Page 26 of Just Like in the Movies

‘I understand you have inherited half of The Royale Cinema in West London but are considering selling your stake in it?’

Ruby’s throat closed. Who had told Benjy that?

But instead of defending himself, again Luke seemed keen to dig himself in even deeper. ‘That would be correct, because I’m sure as hell not planning to inherit its debts.’

Judge Benjy liked that answer even less, his cheeks reddening and his eyes narrowing to slits. ‘I see.’

He bent his head to have a whispered discussion with his colleagues on the bench. After an endless five minutes, he cast his gaze directly at Luke. ‘Given your vast wealth, Mr Devlin, and your somewhat cavalier approach to the laws of trespass in our Royal Parks and the legacy of the community institution you have inherited, I feel that a fine will not suffice on this occasion.’

‘But, Your Honour, Mr Devlin has entered a guilty plea and is not on trial for—’ The barrister tried to intervene but Benjy, the hanging judge, was having none of it.

‘Mr Grayling, please sit down. You can dispute the sentence at a later date, and certainly not before it has actually been bestowed,’ Benjy said, clearly enjoying his role as a hokey arbiter of justice who wouldn’t have looked out of place in a Steven Spielberg movie.

The barrister sat down.

‘Mr Devlin, I sentence you to three hundred hours of community payback at The Royale Cinema on Talbot Road, North Kensington. Given your construction skills and the cinema’s lengthy list of on-going repairs, I’m sure you can find a way to make yourself useful.’

The barrister jumped back up. ‘But, Your Honour, that’s outrageous. Mr Devlin has a business to run in Manhattan, this punishment far outstrips the offence for which—’

‘Mis-ter Grayling, sentence has been passed. If you wish to appeal it, you can do so.’ Judge Benjy’s gaze slid back to Luke, who was showing no emotion whatsoever that Ruby could see. Although his shoulders looked rather tight.

He had to be furious. But he could have been a lot more accommodating and a little less arrogant.

That said, why had Judge Benjy gifted them with Luke’s community payback? They weren’t a public institution.

They did do some gratis outreach work for the local council by running non-profit screenings for schools in the area and the senior citizens – but they’d never had a community payback order made on their premises before.

‘Mr Devlin half-owns the cinema, Mr Grayling,’ Benjy added, going the full Judge Dredd now – all pomp and circumstance and taking no prisoners. ‘I can’t imagine why he’d object to basically working for himself to improve facilities that have been enjoyed for decades by our local community.’

Grayling opened his mouth, but Benjy slammed his gavel down. ‘This sentencing hearing is closed.’

Ruby stood, shocked by the verdict.

Should she go to Luke, and apologise for the arrest … again?

Her gaze connected with Luke’s as he stepped down from the dock. The barrister and solicitor surrounded him, talking at him in furious whispers, but that pure blue gaze remained fixed on her.

The tense expression on his face wasn’t hard to read.

He was furious, but when he broke eye contact to walk out of the courtroom with his legal team, she had the strangest feeling it wasn’t her he was furious with.

***

Terrific, you’ve just managed to turn a cluster fuck into a cluster fuck-tastrophe.

‘Mr Devlin, I assure you this sentence will not stand. We can appeal it. The magistrate clearly had prior knowledge of your situation, which suggests a conflict of interest, and we can—’

‘It’s okay, Grayling,’ Luke interrupted the stream of outraged legalese that was costing him five hundred pounds an hour. That had been his first mistake. Hiring a Queen’s Counsel to argue a misdemeanour case in Civil Court. And then letting his jet-lag and his extreme irritation – from that weird jolt of awareness at seeing Ruby Graham again – get the better of him. He probably deserved the damn slap. He had behaved like an arrogant asshole. The magistrate had spotted it, even if no one else had.

Or rather his fifth mistake, he corrected as he watched Ruby and her selfie-snapping friend from The Wizard of Oz night, disappear down the corridor towards the clerk’s office. Ruby was dressed in another of those shorty dresses with the biker boots she’d been wearing three weeks ago in the Park. He jammed his hands into the pockets of his suit pants, the memory of inadvertently grabbing her ass as she dropped into his arms way too vivid, the weird jolt of awareness coming back for an even weirder encore.

No, his first mistake had been to follow Ruby to the park thinking he could fix her grief when he didn’t even know her.

His second had been to engage in a conversation with her about a man who meant nothing to him and meant so much to her.

His third had been to help her scale the gate, discovering exactly how glorious her ass was in the process.

And his fourth and final mistake had been to indulge in a halting chorus of a cheesy eighty-year-old show tune while Ruby stood beside him, scattering her best friend’s ashes, the tears she was unwilling to shed causing her to tremble over every single note.

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