by Jayne Blue
I decided to take a thirty-minute break and eat something. I planned to spend the afternoon combing through what the witnesses had to say. There was a hole somewhere, I knew. Because unlike the prosecutor or the jury, or even the judge, I knew with certainty they were lying.
My mind was a beehive of thoughts as I made my way down to the kitchen. I opened the fridge and probably spent a good five minutes just staring into it. I couldn’t get my brain to focus on what was right in front of me. I already knew the critical window of time took place between March of 2000 and May of 2002. That’s when the bank statements started and stopped. The deposits themselves had been massive. Part of me had to laugh. We weren’t exactly destitute, but if my father really had access to those kinds of funds, he would have spent them on me. He’d never even taken me to Disney. Instead, my dad had been charged under the RICO statute for running a criminal enterprise. Heroin. They said in that two-year period, he’d been a main supplier through all of the Midwest. And if I didn’t find some sort of smoking gun or thread of lies I could exploit, he might never get out of that hell hole again.
Bagels. I finally settled on bagels, although my stomach churned in knots. I’d known my father was innocent. I knew George Pagano was really responsible for everything they said my dad did; still, it was so hard to read through the lies as they took shape before me. I sat on the counter and ate my sad bagel as I tried to think of the best way to unravel the documented lies upstairs.
I’d left my phone in the kitchen charger dock and I jumped when it rang. I hopped off the counter and smiled. From across the room I could read the caller ID. I answered on the second ring.
“I miss you,” I said.
“Me too,” Jack answered; his voice sounded rich and strong and sent a ripple of goose flesh down the back of my neck.
“Where are you?”
“I’m just packing up a few things from my office. I’ve got an early flight in the morning.”
My smile widened. He was packing for me. Jack was flying back to Chicago so he could see me. I could laugh at myself for how giddy it made me. “When can I see you?”
“How eager are you?” His tone dipped down to a wicked decibel.
“I’ll have to show you.” I played along.
“What’s your day looking like tomorrow?”
“Seth’s gone. He left this morning to head into the office and then he’s meeting up with Ed Jeffries one more time. Sounds like his campaign manager orchestrated it. He’ll be back late tomorrow. Should we meet somewhere? It’s probably not a good idea for you to come to the house.”
“No,” he said. “It’s Seth’s house ... or at least it’s Miranda’s. I don’t care to ever step foot in it again.”
“Room 814?” I leaned against the counter; warmth spread through my chest as I closed my eyes and thought of the last time we met there.
“I’ve upgraded,” Jack answered. “Penthouse suite. I’ll text you the room number when I check in. Eleven a.m. work for you?”
I looked back at the clock on the microwave. That was just under twenty-four hours from now. “Perfect,” I said.
“Good. I found a few things I wanted to talk to you about. Some things relating to your dad’s case.”
My heart tripped. “How? I mean, what did you find?”
“It might be nothing, but I talked a little to one of the assistant prosecutor’s on the case. Don’t worry. He’s straight. I mean, someone I think we can trust. And he doesn’t know anything about you. I just figured we could compare notes.”
When he said it, some lever clicked into place in my mind. It was a subtle thing, but my fingers trembled where I held the phone. I’d been alone in this scheme for so long, I still wasn’t used to having an ally or co-conspirator. I choked past a lump in my throat.
“Tora?” he asked. “Are you there?”
“Jack,” I said, my voice sounding raw to my own ears. “Just, thank you.”
I heard him breathing strong and steady on the other end of the phone and I wished I could touch him. I wished I could lean into his arms and have him hold me there.
“How much longer?” he asked. “I don’t want you in that house with him anymore.”
“I know. We’ll talk tomorrow. Promise.” There was a commotion on the other end of the phone as someone must have walked into Jack’s office.
We said quick goodbyes and I promised him again that I’d meet him tomorrow morning. I held the phone to my breast for a moment before I put it back on the charger dock. Then I was ready to dive back into the files that waited for me upstairs.
The hours blurred together as I combed through Miranda’s notes on the two main witnesses against my father. One was a drug supplier, the other a sort of bag man. They both claimed they knew my father and reported to someone just under him. They testified that my father had run a drug operation involving mostly heroin for over five years. They tried to implicate the club but that was the only point of victory. The prosecution was never able to show the Great Wolves M.C. itself was involved in my father’s supposed drug empire.
Maybe to someone from the outside it would have looked bad. But I knew my father. I knew none of these charges were true. And one of the witnesses, the bag man, Lenny Braverman, had later let it slip that it was Miranda who told him what to say. He got put in Marion a few years later for more drug-trafficking charges and the word got back to my dad. Then Braverman died and now I was all that was left to fight to clear his name. Except now I had Jack.
My brain was starting to turn fuzzy again, but by about two o’clock in the morning I was fairly sure I had the crux of the frame-up. I’d just need Seth to confirm it one way or another.
I went to bed finally feeling the first rays of hope that the end of this was just around the corner for both me and my father.
