“Yes, thank you,” Kari said with a smile that he knew was difficult to muster. “He’s getting out on bail.”
Alex nodded. “Yes, Toker phoned and told me.”
“How can I thank you for doing it, Alex? I just couldn’t believe it. How can I ever repay you?”
“It’s temporary,” Alex said. “Nothing to worry about. I’m sure, once he’s exonerated, I’ll get it back.”
“Wait a minute.” Lucinda was beside herself. “You’re the one who put up his bail? You’re the one who paid his two-hundred-thousand-dollar bail?”
But Alex didn’t respond to her. Kari was his singular focus. “What about you?” he asked Kari. “Are you okay?”
“I’m great now that Jordan’s coming back home. Thank you, Alex. Thank you so much.”
Alex wanted to grab Kari into his arms so badly that he could hardly contain himself. This woman had a spell on him! So he did it. He didn’t give a fuck. Right in front of her friends; right in front of that busy courthouse, he pulled Kari into his arms.
Lucinda and Faye were shocked, and so were other members of the community who knew he was that rich guy looking to bring casinos to their town, but Kari felt protected, and safe, and hopeful for the first time since the ordeal began. Her son was getting out on bail, thanks to Alex. Benny was going to have a world class attorney at his side, thanks to Alex. She didn’t care who saw what, when, where, or how, and she didn’t care with an exclamation point. She closed her eyes as Alex held her.
But when she heard, Ma! and looked and saw Jordan running toward her, she tore away from Alex, and ran to her son.
Benny Church and Toker Aaronson were coming up behind Jordan, and Kari was grateful to them, too. But right now, she only had eyes for her son.
Alex was surprised at how small Jordan was. Given the charges against him, he expected at least a big kid. But he wasn’t big at all. It seemed almost ludicrous that he could even physically do what they claimed.
But he also knew the press would soon get wind of this reunion and try to make a spectacle of the boy. He therefore went to Kari and her son. He nodded at Aaronson and Benny, and placed his arm around Kari’s waist. “Let’s get out of here,” he suggested.
“Yes, please,” Kari said, and Alex escorted her and Jordan, and the two lawyers, to the waiting limousine. They all got in, and the driver took off.
Lucinda looked at Faye. “What the bleep is going on?” she asked.
Faye smiled, and then she laughed. “Must be love,” she said jokingly.
But she was only half-joking.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
It felt like an interrogation, but Kari knew it couldn’t be helped. They needed to know the truth, and the full story, before they would know how to tackle it. But what nobody in that room expected was what Jordan had to say.
“I don’t know anything about it,” he said.
Jordan and Kari were seated at the kitchen table inside Kari’s small home, and Aaronson and Benny were seated across from them. Alex was leaned against the back wall, staring at the young man, as the attorneys did their thing. He had to decide for himself if this boy was telling the truth, or full of shit.
“What do you mean you don’t know anything?” Aaronson asked him. “You’ve been accused of raping and killing a very popular young lady. What do you mean you don’t know anything?”
“I don’t know anything about any rape or murder,” Jordan said. “I don’t know anything about it.” He was panicking.
Kari placed her arm around him. “It’s alright, Jordan,” she said. “But they have to ask these questions.” She nodded for them to continue.
Alex loved her maternal instincts, but also her practical instincts, too. It was brutal on a kid that young to go through this, but it had to be addressed.
“Did you know Marvena Shuler?” Benny asked Jordan.
“I didn’t know her know her,” Jordan said.
“What does that mean, J?” Benny asked.
“I knew her name, and stuff like that. But I never said two words to that girl. She’s in high school, I’m just in middle school. Why would I be hanging out with her? She hung out with jocks, anyway. I’m not exactly a jock, as you can see.” Then he looked at Kari. “Mom, I’m tired,” he pleaded.
“I know you are, son,” said Kari. “But you’ll rest when this is all over. You’ve got to tell these men everything you know, leaving nothing out. These people are here to help you. And Jordan, you need help.”
