Riley's Reckoning

by Claire Britain

  “You got it, boss, I have some ideas and I’m pretty resourceful if I need something, so go do what you got to do.”

  “Hmmm, well, first order of business, apparently, is a trash detail in the park,” Alex said, rolling her eyes. “See you later, Riley.”

  Riley spent most of day digging through the files Alex had given her, dissecting the relevant information for her presentation. Even though her Saturdays would be taken up for the next six weeks, she was happy to be helping Alex, and other than sitting through the awkward award ceremony down at city hall, it was the least she could do. She was able to interview several women in the facility who were awaiting trial, and even managed to use her phone to secure some video footage of her interviews, with signed disclosures that the footage would never see the light of a courtroom.

  Rather than just bore her audience by regurgitating a bunch of statistics, Riley created a would-be Jeopardy-style game that she would have the inmates participate in. She also had a segment in her presentation where she planned on separating the women into two groups: one group representing the number of women who would be repeat offenders and return to the facility and the other of the women who would not repeat their crimes. She guessed the larger group that represented the repeat offenders would be as surprising to them as it was to her.

  Riley lost track of time and when Alex finally appeared back at the cubicle around four-thirty, Riley was still engrossed in her work.

  “Hey, busy I see, how goes it, Riley?”

  “Hi, Alex, good, I think, with a few more hours I think I’ll have something to show you, and it will be right around four hours.”

  “That’s good news, Riley, what are you working on?”

  “Well, I wanted some video footage of some of the incarcerated women, figured that would hit home if they saw some real stories. Here, I think this one would be really relevant, it’s quite compelling.”

  Alex watched some of the footage Riley had embedded into her presentation.

  “Damn, Riley, this is fantastic. I knew you were good, but I’d never imagined you could create this!” Alex said in awe, as Riley scrolled through a little more of her presentation.

  “Well, Zach helped me find the waivers for the videos too, so we’re covered by using the footage for classroom use. I didn’t want it to be boring so there’s a lot of interactive stuff built in that should drive the point home.”

  “Riley, you are a fucking rock star, this is incredible. Can I see the rest?”

  “Well, it’s not anywhere near finished but I can give you the down and dirty and it’s intuitive so presenting it is very flexible to the presenter’s style. I can have it ready for next week.”

  “That would be great, Riley, but I have you Saturdays, I don’t want you working on this on your own time. Now, you ready to wrap it up for the day?”

  “Sure,” Riley smiled, stuffing her laptop back into her backpack.

  “Did the captain talk you about testifying?”

  “Yeah, he said it should be a slam dunk, but the DA wants to meet with me next week to go over my testimony.”

  “Can’t believe that prick really pleaded not guilty, he’s crazy if he thinks he can hold out for a plea. He’ll get life here, but the DA in Kentucky is going for the death penalty. Are you okay, Riley?”

  Riley saw the killer’s face in her head and a chill went through her.

  “Yeah, just, I don’t know, we were lucky, weren’t we? I mean he could have… he could have…”

  “Hey, he didn’t, it’s gonna be okay, Riley,” Alex replied, putting a consoling arm around Riley as they walked to the parking garage. “Have you thought about talking to someone though? It’s not every day someone goes through something like that.”

  “Jo wants me to, but fuck, why hash it out all over again, I just want to forget about it.”

  “I can see you’re not into it, but it really might help you, Riley. I have to see the department’s shrink, if it makes you feel any better. It’s required when anything like this happens.”

  “Yeah, well, they’re making you do that, not like you have a choice, is it?”

  “True, but I have another lady I see for personal stuff too.”

  Riley looked at Alex quizzically. “Why? I mean, sorry, I guess that’s personal.”

  “No, it’s okay, Riley. I had some problems I was working through. I used to drink among other things and with her help, and meetings once a week, I’ve been sober for nearly five years now.”

  “Shit, sorry, didn’t know.”

