by Lane Hart
She's good, and after the swabbing, I barely notice the sting of the needle.
"All right, the doctor will be in as soon as he has the blood work results," she says, leaving us in an exam room.
I hop up on the table and lay down on my side while Jude wanders around the room, fidgeting, and bouncing on his feet.
"When's your next fight?" I ask him, to have something to pass the time.
"Not sure. I had one scheduled in October but…I may postpone it with everything going on."
"Jax wouldn't want you to postpone."
"Yeah, but it also depends on how much time I have to train, and here lately, it's not been much."
"Oh, I guess that's true."
Finally, there's a knock on the door, signaling the doctor.
"Hi, Mrs. Malone. How are you feeling?" a young man about five years older than me asks. He's wearing the standard white coat and gives me a friendly smile. I’m glad it’s not the giggling doctor from a few weeks ago.
"I’m a little dizzy, but it's probably just lack of sleep and eating. I've had a lot of stress on me," I explain, pushing myself up into a sitting position on the exam table.
"I think we've found another cause as well," he says with an even bigger grin. "Congratulations, you're pregnant."
"Um, no I most certainly am not!" I reply automatically, shaking my head. "That's impossible!"
"You are most definitely pregnant," he reiterates, and his smile slips.
"But…but how did that happen?" I ask, and Jude starts laughing.
"Have you had unprotected sex?"
"Only just two nights ago! It doesn't happen that fast, does it?"
"TMI!" Jude exclaims, covering his ears.
"Ah, no," the doctor laughs. "It doesn't happen that fast. When was your last period?"
"Ha! I'm not even late! I'm not supposed to start until Friday!"
"Then you're only a few weeks along."
What the hell is up with this quack?
"No, no, no. You don't understand, we always used condoms! Always!"
"Oh," the doctor says, forehead creasing in contemplation. "Let me guess…Magnum Thin condoms?"
"How'd you know?" I gasp in amazement. There had to be at least fifty choices or more of rubbers, but I've seen the boxes and wrappers Jax uses, and they're always Magnum Thins.
"Unfortunately, they've had a recall. A bad batch that was later deemed as porous somehow snuck through quality control. They're thought to be a little less than ninety-nine percent effective. More like...fifty."
"Ha!" Jude busts out, having doubled over shaking with a fit of laughter. I'm not as amused.
"This the father-to-be?" the doctor asks.
"Um, no, uncle-to-be," I mutter in shock. Bad condoms. What the fuck!
"Hey!" Jude pauses in the middle of his outburst. "I'm going to be an uncle!"
"Are you sure?" I ask the doctor. "Maybe it’s a false positive?"
"Yes. You are very much pregnant. We ran the test on your blood three times to be certain. Based on your last period, I'd estimate your due date to be sometime in April."
"Hey, look on the bright side, Page. At least Jax will be out of prison before the baby's born!"
"Oh God," I groan, covering my face when more tears escape. How am I going to tell Jax he's going to be a father on top of everything else?
"I'd recommend that you start prenatal vitamins immediately, eat every few hours, and take it easy. You should go ahead and find an obstetrician. In early pregnancy, increases in progesterone can cause the widening of your blood vessels, and that sometimes can reduce your blood pressure. Try sitting up and standing up slowly to let your body adjust."
"Come on, hot mama. Let's get you back to the hotel so you can rest," Jude says, jumping up out of his seat, acting way too excited and happy about our predicament caused by ineffective prophylactics. As if I didn't have enough to worry about, now add to that a baby on the way.
"Oh God. I'm going to have a freaking baby," I mutter.
"Um, doc, does pregnancy cause brain damage?" Jude asks. I swat at him.
After checking out and paying the bill, we start walking back to the hotel.
"Do we need to get a cab?" Jude asks.
"Really? I can see the lobby of the hotel from here," I tell him, and instead of laughing and joking he seems oddly serious as he stares straight ahead. "What…what do you think Jax will say?"