Alex looked at Jordan as his handsome face seemed to suddenly remember the dire straits he was in. And Alex looked at Kari, too. She was in undeniable pain. What mother would want their child to suffer so? But she still had her wits about her to not give in to his suffering, but to whatever it took that would lead to his exoneration.
“What did the cops tell you when they arrested you?” Aaronson asked Jordan. “Did they tell you anything?”
“Nothing. They just came and got me.”
“Did they ask you questions when they got you to the station?”
“Yeah. Some.”
“Such as?”
“Where was I last night.”
“Where were you?” Benny asked.
“Home. I didn’t go anywhere.”
“You told them that?”
Jordan shook his head. “My mom told me not to tell them anything. So I didn’t.”
Benny smiled. So did Aaronson. “Good boy,” Benny said.
“What else did they ask you?” Aaronson asked.
“They asked what time I went to bed and if my mom saw when I went to bed and if I knew Colt. Stuff like that.”
“Who’s Colt?” Aaronson asked.
“Colt Brinkley,” Benny said. “Marvena’s boyfriend. He’s on the track team.”
This interested Aaronson a great deal. “Do you know him?” he asked Jordan.
“Yes, sir,” Jordan said. “I tutor him. He’s in high school and all, but he asked, so I said I would.”
“How long have you been tutoring him, Jordan?” Benny asked.
“Just a couple weeks.”
“Where do you tutor him? At school?”
“Or at his house sometimes, yeah.”
“Why is that relevant?” Kari asked.
“He’s the only connection we have right now to the victim,” Benny said. “If Jordan’s alibi is that he was home in bed when the crime occurred, we need to pursue any connections he may have had to the victim.”
“I was in bed,” Jordan said. “I don’t have any connections.”
“What kind of kid is this Colt Brinkley?” Aaronson asked Jordan. “Is he considered a good kid, or a problem child?”
“He’s okay,” Jordan said.
“Have you ever seen him upset with Marvena?” Benny asked.
“No. Never.”
“They never had any arguments or disagreements?”
“Not around me.”
“Has Colt ever shown a mean side? A bad temper?”
“No. Never. He’s basically nice. I don’t think he would harm a flea.”
It wasn’t what the lawyers wanted to hear. Aaronson looked at Alex. So did Kari and Jordan.
Alex was thinking. And then he spoke. “I’ll get Jim Hines on it. He’ll put together a team of investigators. They’ll check out everybody who knew the victim and Colt Brinkley.”
Aaronson nodded. “That will help tremendously,” he said. “If we’re to believe this young man, and I have no reason to disbelieve him at this point, then we are going to need to either find dirt on the victim, I’m sorry to say, or find her killer ourselves.”
Alex looked at Kari. Her distress was palpable.
After the lawyers left, Jordan took a hot bath and went straight to bed. Within a few minutes in bed, he was fast asleep. He hadn’t slept a wink since he was dragged from his home in those early morning hours.
Kari hadn’t had a chance to so much as think about sleep after Jordan’s arrest. Her entire focus was on
freeing him from that jail cell. Alex knew that wasn’t going to help her or Jordan in the long run.
“Where’s your bedroom?” he asked.
“At the end of the hall,” Kari said. “Why?”
Alex reached for her hand. “Come with me.”
Kari didn’t hesitate. After what this man did for her son? And was still doing for her son? She didn’t hesitate for a second.
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
He led her down the hall to the master bedroom. It was the tiniest master bedroom he’d seen in a long time. But he didn’t dwell on it. He closed and locked the door. “Take off your clothes,” he said, as he headed for the attached bathroom.
Kari looked at him. “Take off my clothes? Why?”
“I’m going to run your bath.”
Kari appreciated it, but she was okay. “Thanks, Alex, but I’m okay.”
Alex looked back at her from inside the bathroom. “No, you aren’t,” he said firmly. “Take off your clothes.”