  “It’s okay, how would you. I just think it would be good if you talked to someone who understands the trauma you’ve gone through. I’ll give you her name if you want, she’s really great. She helped me through some tough times. We all have our demons, Riley. Talking to her helped me get over some difficult hurdles and now she just helps to keep me grounded and focused.”

  “Yeah, well, Jo does that with her damn paddle,” Riley laughed. “I’ll think about it.”

  “Fair enough,” Alex conceded, as Riley pulled on her helmet and started up her bike.

  “Take it easy on the bike, huh?” Alex yelled after Riley, as she cruised out of the parking structure.

  Riley gave a little wave in response and smiled to herself before accelerating her bike into a wheelie down the road, then looking back to see Alex shaking her head with her hands on her hips.

  Riley got back to the parking garage and turned off her bike. She kicked the stand down and unbuckled her helmet, taking it off and setting it on the seat of her bike. She felt her phone buzz and retrieved it from her leather jacket pocket.

  She opened the text from Alex and a little wave of panic shot through her as she looked in horror at the picture of her, on her bike, with the front wheel up in the air.

  She read the text from Alex, which simply said, Maybe Joanna needs to see this?

  No, ma’am, she most certainly does not! Riley texted back with a wide-eyed emoji.

  Chapter Nineteen

  By the end of the second week of Riley’s Saturday detail at the detention center, she had her presentation finished. Alex had asked Riley to present it to the first group. She was a little hesitant at first, as she wasn’t really the expert but she had a pretty good grasp on the direction she thought Alex wanted it to go. She also asked Alex if she could invite one of the ladies she had interviewed. She had asked an inmate by the name of Delores if she would be willing to come and speak with the ladies and tell her story firsthand. Riley thought it would be more impactful than the video, and Delores was rather an intimidating woman in her own right.

  Alex had agreed, citing to her boss that the whole point was to discourage these women from repeating their crimes, and not ending up incarcerated.

  So, the third Saturday was to be the trial run. They had decided on the morning, as the ladies would be fresher, and Riley invited Joanna to hear it. She wanted her feedback on anything she could do to improve it, and Joanna was the expert at persuasive pitches. She had even helped Riley fine tune a few things in the presentation beforehand.

  Joanna sat at the back of the classroom as the thirty-five or so women, in orange reflective vests, filed into the room.

  Riley tuned out the ruckus in the classroom as she focused on her fiancée at the back of the room. God, she’s beautiful, Riley thought. She still doubted her motives for wanting to marry her, but she was determined to make Joanna proud of her today and show her she had taken her assignment with Alex seriously. Joanna was smiling back at her. Riley was a little nervous about telling her story, but Alex had convinced her it would help break the ice.

  Riley started her presentation, and began to tell the group of women about her brush with the killer.

  “Damn, girl, I saw that shit on the news!” one of the women chimed in.

  “So how do you know he was going to kill you? You know, I mean, he could have just been fucking with you?”

  “Hey, knock it off,” Alex chided.


  “No, it’s okay,” Riley returned. “How did I know?”

  “Yeah, it’s a simple question.”

  Riley smiled at the mouthy girl in the second row. She guessed she was in her early twenties, and with her cocky attitude she reminded Riley a little of herself when she was that age.

  “Because when he was holding the scalpel to my throat, he said he was going to fuck me, then kill me, just like he did to the woman who was lying dead next to me and what he did to nine other women.”

  The room got quiet again, as some of the woman looked wide-eyed in shock at Riley’s testament.

  “But we’re not here to talk about me today, we’re here to talk about you and whether you’ll be back here. What do you think, ladies, planning on coming back and doing another round of trash collecting on your weekends? Or worse, waiting for your court date for the felony some of you will be committing?”

  “Fuck, no,” the young woman retorted back sharply, “we ain’t coming back here!”

  “Okay, I tell you what, what’s your name?” Riley asked the indignant girl.

  “La Donna.”

