The Bad Judgment Series: The Complete Series (47 page)

He turned to me with raised eyebrows. “You trust Marnie Edmonds?” he asked.

I shrugged. “I’ve followed her career. She wants to do the right thing. I mean, even though she was trying to put you away for a long time, she wants the right thing. Mostly.” I looked at him for a beat. “She’ll want to pursue this. She’ll want to make good on it — it’ll make a name for her if she can pull it off. I think she’ll work for it.”

“I trust your judgment,” Walker said. I smiled at him and he grabbed my hand, pulling me to him. He tenderly stroked my neck, where the bandage was.

“You okay, Nic?” he asked, his voice husky.

“I’m great,” I said and I beamed at him. “You beat up Norris Phaland, he peed his pants, and you correctly used the word
misogynist.
All in the same day — it’s like Christmas. Now we’re gonna go sail to Miami and be reunited with our families. I’ve never been better!” I was positively giddy, in spite of my taped-up neck.

He kissed the side of my face. “Let’s do this,” he said.

“Let’s never stop doing this,” I said, and threw my arms around him.

I
looked
out at the white sand beach, the calm turquoise water that stretched out as far as the eye could see, and I laughed. We’d made it. I couldn’t believe that we’d actually made it, and that it had all worked out.

A
fter we’d taped
my neck up some more and cleaned the floor where Norris had been, Teddy had shown up with a suitcase full of cash. He’d received the wire from Louise and had brought it straight over to us. Walker, of course, gave him a raise on the spot. And then he’d sent Teddy up to Boston, to follow his friends and make sure that nothing particularly egregious happened to Norris Phaland.

Not that we would have minded that much.

Walker and I had cleaned out the condo and wiped it for prints. Just for old time’s sake, and also because we didn’t know who was going to come looking for us next. We didn’t know if anyone was going to believe what had really happened, or if we would still be on too many most-wanted lists to keep track of. We put our belongings on the boat and, ignoring the curious stares from our neighbors, waved politely at them as we left later that morning. We set sail for Miami, under a beautiful sun and on calm, turquoise waters, no sign of stormy weather in sight.

Luckily for me, Walker knew what he was doing. I’d never even really been on a boat before — I took the ferry from Woods Hole to Martha’s Vineyard once, but that was it. He had some GPS monitor that kept beeping, and he was apparently following it, because we eventually got to Miami.

“How scared should we be?” I asked, once we’d pulled up and docked the boat.

“Let’s have Louise bring them to us. That’s safer,” he said, and pulled me below deck. We’d sat, anxiously, until we heard someone knock on the hull of the boat.

“Are you in there?” asked a voice. It was Adrian. A huge smile broke out over Walker’s face. “Do you need privacy or can we come aboard?”

“Come on down,” Walker called. She skipped down the steps, wearing combat boots and a skirt, a diamond stud in her nose.

“You got a tattoo? Shut the hell up!” she said, and threw herself into her brother’s arms. She turned to me and pulled me into a bear hug. “I
knew
you were good for him!” She said, crushing me. She was surprisingly strong for someone small.

“Thanks,” I said, smiling at her, “and ouch.”

“Sorry!” she said, and started immediately rapid-firing questions at her brother. I poked my head up the stairs. I saw Louise out there, smiling and pointing out something on the beach to my little brother, Kyle. Dom, my youngest brother, was standing next to them, his face screwed up against the bright sun.

“Boys,” I said, and my voice choked up with tears. “Hey, little guys.”

They looked at me and Kyle dropped his mouth open. “You dyed your hair!” he said, and ran over to me. “Oh boy, dad’s not gonna like that.”

I pulled him into a hug; he was seventeen, getting so big now. “Hi, buddy. I missed you.”

“I missed you, too,” he said, pulling back. “Is that a
tattoo
?” he asked, gaping at the cross on my arm. I nodded at him silently. “Dad’s gonna kill you.”

I nodded at him silently.

Dom ran over to me and hugged me, hard. I didn’t care if my neck hurt. He was fifteen but to me, he would always be a five year-old boy, his face chubby and open and excited. I crushed him to me and cried into his hair; when I sniffled he pulled away from me. “Gross, Nicole,” he said, but he smiled and then hugged me again.

Then I really started bawling.

When I looked up from where I was clutching Dom, still crying into his hair, my dad was peering over us. “Dad!” I wailed, and by then I was crying so hard that only someone who loved me as much as he did would be brave enough to touch me. They all came down the steps into the cabin, except for Louise, who was politely pretending to people watch up on the dock. My dad held me, close, and he didn’t even flinch when I wiped my nose on his shirt.

