery’s tone made Helena glance up again, only to find Avery’s gaze fixed on a spot over Helena’s shoulder, on a time in the past. “Amelia found me, got me out of that, and fuck, boss”—she refocused on Helena and on the present—“so far, besides your grandmother, Amelia’s been the most dangerous one of you. But if not for her, I have no doubt I’d be dead. I wouldn’t be here today, monitoring this asshole’s arraignment because, oh, let me think, we’re trying to keep his ex-wife safe.”

Helena rested her head against her friend and colleague’s shoulder. “I’m glad you’re here.”

“You’re good people too.” Avery patted her knee. “Even if I do have to knock some sense into each of you sometimes.”

“I just want to do right by her,” Helena said. “She was raising a kid when I was still acting like one. She shouldn’t have to worry—”

“She’s a mom. She’s wired that way, whether it’s about herself, her kids, her family, or you. I know you’re used to losing people—your parents, your grandparents, Holt for a time, Amelia—but that woman, she’ll stick if you let her. And besides, is it your decision to make? Shouldn’t she be the one to decide how much risk she can handle?”

As the last few defendants before Dex were processed through, Helena turned Avery’s words over in her head. And as Dex finally stood and the judge read off the charges, reviewed his rap sheet, and recounted his many, many absences, correctly determining he was a flight risk and denying his request for reduced bail, a lump formed in Helena’s throat and a knot settled in her stomach. The way she’d been treating Celia wasn’t all that different from the way Dex used to. Taking away her choices. Keeping her on the outside. Keeping her in the dark.

She understood now why Celia had met with her support group counselor last night, and it made Helena sick to her stomach to think she’d put Celia into one of the very situations she was trying to protect her from. As for the other, Avery was right. Celia was strong, the strongest woman Helena knew. If she wasn’t afraid, if she was willing to take a risk on her, then Helena had to stop being afraid to do the same.

Avery bumped her arm. “And that’s a wrap.”

The gavel fell, and Helena pried herself out of her own head. They shuffled into the aisle, shaking hands with the departing public defender. At the front of the room, the judge and clerk exited one direction, and the bailiff led Dex the other way toward the prisoners’ entrance. At the door, Dex glanced over his shoulder and spied her and Avery. “This is your fault,” he sneered.

“Nope,” Helena said. “Pretty sure all the evidence points to you.”

“Because you planted it.”

“Not this time,” she said with a wink.

The bailiff dragged a fuming Dexter the rest of the way out of the courtroom, and Helena and Avery headed toward the gallery doors. Helena’s hand was on the handle when the unmistakable pop of a gunshot blasted from somewhere behind them.

Helena didn’t have to give the order; she and Avery worked together as seamlessly as she worked with her brothers. They broke to opposite sides of the courtroom, crouching behind the last row of benches. She peeked over the bench. No one but them in the courtroom, confirming the gunfire had come from the hallway Dex had been led into.

“Clear,” she said. “Shots in the hallway.” She and Avery had maybe five seconds before the guards charging the opposite direction, from the foyer, barged in. “Go!”

They sprinted up either side of the courtroom, Helena grabbing weapons as she streaked across the front of the familiar space. Pens, wires, the bailiff’s Bible. Avery opened the door for her, and she ran through, two pens and the Bible at the ready. Not as good as her knives, but she could make do. Assuming she could get a lock on her target. Unfortunately, the elevator doors closed on Zima and a still-cuffed Dexter before she could strike. Zima, though, already had. The bailiff was slumped against the wall, blood oozing from a gunshot wound to his right shoulder. Helena dropped the Bible, stripped off the scarf hanging loosely around her neck, and flung it at Avery. “Apply pressure. Catch up.”

Avery caught the scarf and dropped to her knees next to the bailiff, fast at work. “Copy.”

Helena ran flat out for the stairwell door, flashing her access badge. She skipped down the stairs, landing and bounding off every third one, riding the momentum. She reached the ground floor only a few seconds behind Zima and Dex, who were hustling toward a utility van, Lenny standing at the open back doors.

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