The questions would have hurt no matter what.

The hangover didn't help.

Each word-- no-- each syllable the defense attorney uttered, pounded like a jack hammer in my brain. My skin felt like some devil was peeling it off layer by layer.

It was the defense's first day at cross-examining and they were ripping me a new one.

Ned had caught me dry-heaving in the men's room toilet before court.

He asked me if I was okay and if I wasn't he could ask the judge to delay my testimony for the day.

I told him I'd eaten bad shrimp and would be fine.

I did felt a little better after Ned left and I downed one of those single serving bottles of tequila, with a breath mint and aspirin chaser.

I sat in the witness stand and did my best not to scream out loud from the barrage of noise that assaulted me.

I answered each question in the Kato Kalin school of testifying. Smile and wink, drink lots of water and make the courtroom observers laugh as much as possible. All the while making a complete ass out of yourself.

The difference is, that despite rumors to the contrary, Kato's life wasn't at stake. Mine was.

I was screwing up so bad that Friday and Gannon could walk. If they did, I was as good as dead. Those two aren't going to be happy just walking the streets as free men. No, they'll want revenge. They'll want payback for the time they had to serve. They'll want their pound of flesh and they'll take it from me.

I never should have let the cops wire me in the first place. They may have blown people away with me in that room, but at least they didn't aim at me.

Not yet.

After today though, I might as well start wearing a target.