  “Donna?” Riley questioned

  “La-Donna,” the girl replied in a raised voice.

  “Okay, La Donna,” Riley said, emphasizing the La. “You’ve been here a few weeks now, I want you to come up here and pick out twenty-one of your friends here, to come up and join you at the front. Come on, let’s go,” Riley said, motioning to the front of the room.

  The young woman looked around. “Okay,” she said with a smile, making her way to the front of the classroom.

  “That’s good, La Donna, now pick them out, you’re one, I want twenty-one more up here with you,” Riley replied, giving the young woman the floor.

  La Donna smiled, enjoying the spotlight Riley was giving her. She rattled off a few names and several of the women started to join her up at the front of the room.

  “Uh, what’s your name?” she said, pointing to a woman at the back.

  “Cindy,” the woman replied

  “Yeah, that’s it, Cindy, she’s pretty cool, she’s with us, come up here, Cindy.”

  “Ah, so you’re going for the cool ladies, La Donna, is that it?” Riley asked, folding her arms while she nodded her head and poked her bottom lip out in consideration.

  “Fuck, yeah, I am, you and you up here too,” she barked with a huge smile on her face as one by one she picked out the women to join her at the front, to the cheers and the groans of the room.

  “How many is that now?” Riley asked.

  “Uh, shit, I don’t know, one, two, three…” La Donna began to count.

  “It’s nineteen, two more,” Riley interrupted.

  “Okay, fine, you and you,” La Donna said triumphantly, as the woman cheered and clapped as she filled her team at the front of the room.

  “Very good. So, there’s twenty-two of you up here and we started with thirty-six, so how many women are still seated, La Donna?”

  “Shit, um, twenty-two and thirty-six is…”

  “Fourteen, genius,” one of the seated women with a scowl on her face said for her.

  “That’s right, ladies, fourteen and twenty-two. Now you know there is a purpose to this exercise, so I’m going to tell you that one of your groups represents the number of women who will be back in here again as repeat offenders.”

  The heckles and cheers started in the classroom again. Cheers from the large group at the front and scowls from some in the smaller group.

  “So, which is it, ladies, which group will be back here?” Riley asked the enthusiastic group.

  “Them, of course,” the young ringleader heckled from the front, motioning to the seated group.

  Riley turned to face her. “Well, La Donna, you’d be wrong,” Riley replied as more cheers and groans started around the room.

  “What? No fucking way are we all coming back here!”

  “Ladies, take a good look around, everyone. We don’t know who exactly will be back here but what we do know is sixty percent of you will be. That’s right, so again, I ask you to take a good look around and I hope you make up your mind right now, you’re not going to be a part of that sixty percent. Thank you for demonstrating this so well for us, La Donna and crew, you can take your seats.”

  Riley perched on the table at the front of the classroom, while the ladies made their way back to their seats and the room settled back down. She stole a quick glance at the back of the room, where Joanna gave her a reassuring nod.

  “So, ladies, I think that was an eye opener, yes? I know it was for me,” Riley continued. “I think this would be a good time to introduce you to one of the inmates here. Delores, if you would.”

  The room went quiet as the large woman slowly made her way to the front of the room.

  “Delores Goldman,” she began. “I started out just like you four years ago, now I’m one of the sixty percent.”

  The rest of the presentation had the majority of the women riveted and when Riley came to the conclusion of her engaging presentation, it was met with eager applause.

  When the women had filed out of the classroom, Joanna joined Riley at the front of the classroom. She was a little puzzled at the look Joanna was giving her, until she bent down a little and whispered into Riley’s ear.

  “You were fucking magnificent; you don’t know how turned on I am right now.”

  Riley’s face reddened at Joanna’s declaration. “Jo!” she said, as she saw Alex walking to the front of the room.

  She tried to pull away from Joanna but she grabbed the front of Riley’s shirt and drew her close. In a split second, she parted her lips ever so slightly and grazed her tongue across Riley’s lips, before pulling away.

