Page 47 of Deliver Me

She would have to run through them, it simply couldn’t be avoided.

“Thanks Lilly,” she said. “We’ll be inside in just a minute.” She hung up and dropped the phone back into her bag, wiping her sweaty palms on her skirt as she explained the situation to her dad.

He stood for a second, blinking at her in the heat, and then shrugged out of his suit jacket. “Take this,” he told her, holding it out at arm’s length. “Toss it over your head when we run by so they can’t get a picture of your face.”

Mia reached for it, her hands trembling. “What about you?”

He lifted one shoulder dismissively. “There’s nothing they can do to an old man like me. Everyone at the church knows we’re here so it isn’t the same as you having to go to school and deal with unfortunate publicity.”

She rushed into his hug, quick and light to keep from wrinkling his crisp white dress shirt and tugged his jacket loosely over her shoulders.

The screaming began the moment they turned the corner, an eagle-eyed reporter catching a quick glimpse of her face before she pulled the jacket over her head and ducked down to focus on her own feet as her father guided her through the crowd.

Bodies pressed in on her from all sides, shoving as they each tried to get closer than the rest, and a barrage of unfamiliar voices assaulted her senses.

“Mia, can you tell us how you became romantically involved with a killer?”

“Do you know that Gabriel Myers murdered his own father? Did he lie to you to get you here today?”

“Pastor Anderson! How do you feel about your daughter being in a relationship with a brutal murderer?”

They pushed through, neither of them speaking until the glass doors of the courthouse closed behind them, muffling the sounds of disappointed reporters as they gradually stopped shouting questions and settled in to wait until their prey had to leave the building. The run back to her car would be even worse, but she had bigger issues on her mind now.

After the brief wait to pass through the building’s security, during which the guard that scanned her bag and asked herto step forward through the metal detector gave her a pitying look, they passed into the large lobby and found Lilly and Bryce waiting for them with anxious expressions.

Lilly hurried over, pulling Mia into a tight hug. “Are you okay? Gabriel’s lawyer is already here, she went upstairs to settle some of his witnesses in and asked us to wait here for you. She saw us get mobbed and figured out that we must know you. Said she isn’t surprised that the media found out about the trial, but we don’t know how they found out about you and Gabriel.”

“Are the reporters not going after everyone?”

Bryce shook his head. “They went after Amy, but she’s his lawyer. The only ones besides her so far have been us and the two of you. All the witnesses made it in without anyone paying any attention so they must not know what they’re here for.”

It was a mystery that would have to wait, despite the nagging suspicion that planted itself firmly in the back of her mind. She pulled her phone out of her bag, checked that it was on silent and glanced quickly at the time. “Is Kennedy here yet? We should be heading upstairs.”

“Not yet. I already warned her about the reporters, but I can send her a message and have her meet us outside the courtroom.” Lilly pulled out her phone and began typing rapidly. “Amy said it would be just upstairs on the left.”

They found her in the hallway with Brittany and several other people that Mia had never met before, each of them anxious looking but determined to see through the promise they had made to testify. Brittany’s hand on Mia’s was cold and clammy but she smiled tremulously at Mia's friends and family.

Kennedy and Alison arrived just as Amy began to coach all of them through what they were likely to experience and how to behave in the courtroom.

“No gum, no phones, so disruptions,” she said firmly. “No matter how much of an ass the state lawyers may be. I knowwe’ve gone over this already with those of you who will be testifying, but it applies as much when you’re just watching the proceedings. I don’t want anyone thrown out or held in contempt. Any questions?”

She looked around at the small group, all that could be gathered to show support for the man she had come to represent, and nodded. She was as well dressed and composed as always, but Mia noticed the nervous tap of her perfectly manicured nails against her thigh as they waited for the doors of the courtroom to be opened so they could make their way inside.

Mia waited until they were allowed to go in, until everyone else was busy settling into their seats and looking curiously around the quiet courtroom before she stepped close to Amy’s side and whispered quietly, so no one else could hear her, “Do you think he really has a chance? Any hope at all?” She hadn’t asked before today because she had been afraid to hear the answer but now, with the decision so close, she couldn’t help herself.

Amy sighed and shook her head slightly, as though unsure for once, her eyes drifting to the empty seat at the front of the courtroom where the judge would sit. “I’ve done my best during jury selection and Judge Turner is tough. She’s the youngest Black woman sitting on a judicial bench in the state of Texas, and she didn’t get there by letting people run her over, but she’s fair. If we were ever going to have a chance, this is the best we could have hoped for.”

Mia breathed, her lungs expelling all the breath she had been holding and some of the painful tension. Amy patted her hand and moved to the front of the room, beyond the small gate that barred the audience from approaching too close to the proceedings and began to set up her papers on the table where she and Gabriel sat.

Mia sat on the bench closest to the front, hoping that Gabriel would be able to sense her presence so close to him even though they weren’t allowed to speak to him. Her father sat on her right and Brittany on her left, her hand once again clutching Mia’s painfully as she looked around with panic in her eyes. Lilly was on Brittany’s other side, talking to her about her son and trying to put her mind at ease.

She had just won a hesitant smile for her efforts when the door at the side of the room opened, and Gabriel was led in. Brittany made a small noise, of shock or surprise Mia assumed, since she hadn’t seen him in many years and the boy that she had known back then was very different from the man now in front of her.

Mia took in his appearance quickly as he was led to his seat. He was wearing a white prison jumpsuit this time, hands handcuffed in front of him and connected to his shackled ankles with a long chain that also wrapped completely around his waist. Amy had prepared her for that, and for the painful fact that he would remain in shackles as long as he was inside the courtroom. He looked tired and worried, a crease in his brow that faded away the moment he spotted her.

She smiled at him reassuringly and mouthed a silent, “I love you,” even though her heart was pounding, and her fingers had gone numb with fear. It took all of her concentration to keep her breaths slow and shallow until he was seated next to Amy to wait for the judge’s arrival.

Mia looked down the hard courtroom bench, at the others that had come to testify, all of them uncomfortable in their stiff courtroom appropriate outfits as they stared around anxiously at the cheap wood paneled walls that lined the room. Some of them had been hurt by Richard, though not all of them, a fact that she sometimes lost sight of since he was the devil that made the most sense to her with her upbringing. Seth had done hisown damage to the others, just as deep and perhaps even more horrifying, in ways that went far beyond her imagination. And despite all of that, these people had made it through and had chosen, at least for this moment, to fight for a better world and let this small piece of their truths be heard.

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