Kari couldn’t argue with him. She’d been running on pure adrenalin ever since Chief Lindsey knocked on her door, and she was fast running out of gas. She needed a bath. She needed sleep. She needed something to eat. She needed all of that.
But the idea of somebody else pampering her, and helping her, was so unusual to her that it almost seemed strange. But she was getting to know Alex, not by his words, but by his actions. He wasn’t telling her much, but he was showing her a hell of a lot.
She took off her clothes.
By the time she made her way into the bathroom, completely naked, she was shocked to see that Alex was naked, too. Again, he had practiced what he was preaching.
“What,” Alex said with a half-cocked smile, as he sat on the edge of the water-filled tub and turned off the tap, “you didn’t think I was going to force you to go to the party alone, did you?”
Kari smiled, amazing herself that she still could smile at all. “I should have known better,” she said. She was also amazed at how elegant he looked even naked. His legs were crossed, concealing most of his condom-clad penis, as if this move of his wasn’t as easy for him as she would have thought it would be.
It certainly wasn’t easy for Kari! But when she walked over to him, and he looked over her smoking brown body, and then stood up, and pulled her into his arms, she knew she was exactly where she wanted to be. With Alex. With Jordan home safe. At least for now.
And when Alex lifted her, and they got in the tub together, with her sitting between his legs and leaned back against his chest, Alex knew he was exactly where he wanted to be, too. It was the most trying of circumstances for Kari. He knew she was going through the worse nightmare every parent dreaded going through. She needed him. But he realized, when he saw her standing outside that courthouse, that he needed her too.
They didn’t bathe. They just leaned back and relaxed. Alex could feel the tension in every inch of her body he touched. “Toker Aaronson is the best at what he does,” he said to Alex. “And from what I’ve heard, Benny Church is well respected here in Apple Valley.”
Kari nodded. “He is. He’s also Jordan’s unofficial godfather. He’ll do his best for him.”
“Jordan’s in good hands,” Alex said. “But what I need you to understand is that you’re in good hands, too.” He paused, and then just said it. “My hands.”
Kari’s entire body reacted to those two simple words. She turned her body enough to look up at Alex. And then she turned her body all the way around, straddled him in such a way that her vagina was resting on his balls, and wrapped her arms around him.
Alex cupped her butt, and held her tightly, as his penis expanded beneath her. He cared for this woman. For some reason, he cared dearly for this woman, even as it was just the beginning of their relationship.
But he couldn’t help it. Kari had captured his attention in a way no other woman ever had. And whereas sex was the only reason he was interested in all those other women, sex wasn’t even in the top five reasons with Kari.
When they stopped embracing, Kari looked at him, and ruffled his thick hair. She stared at his hair. “I bet you want to reach up right now and rake it back in place,” she said, playing to what she knew was his fastidious way of keeping himself perfectly groomed. “Don’t you?”
He smiled. And then laughed. But the longer she stared at him, and the longer he realized her naked body was straddling him, with the lips of her vagina enveloping his balls, his smile left.
But it wasn’t just because of his physical reaction to her. He could handle physical all day long. But it was his emotional reaction to Kari that straightened that smile. He felt a gravitational pull toward this woman that no chain could pull harder.
He looked from her gorgeous eyes to her gorgeous lips, and acted on that pull. He kissed her.
It started out chaste and simple. Just a kiss. But as soon as her lips touched his, and as soon as he tasted her, something changed within him and that chaste kiss turned hard.
Kari needed hard too. She was not in a chaste mood. She needed to feel that she wasn’t alone in this; that she could release all that she held buried inside of her, into Alex.
But Alex felt as if he was the one doing the releasing. He felt as if he was the one unloading his pain and heartaches and hopes and dreams into her, as he kissed her. He felt as if she was giving to him, not the other way around, and that he was getting the better deal.
And when he took his penis and eased it into her already wet passageway, as she straddled him, there was no doubt about it: he was the victor here. Kari was giving him exactly what he needed.
