by Jena Wade
“I am here to see my client, Carter Hayes,” I told the first officer I saw, loud enough if Carter were nearby he’d get the hint of what I needed him to do. I took out my identification and handed it to the officer.
“You’re far away from home.” He glanced at the ID, then to me, then back to the ID. “Last I knew this wasn’t the kind of case to qualify for big city lawyers.” Ahh, the man’s skepticism made sense.
“Officer Jones,” I read his name off his desk plate, “I am Harrison Bowman’s brother and happened to be in town when it became apparent my client would need my services.”
“He is currently being talked to. He declined your services.” Jones shrugged and handed me back my identification.
“If you would inform him I’m here, that would be appreciated.” And would prevent me from losing my shit. Not that I let any of that show upon my face. No. I kept my best lawyer face on as if my life depended on it, and in a weird way, it did. Carter was becoming my life, and I needed to get him home.
Home. I’d chickened out about showing him the listings for the houses, not wanting to do too much too soon, but the baby was getting closer to being here each day, and when going home meant a motel room—I needed to rethink that entire plan. After I got him out, that was.
“I was asked not to—” the officer protested.
I gave him my best stink eye.
“I will see what I can do,” he finally agreed.
He headed out back and around the corner. My desire to catch a glimpse of Carter and to see he was holding up, was thwarted by that little turn. He came back less than two minutes later.
“Sorry, sir, he declined again, and the chief said they would be done in only a few minutes either way. You may take a seat.”
Like hell I was. Being dismissed was not going to be a thing,
“Bail?”
“Bail will be set when it is set.” He sat down. What a snippy one, which either meant he was pissed to be pestered by me or something in that room led him to feel that way. My mind created far too many scenarios, and I shoved them back inside.
“Surely this facility has a standard bail schedule for when the judges aren’t hearing cases.” At least I crossed my fingers they did.
“We do, and if charges are filed, and if you client so wishes, those details will be passed along to you. I’m sorry. That’s the best I can do. We may be a small town, but we do follow the rules.” Crap. That didn’t sound promising.
“I will be over here, then, waiting to post whatever bail is being asked.” Why did things need to get so complicated?
“Jamison,” My brother’s voice echoed behind me. “It is nice to see you taking care of my Omega’s kin so well.” And he came to help me out. Go Harrison.
“I am. Although there appears to be some confusion between your kin and the officers, for I have been unable to discuss the situation with my client.”
Harrison gave a subtle nod. “Jones, I need to speak with Turner. You know, city business. Can you arrange that?” Turner. The guy who came and got Carter. Harrison deserved a best-brother ribbon—a trophy even.
Before Jones could disappear, Turner and his partner, the police chief if I wasn’t mistaken, came out of a door to what I assumed was an interrogation room, along with Carter.
“Is he free to go?” Harrison asked.
The chief nodded. “He has an alibi for the day in question. We spoke with the officer in the city who put out the BOLO on the car. We’ve agreed to let him go, but it would be best if he stayed in town in case we have more questions.”
“I didn’t do anything, Harrison. I swear. It was my ex, Bryan. He borrowed my car, and they must’ve found some footage from a camera and—”
I stepped forward, wanting to take Carter into my arms, but the minute he saw me, he stopped talking and wouldn’t make eye contact.
“I know, Carter. We trust you,” Harrison said.
I walked out side by side with my Omega. I wanted to hold him, tell him everything would be okay, kiss him. Instead we behaved like virtual strangers. The drive back was painfully quiet. I had a thousand questions for him. I searched my mind for some way to broach the subject, or to take his mind off the events of the day, but I came up blank. Why hadn’t he told me about his ex? What had the police asked him? What were his replies? Did he know about the robberies before? Did he know where his ex was now? Was his ex the reason for the cast and bruises he wore the first time I saw him at the motel? So many questions.
Instead, we just sat there, the low hum of the engine the only sound.
Chapter Eleven
Carter
I couldn’t look at Jamison after he picked me up at the jail. He’d gotten me out, or at least had been there for me when I’d gotten out, and I would be forever grateful for that.
I couldn’t believe I’d been arrested for a robbery I did not commit.
I’d never done anything illegal in my life. Speeding, a few drinks while underage hardly counted. I most certainly would never harm another human being by taking from them.
We were quiet on the drive back to the motel. I got out of the car and went directly to my room. Jamison followed. He tried to pull me into his arms, but I pushed him away.
“I have to shower,” I said. “I just feel…” I shuddered. I hadn’t been put in a cell, but I still felt like I’d been confined for days instead of hours, although I hadn’t been mistreated at all. If anything, Derek and Turner had been more than accommodating. They’d been polite and explained about the newfound security footage from one of the apartments that was broken into, and they’d allowed me to search through my text messages to Bryan, to prove I’d let him borrow my car that day. Thank god I never deleted anything off my phone.
I think Derek and Turner knew I was innocent, but they had a job to do.
“All right,” Jamison said. “Do you want me to—”
“No.” I pushed him away again. “I just need to be alone a minute.” I almost asked him to leave, to go back to his room, but I wasn’t ready to push him away that far.
