Page 68 of Feel Me

“No way,” Curran mutters as the door shut behinds them.

Melo’s eyes cut to me. “Will you excuse us?” I ask him.

He’s barely to the door when Curran looms over the desk, ramming his face in mine. “You’re not fucking giving her this case,” he barks.

I shove away from my chair, the force slamming it into the shelf behind me and sending the contents crashing to the floor. “Donotquestion my authority,” I bite out, our faces inches apart.

“She’s eight months pregnant!” Curran fires back.

“And she’s the best attorney I have for this case!” I straighten, motioning around. “Do you think any of us want to deal with this shit?No. But someone has to and Tess is the only one I have who’s qualified.”

The lines etched around his jaw deepen. If I was anyone else, in any another position, he’d have me by the throat. But just because he’s my brother doesn’t mean he gets his way. Not with all these kids on the line.

“Curran, it’s okay,” Tess tells him. I didn’t realize she was holding onto his arm, my focus so fixed on him I never saw her approach. But I see her now, just as I feel Melissa beside me.

I steal a glance. Her expression is riddled with worry. I don’t know what I look like. All I know is the anger burning through me.

“It’s a conflict of interest,” he says. “I’m one of the cops who responded.”

“You weren’t the arresting officer,” I begin.

“No,” he agrees. “That was Sanders, who blew his fucking head off after gathering all this evidence.” He shakes his head. “Twenty years on the job, he saw a lot of shit, but this was the call that pushed him to the breaking point. You think I want my wife a part of this?”

“You don’t get a choice,” I say. “That falls on me. And I’m choosing Tess because she’s the best I have.”

My tone is absolute. Curran knows I’m not budging and he’s more pissed at me than I’ve ever seen him.

“Curran,” Tess says, her voice soft. “Someone has to do this. Next to Declan, I have the most experience.”

Her hand slips away to gather the stacks of photos. I don’t miss how she keeps her eyes off the images. Curran’s still fit to be tied, but as furious as he is with me, he’s not blind to Tess. With a curse he begins to gather the pics that flew off the desk when he thundered toward me.

I lower my lids and release a heavy breath as I feel Mel’s fingertips glide down my back. This is the first time she’s touched me since the night she left my apartment. GoddamnI miss her. She’s been at work every day, keeping a professional distance, all the while doing her job. She’s not cold. She still smiles although those smiles are forced. But it’s the sadness that dulls her large brown eyes, I can’t get past. Probably because I’m going through it too, without her.

She stacks the last of the pictures and adds them to the ones Curran and Tess are shoving into the envelope. “Mel, when are you meeting with the victims’ parents?”

She didn’t tell me she was. I just know she will. These kids aren’t the only ones hurting. “Wednesday night,” she replies. “I set up a group counseling session with one of our top therapists.”

“Will they all be there?” I ask.

“At least one parent or legal guardian will be there from each family,” she answers. “I called them individually to assure their presence.”

Those calls alone must have taken hours. Between work and looking after Miles . . . I have no idea how she does it. “What do you think about me and Tess being there?”

She pauses, knowing where I’m headed. “It’s their first time meeting. I planned to attend to introduce myself as their liaison to this office. It might be too much to have the three of us there.”

“What about Tess?”

Melissa nods slowly. Yeah. She knows where I’m headed. “I think they would appreciate her presence,” she agrees.

I glance to my sister-in law who like Curran pointed out is very pregnant. “Tess,” I tell her. “If they can relate to you as a parent, it can help us plead this case out.” My focus cuts to the envelope. “No way am I putting seventeen children on the stand.”

“All right,” she says nodding. She rubs Curran’s arm when he frowns. “We don’t need seventeen counts of Indecent Assault to put this monster away for life,” she explains. “Not with the multiple offenses he’s charged with and the amount of evidence we have. If I can convince the families to plead this out to fewer counts, there won’t be a trial and I can take him out of society.”

He strokes a strand of her hair that escaped her bun. “And if you can’t?”

“I’ll make sure he never hurts a child again,” she promises.

His stare softens as he continues to take her in, not that he’s any less pissed at me.

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