by Lee Taylor
“Just a few more questions, Ms. Jenkins. You indicated that Mr. Loomis was afraid of his ex-wife. How do you know that?”
“He told me. He even took her gun so she couldn’t shoot him! Besides, I heard her tell him that she would kill him.”
Rita stepped closer to the witness stand, blocking Savannah’s view of the ADA. “When did you hear Ms. Trouble tell her ex-husband that she would kill him?”
“I . . . I don’t know . . . exactly . . . But I heard her say it . . . on the recording . . . ”
Rita turned to the judge. “With your permission, I want to play the recording that I believe Ms. Jenkins is referring to.” Speaking over Chloe’s fierce objections, Rita said carefully, “Your Honor, it’s important you know that this recording was on Arnold Loomis’s cell phone. The cell phone found at the murder site, next to Mr. Loomis’s body. While it confirms Ms. Jenkins’s claims, it also proves my client’s innocence.”
After a heated skirmish between the lawyers, won by Rita’s skillful maneuvering, the judge ruled that the court should hear the recording. As the damning record came to a close, Rita turned to the shaken woman on the stand. “Is this when you heard Ms. Trouble threaten her ex-husband?”
When Savannah murmured something close to an affirmative, Rita persisted. “Is this also when you learned that Mr. Loomis had taken his former wife’s gun from her house?”
Savannah nodded.
“When you heard this recording and saw her gun, were you in Mr. Loomis’s car?”
When the sobbing woman merely nodded, Rita asked softly, “Finally, how did you feel when you heard Mr. Loomis say that he loved his ex-wife and always would?”
Tears streaming down her face, Savannah appealed to Rita. “Don’t you understand? He was mean, horrible! He said he would never love a skaggy bitch like me when he could have the most beautiful woman in the world! Don’t you see? See why I had to do . . . what I did? . . . But I didn’t mean to shoot him . . . I just wanted to scare him, hurt him.” Her voice rising, she twisted around to glare at the ashen-faced ADA, who was staring at her desk. “She told me that the tape would never come out, but that if it did, it would just make the bitch look guiltier. She . . . told me . . . she promised me . . . that everything would be . . . okay.”
Epilogue
Titus wrapped his arm around Tatiana’s shoulders and tugged her closer. “I know you are aware of this, Tatiana, but seeing you arrested was the most difficult thing I have had to do as a sheriff. It took everything I had not to turn in my badge so that I could support you the way that I desperately wanted to.”
Sitting on the other side of her, Tanya grasped her hand. “Ditto, sis. And as hard as it was for me, what was worse was knowing the agony Dad was going through.”
Tatiana leaned against her father and squeezed Tanya’s hand. “You both know I understood the hideous position you were in, the position I put you in. It is only one of the things I will never forgive myself for.”
Before she could continue, Tara came into the room carrying a tray piled high with an array of tasty appetizers, followed by Griffin carrying a tray of glasses. Bringing up the rear, Ryker grinned at the teary trio huddled together on the sofa and triumphantly raised a bottle of Bowman’s in each hand.
“Hey, you three, enough commiserating. While we’re waiting for Zane and Rita to finish up at the courthouse, it’s time we begin to celebrate.”
A loud voice from the hallway intoned, “Oh no you don’t, Trouble gang. Don’t think for a minute that you can start celebrating without the star of the show, our rightfully scary defense attorney.” Zane strode in, positioning a smiling Rita Davidson in front of him. In the chorus of greetings and laughter, Zane marched to the sofa and reached for Tatiana. The celebrators stepped back to acknowledge the couple, both of whom were fighting tears. Zane tugged Tatiana up next to him and brushed at the tear on her cheek. “Hey, you, what’s this about? I expected to see nothing but smiles on your beautiful face.”
Tatiana shot him a brave smile, then buried her cheek against his chest to hide the tears that were now flowing freely down her face.
Holding her tight against him, Zane laughed as he brushed at the moisture on his own face. “You’ll have to forgive us for falling apart, folks. It’s just that we are so goddamned happy and thankful this hideous nightmare is over, tears of relief feel damned good.”
Leading the cheers that followed his emotional claim, Ryker raised his glass as Griffin handed each of the others a glass. “Listen, you two. In case you haven’t noticed, there isn’t a dry eye in the bunch.” He shook his head in grim wonder. “Jesus God, if this last two weeks hasn’t been a freaking nightmare, I don’t know what is!”
