“How long d’you need?”

“An hour,” he said. “Liam will be here by then. Either we’ll have it under control or we’ll get him out of here.”

My heart was beating nearly out of my chest with anxiety, trying to imagine what was going on that was so bad they’d separate me and Sunshine. Danny walked toward the office and shut the door behind him. Seconds later, the music went higher as Kieran had instructed.

“What the fuck is going on?” I asked. Sitting in front of the ring, he ran his hand down his face. The look of utter fucking devastation scared me.

“The judge ruled Em’s rape kit inadmissible as evidence.”

“I don’t understand, why?”

“The police officer who arrested Frank went to the hospital to check on Em. While he was there, he offered to transport the rape kit to the lab. He thought he was doing a good thing. Thought it would speed up the charges. Anyway, Frank’s solicitor claimed that his involvement after Frank’s arrest contaminated the rape kit. Judge ruled in his favor today. The jury won’t get to know the results of the kit. It’s Frank’s word against Em’s now.”

“Motherfucker,” I screamed and grabbed the nearest thing I could find. The stool splintered and fell apart as it crashed into the wall. This wasn’t anger…this was blind fucking rage. The motherfucker was gonna get away with it. Em deserved to have people know the results of that kit. It shouldn’t have to be his word against hers. The kit was supposed to convict him, and now it was all on Em’s testimony.

I stood with my hands behind my head as I tried to rein it in but it was no good. There was no rationality, just the blind, fucking inescapable urge to rip something apart. This would destroy Sunshine, and I couldn’t see that look on her face when she found out. I stared at the door of the office and was torn between embracing my rage and needing to protect her.

“Ring. Now,” Kieran demanded, and I followed his lead. Whipping his T-shirt over his head, he chucked it to the floor and gave me a right hook to the face. His fists weren’t wrapped, and his knuckles split on impact. It was all I needed to trip the switch. My own hands were wrapped, which meant I could go for hours before my hands gave out. Jab, jab, hook. Jab, jab uppercut. I pounded on him with no technique. No grace. Just anger and pain.

When I’d given him a pretty decent going-over, he dropped his guard and bounced around the ring returning what I’d delivered. His hits weren’t as heavy as mine but they still hurt. With every hit my anger drained away and Kier stopped punching as soon as I dropped to my knees.

“Shit, Kier, I’m so sorry.”

“Don’t worry, Con. You’d do the same thing for me. God willing, you’ll never have to.”

“What am I going to do?” I asked him.

“There’s nothing you can do. Calm down, shower, and change, and we’ll sit down and tell her together,” said Kier.

“No,” I told them, swallowing hard. “She won’t want to talk to you about this. Just keep her company long enough for me to shower and I’ll break it to her myself. She has another counseling session tonight so we’ll go straight there after we leave. It might do her some good.”

Kier bent down and wrapped his arm around my neck, pulling my head down to rest on his shoulder. “It’s gonna be all right. I don’t know how things are going to go from here but I do know that everything will work itself out in the end.”

I showered and changed quickly while Liam sat with Em. I was fucking devastated about what I was about to do to Em. Everything was falling apart, including me, and I had no clue how to keep it all together. If there was a way of getting out of this dark hole without Em suffering even more, I couldn’t see it. As soon as I opened the door to the office, she knew that something was wrong.

“What’s happened?” she asked me softly. Looking around the room, I could see the devastation on the guy’s faces and the worried look on Danny’s. Saying nothing, I held out my hand to her, and she took it. I closed the door behind us, leaving Kier to tell Danny. Sitting up against the ropes seems to have been where I spent most of the day so that’s where I told her.

When it was done, she put her head in my lap, curled up into the fetal position, and sobbed. Her anguished cries racked her body, and I did nothing but hold her tight and stroke her hair. I didn’t tell her everything would be all right, or that Frank would get sent down. I’d only made one promise to her as she wept, I made another to myself. My promise to her was that he would never get to touch her ever again. My promise to myself was that justice would be served. Either in the courtroom or out of it. If he went down, I’d let it go. If he went free, vengeance would have its day.

* * *

It wasn’t a huge surprise to find the motley crew of both our sets of friends standing around in suits on the steep steps of the law courts.

“You look like the cast of Ocean’s Eleven,” I told them.

“I’m Brad Pitt,” Kieran called out.

“I’m George Clooney,” Liam said.

“I should be Brad Pitt,” Tommy grumbled.

“Nah, you’d be one of the stupid brothers,” Kieran told him.

“Do I get to be one?” Earnshaw asked.

“Depends,” Tommy answered. “Who d’you wanna be?”

“How ’bout Don Cheadle?” he said.

“You know you’re not black, don’t you?” Tommy asked him seriously.

“Don’t be racist,” Kieran told him.

“I’m not being fuckin’ racist. I’m just asking if he knows.” Kieran turned to me and Em. “You ever hear that saying, ‘sometimes I listen to you speak and I wonder who ties your shoelaces.’”

We all turned to Tommy, and Kieran winked as Em giggled.

* * *

For an hour, we stood on those steps shivering so Em felt like she could breathe. Even Danny sat out there with us.

Finally she turned to me. “You know much I love you,” she told me quietly.

“I know. Why?” I asked warily, knowing that I wouldn’t like the sound of what was coming next.

“I don’t want you to come in with me,” she told me.

“Why?” I asked through clenched teeth.

“It’s enough for me knowing that you’re on the other side of the door. It’s enough for me to get through this. But I can’t go through every detail of what happened, knowing that you’re listening. I’d try and make it sound better than it was because I don’t want to hurt you. And when I’m cross-examined, I’ll be worried about you losing your temper at the barrister. If I know that you’re just a door away, I can do what I need to, and I can do it honestly,” she explained.