by CJ Turner
Chapter Ten
Manu
Manu waited two nights in the jail for his arraignment, and this night they gave him a restraining order for him to stay away from Alister.
Manu examined the papers in shock. It gutted him to think that Alister felt the need to go to such an extreme to keep Manu away. He didn’t understand it, and the more he thought about it, it put him in a foul mood.
He didn’t understand why the sheriff arrested him. The lawman wasn’t clear on the charges. Manu heard some words like “assault” and “endangering,” but none of it made sense. He did nothing wrong, but there was little he could do until the arraignment.
“Martin, you have a visitor.”
“Who is it?”
“He says he’s your father.”
Manu took a deep breath and let the deputy cuff him and take him to the visitor’s room. His father sat at a table looking a mess. Instead of his usual crisp shirts and gray suits, he wore a polo shirt and khakis.
“Dad,” said Manu.
“What is this nonsense, Manu? They charged you with third-degree assault.”
Manu drew his mouth in a tight line.
“I don’t understand it. I took a client on a tour and, before I knew it, his bodyguard showed up waving a gun in my face.”
“The man went to the hospital, Manu.”
“Yes. He suffered altitude sickness.”
“His lawyer said you should have known he couldn’t handle mountain heights. You endangered his health.”
“Hey, he signed a liability waiver. I checked it before I left. And I gave him oxygen. But he didn’t have real trouble until the bodyguard showed up and scared the hell out of both of us.”
“Look, son. This mountain tour business isn’t working out for you. Come home, and I’ll get my lawyers to straighten this all out.”
Should he? His father was right. Manu had one problem after another with his fledgling business.
His father gave him a piercing stare.
“They may be able to talk the district attorney out of the sex charges. I’m sure the man’s family wouldn’t want that bit about their son let out.”
What? Anger fired through Manu now. What game did his father play?
His father continued in an even and calm tone as if discussing the weather. “There is an eyewitness account from the bodyguard that you engaged in indecent behavior. Son, we can go home. The church will help you—”
“Get out!”
“What?” His father looked at him with shock on his face.
“Leave. Get out of my life. I’ve done nothing wrong. And if you can’t or won’t believe that about me, then there is nothing I can do. But I will not have members of my family think I’m a sick person that needs the church to cure my soul.”
“Son, you should think this through carefully.”
“What the hell do you think I’ve done since I was fifteen years old? I’ve figured things out. Leave now, and don’t darken my door until you get a more enlightened attitude.”
His father stood frowning.
“God help you,” he said. “I’ll pray for you.”
“You do that,” said Manu coldly.
His father walked away through the locked doors, opened and closed by the guard. That man and his money were probably the only chance to help Manu out of his mess. But Manu had his pride, and he wouldn’t accept help from any person who found Manu’s life objectionable. Manu suffered in that household when he could not deny his natural inclination toward men. At first, Manu thought he was sinful and would burn in the fires of Hell, but that seemed illogical to Manu. How would a loving God make you one way and then insist you live another or consign you to hell if you didn’t? It was just one of the many fallacies of logic he found in his church. And when he went to college far from home, he discovered a world that embraced all kinds of people.
“Let’s go, Martin. Back to the cell.”
“Sure,” he said. He’d rather stay in a chilly cell than bask in the lack of warmth from his father.
The next morning the sheriff took him to the courthouse. They allowed him to wear the clothes they arrested him in, which was better than the deputy’s jumpsuit. They brought him in and sat him on the front bench, and he watched as one defendant after another faced the judge.
“Manu Martin,” called the bailiff.
He stood. “Here.”
“Does counsel represent you, Mr. Martin?” asked the judge.
“No, sir.”
“Objection,” called a voice.
Manu turned his head to see Alister move down the aisle.
“Are you a member of the bar, sir?”
“No. A lawyer is coming, sir.”
“That may be the case, but we don’t have time to wait.”
Manu stared. What the hell was he doing here?
“Sir, my name is Alister Grant.”
The judge looked at the paper before him.
“The victim.”
“Your Honor, Mr. Martin did nothing to hurt me. I retained legal services for Mr. Martin. All this is because my overly rich family is stupidly overprotective. Look, I have my discharge papers from the hospital.”
Alister waved papers in his hand. “They say that I have a heart defect, and that’s why I had trouble breathing in the mountains. No one knew, sir. I didn’t. Manu didn’t. He is guilty of nothing, sir.”
“Mr. District Attorney, did you or the sheriff interview the victim?”
“No, sir. The sheriff told me he was in the hospital for his injuries.”
“I’m not injured in the least.”
“Sit down, Mr. Grant. Mr. Martin, we’ll wait for this lawyer, who I hope is more filled in on the facts than the district attorney here.”
Manu sat again and did his best to resist the urge to look back at Alister. He didn’t know what to make of this. Other cases got called before a gray-suited man carrying a boxlike briefcase entered. He waited until the judge turned to him.
“Sorry, your Honor. Peter Wilson for Manu Martin. Can I speak with my client for a minute?”
The judge nodded.
