Claimed and Corrupted: Bound to the MC

"Thomas, I've already told you I'm not a criminal defense attorney, and you know this. Why do you want me to assist on this case?" "As I've told you, I think it would be good practice for you to branch out. Corporate law is a great thing to work on, but most of the other partners work on that as well. And so do the lawyers vying to make partner. This is something that could help you stand out. You know you already have my support, but it's not just me you need in your corner." "I guess you're right," I mean maybe this would give me the boost I need to be made partner, but I still think it's ridiculous. Of course I can't tell him that because I will need his continued support if I'm going to make partner. "I'm in, give me some time to brush up on criminal law. Does your paralegal have the case file?" "She does, and you have," he looks down at his watch, grins, then looks back at me. "Four hours, we're meeting them at noon to go over everything." "S.hit, okay, I have to go." I leave his office and stop by his paralegal's desk, "Hey Ameilia." "Oh hey Raven, what can I do for you?" "Thomas has roped me into working on the Collins case. Can you do me a huge favor and give me everything you have on that?" "Oh yes of course, give me like fifteen minutes and I'll have everything sent over to Ivy." "You are a literal lifesaver." I give her a grateful smile as I head back towards my office, stopping by my Ivy, my paralegals, office on the way to fill her in on everything. "You have got to be kidding me," I groan as I step into my office and find Zach sitting behind my desk. "Well that's a lovely way to greet your fiance." "Ex-fiance, or have you forgotten?" I tell him icily, trying not to give him the satisfaction of seeing how annoyed I am to find him in my office, at my desk, and in my freaking chair. "Come on babe, when are you going to get over yourself and forgive me." "Never, now get out. I have a case to prepare for and not a lot of time to do it in." He stands up and slowly walks towards me, he stops in front of me and flashes that smile that used to make my insides quake. Now all it does is make me want to vomit. "I made a mistake Raven," he tells me as he lifts his hand to run it through my hair, I smack his hand away from my head and glare at him. "I know you still love me, but I'll give you more time to come to terms with that." I don't respond as he walks out the door, the absolute audacity of this man is unparalleled. I sit down at my desk and open my emails, thankfully Ivy has sent over everything that Ameilia sent her, and reorganized everything according to priority and even included some cases with precedent. These women are absolutely magnificent, it took them half an hour to get all this together for me. I start by reading over his case, the details we have so far, and then reading the similar cases that Ivy sent me. Before I know it, Ivy is knocking on my door telling me I have to leave. I grab all of my stuff and rush out of the office so Thomas doesn't leave me behind, he has quite the reputation for punctuality and has left people before. "I almost left," Thomas growls as I slide into the front seat of his car. "Yeah, and I almost broke my freaking ankle running out here in these heals so you wouldn't." He just gives me a look then starts driving. "You all caught up to speed on the case?" "Well, not entirely since I only had four hours, but Ivy put the information in order of importance so I know that Collins has been charged with voluntary manslaughter and the DA is pursuing the maximum of eleven years in state prison." "That's correct, what other details have you learned?" "He is being charged with killing a woman, a prostitute the file said, during an argument. The cops found them at a motel the day after the incident occurred. He was still passed out but the woman was dead when they arrived." "Is that everything?" "Well no, I gathered from the information that he refused to confess, in fact he stated that he had never seen the woman before. It seems like an interesting case, he doesn't have many priors, a few minor charges but overall nothing that sets off any alarm bells. I also noted that he has been denied bail so they're keeping him here until the trial. They said he was a flight risk, but I didn't see any evidence of that." Thomas starts laughing as we pull into the parking lot at the prison. He parks and gets out still laughing. "I'm sorry is something funny about what I said?" "Raven, you looked into all the facts of the case, tell me what you learned about Collins himself." "Honestly, not that much. I went through the pertinent information first, I told you this. I read up on the charges, his dispute of those charges, and then relevant case precedent." "Now this is where you have something to learn." "Oh and what's that?" He pauses as we approach the prison and he speaks to the guard. We get shuffled through, searched, and then we follow the guard to the interview room. "When dealing with criminal cases," Thomas says quietly, "it is just as, if not more, important to know everything about the client themselves. Name, date of birth, job, whether they visit their grandmother every Sunday for dinner. When we work these cases we need to convince a jury that the person they are seeing could not possibly be the person accused of committing the crime they are charged with. It's almost more important than knowing the ins-and-outs of the case and case precedent itself." "Well that would have been good to know a few hours ago. This is why I didn't want to work on this case, I feel wholly under prepared now." We stop outside the interview room and the guard just gives us a nod as he walks away. "Raven, you are one of the smartest lawyers in the entire firm. I picked you to help me with this case to broaden your horizons of what's important. I have no doubt you will pick up the nuances of criminal law in no time. Now before we go in the most important thing you didn't find out is that our client is the President of the Satan's Demon Motorcycle Club, they are classified as an outlaw motorcycle club by law enforcement, so we have our work cut out for us."