Free Dread Champion by Brandilyn Collins Page B

looked back and saw Darren lumbering toward her. I could just barely make them out in the firelight. Then they were out of sight.” Lonnie’s eyes filled with tears, her voice faltering. “That’s the last time I saw Shawna Welk.”

EIGHT
    â€œâ€˜That’s the last time I saw Shawna Welk,’” Darren mocked in a singsong voice. His words sloshed bitterness and angst against the separating glass in the dreary room that the Redwood City jail reserved for meetings between prisoner and attorney. The room was vented so they did not need to use telephones. Darren planted himself wide-legged in his chair, square jaw set, eyes hard.
    Terrance Clyde sat back in silence, hands clasped over his waist. Darren’s foul language and roaring anger intimidated him not in the least. He’d seen it all before. Best to let the client blow off steam.
    â€œWhy didn’t you tear that woman apart on the stand?” Darren’s fingers rent the air in vivid illustration. He pushed out of his chair and paced, muttering under his breath. “One day of court, and I already can’t take any more. Have to sit there like a head of lettuce while my ‘friends’ betray me.”He smacked the wall.
    â€œShe didn’t say you were a killer, Darren.” Terrance’s voice was mild.
    â€œShe might as well have!”
    â€œLonnie is a prosecution witness; what do you expect? You knew this was coming, Darren; we’ve talked about it for weeks now. Relax. I did all I could with her testimony.”
    â€œRelax?” Darren drew to a halt, snorting. “You are telling me to relax? I’m the one who’s cooped up in this ratty place while my crops rot! Where have you been since February? Sleeping in your own bed. Taking your sweet time preparing this case!”
    Terrance cast him a knowing look. “Darren. You know very well I rushed to prepare this case. Most attorneys would have taken far longer.”
    â€œWell, you didn’t rush enough!”
    Terrance refused to take the bait. He eased back his shoulders, sending pops down his tired spine. Air in the tiny room was stale. He was glad he’d left his suit coat in his car.
    Darren Welk was proving to be every bit the difficult client Ter-rance had expected. Terrance had practiced law in Salinas for a long time, and although he hadn’t known Darren personally, he had certainly known his reputation—as both the most successful rancher in the area and the most outspoken.As a free man in his own fields, Darren Welk might well have been king.When he barked orders, employees jumped. So did his colleagues. But as a jailed murder suspect, he was told when to eat, when to sleep, when to wake up. His whole world as he had known it, everything he’d taken for granted, had been turned inside out. Anger, despair, and terror would inevitably haunt him in vicious cycles. Terrance had known, as Darren’s attorney, that he would become both the man’s lifeline and his punching bag.
    â€œWell?” Darren threw himself into his chair.“Aren’t you going to say anything?”
    The attorney regarded him in silence. This meeting would come to order when he had control.
    â€œCome on, Terrance!”
    â€œAre you through yet?”
    â€œYes, I’m through,” Darren spat.He pressed back in his seat with crossed arms, waiting in fury.
    â€œAll right. I’ll tell you what I’ve already told you.And you’re not going to like it any more than you did the first time. Tomorrow’s going to be worse. Tracey is most likely to be a very sympathetic witness—”
    â€œThat little twit,” Darren snarled.
    Terrance pressed his teeth together and waited.
    â€œYeah, yeah, okay, go on.” Darren swiped a hand through the air.
    â€œShe lost her mother, Darren.” The attorney spoke as if addressing a slow child. “I can’t very well ‘tear her apart’