Manu turned to the man hurrying toward him.
“Okay, what I got is that Alister Grant booked a tour with you, and you took him to the mountains. Did you do anything nonconsensual with Mr. Grant?”
“No,” huffed Manu.
“And you were in a private location?”
“I thought so until that helicopter showed up.”
“That’s what Mr. Grant said. Okay. Hang tight.”
The lawyer stood.
“Your Honor, we request dismissal of all charges. Both Mr. Grant and Mr. Martin have affirmed to me that their activities on the day in question were fully consensual, and they, in an off-the-trail location, enjoyed each other’s company. Mr. Grant suffered from altitude sickness aggravated by an undiagnosed heart condition. Therefore, Mr. Martin committed no crime.”
“Mr. Grant.”
Alister stood. “Yes, your Honor.”
“Is that the story you’ll tell in court?”
“It’s no story, your Honor. It’s the truth.”
“Ralph,” said the judge nodding his head to the district attorney, “either you withdraw the charges or I dismiss them.”
The district attorney took a deep breath. “Consider them withdrawn.”
“Then you are free to go, Mr. Martin.”
“Wait,” said Alister. “There is one other thing.”
“What is that?” said the judge.
“There is this stupid no contact order in place, which is highly inconvenient. If you can vacate that order, I’d appreciate it. If Mr. Martin lets me, I intend to keep ‘enjoying his company’ as much as he’ll let me. What do you say, Manu?”
Epilogue
Alister
One year later…
Alister didn’t deny his nervousness. He just didn’t want to show it to the world. His whole family had flown in, and it was simply ridiculous. Fin
ally, he had the bodyguard, a different one than last year, shoo them away. He told them to go to his apartment and wait, but he knew they’d just migrate to the waiting room.
He stared at his phone, hoping for a message from Manu, but there wasn’t one. Manu’s business had taken off in the past year due to Alister’s marketing efforts, and Alister didn’t see much of him. And that had to change. Though Alister in the past year had acclimated to Boulder’s altitude, he wanted more time with Manu, which meant going on the tours with him higher into the mountains. So he had to take care of his little problem.
Today was the day the surgeons would repair his mitral valve. It was “floppy,” and they needed to tighten it up, so it worked better. Alister joked his mitral valve needed a “nip and tuck” like a face-lift, but he fooled no one. Heart surgery always carried risks.
A knock on the door brought his head up. He expected his sister, Livvy, to bounce in because she was incorrigible and also worried as much as his parents over him. He had tried to talk to her about what it was like for her when that nanny kidnapped him for ransom money, but she refused. One day he’d talk her into therapy so she could make peace with what happened. His whole family needed that because a twenty-eight-year-old man didn’t need his family fussing over him for every razor cut. Eventually, he would get them there. Alister was a persistent man.
But it was Manu that stuck in his head.
“How are you?” he said. His brow furrowed in worry.
Alister smiled brightly. “Come here and give me a kiss before they take me to surgery.”
Manu crossed the room quickly, and Alister threw his arms around him and kissed him with all the passion in his soul. He could do this a million times, and it would never get old. Manu pulled away. “Are you sure this is okay?”
“It’s adorable you’re worried. Until they pull me out of here, anything we’ve done so far is okay. I love you, you know.”
Manu’s eyes crinkled when he smiled, and Alister loved that about him.
“I love you, too. It’s just there is something I want to discuss, but maybe we should talk later.”
“Like when I come out of anesthesia, and you tell me something awful. And I’m too groggy to do anything about it. No. Tell me now.”
Manu laughed. “It’s not awful. But I’ve thought that since you intend to live with me—you do intend that, don’t you?”
“Good God, yes,” huffed Alister. “I don’t go under the knife for just anyone.”
“Well, since you’re making this huge commitment, I think we should take things to the top. How about we get married?”
“Married?”
“Sure. We have a gay governor and everything, so I think it’s socially acceptable here. But if you don’t want to.”
“Who said I didn’t want to? You damn well better marry me.”
Manu raised his eyebrows. “Better? I think I should call the nurse and make sure you get some pre-op drugs.”
“Well, I didn’t expect you’d spring it on me on the cusp of my surgery. Should we call a chaplain and have him do it now? All my family is here, so that works out. And I wouldn’t want you to think I’d agree to marry you under the influence of drugs, and I’m sober now.”
“Why don’t we plan a nice wedding at the lake where we spent our first time?”
“And hand out oxygen cans with “Martin’s Mountain Tours” on the label?”
“Exactly.”
Another knock on the door brought the nurse.
“Time to go to surgery, Mr. Grant.”
Manu kissed him once more. “I’ll be waiting for you,” he said.
“You damned well better be.”
He woke from the surgery stuck with a bunch of needles in his neck and his arm, and he couldn’t see at first. Finally, his vision cleared, and he found he was in his room, and Manu sat next to him in a hospital recliner.
Manu stirred. “Hey.”
To his horror, Alister found a breathing tube down his throat.