At the agreeing cheers, Griffin called for a toast. “Seriously, I don’t know who to acknowledge first. Obviously, the smartest and, may I add, hottest defense attorney I know, Rita Davidson, deserves our accolades.” After the laughter and cheers died down, he added, “But, folks, as righteous and as hot as Rita is, let’s pay tribute to the righteous architect of our success.” He raised his glass to Zane. “To you, our esteemed district attorney, my buddy and the single smartest guy I know. And without a doubt the true hero of this hideous nightmare.”
When Zane raised his hands to stop the raucous cheers, Titus broke in. “No, Zane, don’t for a moment try to minimize what you have done. Not only did you hire Rita and work with her to create the formidable defense she put on, but you never stepped away from your obligations as the county’s foremost legal official. You kept the rest of us law enforcement types on the straight and narrow when it was almost impossible for us not to stray. Most of all, you not only supported me and Tatiana’s sisters and her children but you took care of Tatiana in the most loving ways possible.” Raising his glass, Titus didn’t bother to swipe at the tears on his face. “I honor you, sir, and will be indebted to you as long as I live.”
After many moments of tearful, happy toasts and accolades to their success, Tatiana sat forward on the sofa where she was sitting between Zane and her father. Forcing a smile on her face, she looked from one to the other, then blew out a hard sigh.
“It is impossible to put in words how much I thank you all for what you have done. Dad, Tanya, Tara, and you, Ryker and Griffin, thank you for standing by me and believing in me even when I made it very difficult for you to do so. Rita, you are my heroine, right up in the stratosphere occupied by my formidable sisters.” Leaning against Zane, she shrugged and brushed at the tears on her face. “As for you, Zane, I truly do not know how to thank you. You believed in me and reached me in ways I didn’t know I was capable of. You reassured my sisters, shored up my father, and comforted my children.”
Clinging to his hand, Tatiana said carefully, “Please don’t misunderstand what I am about to say. As grateful as I am to all of you, I need to apologize.” Seeing the frowns appearing on their faces, she hurried to explain. “Please, it is important that I say this. I regret that at base I am responsible for the hideous things that happened and those that could have happened. If I had acknowledged that I was an abuse victim, none of this would have happened.” Holding up her hands to stop the rising murmurs of dissent, she barreled forward. “Please let me finish. In addition to all of you, the people I hurt the most were the other victims of abuse. I could have been their heroine. By taking ownership of my situation, I could have helped them understand, in the most personal way, the debilitating shame that is integral to this disease. To them and to all of you, I apologize.”
Zane allowed the heavy silence to settle for a long moment and then said carefully, “I appreciate your honesty and desire to take responsibility for your actions, Tatiana. But let’s first acknowledge the devil in this drama, the true Lucifer incarnate, Arnold Loomis.” At the agreeing nods and grunts from the group, Zane continued somberly. “Yes, Tatiana, you are responsible for your actions—and non-actions. But so are the rest of us. Your father and sisters knew things weren’t right. So did Ryker and G
riffin. Fuck, so did I. But it took me witnessing Arnold in action to understand the extent of his evil. Once I did, we all went into high gear and with Savannah’s unintended help, took the monster down.”
Gazing from one solemn participant to the next, Zane continued. “Yes, we could have done better. However, I’m struck by the fact that while all of us were acting out of love and concern, we were up against a man consumed by hate. No one was more compromised by that hate than you were, Tatiana. You are one of the most loving, honorable people it’s been my privilege to know. Which is one of the reasons you were such a target for Arnold. The rest of us more jaded folks could see through him. Ultimately, you did and left him, but the emotional scars he inflicted were deep ones. But rather than dwelling on the negative, let’s look at what you did with your hard-earned knowledge. You created a true sanctuary for countless women and their children. You changed their lives forever. And trust me, sweetheart, there isn’t a woman among them who doesn’t see you as her heroine.”
Zane tipped up her chin. Swiping at the tears on her face, he said in a choked voice, “Besides loving the heck out of you, woman, I’m just so goddamned proud of you!”
Amid the chorus of cheers, tears, and laughter, he took her into his arms and planted a resounding kiss on her lips.