Chapter Sixteen
Jack
She leaned against the doorway as I opened it, her legs crossed at the ankles. She wore faded blue jeans, cowgirl boots and a white tank top. She was casual, natural and beautiful. It struck me as it always did how she could change from one moment to the next from the bombshell trophy Seth draped on his arm to the real woman who stood before me with both sex and compassion in her eyes.
There was something else in them this morning too. Tora looked tired. Her normally bright green eyes were rimmed with circles and it made my heart catch in my throat.
“Are you okay?” I asked. Snaking my arms around her waist I pulled her into the room and shut the door. I didn’t want to waste another second not touching her.
“I am now,” she said. She looked up at me and her face lit up. My smile seemed to chase the shadows away from the corner of her eyes and I leaned down to kiss her. She yielded to me, as she always did. She brought her hands around my neck and I lifted her. She felt so small in my arms and I knew it was deceiving. My brave, strong little fighter.
“I’m just tired,” she said. “I spent all day and most of the night sorting through all of the file documents.”
I stiffened. “Do you think you have something?”
She shrugged when I set her down. “I have what I think is the crux of how they convicted him. There’s a series of bank deposits over a twelve-month period that I know don’t belong to my dad.”
“What do you mean?”
“They convicted him with a money trail and the testimony of two losers who probably worked for Pagano. Only they said they reported to my dad. The amount of product they claim they were moving for him is staggering. We are talking millions of dollars’ worth of mostly heroin. And I have the bank deposits. It’s ridiculous.”
“How so?” I asked. Tora and I had walked into the sitting room at the center of my new penthouse suite. She plopped into one of the chairs, draping her feet across the arm. I sat at the end of the couch closest to her.
“My father is a lot of things but he’s not dumb,” she continued. “If he really did run a criminal enterprise like that, he wouldn’t have just marched t
o the bank and started depositing everything into his personal checking account. But, essentially, that’s what they are saying he did.”
“And that’s what the records show?”
“Yep,” she said, running a hand through her thick, black hair.
“It’s insane except from the look of the records, it’s right there.”
“Huh,” I said. “So how do you account for it?”
“I’m thinking Pagano had someone on the take at the bank. That’s the only thing that makes sense. Someone had access to my father’s accounts and made those deposits or made it look like he did. That’s the piece I’m going to get from Seth. He knows how she did it. I’m going to get him to tell me.”
I didn’t want to think anymore about how she was going to get him to tell her. I would drive myself mad from thinking about it. “When?” was all I could manage.
“He comes back this evening,” she said. “We’re going to have it out tonight. What about your prosecutor friend?”
She changed the subject so fast I almost didn’t catch it. I smiled, realizing she’d done it on purpose. I gave her the broad strokes of my conversation with Frank Furlong. What she’d just told me matched with what she put together from the file. The case against Declan McLain had been too easy. Too perfect. She nodded while I spoke. The only indication of how she processed it came in the form of a tiny crease just between her eyes.
“If I get tape on Seth,” she finally said, “do you think he’s someone we can trust to take it to?”
“I asked him that,” I said. “And the short answer is yes. I think especially if you can get Seth to bring up Pagano’s part in it again, that could get enough attention to get the case reopened. I can’t promise you whether they would release your dad pending a new trial.”
“God.” She rubbed her temples. “I just want to be able to bring out enough to get his conviction straight up overturned. I don’t even want to think about him having to go through a whole new trial.”
Tora shifted off her chair and came to me. She knelt in front of me and the look on her face nearly melted me from the inside out. She trusted me. She was counting on me. She needed me.
I reached down and kissed her again. She parted her lips and her tongue was warm as I explored her mouth. I ran my hand down, smoothing my thumb over her pert nipple beneath the soft cotton of her shirt. She reached down and pulled the shirt over her head.
My heart raced when she did it. She’d worn nothing underneath it. She came up higher on her knees; her back arched she offered those sweet pink nipples to me and I was only too happy to take them. I swirled my tongue around one perfect bud, loving how quickly it pebbled at my touch. Tora was already working the buttons of her jeans. I drove her backward toward the floor as she wriggled out of them.
I had her on her back with her pants down around her ankles. She smiled and writhed as she looked up at me and it was the most beautiful sight. My Tora. So well trained to respond to my slightest touch or crook of my finger. She kicked her pants away and slid her thong down. Part of me wanted her to leave it on. I wanted to tease her and make her beg me to let her remove it. It was one of my favorite things. But it had been more than a week since we’d been together and as much as I liked to teach her self-control, I had none of my own.
She had just enough time to get her legs parted before I was on her. She reached up and helped me wriggle my own jeans down. My throbbing cock sprang free and I drove into her, unable to wait even a second longer. She was warm and wet and ready for me. She arched her back and I felt her hands on my ass, pulling me deeper into her slick heat. It felt as close to heaven as I might ever get.
So I took her that way, on the floor as she begged me to go deeper. I fucked her hard and fast as she wrapped her strong legs around me. It was quick and dirty and just what the both of us needed. I felt her pussy pulse and clench around me as she writhed under me, trying to get the friction she needed. I dug my feet into the floor and pressed myself deep until I bottomed out. Then I held myself still, my muscles shaking from the effort as I let her buck and thrust beneath me as she rode out her orgasm.
