This questioning goes on and on for an entire three hours. Aaron’s lawyer put me on trial. I knew what to expect, though. Finally, after Aaron’s lawyer finishes with me, it’s Evan’s turn. I am so relieved. Evan’s questions aren’t any easier, but it’s Evan.
“Miss Andrews, why did you lie to Mr. Reeves that day you were with Maddox and told him you were working?”
I explain how I was asked to help my friend, Molly, pack up her apartment. How at that time, Aaron was already hitting me. Evan continues for a while with his examination. After he's done questioning me, we wait as he submits my medical records, even ones dating before the final attack.
Once the judge dismisses me from the stand, I head out of the courtroom. I hadn’t planned on looking at him, but I wanted to show Aaron and prove to myself that I was no longer afraid of him. My eyes lock with his and he looks pissed. I’m sure the evil, death glare he's giving me is meant to intimidate me. Instead, I just smile. I have truly faced the devil and I lived to tell about it. I leave the courtroom, not wanting to be a part of it any longer. I did all that I could. I just hope the men and women sitting on that jury will see through Aaron, who still has to testify.
Maddox
Later that night, Kerrigan is nursing Eli on the couch. I flop down next to her and turn on the TV. Some news agencies are portraying us as a couple that wanted Aaron out of the picture. It’s all ridiculous. It pisses me off, the way some people are talking about Kerrigan. I didn’t stay to watch Aaron’s testimony because Kerrigan asked me not to. Honestly, I don’t want those images in my head. I already have enough that makes me want to kill him.
Once Kerrigan is done nursing, I take Eli and rock him to sleep. My singing voice is horrible, but for some reason, it soothes him. I lay him down in the crib that we've assembled in our room. God. We need to move. This place is overrun with diapers, wipes, infant clothes, and baby furniture. He's four weeks old and already owns way more than I do. I have to laugh. Even with all of the other shit going on, there's nothing I want more than to be here in this cluttered apartment with Kerrigan and our son. Well, that’s a lie. I do want something else. It’s time.
When I walk back into the living room, Kerrigan is crying.
“What’s wrong?” I immediately ask.
“Nothing. I’m just happy it’s over, and I’m here with you, where I should’ve been all along.”
“Speaking of that, I got this before Eli was born. I had planned to do it the night Eli was born, but I got a little sidetracked.” I wink at her as I get down on one knee.
“Kerrigan, I love you. I love our little family and I’m so proud of you. Everything you’ve been through, everything you’ve overcome. You’re a fighter. You're the mother of my son, and my future. The only future I want is with you. Please say yes and marry me.” I pull out the ring and watch as Kerrigan switches from tears to all smiles.
“Yes! Yes, Maddox. I love you and I'll marry you,” she replies as I put the ring on her finger.
Kerrigan
An entire week passes before we get the verdict - Aaron was found guilty. His attorney couldn’t argue against the mountain of evidence against him nor the fact that he'd violated the restraining order twice. We also found out that Aaron had an ex-wife in Arizona who was able to testify via videoconference. He was sentenced to fifteen years in prison, but I was disappointed that he'd be eligible for parole after serving only nine. Still, he's locked away, that's comforting. From what Maddox tells me, Aaron will be at the bottom of the food chain in prison. Being a former cop, the inmate population won’t be kind to him. And I know that whenever Aaron gets out, I'm safe with Maddox.
“Hey, Kerrigan,” Maddox calls from the kitchen.
“Yeah?”
“What kind of wedding do you want? And where do you want it? I don’t want to rush you, but I do want you to have my last name,” he says with a grin.
“Would you mind if we get married in Kentucky?” I ask, thinking of the perfect place.
“Whatever you want. All you have to do is tell me when and where.”
“My friend, Brady, has this amazing home at the top of a large hill. It overlooks the Ohio River and has beautiful trees that line the property. I’ll have to ask him first, of course.”
“Okay. When?”
“Well, I'll be leaving in a few days. Give me time to talk to him. I still need to finish up with the details of the other wedding. But I’d like everyone to come to ours. And I mean everyone.” Yes, I want our entire group of friends there to share our special day.
“Alright. We'll talk to everyone and see when would work best.” I smile. Maddox really would give me the world, if he could.
Maddox
Kerrigan is back in Kentucky, busy with wedding plans. I’ll admit, when she brought up getting married at Brady’s, I had a brief second of jealousy. I have no idea who this man is that Kerrigan thinks so highly of, but I know Kerrigan. She doesn’t trust easily, and the fact that she trusts him, means I do, too.
Today, I’m meeting with Lani to go over the evidence that she has on Jackson. She's currently staying with Evan, and it’s driving him crazy. He says she's messy, but when I heard his version of it, I had to laugh. Apparently, she put away dishes and didn’t line them up. He claims she also doesn’t listen and leaves whenever she wants. He has security on her, but we both know, it’s hard to find someone who doesn’t want to be found. And Jackson has the resources to be invisible.
