Page 4 of Sweet Pea

“Not good enough. I gotta make someone pay.”

“That’s exactly why I’m not gonna put you in the ring right now,” he replied.

I exited the building and hit the top of the courthouse steps. I was making my way through the swirling chaos of humanity when I spotted Callie Ames from the prosecution team. I’d had a hard time keeping my eyes off her the entire trial. In fact, I wondered if I would have made it to court quite so many times had she not been there. I’d seen her at previous family court hearings and was always struck by her beauty. Callie was tall, blonde and wore everything as if it was tailor made for her.

She was talking with the Miller family, and I was surprised and moved to see her visibly crying with the families over the obvious injustice that had been committed against them. In court, Callie Ames was completely composed. She came across as highly professional, but without seeming cold. She was striking and elegant. More like a movie star cast as a lawyer than someone you’d expect to be the real thing. I’d been inside this courtroom more times than I could count, had seen my fair share of lawyers, and most of them looked more like Paul Giamatti than Blake Lively.

“Alright,” I said, half-heartedly returning my attention to Clutch. “Maybe, I’ll come by.”

“Don’t do anything stupid, Pea. The last thing we need right now is you socking some jerk in the mouth over a parking space just because you’re all twisted up about this pervert going free.”

“Yeah.”

“I mean it,” Clutch said, clearly speaking to me as a superior. “The stitches on your Road Captain’s patch are still clean and the club doesn’t need any extra heat right now.”

“You think I don’t fuckin’ know that?” I shot back.

“Just make sure you remember it.”

I couldn’t take my eyes off Callie, who was down on one knee, speaking with her young client, Elsie Miller. She was showing a display of strength for the little girl, but I could see the pain in her eyes as she comforted her.

“You hear me, man?” Clutch asked

“Yeah,” I replied, having barely processed the last thing he’d said. My gaze was fixed on Callie and she was beginning to put a real damper on my rage. In fact, the more I stared at her the more my anger dissolved into the ether.

Callie glanced up at me for only a nanosecond before returning to the little girl and giving her a hug as the family said their goodbyes.

“I’ll call you back, Clutch,” I said and hung up before giving him the chance to reply, shocked to see Callie Ames walking straight toward me. We made eye contact and I froze, shocked that she was approaching. I thought about what, if anything I should say, when she beat me to the punch.

“Hello, Mr. Kimble.”

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