Bad Boy's Kiss (Firemen in Love Book 2) (34 page)

“Before long, everyone will know what happened here today. There are videos of it; they'll probably end up all over the internet. Do you know how that's going to make me look? I'll never win the conservative vote now.”

I was extremely pissed at Max, but the advice he'd given me socked me in the gut at that very instant.

Why did I let my family walk all over me? Why did I put up with so much from these people who, while they may have raised me, I barely even liked?

“I'm very disappointed in you, Anna.”

“Well, I'm disappointed with
you.
You care more about becoming the governor and keeping your image nice and shiny than you care about me. You treat me more like a pawn than your daughter. I'm tired of it!”

He was stunned silent, but not for long. I'd never seen him lose his cool in public before. Now, he snapped.

“How dare you,” he hissed. “Do you realize what I've done for you? I found you a good man to marry. Paid for this extravagant wedding. And now, just like you've been all your life, you're nothing but ungrateful.”

“I
am
grateful, but you know I didn't want this.”

“When it comes to your family, what you want doesn't matter. You do what is best for them, not yourself.” He rubbed his temples and sighed. “Perhaps it's not too late. I could find another man to fill in for Henry.”

“No. I'm not marrying anyone. I refuse.”

He started screaming again. “Then you'd best find yourself another place to live, starting right now! The farm is going up for sale by the end of this month. I expect you to pack up everything and have it moved out before then.”

I knew that he was serious. He would do as he said. I didn't protest, though. Didn't run after him and tell him he'd won, that I would marry a bum off the street if it'd make him happy.

Because I knew it
wouldn't
make him happy. The damage had already been done, and my worst fear was coming true.

Though surrounded by people, I was completely alone.

Chapter 24 - Max

So, Anna didn't marry that Henry asshole. I should have been thrilled, but I just felt sick.

“It's done,” Rich told me over the phone that night. “The wedding's been canceled. You won't tell my wife any of this, will you?”

“No. Unlike other people, I'm a man who keeps his word.”

He sighed with relief. “Thank goodness. Uh, just a word of advice, though? Maybe breaking up a wedding and making a public spectacle of it wasn't the best idea.”

I told him I didn't need his advice and that I'd better never see nor hear from him again. But then when I tried to call Anna, she didn't answer. Not that time, nor the second, or the third.

Fear shot through me. Was she okay? What of the baby?

I called around and finally got hold of Trey. He sounded exhausted, as if the world had been beating him down something fierce.

“How much longer you in there for?” he asked.

“They're giving me a trial in a few hours. This Lola girl will be there, of course.”

“They'll find you innocent, won't they?”

My stomach twisted in knots. “I wish I could say yes and mean it. Anyway, what's going on with Anna?”

“She pretty much hates you right now. Rich admitted you coerced him into breaking up the wedding.”

“That son of a bitch!”

“Yeah. It was an epic disaster, man. People screaming, calling Anna names like she'd done something awful. Now her family's blaming her for ruining everything. Her dad's kicking her out of her farm.”

I punched my pillow with such fury, feathers exploded from it. Her dad would actually do that? How could a father be so cruel?

“Why is she so mad at me? She didn't want to marry that guy. I thought she'd appreciate what I went through. Thought it'd show her I would do anything to win her back.”

“Unfortunately, she doesn't see it that way. She's probably pissed that she lost her house because of your stunt.”

“It's not my fault her dad is a maniac psychopath. I just wanted to help.”

“I know you did, Max. You gonna need a ride when you get out of there?”

“Yeah, that'd be great. Hey, if you talk to Anna, tell her I'm coming home soon. Tell her I want to see her.”

“I'll try, but I can't guarantee she'll want to see
you.
”

I held her face in my mind as the guard led me to the court room. Soon, I told myself. I would be free and then she'd see I wasn't guilty.

The trial was a small event with just a few witnesses, the judge, a jury, and the public defender they got to represent me. With the dirty looks I kept getting, it sure
felt
like I'd done something wrong.

“This ought to be an open and shut case,” said Lola's lawyer. “We have photographic evidence that this girl was assaulted. Traces of his semen were found on her body.”

My attorney was so inept, he didn't know how to defend against that one. I could have done a better job representing myself.

They put Lola on the stand. She refused to look at me. I wanted to grab her and shake her, to ask why? What really happened to me?

“Tell us now, Miss Martinez, what exactly went on that night at Saint Claire's.”

She started to cry. “I asked him for a ride home. He drove me back, we all had some fun with my friends. Then later, he asked to sleep with me, but I said no. That's when he... He hit me, your honor!”

“Bullshit I did!”

“Mr. McLaren, please. If you refuse to settle down you'll be held in contempt of court.”

So I was forced to keep my mouth shut while this woman lied her ass off about me. She had her friends testify, too. According to her, we'd all been involved in some wild orgy together after I brought her home.

No way. I refused to believe it. I'd never put a hand on another woman, not with how much I cared about Anna. Don't care how drunk I was. It wouldn't have happened.

But there were pictures, and I guess you couldn't argue against them. The jury was clearly on her side by default, too. She was the innocent young lady and I, the loser with a checkered past.

No wonder Anna didn't want me anymore. What did I have left to offer her?

There was nothing I could say or do when they handed down that guilty verdict. Hearing that hurt worse than stepping through fire.

“Max McLaren,” the judge grumbled. “Given this is not your first encounter with our court system, I have no choice but to be harsh with you. I sentence you to three years behind bars.”