“Yeah, I’ll call the nurse, but she told me you’d probably have that in for a bit until they are sure you are ready to breathe on your own. Go back to sleep, babe. I’m not going anywhere.”
Alister began to doze when a phone rang.
“Oh, hello, Dad.”
Wow. Manu called his father? That was good. Alister had been after him to mend things with his father. Family was important.
“Yes, I left a message. No, I’m not giving up my business and coming home. I just wanted to tell you I’m getting married. You’re invited if you want to come. No, Dad,” he sighed. “It’s not a woman. Now, if you don’t mind, I have a man sleeping here beside me, and I don’t want to disturb him. Bye.”
Manu clicked off the phone, and if Alister could smile, he would. At least Manu called his father. The rest could come later. Some things would take longer than others, but Alister was a persistent man.
BONUS EPILOGUE
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Message from CJ
Dear Reader,
Thank you so much for reading The Mountain Man and His Billionaire, the second book in the His Billionaire series.
I hope you liked reading it as much as I liked writing it.
Here is a little bit about me, I grew up on a farm in upstate NY.
I moved to NYC for college where I studied photography. What better way to be around male models?
I had my own photo business in NYC for years.
I went on a summer holiday to Lisbon Portugal and ended up moving there.
This is my first MM romance book and I had a blast writing it.
Let me know your thoughts.
Hugs,
CJ
PS Don’t forget to grab the EXCLUSIVE BONUS EPILOGUE when you sign up for my newsletter.
Sneak Peek
Remember Dr. Chase? Alister’s hot doctor?
He gets his own story.
Here is an exclusive sneak peek of The Doctor and His Billionaire.
Chapter One
Chase
“Wow,” murmured Chase. He gawked at the luxurious surroundings, taking in the sweeping snowcapped Rocky Mountains, the floor-to-ceiling windows that admitted the view, and the chandeliers that graced the ballroom. Outside, at the right-hand wall of glass, a sparkling waterfall fell into a pond. In the venue proper, round banquet tables held more crystal than the high-end Denver mall department store. Raised the son of blue-collar parents, Chase found such extravagance foreign.
Guests in pricey attire stood in groups chatting. Chase glanced down at his four-hundred-dollar blue suit bought for his cousin’s wedding and dragged from his closet. It didn’t cut a fashion statement in this heady crowd. A waiter walked by sporting glasses of champagne on a silver tray. He snagged one, but for the cachet of holding the champagne flute, hoping it would make him appear more worldly. Chase didn’t drink.
Dr. Owen Chase, Chase to everyone that knew him, stood in the giant white pavilion located at a hotel high in Colorado’s Rocky Mountains. He had traveled an hour to get here because his hospital’s administrator begged Chase to represent their facility at a fundraiser for Caribbean Hurricane Relief hosted by Alister Grant. She emphasized it was a matter of duty to the hospital. Alister Grant had graced the Mountain View Hospital with a generous donation after his brief stay there and, Sarah, the administrator, had insisted Chase attend.
Alister, since he arrived in the Denver area, had carved out turf as the Colorado branch of the Long Island Grant family. Before he had met Alister, as a patient, Chase had not heard of the Grants, a family ancient by American standards and a hundred times as wealthy.
“Oh, there he is,” said a singsong male voice.
Chase recognized it. He turned and smiled at his host. Three men trailed after Grant, one a mountain of a
man and who seemed familiar, but the other two he had not met. One blond stood shorter than a lean, taller man with black hair, and they casually held hands. Chase tore his gaze from those entwined hands and focused on his host.
“Mr. Grant.”
“Please, call me Alister. You’re not my doctor now, though that’s a pity. And you’ve met my fiancé, Manu Martin, and these are my very best friends in the world, Theo Collins and Lennox Sewell. They’ve come from the East Coast to give me moral support while I put on this soirée.”
“Alister, you didn’t need support. You were looking for donations,” said Theo with mock exasperation.
Alister effected a shocked expression and then fanned his face. “Oh, dear, found out. Anyway, Dr. Chase, don’t listen to him. We grew up together, so Theo’s always been the fake, annoying older brother.”
“Fake?” said Theo with the same mock indignation.
“But we’re having a wonderful time,” jumped in Lennox. “So, thank you for twisting Theo’s arm. This is a gorgeous place.”
“Wait until we hit up the whiskey bar later. Awesome. Have you been? We were there last night, and it was incredible,” Alister trebled his voice on the last word.
“That is not what you said this morning,” said Manu. “The words ‘never again’ crossed your lips as I handed you an ice bag.”
Alister shot Manu a warning glance, and then he turned his attention again on Chase and flashed him a big smile.
“You must come on one of our tours,” said Alister. “Manu runs a mountain tour business, Dr. Chase.”
“Sure,” said Chase. He vaguely remembered that detail from when he met Alister.
“We’re setting up overnight moonlight tours in the spring. You should come and bring your sweetie.”
Chase looked away and shook his head. “I don’t date much. My job is insane.”
“It’s crazy how you have to treat total strangers in an emergency room. But you’re terrific at it. I’ll never be the same.”
