He stops and turns back to look at me with a lopsided grin. “Okay, then Pumpkin. You did a little cradle robbing. Is that the big deal? He might be barely eighteen but he was old enough to consent to a marriage.”
I nod. He needs to know a little more about the guy, though. “Um, he’s also kind of unattractive.” I gulp back the lump in my throat. “Not like my usual conquests.”
“So an ugly young man,” he says with a laugh. “No worries, my dear. I promise not to judge.”
I clench my jaw as I say the rest, “He has one leg that’s shorter than the other. There are several large moles on his face. There’s a red birthmark on his forehead that’s shaped like the state of Georgia, and he has…” His stare is stopping me.
“Has what?” he asks, “Please, go on.”
Sliding my foot over the floor as I look down, I mumble, “Breasts.”
“I’m sorry, Baby. You mumbled I think I heard you wrong.”
I look up and grit my teeth. “Breasts. He has large breasts.”
With a shake of his head, like he’s trying to clear it, he asks, “How is that?”
“He took some drug for his hyperactivity and it gave him breasts. He’s a C cup.”
An odd laugh comes out of him as he looks at me. My face heats with embarrassment. “You said you wouldn’t judge me, Jason.”
“No, no I’m not,” he says as he tries to stop laughing. He walks toward me and takes my hand and pulls me to sit with him on the bed. “Tell me about it all.”
“No way. I can’t!”
“Baby, what made you hook up with this guy?” he asks with real concern in his eyes.
“Drugs and alcohol. Maybe a little bit of feeling sorry for him,” I mumble as I look away from him.
“So, a good deed gone wrong then?” he asks as he pulls me by my chin to look at him again.
“So very wrong. If I could go back in time and could change only one thing that would be the thing I change.”
“Wow! Okay then. I’ll prepare myself for meeting him. I do know his half-sister rather well. Funny she never mentioned him.”
“Not really. Once you meet him, you’ll understand.” Then it occurs to me that he’s going to be around a woman he’s had sex with. My wheels start spinning and I don’t want him to go. “How long did you know her?”
“Not very long. She was a new one.” He gets back up, leaving me sitting on the bed.
“I don’t want you to see her,” I say as I get up too.
He turns back to me slowly. “You don’t trust me?”
I’m not sure what to say to that. Then I just say it, “No.”
Coming back to me, he stops right in front of me and asks, “What do we have, Britt? Without trust, what do we really have?”
“Well, you haven’t been around anyone of the opposite sex alone yet. So how can I be sure you’ve really put that behind you?” I ask as I search his eyes.
The way his chest deflates makes me feel bad. “Britt, we have to have trust. I trust you.”
“Why shouldn’t you? I never cheated on you.”
A long sigh comes out of his mouth as he looks like he has no idea of what to say to me. His hands move up and down my arms as he looks into my eyes. “I can’t make you trust me. I can’t change the past. I can’t do anything. I have to go deal with this guy. If I don’t then your honor is at stake. You have to deal with business. And what kind of life will we have if I can never go anywhere without you?”
“You make a great point. But it doesn’t change how I feel.” I turn away from him and walk away to finish packing my bags.
“I’m going, Britt. I have to do this for you. I hope you can learn to trust me, or we’re not going to make it.”
As I pack my things, I think about what he’s said. When he sees that video which I know he’s going to see, I know he’ll think differently about me.
Each piece of clothing I pack has me feeling as if it’s a stone in the wall that surrounded my heart before he came back into my life and knocked it all down. Things are about to flip for us. He doesn’t seem to know it but I do.
“Okay, Jason. You go. I do appreciate your help with the little troll. We’ll see how things go from there.” I zip up my suitcase and feel his arms go around me from behind.
His lips press against my neck. “I’ll meet you back in New York at your place when I get done with the troll. Then we’ll make our plans. I want to get a place that’s only ours, together. A fresh start for us both. We’re going to leave our shady pasts behind us and move forward.”
