Page 88 of Big Sky Billionaire

I glanced down at my watch. “Yeah, I do.”

“The boys will be fine, I got them,” he said, clapping me on the shoulder. He was a shorter man with dark hair and brown eyes, and a damn good rancher. I’d bought a drove of weaner pigs from him recently, and we’d been fast friends ever since. Plus, he’d offered to come with me and Moira to Bozeman and keep Day busy while we went through the last of the hurdles that stood between us and freedom from Kirk.

“Andrea and I are going to take them to a movie and then out to eat, so don’t feel like you have to rush back to the hotel tonight,” Chris continued. “You guys take your time.”

“Thanks,” I exhaled, unable to hide the dread lacing the word.

He gave a tight smile as we reached the entrance to the science museum. “It’s going to be fine, right?”

“I’ve been told it’ll go in our favor,” I replied, but there was still some doubt.

Andrea, Chris’s wife, ushered the boys inside while Chris and I stood out in the snow.

“I’ll text you when it’s over.”

“We’ll see you back at the hotel, okay? I’ll buy you a drink regardless of the outcome.”

I shook his hand, giving him what I hoped was a smile before tucking my hand in the pocket of my leather jacket. He jogged through the snow, catching up with his wife.

I let out a breath and turned around, walking back toward where I’d parked my truck.

* * *

Moira shifted in her seat in the courthouse, her face void of expression as the jury filtered back into the room. I reached over and took her hand, settling it in my lap and knitting my fingers in hers.

Kirk sat a few rows ahead of us next to his lawyer, his head bent to whisper in the man’s ear.

I rolled my lower lip between my teeth as I watched the crowd assembled to watch the verdict. The press hadn’t been allowed inside, thankfully. Moira had been hounded by them the last few days, especially since this was considered a high-profile case because of Kirk’s dealings with the FBI.

Moira had had to take the witness stand yesterday. She’d been stoic and well-spoken, even while getting grilled by Kirk’s lawyer about their relationship. She’d eloquently described their early relationship in startling detail—how he’d groomed her, isolated her, and then violently abused her for years. She spoke on her experience while she was pregnant with Day, and how it had been the only time he wasn’t physical with her, and how the abuse started up again after he was born and how it was so, so much worse.

Kirk’s defense team tried to paint her in a terrible light that day. They accused her of knowing about his dealings with the cartel, and even worse, accused her of lying because no woman in her right mind would stay with a man who was supposedly violent enough to put her into a weekslong coma.

That was where the doubt came into play.

The prosecuting team, along with my lawyer, were pushing for first-degree attempted murder charges among others.

If he was found guilty of that, there was a possibility he’d go away for life.

If he was found not guilty, well, there was a good chance he’d have to pay a few fines and walk free, right out onto the street.

I knew the jury’s decision would come down to what they thought about Kirk after Day’s testimony.

Moira and I had done everything we could to keep him off the witness stand, having thought he’d been traumatized enough.

In the end, he was needed, and I had to watch with bated breath as an eight-year-old recounted the horrors of the night Kirk broke into my house and tried to hurt his mother.

His lower lip hadn’t trembled. Not once.

Now I was here, sitting next to my girl on verdict day, a day that would change our lives forever.

“Regardless of the outcome,” I whispered down to her, tightening my grip on her hand. “I love you, and I’m here for you.” And I’ll be free to break Kirk’s face open on the curb outside the courthouse if he’s allowed to walk.

Moira gave me a nervous smile but said nothing in return. I felt her tremble as we rose from the bench as the judge walked in and addressed the courtroom and then the jury.

“Has the jury reached a decision?” he asked as we all sat back down again.

“Yes, Your Honor.”

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