Jude finally smiles. "He'll be surprised I'm sure, but also ecstatic. He'll worry about you, both of you. He'll be pissed that I was with you when you found out, and he wasn't."
I choke on the air in my lungs, knowing he's right. Jax should've been the first one to find out. He should've been with me.
"I'm sorry, Page," Jude says softly, putting his arms around me.
"That stupid bitch," I mutter against his chest.
"Hey, if it weren't for that bitch, you and Jax wouldn't be together," he reminds with a smile.
That's true. "I guess this also explains how Jax's DNA was found in the bitch."
"Damn." Jude laughs. "I guess you're right. Oh shit, I hope there aren't any more little Jaxes on the way."
That thought sends me into a panic, and then later that night I had horrible dreams about diaper wearing babies cage fighting.
Chapter Seventeen
Jax
I've been in the prison in bum fuck for two goddamn days, after a three-day stay at the intake facility. I haven't been able to talk to Page, Jude, or my dad since the day I was moved. Each second that goes by makes me angrier. I can't call them except collect, and apparently that doesn’t work on cell phones. Despite having millions of dollars in the bank, I don't have any money on my account here, so I can't even buy a damn stamp for a letter to tell them where I am. The lack of control, loss of freedom, and shitty conditions are wearing me down, quicker than I thought possible.
"Yo, Malone. I got a magazine you might want to see," my cellmate says. He's a scrawny blond kid, several years younger than me, and according to him, he's in for selling drugs.
"No, thanks," I tell him. I have no interest in looking at his jerk off material.
"You sure? It says this is your wife or some shit, Page Davenport? She is fucking hot."
I'm out of the bed and jerking the magazine out of his hand a second later. I stare at the picture of my wife, relieved to see her after what's felt like forever, even if it's only been just a week. But seeing her in my brother's arms feels like my heart is being cut out of my chest.
Okay, I'm sure it's completely innocent, just a comforting hug because she's upset. But that doesn't really seem to fit since she doesn't look upset. She's smiling up at him, and his smile is even wider.
I flip to the front to find the date of the sleazy tabloid and see that it’s three days old. I go back to the picture and read the caption.
"Court documents show that the infamous MMA fighter, Jackson Malone, and his attorney, Page Davenport, were married in the early morning hours of July sixteenth, shortly after he was convicted on an assault charge by a jury, and received an active prison sentence of six months. Two days later, Jackson's new bride looked awfully cozy with her new brother-in-law, Jude Malone in Atlantic City. Maybe she got a two for one deal on the Malone brothers."
I throw the damn magazine so hard it hits the opposite wall with a thud. Guess that explains why they haven't bothered finding out where I am.
How did I not see it before? They were always flirting and teasing each other. Has my own brother fucked the one woman I've ever loved? And if so how long has it been going on?
Page wouldn't have married me if she'd been with him before, right? But actually, she only married me to try and keep her law license, not because she wanted to spend the rest of her life with me.
And my brother...he was the one person in the world I trusted more than anyone except our dad. He’s never messed around with any women, so has he fucked me over to screw Page? Out of all the women in the whole goddamn wo
rld, why did he have to go after her?
The next three days I spend working out, trying to sweat off my rage, but it seems to be growing rather than easing up. I'm at combustion level when the weekend rolls around. The only reason I know it’s Saturday is by the excitement of the other inmates, looking forward to visits with their families. I'm shocked as shit when the guards call my name.
Walking into the family room and seeing Jude and Page, all I can think about is that fucking picture. That's all I've seen since that day. I can't sleep because of that fucking photo.
"Hey," Page says with a hesitant smile. She stands up as if to hug me and the guard stops her.
"No contact!" he barks, and she sits back down with tears forming. My eyes cut to Jude's, and based on how his gaze keeps flickering back and forth between my face to my clenched fists, I know he recognizes my about-to-explode look. He should since he knows me better than anyone.