His body pressed against my back sends need through me. A need I wish I didn’t have. It’s going to be so hard to live without him.
I know that’s going to happen when he finds out how bad I’ve really been.
Chapter 3
JASON
The cuffs on my wrists are tight and cold as the officer holds my head down and puts me in the back of his squad car. My Miranda rights have already been read to me.
The ambulance’s siren starts up as it leaves with the battered body of the fucking asshole who thought he was going to ruin the love of my life. An old Ford Tempo pulls into the driveway and a short, blonde woman gets out and looks panicked.
It’s Julie, the asshole’s half-sister, and my former plaything. I can hear her shout, “What’s happened? Is my brother okay?”
The officer takes her by the shoulders and holds her still. “Your brother is on his way to the hospital. He’s the victim of what we think is a hate crime.”
I do hate the fucking piece of crap. But it wasn’t a hate crime. He deserved every fucking thing I gave his evil ass.
Her eyes find me in the back of the cop’s car. She points at me and shrieks, “Is that who did that to him? Do you know his name? It’s Jason Brennan! What did he do to my brother?”
The officer tries to calm her down with some shushing then he says, “We have his name and we’re taking him in. I don’t know any more than that. Mr. Brennan made a 911 call telling the dispatcher that an ambulance needed to be sent to this address. He said he was about to beat a man named Elmer Fartenberry and that he didn’t want to kill him, so they needed to hurry.”
I should’ve killed him. The world needs rid of people like him. People who feed women drugs then have them do unspeakable things.
Suddenly, her fists are beating on the window as she screams, “What did you do to him?”
I look away from her as the officer pulls her back and shouts at her, “Call someone to take you to the hospital, Miss. You need to call your parents and let them know what’s happened to your brother. I have to get this man to jail.”
She looks into the car and shouts, “I’m going to make sure you pay for what you’ve done, Jason!”
“Your brother is going to pay for what he’s done too, Julie. I’ll take what I have coming to me.”
She steps back as the officer moves her then he gets into the car. He pulls away as Julie stands there, staring at the car is we leave.
At least I had the forethought to send the video to my lawyer’s phone before I destroyed the jackass’s phone. I have no idea what Jackson will think when he sees that piece of horror. It would’ve been nice to get a chance to call and explain things to him first.
Once I get to the station, they should let me call him I would think. With only one phone call, it makes it hard to use it to call anyone but Brittany. I need my lawyer’s help, though.
The police station is much smaller than I envisioned a Los Angeles station to be. Pulling to a stop, the officer gets me out and takes me inside with not so much as one word.
The woman sitting behind a thick pane of glass looks me up and down. I must be a sight. Armani suit and tie and handcuffed behind my back. Not quite your average bad guy.
“I have Jason Brennan from New York, New York,” the officer says then slides my driver’s license under the window through a little metal tray at the bottom. He then slides my cell phone through it. “He’s bei
ng charged with assault with intent to kill.”
“I wasn’t going to kill him,” I interrupt. “That’s exactly why I called 911.”
The cop looks at me. “My advice to you is to keep your mouth shut.”
I nod and look back at the woman who’s looking at me with a look I’ve seen often in my life. She’s intrigued by me.
“I’ll take him from here,” she says as she gets up and walks to the door.
The sound of a buzzer comes from behind the door then it opens and she stands there, waiting for me. The officer hands me over to her. Taking my arm by the bicep, I swear she moans a little as she grips it.
Once the door is closed and the other officer is on the other side of it, she whispers, “Can I trust you not to hurt me too, Mr. Brennan?”
“You can.”
She gives my arm a squeeze. “You work out?”
“I do.”
She opens a door and takes me into a very small room with one desk in the middle of it and chairs on either side. Letting my arm go, she gestures to one chair for me to take a seat in.
As I sit down, I watch her go behind the desk and sit down. “I’ll be taking your statement, Mr. Brennan.”
