Not Quite Juliet: A Club Imperial Novel (Silver Soul Book 1) (8 page)

“Yes. It was a stupid move, but it happened. And I don’t regret it. Especially not now.” I took a deep breath, pretending to inhale the scent of the flower. Which only smelled like store-shelf dust. I sneezed. I considered the flower and smiled. “I’ll just have to rub that all over him and make it smell like him.”

“You’re going to be late,” she said, pointing to the clock.

“Oh shit!” I grabbed the messenger bag and purse and ran for the door. “Feed Dervish!” I froze reaching for my keys. “Nadine has my car!”

Lisa pitched her keys at me. “She said she’ll have it at the garage the morning. Take mine. I’ll pick it up later.”

“Thank you, Lisa!” I sprinted down the stairs and out to her car. I was grinning like an idiot. Maybe I didn’t wake up the way I wanted, but I now had his number and he’d been in my bed. I hoped I could lure him back.

My drive to the county courthouse was the usual rush hour mess. Stupid rubberneckers were staring at someone changing a tire on the other side of the road. Like no one had ever seen a flat tire before. In fact, there’d been one on the Parkway on Friday morning. And these were all commuters.

I finally rolled into the parking garage at 7:25, giving me only thirty-five minutes to set up the courtroom to the judge’s liking. I hiked it as fast as I could into the building a block away and ran to the room. Being a per diem clerk had advantages and disadvantages. One of the advantages was I could set up a court in less than fifteen minutes—enough to carry me through first recess to get the rest of the day ready.

Disadvantages included the fact I wasn’t always assured I would have a courtroom to set up. It was a chance I’d take for now. I only had a few more classes left in the Juris Doctor at Pitt, and I could taste freedom. Then I had six months to the Bar Exam, which would take up my whole life, and then I could get into law like I wanted to: I was going to go out and hug trees and save them from the greedy bastards who would rip them down, and fight for those who were wrongfully accused. This courtroom experience was great for me, even if it was mostly minor civil and criminal court stuff.

The smell of bleach blasted me as I walked into Judge MacPhearson’s courtroom. She was a beacon of cleanliness, order and efficiency; I had worked for her before and she was a hard ass, but so good at what she did. I watched her like a hawk.

Ever since I had been a kid, I wanted to be a judge. And that’s where I was finally heading with just those last few classes and the Bar.

I grabbed the assignment list and quickly started grabbing dockets for the day. I managed to grab everything in just under five minutes—there were only two cases on the schedule, odd—and then did a check on the recording system. It was great relief that the county had switched to the recording system instead of the stenographer; we were running out of stenographers, and it was easier if we had them transcribe after the fact. I slid into the desk there and checked the schedule. I opened the first docket to start organizing information.

I froze. It was an attempted murder case.

I had never worked on one of these before. And I knew what the county policy was on anything in major crimes. I grabbed the docket and walked back to the Judge’s chambers, knocking.

“Come in.” It was definitely MacPhearson’s clipped tone.

I pushed the door open. “Good morning, your Honor.”

She looked up. Her robe wasn’t yet zipped up and I caught her T-shirt peeking out from underneath:
Keep Calm and Hug a Tree
. “Ah, good morning, Kirkbride. Come in, please.”

I walked in and nodded at her shirt. “Hug a tree, your Honor?”

She glanced down and laughed. “We don’t all wear suits under these things. And I happen to like trees. Rather fond of that breathing thing.”

“As am I, your Honor.”

“What’s on your mind, Kirkbride?”

I put a hand on the docket I was carrying. “This is an attempted murder two case, your Honor.”

“Yes it is,” she said. “Is that a problem?”

“Not personally, no,” I said. “But I’m a per diem, and the law requires that whoever starts the case, finishes it unless that person is dismissed or has recused themselves.”

“If you have no personal interest in the case, what’s the issue?”

“I’m per diem. Temporary.”

“I requested you for this case,” she reasoned. “Your efficiency impresses me and you’re a no-nonsense woman. When I heard that Sandowsky was on vacation, I saw this as a chance to get you in here, permanently.”

I gaped at her. “Permanently, your Honor?”