She gushed around me and I deserved a gold medal for holding still. But I wanted her to wring every drop out of her orgasm before I moved again. She cried out my name and at the crest of it, she dug her nails into my ass, trying to pull me even deeper but there was nowhere left for me to go. Then she went slack beneath me and closed her eyes as a slow smile of satisfaction spread across her face.
Then it was my turn.
Tora’s legs slipped from around my hips and I reached back. “Not yet,” I told her. “Keep your legs wrapped around me.”
She groaned. “I don’t think I can.”
“Yes, you can,” I commanded. “You’re so wet. It won’t take long.”
Her legs went tight around me and I felt her muscles tremble. Her thighs might be sore from it tomorrow and I liked the thought of that. I planted my palms flat on either side of her head and shifted so I could get traction as I pumped into her.
She wrapped her arms around my shoulders, coiling her body around me, accepting the full power of my thrusts. She gasped and I felt her walls clench again. I knew then I could bring another small orgasm out of her while I ground through my own. I exploded in her. My orgasm vibrated through my whole body as I spilled my seed into her. She leaned up and delivered hungry kisses on my chest, my neck, finally finding my mouth.
God. Would it ever stop being like this? Would I ever get enough of her? Would I ever stop wanting her all the time?
When I finished, Tora crumpled beneath me, spent as much as I was. I rolled off her and lay on my back beside her. I think we might have fallen asleep for a few minutes after that. But then Tora folded herself into the crook of my arm and I held her.
Some time passed and we finally made our way to the bed. We didn’t say anything to each other for a long time. I shed the rest of my clothes and we lay side by side. I traced lazy patterns with my fingers across her perfect flesh. I enjoyed watching the rise and fall of her chest and the way her nipples puckered when I rolled the pad of my thumb across them. She touched my face, tracing the curve of my jaw. I kissed her fingers.
After a while, she brought herself up on her elbow and smiled.
“What are you thinking about?”
“Just you,” she said.
“I’m glad to see that puts a smile on your face,” I said. And it was true. I wanted to make this woman happy and in that moment, I realized it was the first time in a long time I’d felt that way about anyone.
“What?” She must have seen something in my face. She peered down and put a gentle hand under my jaw, drawing my eyes back up to hers.
I hadn’t planned to say it. But when the words formed in my mind, I knew it was right.
“Tora,” I said. “I love you.”
A slow blush colored her cheeks and she cast her eyes to the side. When she brought them back up and looked at me straight on, she melted my heart.
“I love you too,” she said.
I drew her down to me and kissed her. I wanted to say a lot of other things but I hesitated for a moment.
“What happens after?” So, she said them first.
“I don’t know.” I gave her an honest answer. “I’m in pretty uncharted waters here.”
“Me too.” Her smile broadened.
“But,” I kissed her on the forehead, “I want you in my life. I want to be with you. And I’m tired of it being a secret.”
She laughed. “After I’m done with Seth, I’m okay if I never have another secret for the rest of my life.”
“I don’t know how it’s going to work,” I said.
“I don’t either. But I don’t care about that right now.”
“But,” I took a breath, “I’m telling you that I’m all in.”
Her face froze. Her eyes widened a fraction and she leaned in to kiss me again.
“And,” I started again, “I don’t want you to
take this as an ultimatum. It’s going to sound like one but I’m hoping you understand what I’m saying.”
“Jack, don’t ...”
“Just let me get through this,” I said. “It has to be over with Seth after tonight.”
She bit her bottom lip and regarded me. There was such a long pause between my words and hers that I almost didn’t process what she said next.
“I know.”
I sat up. “Okay.”
“I’d better go,” she said. “I need to get everything ready. Will you meet me sometime tomorrow? I have a feeling I might need a place to stay.”
Chapter Seventeen
Tora
When I walked back into Miranda’s house, I hoped it would be the last time. Jack was right. This needed to be over with Seth one way or the other tonight. He would admit something to me, or he wouldn’t. I knew now what I was looking for. I had a concrete path to lead him down.
He texted me that he’d be home around nine. This was good. He’d be more tired. He would probably have three or four drinks in him from the plane already. I didn’t ask him how his meeting went. I didn’t want to give him the chance to vent anything before I had him right in front of me.
I took a shower. I put on a negligee I knew he liked and I waited in the bedroom. At first, I didn’t know what to do with myself. I sat down. I got up. I paced the floor. Was there anything I’d missed? Some corner of the house that I hadn’t searched? What else could there be?
As soon as I thought it, I knew the answer and it would give me something to occupy my time. Seth texted that his plane had just landed. He would be home within the hour.
I stepped out into the hallway; my gaze went to the locked doorway at the end of it. I’d been in Miranda’s attic just the one time when I was lucky enough to find my father’s files. That expedition had been cut short by the looming presence of Mary Barlow. But she was long gone now and there was nothing to stop me from going back up. I didn’t really expect to find much else, but it wasn’t just my father’s secrets up there. No, part of Jack’s family history hid up there too. Before I left this house, I owed it to him to save whatever I could. I knew there would be no turning back when I did.
