Believing Bailey

by Linda Kage

  Sure, I’d always dreamed of swapping spit with my cowboy, but this wasn’t exactly how I’d pictured it going down.

  “Are you okay?”

  I finished cleaning up my face, then blew out a breath and batted the wrinkles out of my shirt, straightened my spine and brushed some stray moisture from my eyes. Not sure why they were wet to begin with, but whatever. Then I blew out a big breath before lifting my face and saying, “Of course I’m fine.”

  I was.

  Really.

  Not.

  Then I narrowed my eyes and sent a contemptuous glare toward the closed door. “But that bastard’s definitely not my soulmate anymore, that’s for damn sure.”

  They guy who’d saved me blinked. “What?” He had shaggy blond hair and a wrinkled shirt with blue jeans and work boots. I frowned at him a moment, thinking he looked a little too farm boy to be in a fraternity. Then I shook my head.

  “Nothing.”

  He watched me a moment before shoving his hands into his pockets and shivering from the cold. “What you just said.” He motioned over his shoulder with his thumb. “To Chance. About seeing what happened with Beck. Was that true?”

  I scowled. “Of course it was true. Why would I lie about that?” Did he know a lot of girls who openly confessed to being voyeurs?

  The guy shrugged and looked momentarily thoughtful, but not in a good way, like my news disturbed him. “Beck was never the type, you know, to force a girl. I don’t think I every really, fully believed he’d rape anyone. But if it’s true, and he’s really innocent…” He shook his head. “Then Beck is fucking screwed. They’ll never let him back in the fraternity, and Chance…Chance’ll be gunning for him. He’d never believe anything bad about his sister.”

  Yeah, I’d kind of caught on to that fact about good old Chance. I wiped at my face again, feeling phantom traces of spit still on my cheek. “Well, it sounds like Beck’s screwed then. Because he totally didn’t rape her.” My shoulders sagged. “He really hasn’t been released from jail yet? I went to the police hours ago with my story. I would’ve thought they’d let him go by now.”

  The blonde fraternity dude shook his head. “I haven’t heard about him being released. And if he does get free, he won’t be welcome back here. It wouldn’t matter if he was innocent or not. This has caused too much damaged to our name.” He looked worried as he said that, but I had the feeling he wouldn’t go out of his way to help his friend Beck, either.

  Poor Beck.

  I took a step back, ready to get away from this place. “Well, thanks again for the…” I finally looked down at what I was holding and blinked at the red and white hanky. It was exactly like the one my dad always carried.

  What the hell was this preppy frat boy doing, carrying around something that was so country?

  He took the wadded piece of cloth back and shoved it into his pocket. I stared at him strangely another second and then turned away to hurry off the porch.

  I didn’t breathe easily again until I’d returned to my car and had the heater on. And even though I positioned the vents so warmth blew right on my face, I felt icy cold and numb all the way to my bones.

  I plodded up the steps of my apartment when I got home, still bone-cold dazed, and stopped at the top of the landing. Tess, or someone—though it was probably Tess—had cleaned up my potato chip disaster I’d abandoned earlier and then folded my blanket and placed it neatly on the back of the couch. The room was quiet and television turned off. I could hear voices from the kitchen; they were probably eating together, like a big, happy two-couple family.

  They’d be just fine without their fifth-wheel Bailey tonight, so I trudged to my room and went straight to the bath, where I stripped down and stepped into the shower. I turned the water as hot as I could get it without burning off layers of skin and then scrubbed at my face for a good five minutes until tears began to drip down my cheeks. Hugging myself, I sat on the floor of the bathtub under the hot spray and cried for a bit longer.

  But seriously, who knew learning your soulmate was really an asshole could be so devastating?

  Chapter 11

  BECKETT

  “What’s wrong?” demanded the correctional officer who was standing behind me as I tried to piss. “Thought you said you had to take a leak?”

