Slow & Steady #3: A Shameless Southern Nights Novel

by Ali Parker

  "I know my rights, your Honor. I assure you, this is an informed choice." Harris's voice was thready, nervous. Not uncommon though, given where he was and what he was facing.

  "Very well." The judge peered down at him, giving another shake of her head. "You may be seated, Mr. Harris. Mr. Holowitz, please proceed."

  The attorney rose to his feet again, but before he could say anything, Harris took a few steps forward. "Actually, your Honor, there's something I want to say before we get started."

  "There's an order to the proceedings in this courtroom, Mr. Harris. It's one of the reasons representation is advisable. Attorneys know the decorum required here."

  Harris dipped his head respectfully but pushed on. "Even so, Your Honor, it would expedite things if you heard what I had to say before we waste any of the court's time."

  She scrutinized him, narrowing her wide eyes before nodding once. "Very well. You may continue but say your piece now, sir. I will not allow any further deviations from procedure.”

  “I understand.” Harris stood up a little straighter, both his hands in front of him. There were murmurs in the courtroom, people speculating about what he was about to say. I couldn’t make any of it out, but my focus was on Harris.

  I knew him. Maybe not as well as I once thought I did, but well enough to know he knew the court process like the back of his hand. He might have been lenient with me and Zach once or twice, allowed us some investigative leeway, but when it came to formalities, he was a stickler.

  Something was up with him. My tie felt too tight suddenly. I reached for it, loosened it some, but it still felt like it was choking me.

  The judge silenced the courtroom with one stern look at the gallery, then turned her attention to Harris expectantly. He cleared his throat and shifted his weight from one foot to the other. With a shaky voice, he said, “I stand here today accused of many things. The people of Cypress Creek put their faith in me as their Chief of Police, and I failed them. I betrayed them.”

  Judge Kellerman frowned, holding up her hand. “I warned you there was procedure to be followed here, Mr. Harris. If you would like to offer your apologies to the people, there will be a time for that, but it’s not now.”

  “Is the time to plead guilty now, Your Honor?” Harris asked.

  The courtroom erupted in sounds of surprise. Gasps, people crying out. The judge blinked but recovered quickly. She banged her gavel, eyeing the public once again. “Silence. This is a public hearing, but I will remove any person causing interruptions.”

  Instantly, the room quieted. Kellerman squinted down at Harris when she was satisfied the gallery was calm. “Are you pleading guilty, sir?”

  “I am, Your Honor.” Harris ignored the murmurs that broke out again, keeping his attention seemingly only on Judge Kellerman. “I killed Wayne Maclin. There was no one else involved in my crime. I did it for personal gain, and I take full responsibility for my actions. I offer my sincerest apologies to Mr. Maclin’s family and all the people of Cypress Creek.”

  Before there was any chance to react to Harris’s startling confession, which I knew was completely untrue, he produced a gun from his pocket, placed it under his chin and pulled the trigger.

  Pandemonium broke loose in the courtroom. Several people shouted while others jumped up and fled at the sound of the gunshot. The police on duty in the courtroom rushed at Harris, but it was too late.

  His body lay lifeless on the floor in a pool of blood. One of the officers called for the rest to form a barrier around his body.

  I went ice cold, frozen and numb. Shock kept me rooted in my seat for a second until I felt Niki tugging on my sleeve. Her eyes were glassy and wide. “We should go.”

  Shaking my head, the scene I witnessed earlier suddenly became crystal clear. The suited man Harris hugged when he came into the courtroom must’ve given him the gun. There was no way Harris managed to get a gun into the courthouse without help.

  My head swiveled as I looked around for the man. I shoved my way past others sitting on our bench, trying to push through the crowd all pulling in different directions. Some were trying to get closer to the front, no doubt fueled by morbid curiosity like people who couldn’t help but slow down when they drove past an accident.