“I’d like to call my lawyer. I won’t be giving any statement.”
She eyes me then smiles. “You should really cooperate with me. I have the ability to set you free without the need to be bonded out.”
I’m more than skeptical. “You do?”
With a nod, she gets up and comes around the desk. Her hand slides over my shoulders. “I’m sure if you assaulted someone, he deserved it. Tell me what he did to get under your skin.”
I hesitate to say a word. She stops right behind me and moves both her hands over my chest. “I really can’t tell you anything until I talk to my lawyer.”
Her lips touch my ear as she leans over me. I can feel her breasts on my back and it makes me nervous as hell. “Let me be straight forward with you. I find you very attractive, Mr. Brennan. I can help you out of this little assault charge very easily. If you let me, that is.”
“And how is that?”
Her hands move over my chest all the way down to my cock. It doesn’t even move a bit as she strokes it. “I’m a Captain. I control your paperwork. I’m a woman who knows what she has in front of her. I have a man who is sure to please me and you have the good fortune of having me in your corner.”
After taking a deep breath, I say, “I have a fiancé. That’s the reason I did what I did. I’d be very thankful for your help. I won’t be doing anything to get it, though. So if that’s what you want, you can forget it.”
“Who you have in your life is none of my concern. No one needs to know what you did to get yourself out of the trouble you’re in.” She moves away from me and goes back behind her little desk. Pulling open a drawer, she pulls out a handful of foil packets. “I’m prepared if that’s what you’re worried about.”
“I know this probably doesn’t matter to you a bit. I’m going to say it, anyway. The woman I’m engaged to is the love of my life. I screwed around on her in the beginning and I never want to do that to her again. I’m used to women coming on to me. It happens more often than not. I’ve rarely told anyone, no, before. And I really am sorry the first time I say, no, is a time that might actually hurt me for doing it. I have to tell you no, though.”
The condoms go back into the drawer as her cheeks grow red. She sits down again and hides her face in her hands. I notice a gold band on her left hand and wonder what made her try that on me.
“This isn’t even my office,” she says. “This one belongs to one of the male Captains. When I saw you, a strange thing happened inside of me and I took the chance you’d be into it.” She lifts her head to look at me. “I’m sorry.”
With a nod, I say, “It happens all the time. I’m not sure what it is about me that makes women do things they wouldn’t normally do. I don’t have any plans on telling anyone what you did. Don’t worry.”
She looks relieved and picks up a pen off the desk and looks over the paper in front of her. “Are you a flight risk, Mr. Brennan?”
“Not really. Can I ask you something?”
Looking up from the paper, she nods. “Of course.”
“On my phone, there’s a video of what the man I beat up did to my future wife. It’s the reason I did what I did. He pretty much fed her drugs and had her do things that are pretty bad. He threatened to put the video on social media if she didn’t start paying him not to. There’s a little kicker there too. You see, they got married in Vegas. My fiancé is a very wealthy woman, and this man knew that. That’s why he made the video after they were married. He wanted to have proof they were intimate after the wedding so she couldn’t annul the marriage.”
The woman looks at my cell phone then comes around the desk. “Get up.”
Standing up, I’m nervous about what she’s about to do. I find her turning me around and then the click of the handcuffs being unlocked is a thing that relieves me. She goes to sit back down then slides the phone over to me.
“Can I call her?”
A nod gives me her answer and I make the call. The phone rings and rings then goes to voicemail. “I guess she’s still in her meeting. She had one today.”
The sound of a text message has me checking it and I see a message from her. Opening it, I find some confusing words there.
-Jason, sorry for not answering. By now I know you’ve seen the video. I can’t face you after that. Sorry. I do love you. I hope you have a wonderful life. You deserve it. Goodbye, my only true love. I’m too ashamed to ever look into your eyes again.-
“Oh my God,” I say as my heart stops beating and my brain goes into a spasm.
“Mind if I ask why you said that, Mr. Brennan?”
