Читать книгу In This Together - Kara Lennox - Страница 14

CHAPTER SIX

ELENA COULDN’T BELIEVE this was happening to her, but she was actually taking Travis’s side. She’d always had strong feelings about the work Project Justice did. Her family had come to this country to find freedom and fairness, and it had appealed to her sense of honor that even when the justice system made a mistake, there was still recourse. Her family had left Cuba when they did because her father was being threatened with jail simply for expressing an opinion that wasn’t popular with the government.

Her father had trained as a doctor, but for reasons Elena never fully understood, he hadn’t been allowed to practice. Instead, his fine mind had gone to waste in the cane fields and his family had lived in a tin shack. And even that had been threatened.

Their first few years in America, they’d still been relatively poor. But they’d been free—free to speak their minds, to live and work where they wanted, and free from the constant threat of jail.

She was proud to work for the man who had created a foundation that defended people who’d been unfairly imprisoned.

But this was the first time she had been so up close and personal with the pain and devastation a false conviction wreaked on the prisoner’s family. If her family had not left Cuba when they had, she could easily be the one left on the outside, mourning an innocent person’s life being wasted behind bars. She could easily see herself in Travis’s place—powerless to help, desperate to make someone—anyone—listen to reason.

Still, she couldn’t overlook the fact that Travis had himself committed a crime. He’d kidnapped her and was still holding her against her will, though her will had weakened considerably over the past few hours.

How she felt didn’t really matter, she supposed. The course had been set. Nothing would happen until tomorrow, when Travis checked his voice mail to find out Daniel’s response.

The whole thing would be over before too long. Travis would let her go—she felt pretty sure about that. Then he would be arrested. But something good would come of it. Daniel would be forced to take a look at Eric’s case. And when he realized Eric’s lawyer had been weak, that he hadn’t pursued certain avenues that he should have, that he hadn’t let Travis testify, Daniel would have no choice but to do something. His conscience wouldn’t let him ignore the situation, no matter what he said about proper channels and priorities.