“You reacted so quickly,” she replied, still more dazed than Ari would like.
“Well, I once saw a guy stab his public defender in the hand with a pen right after a verdict, and a baili get punched in the face. This kind of thing doesn’t happen all the time, but people can be unpredictable. It’s shocking when it happens,” she added, unsure of how much to comfort Sloane. She looked like the kind of person that wouldn’t want a fuss, but she was so freaked out, Ari couldn’t help herself.
Sloane nodded, but it took another minute for the color to return to her face. Ari poured her a glass of water from the covered pitcher on the table and handed it to her.
Without protest, Sloane took it with trembling hands.
“You spring into action like a tiny crime fighting lemur,” she said after draining the plastic cup.
Ari laughed, releasing the adrenaline overloading her nervous system. “A lemur? Seriously? Couldn’t think of something cool like a wolverine or a puma or something?”
Sloane replied with the tiniest lopsided grin. “Nope. A territorial lemur. The kind with the little rings on their tail.
Cute, but you don’t want to see it coming at you in a dark alley.”
“This is what you think of me, huh?” Ari chuckled, grateful that her racing heart was easing out of her ears and back down into her chest.
“Yes,” Sloane decided with a deep breath, looking more like herself. “But it’s not the only thing I think of you,” she
added, saying more with her bright hazel eyes than with her still quivering lips.
Ari desperately wanted to ask what she meant, but she hid behind greater obligations. “We should go check on Ms.
Dominguez,” she said instead.
When they finished gathering their things, they went across the hall to the victim’s services o ce. Ms. Dominguez was sitting with two women and blowing on a mug of something hot.
“How are you doing?” Ari asked in Spanish as she crouched down in front of her.
“Relieved,” she replied to her surprise.
“Can you tell her I’m so sorry that happened to her?”
Sloane asked softly from a few inches behind her.
“Thank you,” Ms. Dominguez replied in accented English as she took Ari’s hand and looked up at Sloane. She continued in Spanish. “Please tell her how grateful I am to the both of you. He’s so good at hiding what he is, no one ever believes me. But you made that jury see him for what he is. You made them believe me,” she added, tears filling her eyes.
“Thank you for not giving up,” Ari said, holding her hand in both of hers, leaving her unable to wipe the tear that escaped down her own cheek. “What you’ve been through is not easy. It’s not fair what he’s done to you.”
“What happens now?” she asked, her eyes darting down to Ari and then up to Sloane.
“He’ll be sentenced,” Ari explained. “The most he can get for this is a year in jail. But he committed some more crimes in there. I have to talk to my partner, but I think we can
recommend that he be charged with a few counts of assault or maybe terroristic threats. That’s a felony, so it’s not our division, but you’ve got some great witnesses and the courtroom is wired with cameras. It’ll be impossible for him to spin that to look like anyone else did it and it carries way harsher penalties.”
Ms. Dominguez set down her tea before standing. Ari followed suit, ignoring the unfortunate numbness in her legs as the blood flow returned to normal after squatting.
“Thank you,” she said again, capturing Sloane and Ari in a hug. “You girls are my angels.”
Sloane’s arm slipped over Ari’s as they returned the woman’s embrace. Her fingers wrapped around her wrist and gripped her so tightly, she nearly gasped.
After they’d made sure Ms. Dominguez was okay to drive home, Ari and Sloane trudged to the elevator, pulling their cases full of stu , completely depleted.
“I’ve never had a client hug me before,” Sloane confessed as she hit the button for their floor. “I mean, I know she’s not technically our client, but I never even met any of the people whose legal problems became my life for months and years on end.”
Ari resisted making a snarky remark. She nodded instead.
“Seeing the relief in her face, even if it’s temporary, makes the stress and lost sleep worth it,” she agreed. “You made an actual di erence in that woman’s life.”