“There, there,” he said, rocking me back and forth. “Everything’s okay. “Everything’s gonna be okay.”

I’d told him the same thing when my mom died. Remembering that only made me cry harder, which in turn made him cry, which in turn was making Louise cry. I could see her up there, wiping her nose with a tissue.

“We didn’t do it, dad. We’re innocent,” I said, my voice hitched out in between sobs.

“Oh, honey. I know, I know,” he said. “And we’re gonna get the bastards who did.”

“Yeah, we are,” I sniffled.

“That’s my girl,” he said. “Now what’s with the tattoos?”

I
had
a crying hangover during the trip to Nassau, but it was totally worth it. I kept hugging my family and Adrian every two minutes and blowing my nose. Thank God Walker could take care of the boat.

We’d said a tearful goodbye to Louise, and we promised we’d come see her soon. The plan was just to go the islands and hide for a week, then see what transpired back at home. Before we went back. Before we made any final decisions.

Before they decided to come down here, looking for us.

But as I’d learned over the past summer, things didn’t always go according to plan. We decided that Nassau was too crowded and maybe not safe enough; we’d sailed on to Eleuthera, which was a tiny strip of an island, more beautiful than anyplace I’d ever seen. With our very large bag of money, we’d managed to rent an absolutely spectacular house on the beach, complete with a gorgeous swimming pool.

Instead of a week, we’d stayed for three months. Walker had insisted, and he’d helped me homeschool the boys. He’d told Richie to quit his job and retire early. Richie had balked, but Walker hadn’t backed down, and for once, I saw my headstrong father listen to someone else.

Richie had told me that although he did not approve of either my hair or my tattoos, he did approve of Walker. “Much better than that other guy,” he said, and I felt a twinge of pity for poor, puffy Mike the Spike. I hoped he’d found a nice girlfriend — nicer than me, anyway.

As I looked out at the water, considering everything that had happened up until this point, my heart was full. Almost everyone I loved was near me. Mimi Johnstone and her husband were coming down for a long weekend. Walker was behind me, playing soccer with Dom. Richie and Kyle were talking about rods, getting ready to go fishing. Adrian was in the house, making a salad, probably simultaneously making plans to meet up with the hot local guy she’d just met. His name was Kai, and he had beautiful dreads and he knew all the best beaches and the best bars.

I knew Walker didn't approve, but when it came to Adrian’s choice of men, he never did.

I’d heard from Marnie Edmonds. She’d been initially appalled when she’d gotten my package. She said she couldn’t believe that she’d been so easily led down the wrong path. But then she’d rallied and gone after everyone full-tilt. She had successfully achieved a quorum with the grand jury she’d been working with. Both David Proctor and Norris Phaland had been indicted on multiple charges, including conspiracy and murder.

John Tobin had been charged as well, and then he’d promptly fled the country. Walker and I kept hoping we’d bump into him on Eleuthera, so we could capture him in a citizen’s arrest. I guess once you’d gotten used to vigilante justice, it was sort of hard to walk away from.

The public had rallied around Marnie Edmonds when she’d had David Proctor and Norris Phaland arrested. The people of Boston saw her a champion of justice. She had played her hand well, and the public applauded her for admitting that she’d been wrong and for having the proverbial balls to go after two successful, established attorneys. With the help of the evidence we’d sent her and damning testimony from Lester Max, who’d finally agreed to testify in exchange for an airtight immunity agreement, she’d swayed the court of public opinion into believing that Walker and I had been framed. That we were innocent. All the charges against Walker had been dropped.

So someday soon, we could go back.

Teddy, our former Boca errand boy, was now the acting interim CEO of Blue Securities, and was managing day to day operations. Since he had no real corporate experience, his directives to the company consisted largely of repeating whatever message Walker sent him via text, and then leaving to go drink beers and eat steamers at Faneuil Hall with Shawn and Bobby. Because after depositing Norris Phaland in an angry, smelly heap with Toby the security guard, Shawn and Bobby had decided that Boston was a fun change of pace from their quiet Boca life.

The three of them were staying at Walker’s house. When he told me, all I could picture was a million cans of empty beers piling up in the garage. Walker had promised me that he would have a cleaning company come in before we got back.

Louise had bought The Majestic with the money Walker had given her, and then promptly turned around and sold it to a luxury boutique chain who was now in the process of ripping it down. She called often. We’d asked her to come down, but she’d said she was busy, happily recuperating from her recent breast augmentation surgery. We promised we’d stop to see her on our way back, in her lovely new condominium in Key Biscayne.