  I did. I still had to. It was just, I wasn’t really used to the audience. Stage freight and all that. Gritting my teeth, I tried not to think about the uniformed guard breathing down my neck and finally got a trickle to come. Didn’t hurt as bad this time. I risked a glance down and the stream wasn’t even tinged pink. My kidneys must be getting better. My eye certainly was; I could finally see out of both of them again. I was still sore and bruised as hell but I felt a hundred times better today.

  When I finished, I stepped back and zipped, only for the guard to glance past me and into the little bowl I’d had to pee into.

  “Looks like you’re getting better,” he congratulated, patting me on the back hard enough to jar my tender ribs and make me want to weep from the pain. “No more blood in the urine.”

  I gulped and sent him a sickened nod. Getting better meant one thing. It meant—

  “We can get you back to general population now.”

  That.

  Fuckity, fuck, fuck. I didn’t want to go back to general population. I suddenly wished my piss had been a dark, scarlet red. I didn’t want to leave my safe, comfy infirmary.

  “But—” I glanced longingly into the cell that I’d stayed in for two nights as the guard nudged me past it.

  “Don’t worry. We’ll put you in a different pod this time around.”

  Oh joy. A whole new group of convicts could kick my ass now.

  “Can’t let you stay here forever,” the guard added, pressing on a button and then waiting until someone in control unlocked the door in front of us. As it swung open to lead into a hall, I resisted without meaning to, wanting to argue that yes, yes they could totally let me stay here forever. I was fine with staying.

  “Move it, Hilliard,” he ordered.

  Heaving out a sad sigh, I nodded and fell obediently into step, but it didn’t take long for my breathing to pick up, my vision to waver, and my body to go from ice cold to burning hot and back to ice cold again. After everything went totally gray and then came back blurry, I shook my head, trying to see better, expect I just couldn’t. My body was going into panic mode whether I liked it or not.

  My heart was beating too fast, my hands were shaking too hard. If they put me back in with general population now, I think I’d literally scare myself to death. This was what I’d always imagined a heart attack would feel like.

  “Here we are.”

  Oh, shit. We were here already? Was this guy going to make another big announcement about me being a rapist? Were they going to start on me in the first thirty seconds again? What if I didn’t survive the beating this time?

  Anxiety attack, here I come.

  The door swung open, and I whimpered, fucking wussy-ass whimpered.

  Yeah, they were going to kick my ass immediately.

  When I didn’t enter immediately enough, the guard shoved me forward. I stumbled inside the pod and about two dozen guys stopped what they were doing to stare.

  One scary-looking shaved-head motherfucker playing cards at a table snickered. “Nice,” he said before turning away disinterested and threw down two of his cards, demanding more.

  Most everyone else lost interested as well. My equilibrium was still whack and everything went blurry and tipsy. My breathing wouldn’t slow down, but a hope bloomed inside my chest. Maybe they were going to leave me alone this time. God, I hoped so.

  I started toward the side. The walls seemed like much safer places than out in the middle of everything. But some scrawny, drugged-up looking creep fell into step behind me.

  “Hey, you’re that rapist, ain’t you?”

  Dammit, how did he know that?

  “I saw you on the TV.”

&
nbsp; Oh.

  I ignored him and carried on, no idea where I was going, just trying to get away from him, though there really was no going anywhere away. We were stuck in the same big pod together, a room full of thieves, drug dealers, real rapists, and probably even murderers.

  “Hey.” He poked me directly in the center of the back.

  I paused and glanced back.

  He was grossly skinny and slimy, as if he didn’t bathe often. His dark hair was matted and long. I tried to keep from grimacing as he moved in closer.

  “Pussy sure do feel better when it don’t want you in there, don’t it?” Then he cackled, showing off a mouth full of back rotting teeth and jabbed his elbow companionably at me.

  “Eww.” This time, I couldn’t resist revealing the disgust that oozed off me. I winced, revolted, and turned my face aside to keep from looking at this sick bastard straight in the eye.

  But, yeah, that offended him.

