Page 78 of Easy On Me

“ . . . maximum sentence . . . five years . . .”

If you just squeezed your eyes shut and held your breath and listened to your heartbeat, it wasn’t real.

It wasn’t happening.

It wasn’t real.

And then I’d be with Jase and everything would be okay. I’d be safe.

“Open your eyes,” a male voice hissed, and a solid hand nudged my leg.

I recoiled.

Jase could touch me without permission. No one else. Only Jase.

I’d squeeze my eyes shut, think about how he smelled, about how his arms felt when he hugged me. And then it was over and he was there and I was safe.

Almost real.

“Open your eyes,” the voice hissed again. I blinked, bright lights hurting my eyes. The seal wavered. The lawyer, his cologne too heavy next to me.

The man on the bench scowling.

I sucked a breath through my nose and narrowed my eyes.

“Young lady, stand up, please.”

Young lady. Just like always. A man and young lady and–

Silence hovered, electric and charged and humming.

Something small and helpless brushed the side of my belly.

“ . . . one more chance . . .”

I didn’t move.

“ . . . contempt . . .”

Behind me – behind the other table – a familiar cough.

Hannah’s whisper. Hannah, who left me there with him.

“ . . . remand . . .”

More hissing, anger and frustration in the male voice, too much cologne so I couldn’t breathe.

“Bailiff.”

A large hand on my arm, lifting me, moving me where I didn’t want to go.

A man’s hand on my arm, always a man.

Rage surged up my spine, white light fuzzing out my vision.

I screamed.