“Yes, permanently,” she said. “Assigned to my bench.”

Holy crap. Permanently assigned to MacPhearson?

“That’s an offer, Morgan,” she smirked. “Starting thirty-five with government benefits and vacations. “

“Yes!” I gasped. “Yes, of course.”

“Excellent,” she nodded. “We’ll get everything drawn up, and you’ll be permanent per diem for this week and start as regular next week. Now. Everything ready?”

“Just about, your Honor. I’ll go finish up.” I nodded at her and backed out of the door, as we were supposed to do to not get everyone jumping to their feet. I looked at the room, and the lawyers had arrived. They all looked at me as I walked in and I recognized one at the defense table.

As a regular at Imperial.

Oh, this was too much Monday for my Monday.

I looked away and scurried over to my desk on the right of the judge’s bench. I dropped the docket with a light thump on the table and slumped into the chair. MacPhearson liked me, and had just hired me. I smirked, then smiled, and pulled out my phone to text Nadine before court was in session and the phone went off until recess.

A hand slid over the screen, and I looked up. It was the Imperial customer, Robert. He cocked his head at me. “Wisconsin, good to see you.” It was a quiet greeting.

He thought I was about to text someone that he was here. “Mister Hagberg,” I said. “A pleasure. Is there a problem?”

“Texting anyone special?”

I shook my head. “What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas.” It was subtle allusion to the non-disclosure papers that Franz had all of his employees and customer sign. “I was about to text my friend about the offer of employment I just received from Judge MacPhearson.”

He looked relieved. “Well, congratulations, I think.”

“Yes, thank you,” I said. “You don’t need to worry about anything on this front.”

“Glad to hear it.” He slid his hand off of the front of my phone.

I stuck my hand out for him to shake. “Morgan Kirkbride. If you’re familiar with MacPhearson, I’m going to guess you need to know that.”

“If you’re her next victim, yes.” He laughed and shook my hand. “Really though, congrats. It’ll be nice to not have people rotating through every time I’m in here.”

“Thank you, Mister Hagberg,” I said.

He walked back to his seat. Too much Monday. I turned my attention back to the phone in my hand, and pulled up Nadine’s number.

MorganaLeFey:
OMG. You and me. Lunch. Must do. Too much for cell.

Nadines:
Can’t do.

Critical 2 pm meeting. Working thru.

MorganaLeFey:
Dinner?

Nadines:
For realz? That big?

MorganaLeFey:
He was huge.

Nadines:
WHAT?!

Nadines:
OMG, can you call me now?

MorganaLeFey:
Can’t do. Court starts in 5.

Nadines:
ARGH! Stupid jobs! You’d better call me the instant you’re done with proceedings.

MorganaLeFey:
Do my best.

I laughed, and put the phone on airplane mode, dropping it into my purse. I looked at the court and it had filled up in the few minutes Mr. Hagberg and I had chatted and I’d texted Nadine. There was just too much going on and I wished for just a moment I was a kept woman and didn’t have to do this work stuff.

The first hour of court this time was all administrative stuff, and I watched as they brought the accused in. I looked at the docket in front of me. He was accused of several murders and once he was done here in Pittsburgh, Philadelphia County was up and Baltimore wanted him after that. I had to log minutes and witnesses and make sure everything was being recorded.

The first witness called at 9:30 a.m. was the county coroner. I paid attention as much as my job would let me. I knew as judge, even with a jury, it was ultimately up to MacPhearson to decide if the jury had taken the directions correctly. It wasn’t easy to follow Dr. Wainwright, the man was utterly brilliant, but after he gave his science-laden explanation, I could see MacPhearson was also lost.

“Could you put that in layman’s terms, Doctor?” the judge asked.

“Of course,” he said. “The source of the cyanide was apple seeds.”

I could see that the judge wanted to react, but she schooled herself. I wanted to burst out laughing. The prosecutor put a hand over his mouth to cover his reaction. Apparently Dr. Wainwright hadn’t told him what the source was.

“Cross?” the judge asked.

“Not at this time your honor. We reserve the right to recall the witness,” Hagberg said.

“Mister Denbigh, do we need a recess or will your next witness be done before noon?”

