Paint It Black by Michelle Perry

Author:Michelle Perry [Perry, Michelle]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Romance, Suspense, Fiction
ISBN: 9781605429274
Publisher: Medallion Press
Published: 2008-03-31T22:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER

11

My team buzzed with speculation about Barnes’s sudden reversal.

Ubi helped me into a seat near the back of the already crowded courtroom. “Man, I wish Cougar was here. He’ll die when he finds out he missed this.”

I nodded, though I felt sick inside. It wasn’t supposed to be like this. My team was jubilant, but I could muster none of their enthusiasm. Even though I knew it was crazy, I felt responsible. Barnes had pointed that gun at Angel and he’d pulled the trigger. I kept telling myself he deserved whatever he got. But what bothered me was the fact that he hadn’t pleaded guilty out of remorse.

Barnes had pleaded guilty because it was what I wanted.

I’d turned it over and over in my mind, and that was the only conclusion I could reach. I saw no possible benefit for him to forfeit his right to a trial. I’d asked him for something I was sure he wouldn’t give me, and he’d called my bluff. What was I supposed to do now?

Barnes entered the courtroom through a side door, handcuffed and wearing an orange jumpsuit. I expected him to scan the courtroom, maybe even stare me down with a silent “So there,” but he never looked around.

Maria hurried into the room a few minutes before the trial was scheduled to begin. She shoved and stumbled past the seated spectators to get to him, and a strange silence fell over the courtroom as people stopped whatever they were doing to watch her.

“Papa!” She leaned over the barricade. “You can’t do this!”

Barnes turned toward her. “It’s already done. I’m sorry, honey.”

“It’s because of her, isn’t it?” she spat, and involuntarily, I slouched lower in my chair. “She did this—”

“Maria!” Barnes barked, and the bailiff placed a hand on his gun. Barnes lowered his voice. “That’s enough.”

Maria’s head dropped. Her bodyguard evicted a couple of onlookers from their chairs and sat in one. He pulled Maria down beside him, and they began an animated, hushed conversation.

“Wonder who she’s talking about?” Bill whispered, but I was too rattled to even attempt an answer.

The sentencing lasted only fifteen minutes. Barnes declined to make a statement on his behalf, though his lawyer pointed out that he had no prior criminal convictions.

The judge sentenced Barnes to fifty-three years in federal prison, twenty years of it suspended, with the stipulation that if Angel died within a year and a day of the shooting as a direct result of his injuries, the charge would be upgraded to capital murder.

Okay, thirty-three years, I thought. Not bad, since Angel is a federal agent. He’d serve less than half that with good behavior—

I broke off, horrified by my train of thought. What was I doing, thinking about it from Barnes’s point of view? Angel was my friend—one of my best friends. He was doing better, but he might never be the same as he was before. What were sixteen or seventeen years in the face of that? Nothing. Not a damn thing when you were twenty-eight years old and unable to feed yourself.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.