Page 163 of Prey for You

“She is not—”

“In terms of a witness, primed and coached for the prosecution, then dropping a bomb in the courtroom,yes, she is, Sam.She ambushed her own lawyers, who knows what the hell she’d do to us. Weknowshe’s not too scared to leave the rest of us hanging, balls in the wind.”

“You have no idea,” I muttered, but I was smiling. If it hadn’t been such a serious situation, I would have laughed. Hereallyhad no idea.

But Stephen wasn’t amused.

“Sam, if you’re going to bet the house against her testimony, you need to besureyou’ve got the whole story—and that she’ll relay it reliably. You understand?”

“I do. And I’m sure.”

“We’ll see,” he said skeptically. But continued before I could respond. “So, here’s what I’m going to do. I have a phone call or two I need to make. I want you to stay here andthink about this.You understand me? I’m going to give you thirty minutes to consider all the sides of this. Then I’m going to come back in here and I’m going to ask you if you’re willing to put your ass on the line for her testimony. And if you are, we’re going to… put some feelers out.”

“Feelers?”

He met my eyes and he looked stern. “Even if we have the testimony, there’s a chance the Prosecution is willing to ride this out and see how it falls. And honestly? There’s a chance the jury has lost so much trust for her judgment that they’ll dismiss this. We’ll haveseriousgrounds for appeal either way, so even ifthey do, this isn’t over. But… I want to be clear with you, Sam. This is not a homerun. This is… sketchy. Tenuous. And reliant on what appears to be a veryunreliable character.At least in the jury’s eyes.”

I clenched my jaw, stopping myself from jumping to Bridget’s defense only because I knew what he meant.

He’d warned me before we started this. The great fallacy of the legal system was that it wasn’tactuallyabout uncovering the truth. It was a game of strategy designed to identify who could maneuver precedent,evidence, and human emotion the most skillfully.

We’d been losing that game. And that meant we were coming into this at a disadvantage. We had to make a judge and jury willing to listen to a woman they now thought was mentally imbalanced and influenced to her own detriment.

“Okay,” I said carefully.

“Now, do you want the good news?”

I looked at him, scared to hope. “There’s good news?”

He nodded and smiled. “If we can get her on the stand, all she has to do is say it happened. If we get that far, we can compel him to testify. And that might be the end of it. He’s a Federal Agent. He doesnotwant to be on a public stand admitting to conflict of interest with this case. Because it will call into questionevery single case they’ve worked on together.If we establish his judgment is impaired by personal feelings for her, that goes to every case she’s been on… right back to when she was a minor.”

Holy shit.

I swallowed. “If she testifies—which she will—she’ll tell you he was never inappropriate with her, before or after that night.”

“Even if that’s true…” Stephen arched one brow. “I told you when we started this, it doesn’t matter what really happened. It matters how it sounds to a jury. You’re a worldly man, Sam. If you heard that story would you believe the guy had kept his hands and eyes to himself for a decade?”

“No.”

Stephen nodded. “Hence, good news.”

I blew out a breath and he tapped his pen one more time, then got to his feet. “I’m going to go make my calls. You waithere and… think. Do you want a coffee or anything else? My assistant can bring it.”

“Water, please,” I said. I was already tense. I didn’t need a caffeine hit on top of my nerves.

“Done. I’ll see you in half an hour.”

“Wait.”

He had his hand on the doorknob when he turned to look at me, brows high in a question.

I took a deep breath. “How hard would it be to keep this out of the media? Forbothof them?”

His jaw rolled. “If ourfeelerswork and they sign a plea agreement, the Court never hears why. Even the jury isn’t involved. But if it requires testimony… no chance. And we both know what the media’s going to do with this. And not just to them, Sam. But to you, too.” He held my gaze.

I nodded. “Yeah, I understand.”

“You sure?”

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