Never Say Never, Part Four (Second Chance Contemporary Romance, Book 4)

by Melissa Shaw

  Never Say Never

  Part Four of

  The Never Say Never Series

  Melissa Shaw

  Table of Contents

  Free Book Download

  Never Say Never, Book 4

  Also by Melissa Shaw

  I Need Your Help

  About the Author

  Sneak Peek at Brave

  Copyright

  To my loved ones. Thanks for believing in me.

  CHAPTER ONE

  “What did you just say?” Emily gripped her shirt under her chin and glared at Janet.

  Janet pranced around the room, checking out Emily’s decorations, her TV, Joseph cowering slightly on the couch.

  “Yeah, Brian killed Chase’s parents.” The redhead repeated it with a derisive half-snort, half-giggle.

  No matter how many times she heard it, it wouldn’t click into place in her mind. This was impossible. She’d been in the driver’s seat, she’d been drunk, and she’d done the time for god’s sake.

  “I – I. How?”

  “Oh come on, I knew you were stupid, but this is just ridiculous.” Janet charged up to her and met her nose-to-nose. Her breath was distinctly rancid – fish tacos and tequila – and Emily grimaced. “Think about it, bitch. Who was the only witness to the murders?”

  “Brian,” she breathed through her mouth and didn’t back down.

  “And who testified against you?”

  “Brian.”

  “And who had your kids taken away from you?”

  “Brian,” she finished with a low grumble. Amanda straightened in the corner and glared at Janet through narrowed eyes.

  “That’s right, sweetheart. Brian Ross is the sum total of your problems.” The dance instructor finally backed off with a choked guffaw.

  It made sense. But how? And how did Janet know it was true? This had to be some ploy to disarm her and keep her away from Chase.

  “How do you know?” Emily paced to the kitchen counter and swept up a wine bottle, then ripped the cork out with her teeth and spat it over her shoulder.

  “Because she’s fucking him,” Amanda piped up. She wasn’t in tears, but glared directly at Janet, the hatred was so intense that Emily was distracted from the unadulterated need for revenge against her ex-husband.

  “How do you know?” Janet and Emily said it in unison, then gave each other quizzical looks.

  “You think I’m stupid?” Amanda slung her arms over her knees and rested her head back against the doorjamb. “Do you really think I don’t know what’s going on in my own house?”

  “Maybe if you knew how to satisfy your man, this wouldn’t be a problem.” Janet smiled and spread her arms. “Everybody thinks they’ve got what it takes, until they realize they’re not me.”

  “Oh God, please stop, you’re embarrassing yourself,” Emily put in. The dance instructor clearly had severe self-esteem issues if she had to chase down every married or taken man in a 5 mile radius. “I should get tested,” she remarked to herself.

  “I’ve done nothing but satisfy my husband.” Amanda whispered it, but in a fierce hiss which smacked of a cat preparing to pounce. It was true. Amanda had aborted her baby for Brian, she’d gone to a place Emily wouldn’t have if he’d put a gun to her head.

  “Then why’s he want me?”

  “You’ve got me. I don’t see a single reason why he’d want you, regardless of his commitment to me or anyone else.” Amanda rose from her position on the floor, grappling with the wall to get herself upright.

  “Both of you need to leave,” Emily said. Joseph sat up straighter and she encompassed him in her glance. “Make that the three of you.”

  “Not before I’ve had my piece,” Janet snapped and stormed towards Amanda, but the fake blonde had strengthened. Perhaps it was the instructor’s presence, or the revelation that Brian was a damn monster.

  But how could it be true? Janet had handed her a piece of information which could ensure she got her kids back… but she had no proof.

  “What are you going to do? Dance me to death?” Amanda laughed hard, and the red head slowed to a halt in front of her. “There’s nothing you can do to me, which would hurt me more than what I’ve done to myself.”