  “Riley, this is more than I could have asked for, and the warden was impressed as hell, which takes a lot, believe me, although I think a lot of it was how you presented it. You did such a great job, it’s a good thing I’ve got you for three more weeks, isn’t it,” Alex smiled, oblivious to the exchange between Joanna and Riley.

  “Yes, it was really compelling, and you had their attention the whole way through. Not a bad job of handling La Donna either,” Joanna praised.

  “Thanks!” Riley beamed. “What can I do now, the presentation is only four hours, do you have another project you would like me to work on?”

  “Well, to be honest, Riley, I didn’t think you would have anything ready this soon and I know you probably worked on it during your own time, so if you can give me that same presentation for the next month on Saturday mornings, we’ll call it quits.”

  “Deal!” Riley smiled.

  “I’ll walk you ladies out, thank you for coming, Joanna. Your girl here did a hell of a job!”

  Back in the car, Joanna buckled her seatbelt and looked over at Riley, who had a little smirk on her face.

  “So, what do you want to do now, Jo?” Riley asked sultrily, her fingers absently rubbing her left breast over her shirt in a circling motion.

  Joanna smiled at her, and Riley could see her chest rising up and down with deep breaths as she put the car in gear.

  “It’s hot in here, don’t you think?” Riley asked, unbuttoning four buttons of her shirt and pulling it down, exposing the edges of her lacey bra.

  “Riley, stop it, you’re distracting me.”

  “Am I?” Riley replied, sinking lower in her seat and putting her hand under her shirt, eliciting a little moan as she started to squeeze and caress her own nipple.

  “God, Riley, stop it.”

  “Oh, but it feels good, Jo, is this how turned on you are?”

  “Riley, I swear, if I have to stop in the middle of Manhattan traffic!”

  “What, Jo, tell me what you’d do?” Riley replied, unbuttoning her jeans with her other hand. She sank even lower in the passenger seat and put her other hand inside her jeans and panties. “Oh, Jo, it feels so good.”

  “Damn it, Riley, you wait till I get you home, young lady. I’m going to smack y
our ass then fuck you hard.”

  “But Jo, I don’t think I can wait till I get home, ooh, mmm…”

  “Don’t you dare, we’re nearly home.”

  “But Jo, I don’t know if I can,” Riley replied.

  “Then I suggest you get your hand out of your pants. If you come before we get home, you’ll feel my strap!”

  “Promises, promises,” Riley grinned at Joanna, who was clearly flustered as she pulled into the underground parking garage of the apartments.

  Joanna pulled into her spot and turned the car off.

  Riley didn’t bother doing up her pants before she got out of the car and headed for the elevator, with Joanna trying to catch up with her.

  “In a hurry today, ladies?” Rosa, the jovial concierge, greeted them.

  “Uh, yeah, sort of, hi, Rosa,” Riley greeted her, coming to halt at the elevator, where Joanna caught up with her.

  “Get your ass in that elevator,” Joanna whispered, panting a little, partly from chasing after Riley and partly from her state of arousal.

  After the elevator doors had closed and Rosa was out of site, Joanna grabbed Riley and pushed her into the corner, pinning her wrists over her head. As the elevator started to ascend, Joanna held both wrists with one hand.

  “You’re very naughty,” Joanna said, before taking Riley’s mouth in a rough kiss and putting her hand down the front of Riley’s pants, finding her wetness.

  “Ooh,” Riley moaned. “But Jo, we’re in the elevator.”

  “It didn’t seem to stop you in the car, driving through Manhattan, did it? Oh, my, such a naughty girl,” she chided, stroking Riley’s clit a few times before removing her hand, sliding it around Riley’s back to unsnap her bra.

  “Take it off,” she ordered, releasing her wrists.

  Riley smiled, reaching up the sleeve of her shirt, pulling her bra strap down and freeing her arm from the bra. She did the same to the other side, removing it completely and offering it up ceremoniously to her lover.