Chapter 2

Phin Younger tapped his pen against the table as he waited for somebody from the DA’s office to show up for this court case. Phin’s client, a sixteen-year-old who’d been the driver of a getaway car for his friend who’d committed a robbery—slumped in his chair despite Phin’s admonition that he should sit up.

Josh Lassiter was tall and bulky for his age and looked much older than sixteen. He had a sulky turn to his mouth that Phin had recognized the second he’d shaken the kid’s hand and introduced himself as his court-appointed lawyer. Josh had sneered and told him in no uncertain terms that he was wasting his time.

Phin often felt like he was wasting his time—or rather, like he was fighting a losing battle with these cases. As a court-appointed lawyer who worked in the county’s public defender’s office, Phin got the cases of people who couldn’t afford a fancy lawyer. Phin was his client’s only chance at either getting out of prison or at least getting less time. But with more and more cases piling onto his desk, Phin could only help so many people. And there were always too many people needing help.

The courtroom door opened and, turning, Phin watched a harried woman hurry down the aisle toward them. Her dark hair was falling out of a bun, and her blouse was lopsided; she’d most likely missed a button in her haste.

“Mr. Younger?” the woman said as she approached Phin.

Josh muttered something, and it took Phin only a moment to put two and two together. This must be Josh’s sister, his legal guardian. “Yes,” said Phin as he stood and shook the woman’s hand. “Nice to meet you.”

“I’m Emily Lassiter.” She looked over Phin’s shoulder, her gaze worried as she tried to catch Josh’s eye. Her brother was studiously not looking at her; her shoulders slumped. “Thank you for your help,” she said sincerely.

Despite her rumpled appearance, Emily Lassiter was absolutely gorgeous. Ridiculously, absurdly, unbelievably gorgeous. There were too many adverbs to describe her beauty, if he were honest. Phin stared down at her, suddenly struggling to find the words to reply to her. Seeing her up close was rather like getting hit by a train.

There was no other way to describe it. Even with her hair a mess and her blouse lopsided, she had the widest, prettiest green eyes he’d ever seen. With her heart-shaped face, high cheekbones, and milky skin, she could’ve graced the pages of some magazine. Even her nose was pretty: tilted slightly upward, it was as delicate as the rest of her.

As someone who worked with the public, Phin had learned how to talk to people, despite it not being his greatest strength. He’d learned that men respected frankness with a touch of arrogance, while women preferred a kinder approach—less frank, more conciliatory. Phin had worked with people from all walks of life: from high-powered executives to criminals who’d never known an ounce of kindness in their entire lives.

He’d worked with nice people, annoying people, stupid people, mean people. He’d learned how to use language to make people do what he wanted, something he’d struggled to do as a child who was too cripplingly shy and awkward to string coherent sentences together.

This ability he’d supposedly perfected apparently didn’t stretch to women he found attractive. And Jesus Christ, Emily Lassiter looked like she’d stepped out of a painting into this dingy courtroom.

Swallowing, his mind racing, Phin shuffled some papers on his desk before finally saying bluntly, “You should sit down before the judge gets annoyed.”

The judge was drinking coffee as he waited for some bit of paperwork to read over, but Emily blushed all the same and sat down without another word. Phin wanted to kick himself. When he saw Josh smirking at him, Phin wanted to tell the boy to mind his own damn business.

“What’s taking so long?” said Josh as they waited. “Why did I have to get up this fucking early for no reason?”

“Most of what’s going to happen going forward is going to be you waiting,” said Phin quietly.

Finally, the hearing began.

“Since you are accused of having assisted in the crime of robbery in the second degree, Mr. Lassiter,” the judge said, “you’ll be charged with aiding and abetting, which falls under the Ballot 11 measure and is a class B felony. This also means that, since you are above the age of fifteen, you could be tried as an adult and could face up to five years and ten months in prison as a result.”

Phin heard Emily inhale sharply. He wished he’d had time to prepare her, but between Josh and his ten other clients, he hadn’t gotten a chance to contact her.

“Considering that Mr. Lassiter has been suspended from school four times now and has run away from home twice, I’m setting the bail at one hundred thousand dollars, ten percent of which must be posted for Mr. Lassiter to be released,” said the judge. “That being said, the defendant will stay in juvenile detention for now, instead of being transferred to prison, assuming good behavior.”

Phin sighed inwardly. He’d hoped the judge would be lenient in terms of the bail, but he’d known that nothing less than fifty thousand dollars would have been allowable based on the charges. At least Josh wouldn’t be moved to an adult prison—that was one thing to celebrate.