  Janet’s mouth flapped open and closed for a bit. She was a goldfish - a crimson one – without water for air. “Brian is –”

  “What? Brian’s yours? Don’t lie to yourself, kid. He doesn’t care about you and you don’t care about him either. Get away from me.” Amanda sighed and pointed to the open door. “Take your drunk ass home. Sleep it off, and be ready for a call from my lawyer’s.”

  “For what?” Janet’s eyes widened.

  “Defamation of character. Trespassing.”

  The instructor trembled from head-to-toe, then bent and threw up on Amanda’s shoes.

  “Oh my god,” Joseph groaned and clapped a hand to his mouth.

  “Get out of my apartment. Now.” Emily yelled it at them to garner their attention, when really she wasn’t angry anymore. Not with them. Not with anyone but herself, for believing Brian’s lies when she should’ve known better from the start.

  He’d never loved her and she’d known on a deep level, but she’d let him get away with murder. Literally.

  “I’ll be back,” Janet pronounced, waggling her finger in the air, but it was an empty threat. She was nothing if not a coward. She’d needed alcohol for the confrontation and even then it’d been half-baked at best. She was a spider, operating in the shadows but without the finesse of an elaborate web.

  “Out.”

  Joseph rose, Janet marched out the front door, but Amanda stayed put.

  “I’m sorry, Emily.”

  “What? Why?” She grasped at her chest and sighed. There was nothing for it but to find a way to prove Brian was guilty and she was innocent.

  “I knew all along.”

  “I found out about Janet a while ago. I should have told you but I didn’t think it would do anything but anger you and make you stay with him anyway.”

  Amanda gritted her teeth, then placed her hands over her abdomen. A haunted expression of pain appeared. “I’m not talking about Janet.”

  “Then what do you mean?”

  “Brian. I knew he killed Chase’s parents and not you.”

  Emily staggered back a few paces and Joseph appeared at her side to hold her upright. She waved him off.

  “How?”

  “I taped it. I have proof.”

  CHAPTER TWO

  “What are you talking about?” Emily was frozen in place, staring at her old high school friend. “Amanda, what did you tape?”

  The blonde woman sighed and her shoulders drooped. “I can’t do this anymore. I can’t be his woman and do what I shouldn’t. I’ve given up too much already.”

  “What’s going on?” Joseph was still at her side, trying to grasp her arm or hand or some part of her damn body every two minutes. She batted him off for the third time.

  “Amanda?” Emily balled her hands into fists. The tension which had entered her at Janet’s revelation wouldn’t go anywhere.

  There was a reckoning on the way.

  “I had my doubts about Brian since the beginning, you know.” Amanda raised her hands into the air in surrender, then swung them up behind her head to brace it. There were dark rings under her eyes.

  “I’m glad to hear it,” Emily replied. But what had she taped?

  “Yeah, I figured he might be cheating. He was always out late, there were strange texts on his phone, calls at all hours. I mean, congressm
en don’t have midnight meetings unless they’re dirty or something.”

  Joseph shifted beside her but she didn’t give him the attention he sought.

  Amanda strolled to the coffee table and picked up Joseph’s wine glass. She took a small sip, pulled a face, then placed down again. “I decided I’d rather know. Maybe I could confront him about his ways and he’d changed.”

  “You know that would never work,” Emily replied, gently. A nudge in the right direction, hopefully. Brian Ross was a poison, and no woman deserved that septicemia. Not even Janet and that said a lot.

  “I know, I know. But I had to know,” Amanda shook with the intensity of the sentiment. “So I told Brian I had a dinner date with some girlfriends and I’d probably be out late. I had the camera ready and everything, I wanted to do it firsthand, so it would be real to me when I saw it happen.” She paused for a second, then nodded. “Actually, I kinda hoped I’d stand there waiting for him to come home and he’d be innocent. Just have his evening whisky and mosey on up to bed.” She made a walking motion with two fingers.

