Taken Care Of

As we enter the courthouse I see all the guards.... well guarding, I probably haven't seen this amount of guards in one place ever! And I have seen a lot of them. Erik said the publics shock they felt at first has turned into anger, for Preston's safety most of the castle guards are here. I mean I know he's a horrible man that is about to pay for what he did, but he doesn't deserve an angry mob attacking him. Gray turns and gives me a look, he must have been invading my thoughts again and disagreed with what I thought. We soon reach the ginormous staircase, last time we were here I didn't have my wolf which made the journey up this staircase quite difficult. I'm hoping now my wolf is back in her annoying place. "Annoying?! As you said without me you didn't manage to get up the stairs" she snaps in my mind, I didn't say I didn't manage to get up the stairs and I actually did get up the stairs first try "I knew what you were thinking and yes you might have gotten up, but with extreme difficulty!" She shouts back in my mind, I let our a little laugh before snapping back to reality. One tiny issue was arising in my mind though, I don't know if other people feel this but I was wearing a tight skirt. Now I know as it's tight you won't see anything as I walk up the stairs, but sometimes they rise up when you're walking. It always makes me nervous to walk up stairs in dresses or skirts, I'll be giving whoever is behind me a show! Once again Gray must have been invading my thoughts, as when we reach the bottom of the stairs he moves so he's standing behind me. I give him a weird look as he places his hands on my shoulders telling me to walk up, I do what he says as we all start to make our way up. Gray was right behind me blocking anyone else's view of my butt, oh that sucks for everyone behind me they missed out on the little show, like those butlers did that day. As like I wanted him to Gray let's out a low growl, serves him right invading my thoughts whenever he pleases. "You are mine Clara, no one especially, those butlers will never see that kind of show" he mind-links me as we were halfway up, I'm not kidding when I tell you how big this staircase really was. "Sharing is caring" I whisper knowing Gray heard exactly what I said, this causes me to let another deep growl out. "I don't share my love" he mind-links me as we finally reach the top, the best thing was I didn't feel like I needed to sit down anywhere! "You're welcome" my wolf says harshly before blocking me out, we soon arrive in the doorway of the balcony. As soon as I look at the railing the image of Erik pushing the man over fills my brain, okay Clara you just need to get over that. I take a deep breath before walking onto the balcony where the court stood, guards were everywhere. As we take a seat we hear intense boo's coming from outside, at first I was confused and worried that people where booing me! But Preston being led into the court debunks that theory, he wore a blue suit kind of like the one he wore for Lizzy's funeral. He had hand-cuffs around his wrists, a chain going around his waist that was linked to another chain that went around his feet, he's very much secured. "When guards went to collect Preston to escort him here, he tried to escape and very nearly succeeded in doing so" Erik informs me through mind-link, wait really?! That's probably why Erik looked nervous when he came to my parents safe house this morning, he probably held off telling me until he knew more. At Lizzy's funeral, Preston proclaimed he wanted for forgiveness and wanted to get punished for what happened. But now he's about to get punished he tries to run, well that must have been a lie. "As I told you before my love, the manner in which he was behaving was an act, now he has realised that he is getting punished the act is up, you are too nice of a person to see that my love" Gray informs me, yeah well he could have kept the act up a little longer, now he looks very much guilty. The judge walks in, once again sending a look to Gray who nods his head. I smile a little shaking my head, this causes Gray to clear his throat making me look at him. He sends me a wink before the judge starts to speak, the trial was soon underway. The prosecutor and the defence had just given their opening statements, the prosecution was giving a brief rundown of the type of crimes Preston commit. While the defence kept going back to Preston being the former King, that's really the only defence that they had. The defence called my father to the stand where he was asked some baseline questions, he couldn't fully go into the detail of Preston giving him the jobs as he was never there. Now this would have been a problem if we only had my father, but we had Cyrus on our side now, our secret weapon. "I would like to call Cyrus Jacobs, to the stand" the prosecutor guy says, I'll just address him as "our guy" as I know I'll be saying that a few times. Cyrus gets led up to the stand, it's the first time in awhile I've seen him without handcuffs. He looked so smart in a black suit and tie. He takes a quick look up to me where I nod my head, he fixes his suit before he sends a nod to our guy to start asking questions, see how easier it is when we call him that?! "Now Mr Jacobs, when and how was it that Preston approached you?" Our guy asks, Cyrus looks in thought for a few seconds, he didn't think about this before now?! "I was sat at home when a bunch of shady looking men show up, they tell me the King has summoned me and I have to leave immediately" he explains, that's what Kyle says they say when you summon somebody, at least we know he's starting with the truth "so I went along with these men, where they take me to this lake place" Cyrus continues which is news to me, could this be the lake where Matilda was hurt? I mean it could be but it's also possible it's not, that's not the only lake in the world. "So it was there you met Preston?" Our guy asks keeping Cyrus on topic, it's lucky I'm not the only one who felt he was getting off topic. "I was told by the men that the King was busy so I'd have so wait a few minutes, some auction type event was going on and after that happened, he himself came to see me" he explains which immediately makes my jaw drop, Cyrus was there?! "What did Preston tell you when you met him?" Our guy asks, I was still shocked about the whole lake situation, I turn back to look at Erik who also wore a shocked expression, I guess he didn't know about that part either! "He pulls me aside and said he heard good things about me and my brother, he needed some professional people to handle some of the loose ends he made over the years" Cyrus says as I take a look at Preston, he was sat back in his chair looking kind of worried, maybe it's finally sinking in that he's screwed. "Can you give us a little list or summary of the kind of jobs he'd get you and your brother, Wes Jacobs, to carry out?" He's asked, why do they keep addressing Preston by only his first name, but then he addresses Cyrus and my dad by their last. "It is due to me and you very soon, having that same last name, we should not be associated with this, it would be a terrible look" Gray mind-links me answering my question, aww I will have his last name soon, I didn't realise. I hear Gray laugh a little beside me, it is quite bad that I only just realised that! I still couldn't wait though. "He'd send us to collect money from people, evict people from their homes, intimate some random people, a few a times I was sent to deal with some people" Cyrus explains as our guy interrupts to ask another question. "Your brother was never asked to do such jobs?" He asks which is also something I didn't know, I always assumed that Cyrus and my dad did it all together. "We'd do most jobs together but ones where people got hurt, Wes never wanted to do as he had a family, I would get asked to bring him along but I wasn't going to force him if he didn't want to" Cyrus goes onto explain, wow it actually sounds like he cared. "Now what would happen if you were to refuse to do a job for Preston?" Our guy asks, he was asking Cyrus a lot of questions. "That wouldn't have been an option, we were told after the first job that it was easy to find guys like us, which meant we were easy to be replaced and even easier to be taken care of" Cyrus says which again, I knew nothing about up to this point. "Do you believe if you turned down a job that you and your brother would be taken care of?" our guy asks which kind of makes me sad, if Cyrus was scared of him just imagine how other people felt, innocent people who were terrorised under his reign to terror. I feel a hand reach other taking mine, I look to the side to see Gray held my hand rubbing his thumb over my knuckles. "That is what makes you an amazing Queen my love" he tells me through mind-link, I smile a little as Cyrus begin to talk. "Yes, I honestly believe we would have, he didn't see us as people but just as objects that helped him, but could also be replaced and thrown away" Cyrus says sadly, whoa he has emotions! "No further questions" our guys says before walking back to his seat. Well that was a lot of new information!