Page 46 of Necessary Evil

Lucy sat in her car and waited for the four of them to park their bikes. She felt like the president getting a Secret Service escort. Fallow Street was a pit and she was glad she didn’t have to do this alone; if she’d been by herself, her car probably wouldn’t still have been here when she got out of her meeting.

Evan opened her door and helped her out. Sentinel was paying a few street thugs to watch their bikes. Warden and Ryder had already gone inside the building. Lucy had researched Attorney Meyers. Lenny wasn’t Zane the pimp’s attorney. If he had been, she could have pressured him to drop the case on an ethics violation. Not that she thought Lenny had a lot of ethics after the shit he’d tried to pull on Chloe.

“It’s after six,” she said. “Are you sure he’s still here?”

Evan snorted. “He doesn’t keep nine-to-five hours.”

Warden and Ryder were waiting at the top of the stairs. When Sentinel came in from his negotiations, Warden opened the door. It had been locked, but with Warden’s muscle, it popped open.

“Hey,” Lenny said, getting up from his chair, fumbling to pull his pants up.

“We could have knocked,” Lucy said out of the side of her mouth to Evan.

The hooker who had been on her knees behind his desk poked her head up.

“Out,” Warden said.

The woman pulled her dress back up her body and sauntered out, but not before giving Warden a head-to-toe appraisal with her eyes.

“You can’t do that,” Lenny said. “You can’t kick my door down. I’m calling—”

“Who? The police?” Sentinel closed the door behind the hooker while Evan pulled out the chair for Lucy. Warden and Ryder just loomed menacingly by the desk.

Lucy cleared her throat. “Attorney Meyers, I’m Attorney Simmons.” She held out her hand but quickly thought better of it and snatched it back. She refused to look anywhere but in his eyes. “I’ve been trying to reach you for the past week. It’s about—”

“I know who you are and what it’s about.” He sneered at the Sentinels. “You’re not getting the case, and if you don’t stop harassing me and my client, I’ll file a complaint with your supervisor.”

“Good luck with that,” she said. The worst Albert would do was give her a lecture that they had enough cases and she didn’t need to go looking for more. Actually, he’d probably give her another stack of files. Okay, then, the gloves were coming off. She mentally cracked her knuckles. “Chloe’s mother asked that I step in and help with her defense.”

“That would be great if Chloe was a minor, but she’s not. She’s eighteen.”

He had a point. “Fine. I work for the public defender’s office. However, I’ve spoken with the district attorney and she’s agreed to consider leniency to your client if she provides information on apprehending the real drug dealers.”

Lenny snorted. “If Chloe testifies, she’s going to die. Maybe not today. Maybe not in jail. But snitches get stitches, ya know? And in her case, if that dumb whore does anything with her mouth but swallow my cock, Zane will make her regret it.”

“Zane’s dead,” Sentinel said.

Lucy looked up at him in surprise.

“Tragically, Chloe’s pimp died of a drug overdose. Or is that ironically?” Ryder tipped her head to the side.

“Dead? I just talked to him yesterday.” He fumbled for a cellphone and made a call. A phone rang in his office. Opening up his middle drawer, Lenny’s face blanched as he pulled out the ringing phone.

“How did that get there?” Warden asked.

“Lucy, can you give us a few moments?” Evan gently tugged her elbow, and she got up from her seat.

“I really think I need to be here,” she said. “Attorney Meyers needs to realize that I’m not going to let him pass up a deal on behalf of his client because he’s afraid of retaliation.”

“Just give us a minute and I’ll guarantee that he’ll be in a better frame of mind for any negotiations.”

“Get the hell out of here.” Lenny slammed the phone down on his desk. “And take your thugs with you.”

“Come on,” Ryder said to her. “Let’s go check on the car and the bikes.”

“You really want me to go?” Lucy asked Evan.

He nodded at her.

---