  Joseph tried to touch Emily again. She grunted at him.

  “But he didn’t come home alone.” Amanda choked up. “He was with that redhead bitch and he was drunk as hell. They started kissing, but he stopped and pushed her away. She got angry with him and asked him what his problem was, and that’s when it happened.”

  “What happened?” Emily cast a wary glance at Joseph. He didn’t need to hear any of this, but if he’d be her lawyer, perhaps it was a good thing.

  “He told her that he’d killed Chase’s parents. God, it was awful, I wanted to throw up a little. I could scarcely believe the words coming out of his mouth.”

  “Why would he tell her?” She’d said it more to herself than anything.

  “He was distraught. It was the first time I’ve seen emotion like that in him. I mean, you know how he is.”

  Cold, clinical, unable to love. Everything with Brian Ross was a shadow of the truth, a mimicry to keep others satisfied. Inside, he was bare, a void which trapped others and forced them to give and give and give, and get nothing back. Except for pain.

  “He sobbed to her, he told her that he’d ruined your life on purpose and sometimes he doubted whether it was the right thing to do.”

  “Poor guy,” Emily hissed softly, with so much venom that Amanda blinked.

  ”Then Janet held him, kissed his cheek and told him he’d done the right thing. He’d done what he had to do to survive.”

  Emily turned beet red from head to toe. How dare she?!

  “Brian cheered up a bit then. He agreed with her, said he wouldn’t let anything jeopardize his career. That he was the man who’d be president one day, and anything he’d done was for the good of the country.”

  “That’s comforting,” Emily replied.

  “Then they had sex. I couldn’t tape the rest of it. I just left with the camera.”

  “You have that tape?”

  “I’ve got one better,” Amanda straightened with pride and strode to her friend.

  “Do tell.”

  “I’ve got the original and at least three copies, just in case.” She grinned and Emily couldn’t help smiling back. An overwhelming sense of joy bowled her over.

  “Amanda, this is –”

  Her old friend, her newest fiend, rushed into her arms. They embraced and Amanda burst into tears, while Joseph made moves to get back to the couch.

  “I’m so sorry,” the woman sobbed.

  “Don’t be silly, you’ve just given me the key to getting my children back.” Emily was firm on that point. She’d have her kids and her life on track no matter what. Brian Ross would pay.

  “I should’ve been a better friend to you.”

  “Amanda, we both did what we had to do. It’s okay.”

  They detached from each other and she gave a shrug. “I guess you’re right. I’d better get home, he’ll wonder where I am and until I can leave him, I’m going to keep the peace.”

  Emily nodded, because there were no words to express her anger or gratitude. Amanda strolled out the door with a promise to return with the evidence, but she hardly registered the news.

  Her mind flashed back through the years and to that night. The drinking, the pain of discovery that Brian had cheated on her. Then the police, the jail, the court cases, losing custody, getting hooked on drugs, stripping, Chase, losing Chase.

  Everything which had happened could be traced back to that single event. That single lie.

  “Are you all right?” Joseph was beside her again. He reached out.

  “Don’t touch me.”

  It was time to bring Brian Ross to his knees.

  CHAPTER THREE

  The tape would damn him, but she needed to do this. It was the only way to absolve some of this anger and get a form of closure on the situation.

  “You realize I can have you arrested for this.” Brian Ross stood in the doorway of his mansion, one hand resting against the wooden frame. He cut an imposing figure, but she hadn’t been afraid of him in years.

  “I know,” she snapped back, then pushed past him into the entrance hall.

  “Get out of –”

  “I know about that night, Brian. I wasn’t the one who killed Chase’s parents, was I?” She had to pose questions to get the truth out. Joseph had a buddy in the local police department, and had gotten the wire was a loaner, and the cop in the van outside for an hour.

  That was all the time she had.

  “What are you talking about?”

  “I know that it was you who killed them. I know you framed me.”