Lani’s office is in an old building West of Chicago. She makes her money by busting cheating spouses and investigating fraudulent medical claims.
Evan insisted that she install a security alarm at work and she didn’t resist. She's still terrified. After I punch in the access code to the door, I walk in and announce myself.
“In here, Maddox,” she calls out. I find her holed up in her office with papers spread out her all around her. She motions to a chair and invites me to sit.
“Let’s get to work,” I say.
Lani is organized. She has pictures tagged with dates and files listed by date. She recounts her investigation that stemmed from the incident years ago when she and Kerrigan were nearly raped.
“I started with this guy, Michael. He's the one who gave me the drink and drugged me. He seemed to now live a respectable life with a wife and kid, so I tried to reason with myself that maybe he'd just been a drunken kid back then. But it didn't excuse his behavior, and I still wanted to turn him in.
"I was about to give up on the investigation since I couldn't remember much from that night and didn't really have anything to go on. One day, I got lucky. I was at Club Six on a cheating spouse case when I saw Michael at the bar buying this girl a drink. She wasn't his wife, so I decided to hang around for a bit. After about twenty minutes, she seemed fine and not drugged. I was about to leave when two other guys showed up.
"My memories came back in a rush. It was Jackson and another guy, Dylan. I suspected they were up to no good. I waited in the bar until they closed for the night. Everyone had gone their separate ways, so I went home. I had this gnawing feeling in my gut that something was going to happen, but dismissed it since they all left in different cars.
"The next day, I went to the police station to see if there had been any rape allegations. There was. A woman claimed that the guys gave her Jackson’s address and told her to meet them there. She said she went because he was the governor's son. She never dreamed anything bad would happen, not with his father being so high profile.
"Once I had the other men's names, I started following them - trying to find out if they had a system and how often they frequented different places. I thought the cops were working on the rape allegation, so I focused on the guys. After two weeks and no arrest, I went back to the police station and asked what was going on. They said the woman had dropped the charges and admitted that she lied. I checked into her. There was a $25,000 deposit from an offshore account wired to her. They paid her off,” Lani concludes.
We go over mounds of paperwork, and I realize that Lani is in way over her head. If we don’t get this taken care of quickly, I hate to say it, but we could be attending Lani’s funeral. These guys are good, but I’m better. It helps to have a brother who may not be an equal match in the political world, but Evan is a thinker. He's brilliant and would fund any plan to save Lani, no matter what the cost. Now, I have to convince Lani to go into hiding.
Kerrigan
I just met with the young couple to show them the things I’d picked out for the wedding. They were so grateful. And I was right; she was pregnant. I got to meet their precious newborn daughter. It made me miss Eli so much. Annie, Molly’s mom, keeps him for me during the day. I offered to pay her, but she wouldn’t let me. I think it’s because she misses her grandsons so much. When she talks to Eli, she refers to herself and Jay as mamaw and papaw. I choked up the first time I heard it. Neither Maddox nor I have parents worth a hoot, so it means so much to me that she loves Eli. Even though I plan on moving back to Chicago in a couple weeks, I will always come back to visit. Jay, Annie, and Kelly are now my family as well.
Right now, I’m on my way up to Brady’s house. I can’t say that he and I are friends, but we’re close to it. I still don’t know his story and he doesn’t know mine. We’ve hung out a lot in group settings and I tend to gravitate towards him. It's probably because he's so laid back and doesn’t try to talk over everyone. I haven’t asked him about his story, but I am curious.
I hate driving up this hill. One wrong move and either your tire will blow out or you’ll head off the cliff. I breathe a sigh of relief as I reach his house.
Brady is outside working on his motorcycle. This man has every grown man’s toy. I’ve even seen a boat in the driveway. He might be able to pass off that his construction business built the house, but it doesn’t explain all this other crap. It takes money, lots of it, to accumulate everything he has.
“Hey,” I greet as I get out of my car.
“Hey, glad you made it. I’ve got someone coming with gravel to fill the holes,” he says.
“Why don’t you just pave over it?” I ask. That makes more sense to me.
“Because when it snows, I won’t have any traction and I don’t have a death wish,” he smiles at me.
“That makes sense,” I reply. I feel weird asking him for this favor, but this place is gorgeous.
“What’d you want to talk about?” Brady asks.
“Well, I’m getting married.”
“Yeah. I was there when you made the announcement,” he teases.
“Yeah,” I let out a little chuckle. “I wanted to ask you for a big favor.”
“What kind of favor?”
“The first time I was here looking over the trees and down at the river from all the way up here, well, it was just peaceful and perfect. I was wondering if you’d mind if I got married up here.” I watch as he raises an eyebrow.
“It is beautiful. I love this place, too. Of course, you can.”
“Okay. I’ll have to work out the logistics. You know, seating and ceremony and other fun wedding stuff. I’m making a wooden canopy and hanging white roses from the top. I need to figure out how to get this stuff up here. Don’t worry, my wedding invitees will be less than twenty.”