I look up at her and feel as if I’m falling. “She’s going to run away.”
Confusion fills her narrow face. Her short blonde curls dance over her forehead as she shakes her head. “Why is that?”
“Shame about the video. That man has to be dealt with. What he’s done is a crime, I’m sure it is.” I pull up the video and hand the phone to her. “Watch this please.”
Watching the woman watch the video is hard to take. She makes no obvious expressions of disgust but it’s there. No one could watch it without feeling disgusted.
The thing is merely thirty minutes long, but it’s a horrifying amount of time for someone to be put through what my Brittany was put through. I can’t believe she didn’t do something about what he did to her.
“Do you know the other man in the video?” she asks me when it’s all over.
“The little prick said it’s his lover. Elmer Fartenberry is bisexual. I suppose that’s pretty obvious from the video, though. You see, I was able to get the whole story out of the guy before I beat his ass. And yes, I did beat him as close to death as I could before they came in and stopped me.”
“I’m going to pretend I did not hear you say that,” she tells me. “I’m sure you know this woman and you think she’d never do these things on her own. But the fact is people do sick shit all the time. In my opinion, there’s no way to tell she was forced to do any of those things.”
“I know that. But she was drugged,” I argue.
With a shake of her head, she says, “I know it was his hand putting the pills to her mouth. But she opened it and took them. Bad judgment is what I would call that. She shouldn’t have trusted him.”
“She was unaware of things.”
“Because she was drunk in the first place. The woman you love may not be the woman you think she is. The woman in this video is no angel, Mr. Brennan. I can see that you want to believe she’s changed. The woman in this video was into it. Anyone can see that.”
As I stare into the woman’s light green eyes I feel the anger boiling up inside me.
Have I been a fool?
Chapter 4
BRITTANY
My phone rings and I see an unknown number o
n the screen. I’m worried it’s Jason calling from another phone to get me to talk to him but I can’t do that. The shame is just too much.
After a few seconds, my voicemail beeps at me and I pick up the phone to listen to the message. The sound of his voice is probably going to send me into a crying jag but I have to hear it.
“This is Jason’s lawyer, Brittany. I need to see you in my New York office as soon as possible. Jason’s been arrested for assaulting an Elmer Fartenberry and he’s sent me a video you and I need to discuss. Please call me back as soon as you can.”
Fantastic! Now another man has seen it!
Wait! Did he say Jason was arrested?
I call the number back and find his lawyer answering, “This is Jackson, Brittany. Thank you for calling me.”
“Jason’s in jail?”
“He is. I’ll send a car for you. Where are you?”
“I’m actually in a car right now. I’m heading to the airport to catch a plane. Since you said you’ve seen the video, I assume you can guess why I’m leaving,” I tell him as I pull my sunglasses off and look out the window at the busy New York sidewalk.
“Brittany, have it bring you to my office instead of running away. If you know Jason, then you know he’ll track you down, anyway. Just come to me and let me help you. Maybe after some counseling, you can get over this sex addiction thing you have. I can be of help.”
“I do not have a sex addiction!” I shout and immediately wish I hadn’t shouted that as the driver looks at me through his rearview mirror.
When his eyebrows do a little dance, I find myself wanting to throw something at him. My narrowed eyes and the glare I give him, have him looking away with a little shiver.
“Okay, whatever. Just come to my office.”
Thinking about what he’s said, I know he might be right about Jason trying to find me. Then it sinks in that Jason is in trouble. “I’ll be there in thirty minutes.” Ending the call, I call out to the nosey driver who is now listening to every word that comes out of my mouth. “Take me to the Davenport Building, please.”
“Sure thing, Toots.”
I roll my eyes and find myself wanting to get out and walk. But my suitcase is in the trunk so I continue to ride. A text comes in and I see it’s from Jason.
The Shameless Billionaire Series: Billionaire Romance Box Set (An Alpha-Male, Billionaire, Bad Boy, Bad Girl, Romance) Page 20