  Brian let the door slam shut, but she didn’t allow fear to take her over. He wouldn’t harm her, because he’d have to answer for it. No, he’d try find some way to trick her into another mistake. That wouldn’t happen.

  “And so what?” Brian’s tone was iced death and triumph. “So what if you know, Emily?”

  “It’s true then. You framed me. You saw me sent away to jail and deprived our kids of a mother.” Emily shot her anger at him, but it bounced off in a rain of laughter.

  “Our children deserved a better mother than you. I deserved a better wife than you. You never had what it takes, and I’m only sad I didn’t find a way to get rid of you sooner.” He said the words with a cool smile of triumph. He’d always known exactly where to hit her hardest, but the insults rolled off her in waves.

  This was Brian Ross. This was a murderer. She’d deserved better than him, she’d deserved a better life than she’d had.

  The worst of it was, it’d been her choice to stay with him.

  “Maybe you’re right,” she answered and Brian’s eyebrows jumped up then flickered back into place. “Maybe I needed to learn a few things before I could be who I needed to be for our children.”

  “I would say I’m glad you agree with me, but I don’t give a damn about you, Emily.”

  She was a dog with a bone, now. She had him on the back foot – there was this expression of concern behind the icy exterior. He had no idea what she’d do next, and she’d keep it that way.

  “Wanna know what I learned, Brian?”

  “Not particularly,” he answered, folding his arms beneath the Armani suit. It bulged ever so slightly around the muscles of his arms.

  Emily moved forward a few paces, levelling him a gaze she’d practiced in the mirror. Steady, prepared for whatever would come.

  “I learned that I won’t back down from a challenge,” she said, flashing a bright smile.

  Brian opened his mouth, but she didn’t let him get a word in.

  “I learned that I am strong,” she said, stepping closer, but he stood his ground. At least he didn’t close in on her. She couldn’t allow him to take control in anyway, not until she’d said her piece and broken him down enough. That confession would come from him.

  “And,” Emily said, forcing herself into his space and pointing a finger directly at his nose, “I learned that I am
not afraid of you.” She articulated each word with a low growl and a jab of her forefinger in mid-air.

  Brian went beet red with anger, he shook from it. He was close, so close to reaching breaking point. If she could just…

  “You’re a pathetic politician, Brian.”

  “Get out of my house before I call the police,” he barked, but she didn’t move off. She really wasn’t afraid of him anymore, because she saw him for what he was. Years she’d spent blaming herself, hating herself for harming two people she’d never known.

  She’d spent an eternity in guilt!

  She’d believed she’d deserved the jail time, she’d barely fought it, while Brian Ross, the true killer, smiled pretty. He didn’t care he’d killed Chase’s parents, or Amanda’s unborn child.

  Brian Ross only cared for himself.

  “Call the police,” she said, strolling to the phone and snatching it off the entrance hall table. Emily handed it to him with an easy smile. “Do me a favor and call them, so that you can confess to the murders you had me jailed for.”

  “That will never happen.”

  “I don’t see you denying it.”

  “I don’t have to deny it.” Brian threw back his head and howled with laughter. “You still don’t get it, you stupid bitch, you still don’t get it.”

  “Clarify it for me then.” Emily didn’t fold her arms, she didn’t want to disturb the microphone strapped to her torso, but swung them at her sides – it gave off a vibe of anxiety which he’d totally buy. Brian loved believing he was in control.

  He was close now, so close. Another prod and he’d be right over the edge.

  “I’m invincible.” Brian puffed out his chest. “So yes, I killed Chase’s parents. Yes, I blamed it on you. Yes, I don’t care I did it and I don’t care about you.” He spread his arms wide and lifted them slightly. “And you know what the best part is?”

  That she’d gotten it on tape. “What?”

  “That it doesn’t matter what you know. There is nothing you can do about it, because no one will ever believe you and no one will ever doubt me. I’m a congressman and you’re a stripper.”