When the hearing was over, Phin said to Josh, “I’ll talk to you soon, all right? Most likely later this week.”

Josh shrugged, although Phin knew the kid was terrified. His face was ghostly pale, and as the guard led him out of the courtroom, Josh stumbled over his feet. Phin’s heart pinched at the sight. The kid had made a stupid mistake with grave consequences.

Most people didn’t know that in Oregon, certain crimes came with mandatory sentences, and being under the age of eighteen didn’t exempt you, either. Phin disagreed with the law, especially in terms of juveniles, but all he could do was work within the system and help his young clients as much as humanly possible.

Gathering his briefcase and papers, Phin looked up to see Emily in front of him.

“Could Josh really go to prison for six years?” she asked, her green eyes wide with fear. She looked wan, dark circles under her pretty eyes. “For just driving away?”

“Unfortunately, yes.” Phin winced. “I apologize, but I have another hearing to get to right now. Please call my office and set up an appointment for later this week so we can discuss further. I can’t talk specifics now, but I have reason to hope that we can get the judge to agree to a plea deal so this doesn’t go to trial.” He reached inside his suit jacket and handed Emily his card.

Her shoulders slumped. “Thank you. Are you saying Josh might not go to jail?”

“It’s hard to say at this point. Like I said, I can discuss further with you at our appointment.” Realizing he sounded brusque, he softened his tone. “I’ve seen worse cases, Ms. Lassiter. Don’t give up hope.”

Her chin wobbled. “I’m trying, but I feel like my hope is getting crushed no matter what I do.”

“Don’t give up hope,” he repeated. Seeing her wet eyes and quivering lower lip, Phin wished he could do something for her. Give her a hug, at least, although that would be inappropriate. Tapping the card in her hand, he said, “Call my office. I’ll see you soon.”

Despite two more hearings that day, Phin couldn’t stop thinking about Emily Lassiter. He told himself it was just because she was pretty, he was a heterosexual male, and he was as shallow as any man. He remembered the curve of her lip, the freckles on her cheeks, the sweep of her dark lashes. She’d had a beauty mark near her mouth that he’d wanted to taste.

I need to get ahold of myself. She’s not for me.

Despite Phin’s belief that love and all of the emotions related to that feeling were both messy and pointless, that didn’t mean he didn’t want sex, either. It had been a while, admittedly. Maybe he just needed to get laid, with all of this thinking about his client’s gorgeous sister.

Blowing out a breath, he was about to leave the courthouse to return to the office when he ran into the last person he wanted to see: Sterling McIntosh, fellow lawyer, former law school classmate, and a smarmy son of a bitch who Phin loathed. Luckily, the feeling was mutual.

Phin had heard that Sterling had recently gotten a job at the county district attorney’s office. It still surprised him that anyone would hire Sterling, considering his less-than-sterling reputation, but it helped that his father was golf buddies with the governor.

“Long time no see, Younger,” said Sterling. “How’s it going?”

“As you see me,” said Phin dryly. “I’m going back to the office.”

“The hero of the poor and downtrodden fights on,” mocked Sterling. “How do you manage to pay your bills? I’m curious.”

“Just like anyone else: I actually work.”

Sterling’s smile twisted. They both knew that Sterling preferred the title of lawyer more than the actual work.

“You still think you’re hot shit, don’t you? When we both know you aren’t getting paid more than some checkout boy at the local grocery store.” Sterling stepped closer to him.

Although Sterling was about half a head shorter than Phin, he was muscular and probably weighed as much as him. Not that Phin had ever imagined decking the guy in the face.

Sterling said in a low voice, “Don’t think I’ve forgotten what you did to me. You almost got me kicked out of law school over some stupid rule—”

“Criminal offense, actually.”

“And you have the gall to act like you’re better than me?” Sterling’s eyes flashed. “This is the last thing I’ll say to you: you better watch yourself. Because the second you step out of line? I’ll know about it, and you’ll regret it.”

Sterling pushed past Phin, Phin wishing he’d given into his baser instincts and punched the guy already. So Sterling was still pissed about what had happened years ago? Fine. Sterling was like a rooster in the henhouse: a lot of crowing until he came up against a bigger, smarter rooster.

Phin never stepped out of line, anyway. He did everything by the book—his personal life included. But as he thought of how orderly and by the rules his life was, Emily’s face flashed in his mind. It reminded him that even a straitlaced lawyer like himself could be tempted to break the rules if given enough incentive.