"You won't believe the hoops they've made us jump through to find you and then get here," he says when I sit down at the table across from them.
"We put money into your account just now, so you can finally call out. They wouldn't let us do it over the phone, and no one would tell us where you were until yesterday," Page explains. "They kept saying you were in transit and that they couldn't disclose the details. And then yesterday they said we couldn't visit you until today."
I lean back and cross my arms over my chest, taking deep breaths, in through the nose, out through the mouth, trying to calm the rage.
"How…how've you been? We've been worried to death," Page says. God, she’s a really great actress and I almost actually believe that she’s concerned.
"I've been a helluva lot better."
Page looks at Jude as if asking him a silent question and that's when what little restraint I have left starts to snap. "There's something I need to tell you," she starts.
"Goddamn right, you do. What the fuck was that picture about?" I snarl, making Page jump.
"What picture, and what is your problem?" Jude asks.
"What's my problem? Really? You want to know what my problem is? I'm sitting in fucking prison for shit I didn't do, wondering what my own brother is doing behind my back with my wife!"
"Watch it, Malone, or you'll be removed," the guard warns as he walks by.
"I don't know what the fuck you're talking about, and I'd never do that to you!" Jude replies. I can't even look at Page when I hear her start crying.
"Pictures don't lie! You were all over each other! And it's not like it's the first time!" I can't help but remember all the times the two of them flirted with each other, like the day on the elevator, and how they’d danced together. How could I have been so blind?
"Jax, I don't know what picture you're upset about...but you know how the media can make an innocent picture…look like something else," Page says between sobs.
"She doesn't need this shit from you right now!" Jude yells at me.
"Don't," Page says quickly to Jude before jumping up and walking out the room.
"You are fucking up in epic proportions right now," he tells me after she's gone. "And if you don't calm the hell down you're going to screw things up with her to the point they can never be fixed. Page needs you, and you just destroyed her! She's-"
"I'm sure you'll take care of her after you two leave here."
He closes his eyes and takes a deep breath. "Jax, I get that you're angry about being in here because you're innocent. Page and her brother are working their asses off trying to get you out. They've got three PIs working for them. But whatever you're upset about, you can't take your anger out on her. Take it out on me, or anyone else, but she doesn't deserve that shit. You don't know what she's been through or how hard this is on her. She's…she's been sick, okay? I had to take her to the urgent care the day after they moved you when she almost passed out because her blood pressure was so low. I can hardly get her to eat, and she barely sleeps, crying and tossing and turning all night-"
"How would you know?" I ask.
"Because I see her every damn day."
"No, how do you know she doesn't sleep?" I ask, clenching my jaw so hard my teeth might break.
"I..." he opens his mouth and then shuts it, avoiding my eyes.
"Straight up, Jude, are you fucking sleeping with her?"
"I…yes, but I swear, Jax, all that we do is sleep. She cries nonstop..."
"Fuck you both!" I yell, and then get the hell out of that room before I choke him out. I even refuse to see my dad because I'm so fucking pissed.
I don't know why I'm surprised. My own mother loved Jude but couldn't care less about me, so why did I expect Page to be any different?
…
Page
I'm still in shock and feeling … numb. After days of not knowing anything, we finally found Jax. I couldn't wait to see him and unburden the news that he's going to be a father. Instead, he accuses the two of us of ridiculous shit and flips out on us.
"We've got to get him out," Jude says after the three of us get back in his dad's SUV to leave the prison. Jax wouldn't even come back to talk to his father. "He's losing his grip on reality and shit. I'm sorry, Page."
"Maybe I should've just told him..."
"No, not when he's like that. He was empty, like right before a fight. There was nothing but anger left in him."
"I'll ask Logan to get the PIs to work overtime on their digging. Maybe when he gets out…" I start, but I can't help but worry that the Jax I know and love might be completely lost.
...