  Others were clamoring around the door, desperately trying to get away from the bloodbath. The judge was hurried out of the courtroom by her staff. They formed a loose circle around her and escorted her out through the door beside her bench.

  There was no sign of the suited man who handed the gun to Harris though. I knew he was still there when the judge came in, and I hadn’t seen anyone leave since, but he definitely wasn’t there anymore.

  A voice I didn’t recognize spoke up from behind me at the same time a hand came down on my shoulder. “Mr. Lovett, I believe congratulations are in order.”

  I pivoted, faced with a tall man dressed in an immaculate suit. Most of the men in the courthouse today were wearing suits, but this one was in a league of its own. I knew the type. It cost more than some of these people earned in a month and probably had been tailored in the city. I knew the type because it was the same kind of suit my father used to wear.

  The man looked vaguely familiar, but I couldn't quite put my thumb on where I knew him from. Deciding to play into his charade, I lifted an eyebrow. “Congratulations?”

  “On the detective position,” he said as if it were completely natural to know about a stranger’s promotion. “It’s a great honor.”

  “It is.”

  He smiled, but it didn’t reach his eyes. “I also wanted to tell you not to worry about us anymore. we have more pressing matters to attend to than you.”

  “Excuse me?”

  “Best of luck with your new position, Sonny.” He turned, about to join the last trickle of people leaving the courtroom.

  I grabbed his elbow. He couldn’t leave yet. “Who are you?”

  Shrugging out of my grasp, he smoothed his jacket. Eyes gleaming with malice, he smirked. “Most of the town knows me as Ken.”

  When he turned to walk away, I let him. I felt my eyes grow wide as I watched him leave. Well, well, well. Ken Lyons is finally in the game.

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Niki

  Excited chatter surrounded me. People seemed less concerned about having witnessed a man lie less than ten minutes ago then they were by the drama of his suicide. Caught up in the throng of people so thick I barely had to move my feet to keep moving forward; I wanted to shout.

  Were people really this insensitive? Emotionally blunt? There were some sniffles and wide eyes, but the majority were talking about the incident like it happened in a movie:

  Did you see when—

  I can’t believe he just stood up and said that!

  What do you think the personal gain was he got from murdering the guy?

  I wanted to shake each one of them by their shoulders and demand they give a damn about the man who just took his own life in front of hundreds of spectators, but it would be futile. People seemed to have forgotten Harris was a man, flesh and blood. He was a villain; his death would be the subject of gossip and speculation for years to come.

  A part of me wanted to weep for humanity; the other wanted to find Sonny and get the hell out of there. I got caught up in the throng of people moving out of the courthouse. Sonny was with me at first, then he started looking around and pushed his way through the crowd in the opposite direction.

  We drove there together though, so if I waited by the car, I would meet up with him sooner or later. Finally managing to free myself from the throng, I walked out of the courtroom and into the sunlight. I tipped my face up, soaking up the warmth and the light outside. My hands trembled where they were stuffed into the pockets of my pants.

  When that gunshot went off, I felt like I was plummeted into darkness myself. Thrown into a freezing pool of water. How others were so unaffected by what happened, I didn’t know.

  Closing my eyes, I took a
deep, cleansing breath. The air smelled like freshly mowed grass from the park opposite the depressing court building, with a tinge of something grilling nearby. The diner down the street, probably.

  People poured out of court. No doubt the nearby restaurants and bars would be packed to the brim in no time. I didn’t understand people’s fascination with high profile cases or even Harris’s death. The only reason I was even at the courthouse was to support Sonny, who had a personal interest in the matter.

  I was barely down the courthouse steps when I heard him calling out behind me. “Niki! Niki!”

  Hands still in my pockets, I turned and waited for him. As soon as I could see him clearly, I knew something else had happened since I left the courtroom.

  His cheeks were flushed, but he was pale. His eyes were wide and round, a little wild as he scanned the sidewalk outside. When I last saw him inside, his black hair was all in place. Now, it was sticking up like he’d been running his hand through it.

