“Don’t mind if I do.” I said, leaning back as Jasper came in our direction with his outstretched hands reaching for Tanner’s tie.
“Touch me, and I’ll put the grossest dead rodent I can find in your flashy purple little clown car first thing tomorrow.” Tanner said firmly, and Jasper gasped, throwing his hands back against his own chest.
“You would dare desecrate our sweet lord and savior, Jezebel, like that?”
“You named your car Jezebel?” I deadpanned, raising a brow at him as Tanner moved to stand between Goldie and me, likewe’d protect him from the over-the-top man trying to cop a feel and call it wardrobe adjustments.
“No, duh.” Jasper shook his head like I was an idiot. “I’m Jezebel. Your fairy queer father.” He swiped his hair as if it had fallen out of place by his shock. “I’m just trying to make sure my little fashionably challenged babies look good on the news. Gosh.”
Goldie snickered, “We appreciate Jezebel’s services,” she said, and then crossed her arms and put her best mean mug on. “But I will ring your bell with your own foot if you try to touch my man or my woman again. Understood?”
Jasper grinned as if the threat excited him, slowly extending one finger out in Tanner’s direction before Thomas cleared his throat off to the side.
I wouldn’t have believed it had I not seen it firsthand, but Jasper ripped his hand back to his own personal space as if the noise alone had burned him, before brushing it off and pretending it was all his idea.
“Whatevs. Let’s go.”
Thomas lingered to the side, but I watched the way he waited for Jasper to turn his way, slowly raising his eyebrows at the louder man standing in the middle of the group like he was silently….
Dominating him?
No, that couldn’t be right.
“Rhea,” Anastasia called from the door, where she waited with the DA. “Ready?”
“Yeah,” I said, taking a deep breath and putting one foot in front of the other as Tanner and Goldie fell into step right beside me.
Together we walked to the door, ready to face the world.
As one.
I held Tanner’s hand,with Goldie tucked into my side as we stood on the front steps of the historic courthouse in the middle of Cedar Bluff. Over a dozen different news stations, media outlets, and journalists waited at the bottom beneath a podium that had materialized from some storage room closet, I was sure. It wasn’t every day a big story broke in sleepy little Cedar Bluff.
And while it felt good to finally be on the right side of it, I hated that there had been any story to tell in the first place.
The DA took the podium, looking like the bigwig, cocky prosecutor he was, as he released the official statement on the matter. I didn’t miss the way my lawyer, Anastasia Howe, a high-profile criminal defense attorney from the city, let him take the lead, standing just off to the side.
Waiting her turn.
My guess, she was going to make him sweat before it was over.
“After reviewing all the additional evidence submitted to the prosecutor’s office, all criminal charges filed against Rhea Dalton, of the Cedar Bluff Fire Department, have been dismissed. There is no reason to believe that Ms. Dalton was involved in any part of these crimes against this town. And therefore, we have reasonable suspicion to believe that she was targeted in an attempt to pin these despicable crimes on her. In the end, she has been victimized by the true villain as well. Effective immediately, the full staff at the District Attorney’s office will use this new evidence to prosecute the real culprits responsible for harming our town.”
“All hail the hero,” Goldie whispered sarcastically, and I snorted, covering my mouth with my hand to make it look like a cough.
Goldie didn’t bother; she just beamed her pretty megawatt smile at the cameras.
The crowd murmured at the news. More than a few locals were joining the audience as we stood on Main Street in Cedar Bluff. I couldn’t tell if they were more upset about me being framed, or that there had been time wasted trying to make me out to be the bad guy. It seemed from the whispers making their way up to us that there was a little bit of both.
“And on that note,” Anastasia Howe confidently took the podium, commanding the attention of everyone else. “While the State has determined that Firefighter Dalton committed no crime, the harm done to her reputation, livelihood, and standing in this community was not accidental.” A hush fell over everyone in the wake of the power radiating off the prim and proper woman, leading the charge. “Effective immediately, my firm is filing a civil action suit against Bakewell Industries, its subsidiaries, and named individuals for a coordinated campaign of fraud, coercion, defamation, and reckless endangerment.”
Boom. That felt damn good. And I wasn’t even the one that got to say it.
There was a shift in the case for all of us. The entire thing was no longer stuck in a defensive move, defending my character by playing catch-up. It had become an offensive strike against those responsible for trying to ruin our town.
Anastasia continued. “We intend to prove that Bakewell Industries and its affiliates knowingly disseminated false information intended to implicate Ms. Dalton in criminal acts. These people not only tried to destroy Cedar Bluff, but they did in fact burn other towns, just like this one, to the ground using the same tactics and games. And it ends here. They’re guilty of defamation, civil conspiracy, tortious interference, intentional infliction of emotional distress, and worst of all, racketeering through a pattern of corruption spanning far and wide. We are coordinating our efforts with federal agencies and exploring filing an official RICO case against those listed. We also believe local cooperation played a role in this entire series of crimes against this town.”
That was news, even to me.