I looked at the witness list. The next witness was Dr. Dovadsky, a chemist at Thurmon Research and Forensic Labs. His pedigree was as impressive as Dr. Wainwright. I kind of hoped Denbigh would say he wouldn’t be and we could all go get a super early lunch and aim for an early evening recess.

“Could we have a ten minute recess?” he asked. “I want to make sure we can recess as normal.”

MacPhearson banged the gavel. “Ten minutes,” she said. She nodded at me and I set the timer. I could use a few minutes to get everything back together on the desk. The judge leaned over the bench and ‘psst’ at me. “Morgan. That’s your desk. Stop trying to keep everything on top. You can use all the drawers now.”

I looked at the mess spread across the desk, and laughed. “I didn’t even think of that.”

“Take ten, clean up.” She winked and walked back into her chambers.

I took her advice; I started to put away some of the papers and files that I’d had to carry with me all the time in the messenger bag. I needed a few things for the old desk, including a lamp and a pen cup. Mental note: office supply shopping spree. I enjoy office supplies more than I ought to, really.

I pulled out the phone with a few minutes left and kicked it out of airplane mode to get messages and missed calls. I jumped into my email and saw I had several messages from my law school counselor. She wanted to set up a meeting for an evening discussion about a class I had coming up. I saw I had an email from Tessa confirming my shift for Thursday night.

I popped back over and saw Nadine had texted me again.

Nadines:
I can’t wait until tonight, and I know you’re on airplane.

Nadines:
Did you sleep with someone?

I laughed and answered her.

MorganaLeFey:
Yeah, I did.

She pinged back only seconds later.

Nadines:
Woohoo! Who?

MorganaLeFey:
Who do you think?

Nadines:
Girl I swear if you go on airplane before you answer me.

Nadines:
Who?!

MorganaLeFey:
Who did I leave with last night?

I put the phone in airplane mode, seeing only a minute left on the clock. She was going to have my head, but I didn’t care. I loved torturing her like this. And it was a bit of a payback for me driving her to a booty call. Granted, I’d gotten an amazing booty call out of it too, but still.

I went to slip the phone back into my purse and realized my purse was now in my desk. I smiled. This was going to be awesome. I could lock my desk and go pee with abandon now! The door opened behind me and I saw MacPhearson coming out. I looked over to the bailiff and–he wasn’t there. The judge looked at me and pushed her chin at me.

My job now.

“All rise,” I called, standing myself.

MacPhearson nodded and sat on the bench. “Be seated. Are we ready?” I saw the bailiff slip in the side door and mouth the words ‘thank you’.

Denbigh wasn’t so lucky. He had come running in through the main doors and slid back to the table. His shoes were clearly new because he actually slid into the table and caught onto the edge. He gasped, and managed to grind out an apology. “Sorry, your Honor. Got caught up.”

The judge raised an eyebrow and stifled the laugh. “It’s Monday, Mister Denbigh. Let’s not make this into the precedent for the week.”

“Yes, your Honor, sorry your Honor.”

“Now, are we ready to proceed?”

“Yes, your Honor,” he said. He took a deep breath to try and catch it. “I’d like to call my next witness. Doctor Nicholas Dovadsky.”

The guard at the back of the room pulled open the door and stuck his head out to call the guy in. I rolled my eyes. This guy was going to hold up recess, I just knew it. We weren’t going to get lunch until two pm. The guard yelled something out the door and finally the good doctor saw fit to walk into the courtroom.

My mouth fell open.

Dr. Nicholas Dovadsky had been in my bed last night.

If I’d thought that jeans outfit from the night before was irresistible, I had been sadly, desperately, and totally mistaken. This man, in a tailored, grey, pinstripe suit with a white shirt and dark purple tie, was sex on a stick. He was lickable, and I wanted to start licking.

And—I knew his last name.

I won.

I watched him walk down the center of the courtroom, everything on him moving fluidly and easily. His frameless glasses made his eyes pop from under the product-filled, styled hair he was sporting. His shoes were grey and polished to a high shine. He straightened the tie, and I was nothing but a puddle of quivering female Jello at this point.