  “We need to get out of here,” he told me when he reached my side, looping an arm around my waist. I struggled to keep up with his clipped pace in my heels.

  “Is everything okay?”

  He shook his head, darting a look over his shoulder. “I don’t know. I just had a very interesting conversation with Ken Lyons.”

  A shiver ran down my spine at the mention of that name. He was the mastermind behind all of this, wasn’t he?

  “What did he say?”

  “I’ll tell you when we get away from here. I’ve got a feeling there are a lot of these people who aren’t innocent townspeople curious to see what happened to their Chief.”

  We reached his truck in record time. I grabbed onto the handle and heaved myself inside when Sonny opened the door. He waited until I was in before jogging around the front and slamming the driver’s door behind him.

  People were milling around the parking lot, talking at their cars. Sonny backed out carefully, his one arm on my seat as he twisted in his and kept his eyes on the road behind us. Several times, he had to stop to allow people to pass.

  When we were finally out of the lot, he visibly relaxed. Reaching up, he tugged on his tie and pulled it off, throwing it into the back seat. He undid his top button, flexed his neck and brought his hand down to rest on my thigh. “Sorry about that. We needed to get out there fast.”

  “I get it.” I didn’t know Ken Lyons, but I didn’t want to. It seemed people who did ended up in prison or dead. The further we were both away from him, the better. “What did he say?”

  "Can we get something to eat while we talk about this?” His voice was slightly strained. “I’m not really all that hungry, but I could go for a slice of pie and a coffee.”

  I nodded. “Sure. Let’s talk at the diner.”

  Sonny was still processing, that was why he was buying time before we talked. I knew him well enough by now to know that. Meeting Ken was a big deal. I understood why he needed time to think it over.

  Once we were settled at a booth in the diner, Sonny ordered us each a slice of apple pie and a coffee. The waitress tapped her pencil against her notepad, asked if we wanted anything else and when we declined, took off to fill our order.

  Sonny was still pale, but he looked much better than he had at first. He reached for my hands, and I gave them to him, smiling reassuringly. “Feeling better?”

  “Much.” He nodded, stroking my knuckles absently. “I think it’s going to take some time for everything that just happened to sink in, but the shock has worn off.”

  “That was a rough morning.” Understatement of the year. “I think it’s going to take some time to sink in for the town as a whole. People were being pretty awful about it.”

  He shook his head sadly. “There’s no denying Harris did a whole lot of bad shit, but it’s hard to think no one will remember any of the good. There was a lot of that too, once upon a time.”

  The waitress delivered our coffees and pies. We thanked her, each fixing our coffees. I lifted my cup, blowing on the steaming liquid before I braved a small sip and decided to let it cool for a while first. “It’s twisted to think his whole legacy is gone because he got involved with the wrong people.”

  Sonny nodded, his eyes jumping to mine. “Speaking of whom, Ken approached me in the courtroom. He knew who I was, about the promotion.”

  “He’s well connected. I guess it’s not surprising he would know. Did he say anything else to you?” Fear rippled in my stomach. It made sense Ken would know about Sonny, but to seek him out in that courtroom after Harris just shot himself? It seemed calculated. Dangerous. Threatening.

  The look in Sonny’s eyes told me he thought the same thing. “He told me I didn’t have to worry about them anymore. He said they have, and I quote, ‘more pressing matters to attend to’ than me. Arrogant shithead.”

  “It does seem forward of him,” I agreed. “Obviously, he knows you know he’s the one who’s been having you followed. He probably knows we suspect his hand is in everything that’s happened. To come out with it like that though, it’s risky.”

  Sonny nodded thoughtfully, dragging a hand across his jaw. “He clearly doesn’t think I pose any kind of threat to his business. I can’t imagine he would’ve come to me to say that if he thought the risk was too big.”

