Vindicate (Recovered Innocence #1)(25)
Even as I tell myself this, I don’t believe it. I can’t imagine going back, and the truth is I don’t want to.
Chapter 12
Leo
Ho-ly. Shit.
I’m trying really hard to act cool, but Cora in that dress is killing me. When she opened the door I thought my head was going to explode. She did something with her hair—piling it on top of her head—making everything about her softer somehow. And her eyes, that intense, drop-me-to-my-knees blue, pinned me where I stood. I thought she was pretty before, but I was wrong. She is absolutely without a doubt the most beautiful girl I’ve ever seen.
And she’s going out with me.
I don’t know what I was expecting when I asked her out on this date. All I know is that she is so far out of my league and she doesn’t even know it. I steal another glance at her. I’ve been sneaking looks at her all night. I’m not the only one. Every guy we pass gives her the once-over, making me want to punch him in the face. If I’m not holding her hand, I touch her back or her shoulder to signal that she’s mine.
Except she isn’t, really. We’re on this date, attempting to have a good time, but I can tell her mind isn’t entirely on what’s happening at our small table in the corner of the restaurant. I figure she’ll break sometime before the waiter comes to take our order and ask me what happened with Beau. What her brother is going through is as much a part of her as the blue of her eyes. I have to accept that. He’s the other person at the table with us. The invisible uninvited guest. Everything she does is a means to the end of freeing her brother. Even this date we’re on is part of it. I don’t kid myself that she agreed to go out with me because she wanted to. I’m holding information she wants.
She lays her menu down and I know this is it. She’s going to ask me about Beau. We can’t have anything that’s just ours.
She takes a quick sip of water. “I hear you play baseball.”
I stare at her for a moment. What?
“You used to play with my friend Jamie Osborne’s brother Matt.”
“Yeah.”
She fiddles with her water glass. “What position do you play?”
“Pitcher. Or I did. I don’t play anymore.”
“Oh.”
“How do you know Jamie?”
“We’ve been friends a long time. Since elementary school.”
“So you know Matt.”
“He tried to make me eat a bug once.” She has a hint of a smile, so I know this is a good memory. “I got him back by putting snails in his bed.”
“That sounds like him. Good for you for getting him back.”
“Do you ever miss it? Playing baseball?”
“Sometimes. I’m too busy now with law school. It was fun while it lasted.”
“What kind of law do you want to practice?”
At every turn she catches me off guard. This is such a normal, first-date kind of conversation I’m having trouble believing I’m having it with Cora.
“I want to work for the district attorney’s office here in San Diego.”
“You want to put people like Beau in prison?” Her tone takes a dangerous turn.
“I want to put guilty people in prison.”
“How can you be sure they’re one hundred percent guilty? I’m sure the DA who prosecuted my brother thought she was doing the right thing. Especially when she asked the judge for the death penalty.”
I’m in deep shit here, with no way out. I should’ve seen this coming. “I won’t be like that.”
“Why a prosecutor and not a public defender? The system could use a hell of a lot more good public defenders. I know Beau could’ve used one.” Angry, she holds up a finger. “Just one.”
“I can’t undo what was done to your brother, but I can make sure that every case I prosecute is a good one.”
She sits back in her seat and glares at me. She hates me now, I can see it. I’m lumped in with the * who sent her brother to prison. I have to find a way to convince her I’m not the enemy. I can do more good on the prosecutor’s side than the defender’s side. I know this. I have to make her know this.
“Cora, you should know me well enough by now to know that I will be better than the DA who sent your brother to prison.”
“You say that now and maybe you mean it, but when you’ve got a hundred and fifty cases that you’re expected to close with a conviction or a plea deal, you cut corners to do it. Did you know that close to seventy-five percent of all wrongful convictions are due to official misconduct, including prosecutors?”
“That’s not going to be me. Someone has to put away the bad guys, Cora, and I want to be one of the people who do that. They can’t be allowed loose in our society to perpetrate again and again.”
“And you’re fine with a few innocent people getting put away in the process?”
“Of course not.”
“It happens.”
“And dolphins get caught in fishing nets. But that didn’t stop you from ordering fish for dinner.”
Her mouth drops open and she glares at me like she can’t believe what a complete and total * I am. My whole body goes hot. I can’t believe that just came out of my stupid f*cking mouth either. I’ve just equated her brother to so much debris that inadvertently gets swept up in the greater good of the justice system’s net. I thought Cora would be the one to ruin our date. But no, it’s me. I’ve f*cked this up so badly I don’t see any way of recovering it.