Released (Caged #3)(58)

“Fair enough.” Erin stood back up. “Take a few minutes to get yourself together. That’s more than enough for one day. Next week we’ll talk about today and talk about whether you want to do that again.”

“Again?” I said. “Are you nuts?”

“You don’t think that was the end of it, do you?”

“I…I don’t know.”

“One step at a time,” Erin said. “You did really well. I’m proud of you.”

She smiled at me and nodded her head. I gave her a bit of a smile back, sat there for a few minutes while she wrote in her notebook and then headed out to the lobby.

“How are you, Liam?” Damon asked as we walked down the stairs.

I wondered if he had ever asked me that before and couldn’t really come up with an answer.

“I’m…okay,” I replied. “Tired.”

“I think that’s to be expected,” he said with a nod. “Home, I assume?”

“No,” I said. “I want to go to the gym and beat the shit out of something.”

“Then the gym it is.”

The trainer wasn’t ready to defend himself against me, and I was okay with that. I slapped him around the mat for a while, and it definitely made me feel better. Even with the gloves. By the time I was done, I was sweating and exhausted.

Damon stayed on the side of the ring and watched with a half grin on his face.

“What?” I asked as I flipped over the ropes.

“You did well,” Damon said.

“I kick ass,” I told him. I offered up my own lopsided grin.

“You do,” he agreed. “Feel better?”

“Yeah,” I said.

“Home?” he asked.

“To Tria,” I replied.

“To Tria,” he agreed.

*****

The next day was the long-awaited sentencing hearing for one Keith Harrison, assaulter and batterer.

The f*cker plea bargained his way down from attempted murder, for Christ’s sake. No one asked for my opinion. I didn’t have any doubt he was trying to kill me, not that it mattered now. I got the girl. He was going to get a prison sentence.

Tria tightened her grip on my hand as we walked into the courtroom and sat down. Keith was in one of those prison-orange jumpsuits and sat with a court appointed attorney near the front. He looked back at us as we walked in, and his eyes narrowed at me.

I glared back, and just for good measure, I reached over and rubbed at the center of Tria’s abdomen. Tria covered my hand with hers and turned her head into my chest. She didn’t want to see him—I knew that much. I only hoped he’d be going away for a long time.

Keith’s eyes widened, and I knew he got the message. A moment later he slumped slightly in his seat and shook his head.

I resisted the urge to yell to him and remind him just what had to happen for her to be in such a state. It didn’t quite seem like the time or place, but I would have been lying if I said I didn’t take great pleasure in his duress over it.

Actually, I f*cking loved it, sick * that I was.

The DA walked up and told us not to worry—it should all be over pretty quickly, and Tria probably didn’t even have to get on the stand. I was glad about that. The prosecuting attorney still thought I was going to have to get up there, but about twelve seconds into the hearing, the defense attorney and the prosecuting attorney went up to the judge’s bench for a little powwow. When they were done, Keith was sentenced to five years, and we were told we could go.

“Fuck!” I exclaimed. “That was easy. We didn’t have to do anything.”

“I’m just glad it’s over,” Tria whispered. She was pale, and I wrapped my arm around her waist to hold her close.

“It’s okay,” I told her. “He’s gone for a long time, and we’re fine.”

We each got paid twenty dollars for showing up.

“We could go out and celebrate,” I suggested.

Tria gave me a slight smile but shook her head.

“It would probably be better to use it for something we need.”

I couldn’t argue with her logic.

“We could…um…” I steeled myself against my own thoughts. This made it more real for me than anything. How many times had I done this before—ran to a store after school to buy things the baby needed? “We’ve got a few hours before the sonogram appointment. We could go shopping for…um…for the baby?”

Tria wrapped her arms around my neck.

“Yes, please.”

So we did. And by paying close attention to prices, we got quite a bit for forty dollars.

Damon drove us to one of those stores that had pre-owned items for babies. We found one of those pumpkin-type car seats that would normally cost quite a bit at a price we could handle and a few other things as well. Tria started crying when we picked out the seat.

“What’s the matter?” I asked. I pulled her against me and let her get my shirt all wet.

“I’m just…glad,” she said. “I was really worried about not having any place to put the baby. Now I have a place for it.”

It made no sense whatsoever to me. There would be months before the baby would need to be put anywhere, but it was apparently really important to Tria. She held on to me and cried a little more, then laughed at herself.