Three years?

The gavel came down. With it, so too did my hope of ever having Anna's love again.

Chapter 25 - Max

Nearly four months had passed since I was sentenced to life in a cage. I kept track of the days on a wall calendar, crossing them off one by one with a red marker.

Each day brought Anna closer to having her baby. It agonized me that I wouldn't be there to witness it with her.

And to think, I said I hated kids once. Now I wanted nothing more than to sit by her side, to hold her hand and help her while she gave birth.

But I wouldn't have that gift.

She surely hated me now. Since that guilty verdict, I hadn't spoken to her once. It tore me up inside, and even now, the agony of being ignored by her hurt like hell.

I was able to keep up with her life through updates via Trey. The farm had been sold, as her dad promised, and she moved into a cheap apartment. It must have been awful for her, boxed into a tiny building like that. No land, no vegetables to pick, no filthy chickens.

I even kinda missed the chickens. Sad, wasn't it?

And every time I talked to Trey, I asked if she'd found a man yet.

“No,” he said, with a sigh. “She says she's done with guys for good. I don't blame her.”

At least he still believed I was innocent, unlike everybody else. Jayce, too, and the rest of the boys. If I ever got out of here, I promised I'd be a better friend to all of them. I'd been such a selfish ass most of the time, it was hard to believe they kept me around.

I spent my time working out, reading, learning web design, and pining over Anna. It was a miserable existence.

Then one day, there was a miracle.

“Get up, McLaren.” The guard smacked the bars with his stick. “You're in luck. Your case is going to retrial.”

I almost fell off my cot, I was so stunned. “Huh? Retrial?”

He rolled his eyes. “Yep. Evidently, the plaintiff lady claims she didn't quite tell the whole truth on that stand.”

I knew it!

But I wouldn't get too excited yet. Last time I did that and swore my innocence, I just made a huge fool of myself.

The trial was held a week after I got the news. Waiting that whole week felt longer than the months before it.

“So, Miss Martinez. Please explain why we're all here today.”

She bawled. “I couldn't live with myself anymore. I can't deal with sending an innocent man to jail. It wasn't supposed to go like this.”

The courtroom exploded into loud whispers and flash photography. They could take my picture all they liked. Soon, the world would know I'd done nothing wrong.

Anna would know, and really, nothing mattered to me more than that.

“Please tell us the events of that night – truthfully, this time, if you don't mind.”

She wiped her tears away. The room quieted. I held my breath. Would her testimony be enough to set me free?

“I got a call that morning saying I was to work a bachelor party later in the evening. Great, I thought. I needed the extra cash, and they usually tip pretty good.”

“Who called you? Your boss?”

“Yeah, he called first. It was an impromptu thing; kind of weird. Parties are typically scheduled in advance, but I wasn't about to complain.” She paused. “Then I got another call from some man; he said he worked with the club and he was real important with the management. Said he had a very special task for me and my girls.”

So some egotistical douche-bag called her, huh? Gee, wonder who
that
could have been.

“A task? Explain, please.”

She tensed and started to cry again. “Am I going to get in trouble for this?”

The attorney sighed with annoyance. “You're under oath to tell the whole truth, miss. Not like you failed to do last time.”

Lola nodded. “He said the bachelor himself, Max, was to be treated in a very specific manner. Our job was to tempt him, as much as we possibly could, into getting drunk and...” She cringed. “We were supposed to try and get him to sleep with us.”

And try, they certainly did. No wonder they kept pushing drinks in my face and trying to pull me away from my friends.

“Do you typically have sex with clients as part of your job?”

Her eyes widened. “Well, it's not in the job description, but it happens all the time. Everyone knows it. Customers kind of expect it. They pay extra; we just keep it all hush-hush.”

“But this unknown man calls you and
wants
you to sleep with Max. Surely, you must have thought this rather strange. Continue.”

“I told him I didn't feel comfortable with what he was asking. That's when he offered me money to get the job done. A lot of money.”

“How much?”

“Ten thousand.”

More whispers from around the room. Damn it, if only she got the name of the caller! I knew it was Daniel; it couldn't have been anybody else. What I wouldn't give to see that smug bastard rotting in jail like I'd been doing.

“Ten thousand for just you?”

“No, for each of the girls working on him.” She took a deep breath. “The guy said Max might resist, but failure wasn't an option. If we screwed up, he'd have us all fired.”

“And you believed him?”

“I... I kind of did. He scared me. Besides, though I'm ashamed to admit it, I really needed that money. My boyfriend Tyrone was riding me to pay him back for... living expenses.”

The lawyer didn't see fit to continue that odd line of questioning. But hey, I was a fireman, not an attorney. They were supposed to be the smart ones. What did I know?

“Did the caller make any other demands?”

“No. Well, he said he'd have a couple of girls there taking pictures for 'documentation.' I thought it was super creepy. Anything incriminating at all, he said, we were to photograph. And so we did.”

“All right. Let's proceed to the party itself. What happened when Max arrived?”

She finally cast me a glance. “He was a good guy. He didn't want to lay a finger on any of us no matter what we did. Well, the girls and I weren't about to lose that money. So one of us, Cocoa, says there's only one thing we can do. We... We mixed a little something into his drink.”

I clenched my hands into fists. All along, I knew it. Jayce knew it; even the bum in the cell next to mine had been right.