States of Grace, Mandy Miller [uplifting novels .txt] 📗

tolerance left, otherwise the opioid dose Sonny gave me would have killed me. First time in my life being a pill popper has ever been helpful.”

“I see you haven’t lost your sense of humor.”

“Maybe not, but I seem to have lost my Spidey sense. I thought Reilly was the bad cop.”

“People change, Grace.”

“I’d like to believe that,” I say. I turn to Manny. “Would you two mind giving Manny and me a minute?”

“Let’s get out of here, brother,” Vinnie says.

“Who you callin’ brother?” Marcus asks, moving to the door.

Once they’re gone, Manny sits on the side of the bed. “What’s this about?”

“Why did you insist on coming over last night? I’m glad you did, but what was so important that it couldn’t wait?”

“Britt came by my office yesterday afternoon.”

“Britt? Why?”

“He knows about our deal.”

I prop myself up on my elbows. “What deal?”

“The one we made to get you on Zoe’s case.”

My mouth feels as if it’s stuffed with cotton balls.

“He said I had to convince you to resign from Zoe’s case, or he would leak the details to the press and the Bar which, of course, wouldn’t be good for either of us. That’s why I needed to see you.”

“How could Britt know what we agreed to?” I say, but then remember Britt and Gretchen talking outside the courtroom. I raise a hand. “Gretchen told him.”

“That’s what he said, but how’d you know?”

I fall back on the pillows. “Dammit! I should have known he was trying to screw me again.”

“Why?”

“I saw him after our mediation. He implied there was a story behind how someone like me got on a case like Zoe’s. He’s one vindictive bastard. He’d love nothing better than to see me fail, preferably in a publicly humiliating way.”

“Why does he still have it in for you?”

“He thought I got off too easy. He’d do anything to sink my career a second time and getting me out of the spotlight would be a good start.”

“He told Gretchen he’d tell the world her husband is behind the FCP pill mill chain if she didn’t tell him why she hired you. Said he’d make Anton look like a drug pusher ‘of the lowest order,’ is how he put it, and that he’d make sure all his clinics got shut down and the pair of them locked up.”

“Well, he’s going to get that last part.” My stomach turns sour. “Gretchen threw me and you under the bus to protect herself and the lifestyle to which she has become accustomed.”

He hangs his head. “I’m so sorry, Grace. For everything.”

“Like you said, let’s leave the past where it belongs.” I sit up and square my shoulders. “And we have to look on the bright side.”

Manny raises an eyebrow. “You? Look on the bright side? You must have changed!”

“Scary, isn’t it?” I say, landing a playful punch on his arm.

We share a laugh for the first time in ages and the tightness in my chest loosens.

“I mean, Gretchen may be a self-serving piece of work, but we don’t have to worry about Britt. He won’t follow through on his threat.”

“How do you know that?

“As it turns out, my nearly dying saved us both.”

“I don’t understand.”

“He needs me now. Why would Britt let a petty vendetta interfere with burnishing his political credentials? Now he can play the hero by dismissing a case against a wrongfully accused teenager set up by a crooked cop who tried to kill the long-suffering former prosecutor who fought and almost died in search of the truth. And then there’s the trials of the Slims and Sonny. Britt’s going to need my cooperation for those. I’m his key witness.”

“It’s a win-win if you both keep your mouths shut about your—”

“Our less than ethical behavior, yes.”

Manny shakes his head.

“The business of dispensing justice is a wonderful thing, isn’t it. All shades of gray.”

“Like the rest of life, I guess,” he says, with a faraway look in his eye. “I should let you rest.”

“One thing before you go. I don’t get why he would come to you and not directly to me?”

“I asked him. He said he wanted what we elected officials call ‘plausible deniability.’ By using me as the messenger, he keeps his hands clean. He’s an asshole.”

“And a coward. He knows I’m just crazy enough to tell him to go pound sand.”

Chapter 36

“Stay out of sight, okay? The chief would fire my fat ass if he knew you were here,” Reilly says.

“The chief should have fired your fat ass a long time ago.” I point one of my crutches at him. “But then again, I’d like to think people can change.”

“Don’t go getting all sappy on me now,” he says, shooing me behind a concrete pillar in the police parking area adjacent to the courthouse. “You know you got yourself busted, don’t you? I just brought the cuffs to your Mardi Gras party.”

“Maybe,” I mumble. Then, louder, “But thanks for letting me be here, Frank.”

“It’s the least I can do.” He flaps a hand in my direction. “Now get back behind that damn thing.”

I’m grateful Reilly’s letting me see this nightmare to its conclusion, but I’m of two minds about him still. Right place at the right time? Or did he set me up? He has it in him—he framed Vinnie. If I had to, I could make either argument sound believable—but that’s my job, to make the unbelievable sound believable, a task made easier when the unbelievable is, in fact, the truth.

He expels a deep sigh and I peek out from my hiding place. “Everything okay?”

The hairs of his mustache twitching, he speaks in a tight tone freighted with the disappointment of the betrayed. “And to think I showed him the ropes when he got his gold shield, treated him like a son. Shoot, it was me who gave him his nickname.”

“Yeah, what’s that? I can think of a few choice monikers for that bastard.”

“Boy Scout. Can you believe it?”

I stifle a laugh. “Maybe you’re not the