A Scripta

Linda Malloy watched the man walk by the glass windows, and her heart swelled. Something about him, she had no idea what, why he seemed to evoke such a glow out of her. She had defended heroes before, heroes more buff, more handsome, but Masonry, he was just so...cute.

"Hi, Linda," he said, pulling out the chair across from her.

"Hi, Nate. What were you in solitary for this time?"

"Somebody passed out in front of me, they thought I did something."

"Did you?"

"No."

She nodded briskly. "All right,then. Here's what we're going to do. We're going to aim the bar really high. After we get the confession dismissed, I'm going to ask that all the charges be dismissed, because, technically, they have no evidence that you did these crimes."

Masonry shook his head. "No. I did them. I deserve to be punished."

"Don't you think that your time in here so far is enough? Don't you think everything that you've done for the city is punishment enough?"

"I need to be watched."

"Nate, you're not on the drugs anymore."

"That's why. I'm evil."

"You are not," Mallory folded her arms across her chest. "Everybody gets mad at someone sometimes."

"But to want them dead?"

She looked down at her papers. She had read his psych reports and knew the answer to that question. He was jealous, pure and simple. But he didn't hate them enough to kill them, or she would have read Pace's obituary by now. "All right, " she stated. "But this isn't about them. Once the confession is out, they have no physical evidence connecting you to the crimes." She looked up and smiled. "You'll be free."

He looked down at the table. "Hm."

"Hm?"

"I was telling Fyre last night that I didn't want to be free. That I wanted to stay here. When they decided to put me back into solitary because some ex-sorcerer had a seizure, I realized I didn't want to stay here."

"Good, Nate. I thought I was going to have to fight an uphill battle." She rearranged the papers. "Now, here's the worst case scenario, and we're working our way backwards."

"Execution."

"Yes. They won't do that."

"How about a plea bargain?"

"It depends on what happens with the confession. We'll get you out of here, even if it means you have to keep wearing that teleport belt. We can change the teleport coordinates to something like a cell in Futura Force or the nearest police cell..."

He nodded, half listening. Scenarios ran the gamut from life in prison with no chance of parole or work release, all the way to total freedom. She would start from total freedom and work her way down. She didn't expect the total freedom, but she would push for some jail time with work release, probably a couple of more years.

His mind went back to the night before, when Fyre wouldn't believe he was capable of evil that he thought he was. "I've seen you with other people, Frosty, Rogue, Kit, Scott, Em, and Star. You can't not care." He told her that he almost tore Star's wings off. He didn't tell her that Em put him in his place with an order and a command, "UNDERSTOOD?"

"Nate, I know I'm boring you."

He gave her an awkward smile. "I'm sorry."

She smiled. "You pay me the big bucks to think for you. I just want you to know what to expect."

"Thanks, Linda."

"Just keep doing what you're doing, Nate. It doesn't matter what E says. And don't skip anymore, it looks bad."

"What about drinking?"

She gave him a skeptical look.

He smiled. "Drugs?"

"Nate..."

"Sex?"

She gathered up her papers even as she blushed. "Go on, get out of here."

His chuckle was deep and sexy as she watched him get up, like a lion rising from a meal. He squared his shoulders and fixed her with his dark, smoldering eyes. Then they crinkled as he grinned, because he knew what he had done to her for that one moment. He turned and knocked on the door for them to take him away.

Malloy took a deep breath to steady herself. No wonder Serena stuck with him. But she would have to beat off all the women with a bat. Or, Malloy thought with a grin, a katana.