by Lane Hart
"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 world, 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 on 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 sev
en, 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."
"No fucking way," I mutter in complete and total shock. "How do you know all that?"
"One of our PI's has a damn good hacker on staff. Now we just need a reason to give to the District Attorney to go through his bank account records. I'd say revenge is a pretty good one. I'd take a guess and say Elliot's juror couldn't sway the whole jury to convict you on the rape charge, but he strong armed them on the assault and they caved. Page and our PIs are talking to them all right now."
"Good."
"Look, I don't know which picture you got upset with Page and Jude over, but believe me, I've been with them almost twenty-four seven since you got locked up, except for when he took her to the doctor and then they came to visit you. There is nothing going on between them. Page is a complete mess over you, and she's seemed to fall even further off the deep end after her visit Saturday."
"Do you sleep in the same room with them?" I ask sarcastically.
"Some nights, yes, back when we were all staying at the hotel. None of us really slept the first few days, but Jude and I took turns trying to comfort Page during her more…extreme crying fits. Yes, he was in the bed with her, just like I was some, but they were both fully clothed and there was nothing sexual about it. Your brother is your biggest supporter, and even after whatever happened last Saturday when they came to visit, after days of getting the runaround about where you were, all Jude said when I saw him was, 'We've got to hurry up and get him out because he's losing it.'"
"Um-huh," I grumble.
"Oh and the only way they found you on Friday was by Page calling every prison in the state asking them to check their roster to see if you were listed. This place, Northern State, was listed seventh on a list of ten."
"So you really think there's nothing going on?" I ask, more of that ridiculous feeling of hope filling me up.
"I'm certain there's not anything going on. She loves you, and treats him just like me, like he's her brother," he says before he chuckles. "Actually, I'm a little jealous because I think she wishes Jude would've been her funny, easygoing brother growing up instead of having to put up with me being an ass to her."
"Maybe…maybe I overreacted after seeing the picture. I mean, I know they did the same thing to one of the pictures of me and Page when she first started working on the case."
"You probably did overreact, but I know they'll forgive you given the circumstances."
"Will you ask them to come back and see me this weekend? Tell them I've cooled down and I'm sorry."
"I'll do it," he agrees.
Chapter Eighteen
Page
"Adam, I know I screwed up this case, but there's more to the story," I tell the District Attorney.
He leans back in his chair, steepling his fingers in front of him. "I'll give you five minutes."
"Great. Okay, I'll talk fast. I was engaged to Elliot Winters, the Maryland state senator. He came here to Atlantic City after Jax's, I mean after Jackson Malone's court day on June second. I was…I was with Jax...in my room...when Elliot knocked on the hotel room door. Even though Jax made up a story about me switching rooms, later when Elliot found me he attacked me. He accused me of sleeping with Jax and then grabbed me around the throat asking if that's what I liked now. He was…he held me down on the bed and I couldn't get his hands off of me. I yelled for Jax, who was thankfully in the room next door. He and Jude came in and got Elliot off of me, and then Jax started hitting Elliot, beating the crap out of him. Elliot said he was going to blame the whole thing on Jax and no one would believe us."
"I do have a hard time believing that."
"Then I guess it's a good thing I have a video recording," I tell him. "Here," I say offering him the thumb drive. He takes it curiously, plugs it into his computer and then we listen to the conversation we had without Elliot knowing.
"Okay, so now I believe you. But why do you think this is reason enough for the j
udge to declare a mistrial for Jackson Malone?"
"Well, as you heard, Elliot told us it wasn't over, and he figured out a way to get back at Jax. He paid juror seven, Steve Yates, half a million dollars to sway the jury to convict Jax."
"How the hell do you know that?" he asks, sitting up straighter in his chair.
"I can't give you sources or the proof I have, but if you could just get a warrant for his bank records after you charge him with attempted murder against me, you'll find it."
"I don’t know, Page. That's a stretch, to ask for bank records for an assault case."
"Then what about getting the feds involved. Tell them he's a dirty politician. They can investigate to see if he's accepted bribes, or misused campaign funds."
"That might be possible. I could make a call to the local bureau."
"Could you get a search warrant for all the jurors' bank records to investigate juror fraud? I'm begging you, Adam. Jax didn't do anything to that woman but have sex with her, and he doesn't deserve to be locked up. Help me convince Judge Bray to declare a mistrial."
He sighs and taps a pen on his desk. "There is something I debated telling you before the trial, but I didn't. The victim, or alleged victim, asked me about money. She wanted to know how much she could get from Jax for what he did after he gets convicted. I told her this is criminal court, not civil."
"So this whole time, she wanted his money."
"Yeah, that and revenge that he didn't want anything to do with her most likely. I probably should've told you that she asked about restitution."
"Don't worry about it. Just...all I'm asking is for you to do what you can now to help Jax."
"All right, let's go to the judge's chambers and see what we can get him to approve. If nothing else he'll probably agree to bring the jurors back in for questioning."
"Thank you so much!" I exclaim.
Now we're finally getting somewhere! With any luck, we'll convince the judge to give Jax a new trial, one with a better attorney.
…
Jax
I'm pissed that they're moving me and not telling me where the hell I'm going. But then I start to see the signs for Atlantic City outside the prison bus windows. Why are we going back there? It has to be something to do with the case, since there's only a jail there and no state prison facility.
