Chapter 38

Kai

W ith my knife sharpened and sleeves folded, I went back to the cutting board and the onions waiting there for me. The kitchen was in full blast, my chefs working hard behind me in preparation for tonight. Taking a deep breath, I started chopping the onion. I focused on the repetitive task and the sound that followed until noises from the TV in the employees' room reminded me why I tried distracting myself to begin with.

Brushing my eyes with the back of the hand holding the knife, I then put it down and dried my hands on the towel tucked into my apron before walking over to the sound source, not surprised to see a bunch of cooks staring at the TV.

"Just a few hours ago, the trial the whole country was waiting for began in Los Angeles Superior Court," said the blonde female broadcaster. "In the center of this horrible case that shocked the state almost seven months ago stands Camilo Gómez, nineteen years old at the time, who allegedly shot to death Mrs. Rosa Rivera, sixty-two, and Mr. Orson Sandres, thirty-four, both of whom worked for the Rogers family. After fatally shooting them, the defendant then allegedly attacked Shay-Lee Christian Rogers, the only son of the multibillionaire philanthrope Christian W. Rogers. As of now, the victim's condition has remained unknown, and the family asks for privacy. Rumors say that the eighteen-year-old victim had been in a coma for several weeks and hasn't been the same since waking up." As she continued to give more details of the case, a photo of Diesel appeared on the screen. They'd deliberately chosen an image that presented him in a bad light, one of him smoking in a nightclub. After that, they showed a series of photos of him from his earlier arrests while also repeating, again and again, about his criminal past. Not one word about how he'd been on the right path for the last few years and that he might be innocent.

"The defendant's last chance is in the talented hands of his attorney, Soren Dane, who, worked with Mr. Gómez previously in one of his earliest trials. Back then, Mr. Gómez was sentenced to thirteen months in prison after shooting a man."

Shooting a man? He shot his sister's rapist, for God's sake; how about mentioning that?

"Mr. Dane is known to be a fierce yet charming attorney who's already broken the internet with his opening arguments in court earlier this morning. His speech reached social media, where he is now trending."

The broadcast cut to the courtroom, where we saw a video replay. First, they zoomed in on Diesel, and it sucked seeing him sitting there with his hands cuffed, wearing an orange jumpsuit. His head was shaved, and he kept staring at his hands like a dead man. Instead of being let out on bail while waiting for his trial, Diesel was required to remain in jail. It was unjust, and for the past few months, only God knew what he suffered there. From the black eye he was sporting, along with a split lip, I didn't dare imagine.

We knew nothing because he refused to speak to any of us, including his attorneys. Since he was taken into custody, his lips had stayed sealed, and his eyes remained dead. He was in a dark place, and knowing there was no way for me to help sucked. We were all desperate, begging for a bit of light in this ongoing hell, yet so far, we got none.

My sadness was replaced with pure wrath the second the camera shifted from Diesel to Soren.

" You called him?" I gaped at Ash's straight face. "You actually picked up your phone and called that fucker?" I yelled, rage boiling my blood.

"He's our last chance, Kai, and you know it."

"Fuck that!" I screamed, slamming my fist into the wall. Ash flinched and stepped back, but it didn't stop me. "You didn't do it for Diesel but for yourself." Spit flew from my mouth. "You wanted him to be here so you could rely on him. Like you always did."

His eyes went wide with shock before a look of anger took over him. "Screw you for saying that! I called him because he's the best, and we need the best."

"We could have found someone else. There are many good lawyers out there."

"No one is as good as him," he said back, brows pulled close.

Freaked out with the idea that this man was going to be a part of our life once again, I gritted my teeth.

"How could you do that without asking me first?" I pointed at myself, fucking hurt because Ash telling me he called Soren only a few hours before this fucker was to arrive was a really shady move on his behalf.

"Why should I?" He shrugged. "It has nothing to do with you."

"It has everything to do with me."

"No. It doesn't." He looked so angry. "It only has to do with one person, and that's Diesel."

Hurt, I bit my lips. "But what about me, Ashy? Don't you care how Soren's being back might affect me?"

Ash's jaw clenched before he shook his head and stepped back. "If you think, even for one second, that I'd prioritize your feelings over Diesel's freedom, then you're extremely wrong."

We hadn't fought that way in years, and since that day, things between us hadn't been the same. Yeah, we still hung out and fucked once in a while, but Ash's full attention was on Diesel. He apologized after that fight, but it didn't matter because I knew he meant his words. They hurt. Knowing I wasn't a priority fucking sucked, and this whole situation we'd found ourselves in was a nightmare.