On Monday morning we finally get some good news.
"So, my IT person is really great at her job. The only problem is she doesn't always … follow proper procedures."
"You mean what she does is illegal?" Logan asks Dan Jones, one of our three PIs.
"Right. But we've got to find a way to get evidence of it legally and then I can guarantee you, Malone is a free man."
"What is it?" I ask, trying not to get too excited yet, but praying he's right.
"Juror number seven, the foreman Steve Yates, the thirty-four-year-old accountant? Well, he received a wire transfer the day before the verdict. A very large sum of money, half a million dollars."
"What?" I exclaim.
"Like I said, my IT person is damn good. She traced it back to a bank in New York, then to another bank in Maryland, and finally to the account of a certain politician."
"Elliot!" I yell.
"That's the one."
"That son of a bitch!" I exclaim.
"That is great and all, but, Page, you know we need hard core proof, not the results of fraudulently accessed, federally protected, bank records," Logan points out.
"What if I can show the prosecutor in Atlantic City that Elliot had a personal vendetta against Jax? One that Elliot developed after Jax kicked his ass in a hotel room. Elliot almost choked me to death when he thought I'd been with Jax. Oh, and Jude was also a firsthand witness since he had to pull Jax off of Elliot."
"You're kidding, right?" Logan asks. "Did that really happen?"
"Yes!"
"When?"
"Um, it was in June," I say as I think back through the weeks. "It was Monday, June second, the day Jax went to court!"
"No one's going to believe Jax or you now that they know you're sleeping with him. And relatives are always shitty witnesses that side with their own people."
"Good thing we've got it on video," I tell him with a smile.
"No fucking way!" Logan exclaims.
"It's on Jax's phone. Shit, where the hell is his phone? Did it get transported with him from prison to prison? We've got to find it!"
"You'll need him to sign something releasing it to your custody, then it should be handed right over," the PI tells us.
"I'll go see him," Logan says right away. "As his attorney, I can stop in for a visit anytime, and after last weekend …"
We'd told Logan about Jax being upset with us over a stupid picture, but only Jude
knows I'm pregnant. I couldn't bring myself to tell anyone else until Jax knows. Although when that will be, I'm not sure. He doesn't want to see us. He hasn't called anyone but his dad once since Saturday, and there's no way for us to call him. But maybe he'll actually be getting out sooner than six months.
…
Jax
"Let's go, Malone," the guard says, interrupting my weightlifting routine. "Your attorney's here to see you."
Page.
Just the thought of her tightens my chest. Despite how hard I try to hang on to the anger, at times I can't help but miss her so much it hurts. But the pain of her and Jude's betrayal hurts even more.
When I walk in the small attorney conference room, I don't know which is worse, my relief that it isn't her, or my disappointment.
"You again?" I ask Logan, taking a seat across from him.
"Yeah, I'm officially your attorney, even though you're my brother-in-law now."
I bark out a non-humorous laugh. "Page hasn't filed for an annulment yet?"
"No, of course not."
"Right, because then she'd get disbarred."
"That's not why I'm here. You won't believe what we've uncovered, and if all goes well, you might be out of here a helluva lot sooner than six months."
"Only one hundred and sixty-eight days to go."
"If you'll sign this paper turning your cell phone over to me, and if the dumbass security guards haven't lost it, then my guess is, you won't be doing even a quarter of that time."
"Okay. So why's my phone so important?" I ask while signing the form, trying and failing not to get my hopes up.
"Do you still have the video from the day Elliot attacked Page?"
My fists automatically clench at the memory. "Oh yeah. I backed that shit up on my computer too, and it's on the cloud."
"Thank fuck!" he exclaims.
"But how does him hurting her, help me?" I ask.
"It doesn't. But the part where you beat the shit out of him, and he gets angry that you've been with Page does help you. Elliot was so pissed off at you that he paid half a million dollars to one of the jurors to make sure you got convicted."