I stripped down and climbed into the shower, letting the warm water rinse off the exhaustion of the day and the overwhelming feeling of dirt and grime seeming to cling to my skin. Before I knew it, Jamison was knocking on the door.
“Carter, is everything all right?”
“I’m fine. I’ll be out in a minute.”
“You’ve been in there for thirty minutes,” he said.
Thirty minutes? Where had the time gone? Had I been standing here the whole time? I laid a hand over my abdomen. There was a baby in there. Jamison’s baby.
I groaned. What was Jamison doing with me? He deserved so much more than an uneducated bartender without a penny to his name. Plus all this drama.
I turned off the water and got out. I dried off then pulled on a pair of sweatpants and a T-shirt, not bothering with underwear, socks, or anything else.
“Are you sure everything’s all right?” Jamison asked.
I shook my head. “I didn’t rob anyone.”
Jamison gave me a look. “Of course you didn’t. Do you want to tell me about your ex?”
“I…” I didn’t want to say the words, didn’t want Jamison to look at me differently, but he already knew anyway. He was just waiting for me to confirm.
“Is he the one who broke your arm and smashed your nose?”
I nodded. “We were only together for a little while, over a year ago. Before I met you.” I wanted to be clear on that. There were no other Alphas after I’d met him, and there never would be.
He nodded. “Go on.”
“I lived with him for a while because the rent was cheap, only he wasn’t actually paying rent, as it turned out. I gave him money and he did something with it. All I know is, a few months after moving in with him, we were evicted, and I broke up with him. I didn’t see him again until last month when he showed up at the bar. Security escorted him out, but after I left work, he attacked me while I was wal
king home. He punched me in the face and broke my arm. I managed to get away, obviously. And that’s when I came to Millerstown.”
“Did he say anything to you?”
“No. Just that I was a worthless Omega who needed to learn my place.”
“Did you ever let him borrow your car?”
I shrugged. “Yeah. I was able to prove it with text messages on my phone. He had the spare set of keys, access to them at least. His apartment wasn’t far from the bar, so I walked to work when it was warm enough.” I buried my head in my hands. “Fuck. I don’t know. I told the police all this already. This is such a mess. Can you please just go?”
“What?” Jamison stepped closer to me.
I held up a hand. “I need some space, and you don’t need this drama. You’re a lawyer, with a million-dollar penthouse and a potential partnership at a law firm. What are you doing here with me? Slumming?”
Jamison’s eyes grew dark. “Is that you think this is? Just me slumming.”
“I don’t freaking know,” I said. “There’s not any other explanation for it. You picked me up at the bar whenever you needed to scratch an itch. You didn’t ask for me to get pregnant and bring all this extra drama into your life.”
“You’re right,” Jamison said, crossing his arms. “I didn’t ask for that. But I’m going to step up to the job. Whether you like it or not.”
“That’s just it, Jamison. I don’t want to be a job. I don’t want to be something you have to do to prove to everybody you’re better than your Alpha dad or whatever the fuck. I’m tired of being used by Alphas who think they know what’s best for me. They think they know what place I should have. I’m my own person dammit.”
“So now you’re just going to lump me in with your ex?”
“You haven’t made any promises to me, Jamison. I’ve got to figure out my life for me and my child. I don’t have time to deal with you and your daddy issues right now.”
“Fine.” A muscle ticked in Jamison’s jaw, and his eyes narrowed. “I’m going to go and give you your space right now, but this discussion isn’t over.”
Finally, he was listening to what I said. Though already it pained me for him to be leaving, it was for the best. “It is for me. I can do with this on my own. I can find another job if I have to. I don’t even know if I have a job still.”
“Harrison’s not going to fire you. You haven’t been charged with anything. Your name has been cleared. He has no reason to let you go.”
I sat on the bed and lay back, putting an arm over my head. “I need to sleep. I can’t deal with any of this right now. Just go.”
Jamison lingered for a minute, and I wasn’t sure if he was going to listen to me. Then he did. He walked over to the door, put his hand on the knob. “I’ll be back. This discussion isn’t over.”
“Whatever.”
He walked out the door, and I heard it click behind him. The roar of his engine filtered through the wall then faded as he drove away. I rolled over and hugged the pillow, letting the tears fall.
It was the right thing to do. To push Jamison away. He didn’t need this drama. It was bad enough I was bringing a child into my messed-up life.
I pulled my knees up, bringing myself into the fetal position, and cried.
A month ago, I had been perfectly fine. Even if I was slightly broke. Now, I was extremely broke, living in a motel room with a baby on the way. If I truly was smart and willing to do what was best for my child, I would give Jamison full custody as soon as he or she was born, but I couldn’t possibly bring myself to do that. Never. I loved my child already. I loved Jamison, but I could let Jamison go, and I wouldn’t keep him from his child. I would let him provide for his child so we could raise him or her to be better than me. They’d grow up, go to college, and make something of themselves.
Chapter Twelve
Jamison
The look on Carter’s face before he schooled it broke my heart. I wanted to run back over and comfort him, let him know I wasn’t leaving for good, I was just doing what he needed.