"This isn't a story of hate, but one of love." Soren's voice took me back to the TV, and I watched the reply the news showed. "A tragic story of love between two kids who shouldn't have ever fallen for each other, and yet they did." He walked around the courtroom as if he owned the damn place. With my fists clenched and pressed close to my sides, I continued watching. "And I know what you might think: this is the classic story of love that goes wrong, leading to a horrible crime of passion. Don't get me wrong, this is a tragic love story, and crimes were committed, but not by Camilo." Soren now stood close to the jury, with all eyes on him. "You might think that Camilo is the big bad wolf and that Shay-Lee is Little Red Riding Hood, but let me argue differently." It was nearly impossible to take your eyes off him with his smooth speech and confident stance.

I hated it. I hated how good he was.

"Therefore, I ask you today to put aside your prejudices and examine this tragedy from a different perspective. Ask yourself, who else could be the wolf, and why would he want to take the hunter down, too?"

The cameras zoomed in on Soren's face, and that was the moment I'd had enough of it. "Turn this shit off and get the fuck back to work," I yelled at my staff, who jumped in surprise. They probably had no idea I'd been standing here for the past ten minutes, watching the news with them.

"Yes, Chef," they called back in unison, moving their asses back to the kitchen.

Now left alone in the room, I slammed the door behind me before leaning back against it. Squeezing my eyes shut, I rubbed the bridge of my nose. I wanted to go to the courthouse and be with Ash today, but he vetoed me on that. The first time I saw Soren after he came back, I tried to punch him. In my defense, he was standing way too fucking close to Ash. Needless to say, Ash didn't care for any explanation, saying that there was no place for such childish acts when our full focus needed to be on Diesel. He thought I was being immature about Soren and, therefore, forbade me from getting close to him or going to court. How was me not wanting Ash to hang around his ex being immature? It wasn't like Ash actually had any way of helping in the case, yet he kept sticking to him like glue. We would all give our testimonies when we were called to, and that was it. Yet, Ash still hung around Soren and jumped to his feet whenever the prick told him he needed his help.

What a piece of scum.

My phone rang, cutting off my line of thought. Seeing it was Ash calling, I immediately answered.

"Hey, Ashy. Just saw a report about the trial. How's it going down there?"

"It's awful, Kai. Just awful. Have you seen Diesel?" He sounded distressed. "His whole face is a mess. He'll die in there before the trial is even over."

"Do we know what happened to him?"

"Of course not!" he snapped. "He's still not speaking to anyone other than Soren, and even that, he hardly does. And today… he was just sitting there, his hands cuffed, staring at the floor. He's hardly said a word to anybody in months. What are we going to do?"

I exhaled slowly while running my fingers through my hair. "What we've done so far, which is our best."

"And have you seen the media coverage?" he went on, completely ignoring what I'd just said. "They talk about him as if he's guilty, Kai. They drag his name through the mud like he isn't a human being." His voice carried nothing but pain, forming a lump in my throat.

"Maybe try to avoid it, then. Just don't watch the news."

"I don't watch it, but they are everywhere. Outside the courthouse, around our street—some reporters even came and questioned me after I parked my car outside the supermarket."

It wasn't a surprise the media was seeking any crumb of information. One reporter even came to the restaurant today, but I kicked him out.

"You know what she asked me?" Ash hissed, getting my attention back. "She asked me if there were any early signs before Diesel's violent rampage. How dare she say that?"

Diesel definitely had some anger issues, but I highly doubted he did what he was accused of. He loved Shay-Lee, and I was sure of that, but I couldn't blame anyone for thinking he was guilty. So far, the story running through the news said that Shay-Lee had broken up with Diesel so he could be with Diesel's boss, which led Diesel to lose his mind and get revenge. And while we knew this was complete bullshit, the media coverage did expose some new details we didn't know about Diesel, such as him working as a stripper for months. It killed Ash because he felt like he'd failed. Personally, I thought Ash had nothing to do with Diesel's poor choices. I mean, the kid chose to be an idiot, so how was it Ash's fault?

"Are you coming back to the house? We can meet there," I said after we both kept quiet for too long.

"I can't. I'm going to meet Soren at the office."

Anger spiked through my blood.

"Why do you need to meet him again?"

"You know why, Kai."

My chest thrust out, and my heart rate increased.

"Don't you see that he's doing it on purpose? Using the situation to get back into your life? Our life?"

Ash sighed and then went silent for a minute before speaking. "I'm not doing this again. Anyway, Andrei's here, and I need to go. We'll talk later."

He hung up.

"Fuck, fuck, fuck," I hissed, leaning my head back against the door while rubbing my face.

I trusted Ash. The one I didn't trust was Soren, who still looked at my Ashy like he was a piece of meat. On top of all that, I was fucking pissed over how naive Ash was when it came to Soren. And to think, there was a time I actually believed he was going to be mine.