  “Hey,” he roared, stepping up into my face, even though he was nearly a foot shorter than me. “Don’t you be acting like you’re better than me, you pretty, rich little fucker. We in a whole new world now, princess. And you’re just a pathetic little shit stain here.”

  I blinked, wondering why he’d called me rich. No one had ever called me that before. While I was still pondering that one, the bald guy who’d been playing cards, threw down his entire hand and pushed to his feet, glaring our way.

  “New boy giving you some trouble, Hopps?”

  “Yeah,” the guy in my face sneered, blowing his putrid breath in my face and making me gag. “He’s fucking disrespecting me.”

  “Yo, no one disrespects Hopps,” Bald-guy told me, nudging the tiny druggie aside so he could get into my face. He was considerably taller than Hopps. And wider too. Hell, he was considerably taller and wider than me.

  His fellow card players from the table had risen as well and were gathering behind him, and yep, one was cracking his knuckles.

  Dammit, not the knuckle cracking. I could almost feel my nose breaking already.

  My shoulders fell. I didn’t bother to gush out an apology. It wasn’t because I was trying to be a brave idiot either. I would’ve babbled one out on my hands and knees if I’d thought it’d do any good. But I knew, just from looking into this guy’s eyes, they were going to kick my ass no matter what I said.

  “Well…” he demanded. “You mute or what? Say something already.”

  I opened my mouth, but before I could say anything, the intercom beeped. “Hilliard,” a voice boomed overhead. “Approach the door.”

  When no one in the entire pod reacted and the guy in my face didn’t move, I pointed toward the exit. “That…that’s me. I gotta go now.”

  I slipped by him along the wall and then then jumped free to hurry toward the door. No one followed me, and my breath stuttered with relief. My eyes might’ve even started watering I was so grateful.

  I didn’t even care what the guards had in mind for me; I’d been saved from an ass-beating. So life was good.

  “What’s going on?” I asked as soon as they’d marched me a good thirty feet down the hall away from my pod. Were they taking me back to the infirmary? I could totally handle that.

  “You got another hearing,” a guy I’d never met before announced.

  I blinked. “I do?” Then I shook my head. “Are you sure? I didn’t think I had anything else for months to come.”

  The guard only shrugged. “Your name’s on the docket.”

  Well, okay then. It honestly didn’t matter to me if they’d made a mistake or not. If it saved me from broken bones, mistakes were good.

  So back into the police car I went, handcuffs, orange jumpsuit and all. The ride through town toward the courthouse made me blink. I was already growing used to being inside all day; it seemed so bright out here. About the time my eyes finally adjusted, we had arrived at our destination and I was paraded through a sally port and in through the back entrance of the courthouse. After I was ushered into the same room where I’d had my first hearing, I saw my lawyer across the crowd and blinked.

  Well, hell, maybe I did have another appearance today.

  But why?

  I tried to catch Stempy’s eye, figure out what was happening, but he seemed preoccupied with some paperwork he was reading from his opened briefcase. So I sat where I was told to sit, and waited.

  I wasn’t the first case this time around, and I had to wait through three other grueling hearings before my name was called. My handler who’d been sitting next to me nudged me into a stand, and I lumbered clumsily in my ankle cuffs toward Stempy.

  “What in God’s name is going on?” I hissed as soon as I sat at the defendant’s table with him. Good things did not happen to me when I was in this courtroom. I couldn’t even imagine what sentence they’d afflict on me this time around.

  Raise my bail another fifty grand? Decide to forgo a trial and deem my guilty now? Decide hangings were back in style and just string me up in the courtyard out back?

  But Stempy’s eyes lit with glee as he leaned toward me. “Sorry, I didn’t have time to give you a heads’ up. But some new evidence has come to light, prompting a new hearing.”

  “New…?” I shook my head, not understanding.

  “Rainbow-hair girl,” he whispered, grinning. “Well, she’s a blonde now, but that’s neither here nor there. She came forward.”

