Free Guilty Pleasure by Justus Roux

long
have you been married?”
    “ Going on ten
years.”
    “ We better head to court,
Nicole. Emily, hold down the fort.”
    “ Yes, Sir.”
    Nicole followed Michael to his car. Once
they were inside she turned to him.
    “ Why did you have Emily
show me her wedding ring? She will probably wonder what is up with
that.”
    “ You were jealous of her
and I wanted to show you I spoke the truth about her being married.
And no, she won’t wonder anything. She will think it’s sweet that
you wanted to see her rings.”
    Michael listened to Nicole go on about what
happened to Adam. He told her about him spending time with Adam
last night, which made her very happy, like he knew it would.
    They headed into the courtroom where Mr. Lee
was waiting. Nicole felt sorry for him, he looked so nervous. Of
course, if he didn’t rob that liquor store while he was drunk as
hell, he wouldn’t be in this predicament.
    As the prosecutor presented his case Mr. Lee
looked like he was about to throw up.
    “ It’s okay, Samuel. I told
you the worse you will get is three years in the county jail then a
few years probation.”
    “ I hope you are right. They
are pushing for seven years in prison.”
    Nicole watched Michael plead Mr. Lee’s case.
He was so charming and engaging with the jury. Michael emphasized
that Samuel had no prior convictions, that he didn’t discharge his
weapon and that he was severely intoxicated at the time of the
crime. He asked for leniency from the jury.
    After both sides pleaded their case the jury
went to deliberate. It only took an hour for them to come back with
a verdict. They gave Samuel, three years in the county jail with
two years probation. Michael smiled at the jury then shook Samuel’s
hand.
    Nicole was in awe. The prosecutor’s case was
compelling, but Michael’s was more so.
    “ I don’t want to see you
again, Samuel,” Michael said.
    “ Oh, you won’t. Thank
you.”
    The court guards took Samuel away.
    “ I like the way you are
looking at me, Nicole.”
    “ You were
amazing.”
    “ Well, I wouldn’t go that
far, but thank you.”
    “ You were comfortable and
sure of yourself.”
    “ You helped get Samuel a
lighter sentence, Nicole. Your thorough research made my job
easier.” He smiled seeing a slight blush come to her cheeks. “You
are uncomfortable with compliments?”
    “ I’m not use to
them.”
    “ Get used to it,
woman.”
    They left the courtroom and headed back to
the office. Emily looked excited.
    “ Well, I’m intrigued about
what has got you so excited,” Michael said.
    “ You know that serial
killer case, well, guess who wants you to represent
them.”
    “ You are shitting
me.”
    “ Nope. Mr. Smith is too
scared to take the case on and is leaving it up to you.”
    “ Well, Nicole, looks like
we have a real challenging case on our hands.”
    “ You are going to take a
serial killer’s case? I read about what he did to his
victims….”
    “ Everybody deserves a fair
trial, isn’t that what you have said to me.”
    “ Yes.”
    “ Well, set things up to
meet with…what is his name?”
    “ Johnny Turner,” Emily
said.
    “ Set things up. I’m curious
to see if he proclaims his innocence or takes ownership for
it.”
    “ What if he is innocent?”
Nicole asked.
    “ That is what you and I
will find out, Nicole. If this case is going to be too much for you
I can have Jerry’s paralegal help me out, that of course means you
will have to help Jerry out during this.”
    “ No, I will help you. I can
handle this.”
    “ Come to my office,
Nicole.”
    She followed Michael into his office.
    “ If at any time it gets to
be too much dealing with this case I want you to tell me. These
kinds of cases are hard. You will know every detail about every
murder he is charged with and I guarantee if Johnny did this we
will find out about more of his victims they don’t know about
yet.”
    “ I want to help you. I want
you to see that I can do my job no matter