Lester Max had signed an airtight immunity agreement with the United States Government. In addition to all the money that Walker had given him, he was enjoying his freedom, and also the notoriety and celebrity that came with being a rogue informant.

He was also apparently enjoying the company of April, who was flying down with him to Eleuthera for the weekend.

“You really want them to come?” I’d asked Walker when he’d invited them.

He shrugged. “The older I get, the easier it is to forgive and forget.”

“Do you forgive Norris Phaland?” I asked, shocked.

“I said I was getting older, Nic — not that I was getting
senile
.”

I was going to have to cross-examine April when she got to the island, to find out what exactly it was that she saw in her former boss.

Speaking of bosses, my old bosses were currently in the federal penitentiary, awaiting trial. The thought of David and Norris in orange jumpsuits, with no Armani or Scotch for miles, made me positively giddy.

Levi and Tammy had professed their undying devotion to each other and were moving to Texas, where Levi had decided to finally put down roots and buy a ranch. “This is gonna be a blast,” Tammy had said. “They love hairspray in Texas. I’ll fit right in.”

They were coming down for the weekend, too. Good thing it was a ten-bedroom mansion; we were going to have lots of guests.

Sadly, one person wasn’t going to make it. Alexa Blake. “I’m too busy for a vacation,” she’d snapped at me on the phone. “And I’ve been so busy working I haven’t gone to the gym in forever. Nobody’s gonna see me in a bathing suit like this.” And she’d hung up.

In her defense, she
was
busy; she’d set up a scholarship in Mandy’s name at Harvard Law School. She was also now the acting Managing Partner at the firm formerly known as Proctor & Buchanan. It was now called Blake & Blake. “My father’s an attorney,” Alexa had said. “Didn’t I ever tell you that?”

Walker was funding her father’s next senate campaign, so Alexa said he wouldn’t be in the office much. “You can come back, you know,” she’d said. “You can’t actually practice law, but you can, like, ghost-write my briefs for me or something.”

I’d told her I’d think about it.

Walker had finished playing soccer and he sauntered over to me now, sweaty and glorious in his swim trunks. “I’m serious about buying a house down here,” he said. “I think I might just buy this one.” He jerked his thumb at the enormous, pristine villa on the beach.

“I thought you wanted to buy a house in Boca,” I said.

“I do,” he said, “I will.”

He stretched his arms over his head and my mouth pooled with water as I watched his muscles ripple in the sun. I had to wipe my mouth; I really hoped Richie wasn’t watching us.

Something he’d said to me in Boca came back to me, vaguely. “I thought you said you were going to buy something else, first. When we were done with all this,” I said, my brow wrinkled in thought. I couldn’t remember what it was that he’d said.

“Oh yeah — I was wondering if you’d remember I said that.” He smiled at me.

“So?” I asked.

“So what?”

“Did you buy it?” Suddenly, I remembered exactly what he’d said. “You said the house was going to be the second thing you bought. The other thing was the first thing.”

“Yeah, I bought it,” he said. We just looked at each other for a beat. “Dom!” he called to my brother. “Can you get me that thing we talked about?”

Dom nodded at him and ran up towards the house.

“Dom knows what the thing is?” I asked.

“Everybody knows, Nic.”

“Well, I’m everybody,” I said, helplessly, “and I don’t know.” I watched him as he watched the beach, waiting for my brother.

“So,” he said, turning back to me for a moment. “You know how everybody’s coming down this weekend?”

“Of course,” I said.

We just looked at each other for another beat.

“Well, I was thinking…” Walker started. I could see Dom, running across the beach, towards us.

“How would you feel about having a celebration?” Walker asked. I couldn’t be sure, but I actually thought he sounded nervous.

“Celebrating our freedom?” I asked, trying to be encouraging of his idea.

“Kind of the opposite,” he said, and just then Dom reached us, carrying a small, black box.

The world got a little woozy, just for a moment, and I was almost
Face-Plant in the Sand Barbie.

Walker winked at Dom and Dom ran away.

He turned back towards me with the box.

He got down on one knee.

“Yes yes yes!!!” I screamed, before he even had a chance to say anything.

He laughed. “Wait — let me go first — I had something planned,” he said. He cleared his throat and looked up at me again. “Now, Nicole,” he said, “I know that I tattooed your name across my back. I wanted you to know that you’re my girl. Forever.”

I looked at him and just nodded, letting him go on before I started screaming and jumping up and down and passing out.