  “She…” My chest squeezed with excitement. “Holy shit! She did? So I’m free? Are we here to free me?”

  Stempy winced. “I’m not exactly certain. After we passed on this new information to the county attorney, and we all questioned Melody Fairfield again, she still refused to admit to lying, but her story no longer holds water, and when we caught her in a few lies, she just broke down crying, so it’s possible the prosecutor might still take the case to trial.”

  My chest seized. Rainbow-hair girl had come to my rescue, yet I might still be stuck in jail until Spring? No! I’d never make it that long. I couldn’t even last five minutes in that place without someone cracking their knuckles and wanting to cause me extreme bodily harm.

  “Since the evidence is so strong, the judge might release you on O.R. and—”

  “Wait. What does O.R. mean?”

  “Release you of your own recognizance. You can go free without having to pay your bail, but you’ll still have to go through with the trial and possibly check in with a reporting officer until then.”

  I was already nodding, more than okay with that option. Any route that didn’t send me back to jail was fine with me. “I can do that,” I assured him eagerly.

  But he didn’t seem so optimistic. “That’s only one thing that might happen.”

  Shit. I should’ve known there would be more possible outcomes. “What else could happen?” My eyes begged him to say something good, like they might give me a free puppy or a million dollars for mistakenly imprisoning me. I just couldn’t handle an option that sent me back to jail.

  But the same lady judge who hated my guts called for our attention, and my hearing began.

  “Mr. Hilliard,” she greeted, clutching her gavel as if she wanted to chuck it at my head. She narrowed her eyes with that I-hate-rapists-and-all-men glare she was so good at giving. “Back so soon?” I shrugged, biting back the instinctive playful need I wanted to reply, saying I’d just missed her. But I worried that might sound too smug, or male, for her taste. Besides, I was still worried about the “other” things that could happen that Stempy hadn’t been able to tell me about.

  Judge Gudrun turned her attention to the county attorney across the aisle from us. “Councilor, I believe this hearing was scheduled because new information came to light.”

  “That’s right, your honor.” He took to his feet and cleared his throat, then shuffled through some papers and fiddled with his glasses, perching them just right on his nose.

  I held my breath and gritted my teeth, willing him to just spit it out already. Was it puppies or mo
re trips to the infirmary for me?

  “Your honor, due to lack of evidence, the state drops their charges against Beckett Aaron Hilliard.”

  My mouth snapped open. I whipped my gaze toward Stempy. “What—?”

  He grabbed my arm and waved me quiet before I could ask if what I’d heard meant what I thought it meant. My pulse began to race. It had sounded like I’d just been freed completely, no O.R., no supervision, no check-ins or urine tests. Holy shit, the idea of going completely free seemed almost foreign to me. If every charge was really dropped, what did that mean for me now?

  Would I just return to school as if the past few days had never happened? Would my family let me back into their fold? Would the fraternity—umm, no. Chance would push to keep me out of the fraternity. And they’d probably listen to him. That fake bastard had wormed his way into being their golden boy.

  I’d have to find a new place to live, probably a new place to work. The university barn tended to only employ AGR boys.

  Whether I liked it or not, things had just changed. My entire life was different now.

  Judge Gudrun started talking again then, but the words couldn’t seem to focus in my head. All I kept hearing was, “the state drops their charges,” and I couldn’t focus past that, because that sounded good. I needed something good. I needed something good more than I needed my next breath. When the judge slapped her gavel against its block, I jumped and turned to Stempy again for translation.

  He finally turned to me, holding out his hand with a big gleaming smile on his face.

  “Well, I have to say that was the best win I’ve had. Beckett, thank you. You’re actually one of the ones I like to defend.”

  I shook my head as I took his hand. “So this means I’m free, right? Completely totally free?”

  He laughed. “Yep, completely and totally free? Just like that?”

  “Yep, just like that.”

  “No O.R.?”

  “Nope. You can return to your life now. They’ll take you back to the jail where you can collect your personal affects and sign out.”