Rebecca slid the car into a spot and turned the car off. She turned to Jordan. “You ready?”
“More than.” Jordan unconsciously rubbed her arm.
They weaved their way through a throng of media, dodging questions the entire way with firm “no comments” thrown to random faces. The doors shut behind them, and Rebecca breathed a sigh of relief. “God, I’m ready for this to be over. The press was ready to vilify us for messing up. Now we are the heroes. I just want this done, so we can move on with our lives.”
Jordan squeezed her hand reassuringly and pushed the door to the courtroom open. They sat down behind the prosecutor’s table. The room was oddly empty. The judge had ordered a closed trial, and the room was devoid of the normal volume of media and spectators.
The bailiff led Meghan in minutes later. She was dressed in orange scrubs that categorized her as a maximum-security prisoner. The letters D.O.C. emblazoned the front of her v-neck shirt. Her hands and feet were cuffed and chained together.
The chain rattled quietly as she shuffled past them. Her gaze flicked to Rebecca, and her steps paused. She sneered menacingly and licked her lips as if she were an animal tasting the blood of her prey after the kill.
Rebecca shivered. Not from fear, but from the cold chill of pure evil. She felt Jordan’s strong hand on hers, and she could breathe again.
Meghan pulled her eyes from Rebecca with a smirk. She slid into an empty seat next to her attorney, her face now devoid of any expression.
The judge entered from his chambers, and the bailiff’s voice broke through the quiet. “All rise for the Honorable Judge Maddux.”
The next few moments were a blur. Rebecca saw a lot of things in her time as a Detective. Things she never wanted to see again. She wanted to close her eyes and take them out of here. She wanted not to relive the horrors she still saw every night. She glanced sideways and saw Jordan’s jaw clenched. She was her strength. Jordan was the person that made everything all right again.
For a second, it was just the two of them once more, and Rebecca knew no matter what happened during the trial, no matter what she would face in the future, she could face all of that with Jordan by her side. She squeezed her hand once again and when she looked forward, it wasn’t the courtroom she saw anymore. It was her life. Her future. Her forever with the woman she loved.