Page 18 of The System

“I remember. But there’s one in the guest bath that you can use to get off.”

Tinley laughed again and said, “True.”

Carina left her at the kitchen table and took the twenty-minute drive to the office, where she parked in the parking garage and showed her badge to security on the way in. Having her office at the courthouse itself was convenient in a lot of ways, but it also meant that she had to go through security every single morning, which meant that she had to remove her laptop and other metal items from her bag and put them in a bin on the conveyor belt while she went through the metal detector. It all added at least five minutes to her morning on a good day, but usually more.

“You guys really need a line for employees,” she suggested to Rick, the security guy she’d developed a rapport with over the years. “One for the people who don’t know what they’re doing, and one for people like me who have this down to a science.”

“You say that at least once a week,” he replied as he motioned her through the detector. “And every week, I tell you that it’s not my decision and to take it up with my boss.”

“Yeah. Yeah.” Carina winked at him and began repacking her bag.

She made her way to the elevator bank and waited since someone else had already pressed the button. She looked down when her phone buzzed and pulled it out of the side pocket of her bag. She almost burst out laughing when she saw Tinley’s text.

Tinley Capshaw: Can I get you that three hundred next week instead? That client canceled on me, like I thought she would.

Carina typed her reply.

Carina Whitlock: Get a job at a gym, Tinley. At least, apply. And if you do that, you can keep the three hundred for the LAST month you’ll be staying with me.

Carina hated that during their relationship, and even more so now, it had felt like she was more Tinley’s parent than her girlfriend sometimes. Tinley’s actual parents didn’t seem to know how to push their kid at all, though, which resulted in her now being a twenty-six-year-old woman who was wandering around the world without a real place to call home.

As she rode up to her floor in the elevator, Carina thought about how they’d met and how she’d fallen for Tinley for all the wrong reasons. She should’ve seen the signs, but she’d been blinded by the boobs, honestly. Tinley had great breasts, and her laugh was one of those infectious laughs that didn’t ever sound forced or fake, so after the lecture, when Tinley had laughed at Carina’s terrible jokes, Carina had been a little smitten and definitely surprised. That had led to incredibly hot sex, which Carina considered to be fine because she wasn’t Tinley’s professor and had no role in grading her work.

The sex had led to dates. Dates had led to exclusivity. Now, Carina understood that she’d only wanted that with Tinley, again, for practical reasons: while they’d still been allowed to see other people, Carina had required both of them to get tested regularly. In that time, she had only slept with one other woman, an ex-girlfriend of hers whom she’d gotten drunk with one night after running into her, but Tinley had been with a few women. Carina wasn’t about to get anything because they might have been reckless, so tests had been needed. After a month of that, though, exclusivity had made sense, and she’d developed real feelings for Tinley – or, at least, she’d thought that she had. The more time had passed since their breakup, the more Carina worried that she’d just been lonely more than anything back then, and so she’d mistaken her affection for parts of Tinley with being in love with her.

“Oh, here she is.”

The elevator doors had only just opened when Carina saw two people head toward her, and one of those people was Kieran Hart. She’d been the one to just say that Carina was here.

“Hello. Miss Hart?”

“Kieran. Hi,” Kieran said. “I know you wanted to meet, so I made an appointment, but we’re early.”

“You made an appointment?”

“Yes, with your assistant.”

“Oh, okay. Well, good. We need to talk.”

“Diego Hart,” the man, who was holding what looked like a very expensive briefcase and standing next to Kieran, introduced himself and held out his other hand. “I’ll be representing Kieran today.”

“Kieran doesn’t require representation, as she told me when we sort of met,” Carina replied and smiled at Kieran a little. “She’s not even a witness, let alone a suspect who requires representation, Mr. Hart.”

“She has some concerns about what you’ll be asking her, and I’m here to advise her on what to answer and what not to, at least for the time being.”

Carina exited the elevator when she realized she was still inside it and the doors were about to close on her.

“Very well. We can talk in my office. Would you like any water? Coffee?” she asked only Kieran.

“No, thank you. We had some on the way over,” Diego replied for her, which irked Carina.

They all walked down the hall in silence and into the room where most of the ADAs had cubicles. As one of the most senior ADAs, Carina had an office, which was one of only three. She pulled open the door and held it for Kieran, who walked in before her. Then, Diego took the door from her and let Carina walk in first. She walked around to her desk, placed her bag on it, and pulled out her computer first to let Kieran and Diego settle in her two guest chairs.

“Marin is on her way here now,” she began after they both sat down across from her. “I assume you’d still like to meet her, Kieran?”

“I would, yes,” Kieran replied. “Does she know about me?”

“I’m not sure what she’s been told, but it’s probable,” Carina replied and sat down now as well.

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