  “He doesn’t know you as well as he thinks he does then.” Sonny was determined to get the truth about his father. He wasn’t going to stop. If Ken thought differently, he was dead wrong. “That being said, he must have a more powerful hand in this town than we know. If Harris were one of his main pawns, his suicide would’ve thrown him off, not encouraged him to seek you out.”

  “I’ve been thinking the same thing. He didn’t look worried about Harris being gone at all. If anything, it was kind of like business as usual. He was that nonchalant about it.”

  I hesitated, wondering how best to formulate what I felt I had to say. Sonny wasn’t going to like it much. “Maybe it’s time for us to move on. We have a life together now. According to Ken himself, the heat is off us for now.”

  He tilted his head slightly, eyes burning into mine. “What do you mean ‘move on’?”

  I took a deep breath, willing him to understand my point of view. “I’m not suggesting you stop looking into your father’s case, just that we leave all the stuff on the periphery alone. Hanson and the GBI are on that. We could limit ourselves only to your dad’s case, not try to take down the entire behind the scenes organization or whatever they are.”

  “Do you think that’s possible? To look into my dad’s case without overlapping with the GBI investigation?”

  “I don’t know, but it’s worth a try. We should take advantage of the heat being off us to keep it that way.” I shrugged. My teeth sank into my bottom lip, and I chewed on it, thinking before I continued. “We could really have a life together if we can move past this, Sonny. I need a man in my life, and I want that man to be you. There’s more than enough for us to worry about without Ken and his army in our lives.”

  He looked stunned, a little taken aback. When he didn’t shoot down the idea immediately, hope grew in my heart that just maybe, I meant more to him than bringing down Lyons. He searched my eyes intently, that beautiful multi-colored kaleidoscope of his seemingly looking right into my soul.

  Finally, he started nodding. “You’re right. Harris died today, publicly and by his own hand. If that’s not a sign that this has gone far enough, I don’t know what is. I don’t want to put you in danger, Niki. I never have.”

  “I know.”

  Leaning forward, he took my hands again and lifted them both to his lips, planting soft kisses on the back of each. His eyes remained locked on mine. “I love you. I need you, too. I don’t want this, or my family’s past, to rule our lives now or to determine our future together. You’re right. We do have a life together. Maybe it’s time I started making that the priority here.”

  A smile crept onto my lips as relief swept through every fiber of my being.
I turned his hands over in mine to bring them to my lips, repeating his movements by kissing his hands. When I was done, I lifted my cup and waited for him to clink against it. “Let’s get to it, then. To us.”

  Sonny smiled wide, his eyes lighting up as he raised his own cup and gently nudged it against mine. “To us.”

  Epilogue

  Niki

  Six Months later

  * * *

  Humming softly to myself as I locked up the library for the day, I couldn’t keep from smiling when I spotted Sonny waiting for me at my car. I turned the key to the massive wooden front door in the lock, jiggling the handle to double-check the lock before turning around and bounding down the stairs to my boyfriend.

  Behind him, the sun was starting to dip below the tree line to cast a golden glow on the world around us. A light breeze made the treetops sway and tugged at the ends of Sonny’s hair.

  Bathed in the soft light, he looked so damn handsome where he leaned with his hip against the side of my car. He was breathtaking. Sunglasses hung from the top button of his navy blue button-up shirt. It hugged his sculpted body like a second skin, stretching across his broad shoulders and the curve on the outside of his biceps.

  Since learning what kind of hard work and dedication it took for his body to look the way it did, I had a new appreciation for it. The SWAT team spent hours working out, running drills and working their butts off whenever they were in the field.

  With that kind of regimented routine, he wasn’t going to become a pudgy detective any time soon. Even if he did, I would still love him with all my heart.

  Because underneath all those muscles and after all those hours in the gym, he truly was the absolute best man I ever could ever have hoped for. My heart still ached at times when I remembered my parents would never meet him. In my heart of hearts, I knew they would have loved him. I would have been proud to bring him home to them.