How terribly scared he must’ve been to have sent me away the way he had. I tried to see the logic in his words, but there just wasn’t any. Not given the connection we had. It all tied back to his case and that scum-bucket ex of his.
Driving back to the city without Carter cut so deeply into me I almost turned back a few times. But he needed me, and not just my reassurances or my hugs. Shit, not even my finances, which, despite his words to the contrary, he very much was going to need.
No. Carter needed help getting his legal troubles put behind him, so he could rest easy and the two of us could move forward with his ex breathing down our necks. If only I knew more about that rat bastard.
“Call Harrison,” I commanded as I decided to get the information the only way I knew how—through Carter’s cousin. Alex was going to be rip-roaring pissed about that one, and rightly so, but I was pulling an ends-justified-the-means action. I had to. My Omega was scared and I wanted to, needed to, fix it. My child—our child was not going to be born in on the run from a jackass serial robber. It just wasn’t going to happen.
Three rings later, Harrison answered.
“Listen, I am going to ask you to do something I probably should not—”
“Will it get the ex taken care of?” And my concerns that Harrison might thwart my efforts flew out the window.
“Hope so.” I turned onto the highway that would take me to William. When I texted him, he’d promised to be there, but I didn’t want to chance it by pulling over to talk to Harrison. I just had to cross my fingers that I’d remember the important things. “I know a guy.”
“That sounds shady.” It was funny because it was true.
“It really does.” I admitted. “Trust me. Please.” I wasn’t opposed to doing something shady. Heck if I could think of something shady to fix the bind we were all currently in, I’d have put the wheels in motion already.
“So, what do you need from me?” he asked.
“Everything you know about Bryan Clark, including how things went down with Carter.” I told myself I was prepared for it all, that I was strong enough to hear it, that I could put on my lawyer hat and push through. The reality, I feared, would be even worse than I imagined—and my imagination went dark—and that in the end I would crack. My Omega was so much stronger than I. If only he could embrace that.
“What makes you think I know about any of that?”
“Because, unlike my Omega, yours tells you everything.” Truth bomb, it was.
“Now that he knows I am his Alpha sure.”
I wasn’t too privy to their courtship, my relationship with Harrison only recently growing closer, but his inflection indicated he understood more than he let on, and by personal experience.
“You probably should clue Carter in on that don’t you think?”
Yes. No. Yes. I didn’t know.
“He isn’t ready.” My ongoing justification with myself was a half-assed excuse at best.
“And that is why he sent you away and ended up at my house eating ice cream?”
Not what I wanted to hear. When I’d left, only a short while before, he’d said he wanted to get some rest. I assumed he meant he would be sleeping. Had seeing me leave hurt him that sharply? Maybe I should’ve told him what I was doing.
“I’ve only been gone a half hour.” If that. Fuck. “I’ll hurry up.” It was the best I could do. Turning around would risk me losing time with William, and while he might be willing to do me a favor, he couldn’t put his entire business on hold for me. “Please tell me everything even if you think it will piss me off.”
Silence filled the car, and for half a second I thought we got disconnected, but nope, Harrison was waiting for me to continue and probably rolling his eyes.
So I went on. “I have a friend, William Bell. He’s ex-army and runs a security company.” It was a half answer but would have to do.
“Carter doesn’t need a bodyguard. He
needs his Alpha.”
“Please don’t say things like that. Driving to Rochdale to ask for Will’s help is taking all my self-control. All I want to do is turn around and hold him.” And if I thought for a millisecond I could do that and still be able to fix things for him, I’d have already been doing that. “But he needs this. And Will isn’t a bodyguard—he’s more.” So much more I didn’t understand all he did, and the shady comment probably wasn’t far off. He helped people, though. That was what kept him going. “And if you tell me what you know before I get there, it will save me time and get me home to him sooner.”
“And you couldn’t just call this Bell guy because?”
“I sent him a message saying I was on my way. What I’m going to ask him to do shouldn’t be discussed via a phone call.” At least that was how it worked the few times I’d called in favors in the past. Will had ways of finding out information the general public, or even the police, weren’t privy to. Quite helpful for what we needed, but not something he probably wanted spread around.
“Shady,” he mumbled with a hint of amusement.
“Asshole. Spill.” From the mile marker I had about twenty minutes left until I reached Will. And Harrison spent that entire time telling me what I needed to know. Apparently, Carter had finally talked with Alex, and Harrison had requested an update from Turner and Derek as well. Thank god for small-town nosiness.
It was a freaking miracle my tight grip hadn’t broken the steering wheel as Harrison told me about the treatment Carter endured under that man. The theft of his rent checks causing his homeless status was only the tip of the iceberg. And then when he explained what happened with his arm that night before he fled, it was all I could do not to pull over and beat something, anything to get some of the rage out of me.
Who could do that to any living being, much less one you had at one time dated? No wonder Carter had been so closed off. Letting me in would make him vulnerable, and he’d seen firsthand what being vulnerable could result in.
So strong. He was so freaking strong.
