The Defender. Cara Summers

the silence of the church envelop her. Then she heard two gunshots in rapid succession.

      AFTER LEAVING A MESSAGE on Nik’s cell, Theo dialed Kit and left the same one. Then he turned his cell phone off for the weekend, strolled onto the porch of the cabin and took his first look at the sea. The tide was coming in, but the water in the little inlet was relatively calm.

      The position of the sun in the sky told him that there was about a half an hour left before sunset. Still plenty of time to sit and relax and enjoy the view.

      It didn’t surprise Theo that his brothers hadn’t picked up when he’d called them. They would have known the minute they checked the caller ID what he was calling about. He’d made it to their grandfather’s fishing cabin first, so it was his brotherly duty to gloat.

      From the time they’d been kids, they’d always raced from their father’s car to the cabin. The winner got the first pick of the lures and poles.

      Well, he’d won the race this weekend, but it hadn’t been for the choice of fishing equipment that he’d left his office early. He’d set out to beat the weekend traffic because he’d wanted some time alone before anyone joined him. There was something about being near the sea that helped him to sort things out. Perhaps it would even settle the restlessness that had been plaguing him lately. No—it was more than restlessness. For the first time in his life, he was doubting himself. In the courtroom he was hanging back, second-guessing his instincts.

      A joyful bark had him shifting his gaze away from the water. Bob, a neighbor’s dog, was bounding happily toward the cabin. No one was quite sure what Bob’s actual lineage was, but Theo had always suspected that there’d been a Saint Bernard among his ancestors. He opened the door and Bob shot into the cabin. Theo heard his toenails clicking on the floorboards as he raced from room to room.

      A moment later, Bob returned to the porch and Theo could have sworn that his expression held reproach.

      “Ari is coming with Kit,” he said. “He’ll be here in another couple of hours.” Over the years, Bob and Ari, Kit’s dog, had become friends. Reminding himself that he wanted to have time alone before that joyful canine reunion, Theo strolled into the kitchen. He stored the whole grain bread he’d brought in the pantry and put the selection of cheeses into the refrigerator. When he turned, Bob stepped into his path, sat down and thumped expectantly his tail on the floor.

      “Kit’s bringing the stuff you like,” Theo said as he reached into the refrigerator and broke off a chunk of cheese for the dog. His youngest brother always provided the more basic essentials—eggs, bacon, rolls and enough deli meat for an army. Nik, whose cupboard in his apartment was always bare, would bring what he considered essential—beer and junk food.

      While Bob made short work of the hunk of cheddar, Theo unpacked the wine he’d brought. There were two dry Italian whites from different regions, a German white and a French chardonnay. All would go well with the fish they would catch this weekend.

      Kit was the real fisherman of the family. Even as a kid he’d had their father’s patience and ability. Nik and Theo would throw in their lines, of course; but Nik would spend the majority of the weekend on his boat testing his skills against the wind and waves and what Theo enjoyed most about the cabin was simply being near the water and being with his family.

      Bob padded after him into the bedroom and sat ever hopeful as Theo stripped out of his city clothes and hung them neatly on hangers. Noticing the way that Bob was eyeing his Italian loafers, he rescued them and placed them on the closet’s top shelf. After pulling on the well-worn jeans and T-shirt that he kept at the cabin, he strolled barefoot back to the refrigerator, poured a glass of the Italian white and carried it to the porch.

      Theo sank into a chair, put his feet up on the railing and crossed his ankles. As he sipped his wine, he reached absently down and ran a hand over Bob’s head. A gull cried out as it swooped close to the water’s surface before soaring into the sky. Far out in the distance, an outboard motor thrummed as a boat moved slowly into the center of the inlet. The driver already had his running lights on in anticipation of the sunset. At Theo’s side, Bob sighed.

      Theo could second the sigh. He had a decision to make this weekend. The fact that he wasn’t looking forward to it didn’t mean that he could avoid it any longer. Taking a slow sip of wine, he gazed out at the water. He wasn’t usually indecisive.

      His Aunt Cass believed that psychic powers ran in the family and she’d told him once that his own gift was particularly strong. He didn’t see visions the way she did, but from the time he’d been a child, there’d often been occasions when he just knew things. Most of his success in the courtroom had been due to the fact that he’d had a hunch about which strategies to implement. And when it came to making choices, he was usually pretty sure which one to make.

      But that had all changed since Sandra Linton. It was that damn most-eligible-bachelor list that had started it all. After that splash of publicity, Sandra had been among the women who’d started attending his trials. His brothers had called them his groupies. Then he’d made the mistake of agreeing to have coffee with her. Why hadn’t he sensed that simple choice would lead to tragedy? For that matter, why hadn’t he sensed that she was disturbed?

      For two months the woman had followed him everywhere. Reasoning with her hadn’t helped. Neither had a restraining order. He’d rented a small apartment in town to keep her away from his family and he’d taken to sneaking out the delivery entrance of his office building. He’d even changed his parking lots. Still, she’d eventually tracked him down at his father’s restaurant.

      Panic slithered up his spine even now when he thought of it. They’d been in the small lobby of The Poseidon when she’d pulled the gun. His sister, Philly, had been only a few feet away and there’d been customers waiting for tables. He hadn’t needed psychic powers to know what she’d intended to do—the violence, the fury and the despair had been there in her eyes. If he hadn’t been able to convince her to leave…

      Taking a sip of his wine, Theo shoved the fear of what might have been out of his mind and focused on the now. Watching the rippling surface of the sea, he repeated the little lecture he’d been giving himself for the last two months. It was high time he put Sandra Linton out of his mind. It was more than time for him to get his balance back.

      Perhaps taking the position with Jason Sangerfeld would help him do that. The high-power defense attorney had called him a month ago and offered him a job—a dream job, one that any defense attorney would jump at. If Theo accepted, he would be working second chair with Jason on high-profile cases. The experience would be incredible, the money…well, it would be a lot more than he was making now. The catch was that he’d have to give up his own practice and move to Los Angeles.

      Theo knew exactly what his Aunt Cass would say—the Fates were offering him a choice and his decision would make all the difference in his life. The truth was, he’d be a lot quicker about making his decision if he just had some inkling which choice was the right one. But his lucky hunches were leaving him high and dry. He wasn’t sure anymore what the right thing to do was. And he couldn’t help but wonder if this was due to doubting his instincts.

      When Bob sighed again, Theo lifted his feet off the railing, rose and started moving toward the shoreline. One thing he did know: he should have put Sandra Linton behind him once she’d been arrested and he’d contacted the public defender’s office to request that they assign the case to Sadie Oliver.

      Theo strolled out onto the dock and sat down. Bob stretched out beside him. For a moment, he let his mind empty and fill with nothing more than the soft sound of the waves and the sight of the sky turning red in the west. Behind him, insects murmured in the grass.

      Watching the sun sink into the water, his thoughts returned to Sadie Oliver. She’d been on his mind a lot lately. His brother Kit’s best friend, Roman Oliver, had mentioned both of his sisters on occasion. He was very proud of the fact that Sadie had gone east to college and had edited the law review at Harvard Law School. His other sister, Juliana, who was twelve years his junior, had been sent away to a boarding school for high school. Theo had been aware through