“You can’t wear this anymore,” said Donny, holding up the pin. “Not if you want to live.”

You could feel it in the room when he said that. But Donny didn’t look to see the faces of the other lawyers. He just looked at the President and waited.

The President smiled, the smile of someone who still believed he had power, or would soon get it back. Power to punish anyone who angered or disrespected him.

Donny held out the pin, waited for the President to put out his hand, and dropped it in his palm. The President slowly closed his hand around the pin, then slid it into his jacket pocket.

There was a blond woman seated next to the President, in a suit of her own, but with a more feminine cut and an open collar. She stood up when Donny approached her boss, and when she did you could see how tall she was, and how strong. She had been introduced as the President’s in-house counsel, but you could see she was also his bodyguard, and maybe his paramour.

“It’s okay,” said the President. “Mr. Kimoe and I go way back. Even if we’ve never met in person. And I’m sure he’s right.”

“If you want to wear the flag, wear your uniform,” said Donny. The President was a war hero before he ran for office, a navy pilot who had been shot down in Korea during the war with China, and managed to escape. “Maybe your old one, if it fits, not the commander-in-chief one.”

“I’ll wear whatever you tell me, as long as you’re there.”

Donny poured himself a coffee and sat across from his new client. Who actually wasn’t his client, yet. Donny had wanted to wait until they had this meeting before he formally agreed to the engagement, which technically would be as co-counsel to WWH. What was crazy was how well rested the guy looked. Fit, even. Out of power, but confident and relaxed, the kind of rogue alpha who is already angling what his next gig will be. Not at all the way you would expect someone facing the choice between death by public hanging and three consecutive life sentences would be.

“They say Charles the First was like this,” said Donny.

Not much of a reaction to that.

“He got a cozy house arrest too. Until he tried to escape, at least. But acted regal right up until they lopped off his head and held it up for the crowd.”

“Fortunately you are going to make sure that doesn’t happen in this case,” said Ann, trying to redirect the tone.

“That depends on how this meeting goes,” said Donny.

The other lawyers in the room looked tense. They were on the client’s side without reservation. Pinstriped restorationists who’d be glad to put their own lapel pins back on if they could get this guy back in power.