Kari was getting her need fulfilled in return. When Alex entered her, and she felt his thickness seek to expand her for entry, and it was difficult and too tight, she felt sensually excited, and emotionally uplifted. She felt as if burdens that were still there were somehow manageable. That she was going to make it despite it all. Being with Alex gave her hope.
That was why she surrendered to him. That was why she laid her head on his shoulder, and allowed him to put it on her in his own way.
And he did just that. For nearly twenty minutes his penis pushed into Kari, deeper and deeper, until it was in a rhythm that was so comforting that it nearly put her to sleep. Not because it wasn’t good. It was wonderful to Kari. But because it was coming from a sweet place. This man who’d been showing her nothing but kindness since the day they met in Lucinda’s diner, and he followed her just because he thought, rightly, that somebody else was, was not being misunderstood. He cared about her. And Kari cared about him. They were a long way from love. She knew this man couldn’t possibly love her this quickly. But it at least was moving in the right direction.
In addition to fucking her hard, he was sucking her breasts, and rubbing her clit, by the time she came. And when she came, she hugged Alex so tightly, and pushed her body against him so forcefully, that it took him over, too.
And his cum was so intense to Alex that something uncharacteristic occurred within him: he could not attempt another stroke. He pushed deep inside of her, as his semen poured out of him, and remained there. The ferocity of the intensity would not allow him to so much as move his penis another centimeter. It poured and it poured. And Alex’s chest breathed in and out in a hyperventilated passion to a level he had not experienced before. He could not understand how a man like him could ever deserve such a pure and beautiful thing.
After they had bathe, and Kari had put on a pair of shorts and a t-shirt, Alex put back on his pants, and his unbuttoned, untucked dress shirt, and went into the kitchen. Kari sat up in bed and phoned her office, to make sure the maids were doing their jobs despite the madness around Jordan’s arrest, and Dezzamaine assured her that they were. But there were matters to be resolved, and Kari spent quite a while going through each and every one.
Alex was entering the bedroom, with a tray of food in hand, when Kari finished the call. She placed her cellphone on her night stand and stared at him. “What’s that?” she
asked.
“Food,” Alex said.
Kari was starved, and figured she’d try to throw something together later, but Alex had beat her to the punch. He had prepared what appeared to be an omelet with chives and sour cream and other goodies on top. It looked delicious to Kari. “But what about Jordan? He might want to eat, too,” she said.
“I checked on him. He’s still asleep. I do believe that young man is going to sleep through the night.”
Kari smiled. “Good. At least he won’t be worrying about his case.”
Alex sat the plastic tray on Kari’s lap and she smiled.
“What?” he asked.
“I’m sure you’re used to sterling silver breakfast trays in your regular life.”
“This is my regular life,” Alex said as he laid across the foot of the bed, his body turned sideways toward Kari, his elbow resting on the bed with his fist holding up the side of his face, and looked at the food, too. “A tray is a tray,” he added. “I’m no snob.”
“I believe that,” Kari said, as she picked up the fork. “Have some?” she asked.
“No, I’m good. Knock yourself out,” he said, and Kari did just that. She said a quick prayer, and chowed down.
It wasn’t lost on her that Alex was staring at her the whole time. But she was so hungry. She hadn’t eaten since dinner on his plane the night before, and it was nearly night yet again. She destroyed that food.
But when she finished eating, and just leaned back satisfied, Alex said something out loud that he had not said to anybody before:
“My son committed suicide,” he said for the first time ever.
Kari had already read about it. She knew. She was just shocked that Alex was telling her about it.
“He killed himself,” Alex continued, “because of the hardline way I’ve always dealt with my children. With everybody, really. They stole from me, my son and daughter, and I believed in my soul that they deserved to pay for what they did to me. I still feel that way. That was why I refused to drop charges against my daughter. That was why I refused to accept, as my ex-wife wanted me to accept, that what happened to our son was my fault. It wasn’t. I know it wasn’t.” There was another pause, and then he spoke again. “But that doesn’t stop the pain. And it probably never will.”
Alex Drakos_His Forbidden Love Page 14