****
Glancing out into the audience as she was about to bring her address to an appropriate close, Tatiana allowed herself a moment’s reflection. The least she could do was marvel at the fact that she was here. Six months ago, when her aborted trial had come to an abrupt end, the idea of standing before the elite audience of the National Center for Domestic Violence’s annual conference would have been laughable. Her biggest concern at the time, in addition to waking up in the morning afraid of what would happen next in her fractured world, was how to keep the Sanctuary from folding. In retrospect, the significant challenges facing her center proved to be a godsend. It was as though a hideous wraith had attacked one of her children. It inspired her fighting spirit in a way she couldn’t have expected. The ignominy of the trial, the salacious gossip about Arnold’s scandalous murder, the threats from funders, and the departure of some of her neediest clients, could have bought her and the Sanctuary down. Fortunately, with the support of her family and hundreds of former victims who came out of the domestic violence closet to document how the Sanctuary had literally saved their lives, she had fought the criticism little by little.
Of course, the primary support came from her family and her lover, the toughest man she’d ever known. It was hard enough to feel sorry for herself or climb into a debilitating hole of self-immolating criticism when she had Tanya, Tara, and her proud father insisting that members of the Trouble clan don’t let the elephants get you down. Add to that powerful maxim, to have the strongest and sexiest man she’d ever known telling her on a daily—make that hourly—basis that she was an honorable and exceedingly powerful woman made crawling under the covers and hiding a non-starter. The breakthrough for her came early when Zane insisted that the strongest hand she could play to win against her critics was to claim her personal story of abuse. Tara wrote the article “Coming Out—the Burden of Supposed Shame,” which turned the tide in her favor. Tara claimed that if she didn’t win another Pulitzer for this compelling article, no one could.
Her acknowledgement had started a local, then regional, and now, on this stage, a national conversation about one of the most damaging elements of abuse: that of shaming the victim. The persistent, disbelieving question from outsiders asking “Why doesn’t she just leave?” opened a whole new discussion that Tatiana addressed in her writing and now her keynote addresses to more and more organizations. As she prepared to end her speech with her call to action, Tatiana glanced out into the audience and acknowledged the trio standing in the back of the room. It would have been hard to miss the six-foot-four, impressive man even if he wasn’t a doppelganger for Thor. But the fact that he appeared even taller given the three-year-old toddler perched on his shoulders and the grinning redheaded sprite balanced on his hip brought tears of happiness to her eyes. Catching his glance, Tatiana swiped at the happy tears on her cheeks and raised her clasped hands above her head in a triumphant gesture.
Seeing her mother’s radiant expression, Marcie gave Zane a fist bump and crowed, “Look, Mr. Zane, we did it!”
Pretending not to understand her excited claim of success, Zane asked, “What we did we do, Marcie?”
“Don’t you see, Mr. Zane? Our deal worked! My momma is smiling!”
Zane laughed and not for the first time in their challenging saga, fought the tears threatening the backs of his eyelids. Tugging the irrepressible hoyden closer to him, he agreed. “By golly, Miss Marcie, I do believe you are right. Our deal did work. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a bigger smile on your momma’s face.”
Loved Tatiana’s and Zane’s story?
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TITUS: The Novella Finale
In the riveting
TROUBLE SISTERS SAGA
Sheriff Titus Theseus Trouble is the father of the remarkable Trouble sisters. It won’t surprise you that in addition to fathering a trio of feisty women, Titus is a heck of a read in his own right! Particularly when he takes on a beautiful defense attorney who is as arrogant as the commanding sheriff.
PREPARE TO BE WOWED!
AFTERWORD
Tatiana was a challenging book to write. As you know, I don’t shy away from difficult subjects. In Tatiana, I take on the subject of domestic abuse, an issue that I have studied and worked on for many years. As much as I know about the issue, I was still surprised to see statistics indicating that 1 in 4 women and 1 in 7 men will experience severe physical violence by an intimate partner in their lifetime. (CDC, 201)
I purposefully chose to take on the issue with one of my tougher-than-nails Trouble sisters. Tatiana’s struggle is emblematic of the abuse cycle, where the victim is often consumed with the supposed “shame” of being abused. I also try to answer that challenging question too often asked: “Why doesn’t she just leave?”
Tatiana was a hard book to write but one that I love. Hope you did too!
If you haven’t already, be sure to read the other sisters’ books: Tanya and Tara. And don’t miss the riveting finale to the series the sisters’ terrific sheriff father: TITUS.
If you enjoyed TATIANA, do a huge favor for me. Click on this link and write an honest review of the book. Authors live and die by their reviews. The few extra seconds it takes really helps us authors out. Many, many thanks! AND please go to my website www.taylorleebooks.com for my publishing schedule and lots of FREE stuff! Sign up for my newsletter. It is the way I stay connected to my glorious readers.
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