“I could make the canopy for you, if you’d like. I mean, I do work construction after all,” Brady offers.
“Thanks, Brady. If you honestly don’t mind, I’d love the help. Maddox and his brothers can pitch in as well.”
“It’s no bother. It can be your wedding present.”
"I really appreciate it. I’ll let you know more when I get the details planned out.”
“What’s your story, Kerrigan?” Brady asks.
“What’s yours?” I respond, returning the question.
“Ah, the ole tit for tat,” he replies.
I decide to give just a little background. “I left an abusive relationship. I needed to get away from the city, from the people who knew me.” I watch the compassion spread across Brady’s face.
“Mine is the age old heartbreak. The one you never recover from,” Brady says. I think it’s enough for both of us.
“Thanks again, Brady.”
“Anytime.”
Driving back down the hill, I get a little emotional. Virtual strangers are doing more for me than my own parents ever did. I think about Eli and how much he means to Maddox and me. It’s hard not having Maddox around. I miss him and I know it’s killing him not having around the clock access to Eli. Thinking about that makes me want to drive up to Chicago and surprise him. Yes, that’s exactly what I’m going to do. I’ll go home, pack, and make the drive. I’ll call Molly on the way to ask her to help with my surprise.
When I get home, Kelly is watching The Walking Dead without me. That little hussy.
“What the shit, Kelly?” I ask.
“I heard it was a good one. People kept talking about it. I’m sorry. I don’t normally cheat on you this way, but when Daryl cries, the whole world cries,” she jokes. I can’t help but laugh.
“Do not spoil it for me. I won’t be able to watch it anyway. I’m taking Eli tonight and surprising Maddox. Well, actually, I'm leaving very early so that I can make it home for lunch.”
“I'm so jealous of you and Molly! I want a man. A real man. A bossy, spank your ass kind of a guy,” she says seriously.
“What about Brady? I mean he’s hot. Why not?” I ask.
“Brady is off limits. Besides, he is too sweet for me. I mean it when I say I want an ass spanker.” I start rolling again. This girl has no filter.
“Why is Brady off limits?” I ask. I really am dying to know his story and Kelly did not disappoint.
“Brady was in love. Deeply in love. No one liked Claire. We all knew it was all about the money for her. We tried talking to Brady, but he loved her. I can see why. Claire was beautiful and she hid her true nature by acting. Every time we were all together, she’d put on the sweetest face, asking if anyone needed anything or needed any help. Brady would see her being nice and then hear our impressions.
"He didn’t see what we saw. He saw the sweet, shy, humble girl. Whenever we saw Claire out and about, she'd have her nose in the air. I was behind her in line at the store one day and she was being ugly and disrespectful to the cashier. The poor girl was only in high school and she didn't deserve the tongue-lashing she got from Claire.
"Brady gave her everything. Claire took it okay, but she never gave anything in return. Brady’s parents died in a house fire a few years back. He was already doing well for himself. He’d started his own company, but he wasn’t rich. His parents had owned close to twenty businesses and made millions in the stock market. They left some money to local organizations, but Brady was an only child, so he received the bulk of their estate.
"Anyway, Brady was torn up, of course. Brady called Shawn one night to let him know he was going to propose to Claire. He didn't want to waste another second and he wanted everyone on board with it. When he proposed, Claire said yes. I mean she was about to get her hands on millions. We suggested he get a pre-nup, but Brady just called us crazy and said he trusted her.
Unfortunately for Brady (or fortunately, depends on how you look at it), Claire left her email open one day. The girl was having so many affairs, not just one or two, but close to ten! He confronted her and she couldn’t deny it, so she left. A few weeks later, she called to tell him she was pregnant. Long story short, she wasn’t. She totally fucked him over, so bad that Brady is now a closed off man. No one, and I mean no one, is ever getting in.” As Kelly explains all this, I sit in sadness. You'd think after what I’ve been through, nothing would shock me.
Maddox
My sister-in-law is one pushy lady. She called me at 7 o’clock this morning. She said she had some exciting news and that she invited everyone over for a brunch. I’m agreeing to go because, well, if I didn’t, Molly woul
d have my balls. Also, because I’ve not seen much of Noah or my nephews. I miss Eli every second. It’s been almost a month since I’ve seen him. Of course, I see him on Skype, but it’s not the same. I had planned to take a week off to go stay with them, but with the whole Lani situation, I can’t. I don’t want Kerrigan to have to bury her best friend or for Evan to lose the only girl he has ever let in.
I arrive at Molly and Noah’s and head straight up. I’m excited to hear whatever the news is. She is still early in her pregnancy, so I know they don’t know the sex of the baby, yet. I’ve been wracking my brain trying to figure out what it could possibly be.
When the elevator door opens, everyone is already there. They’re all laughing and stare at me as I walk in. I guess I’ll be the last one in on this secret.
“You made it! Took you long enough,” Molly says.
“You told me to come at eleven, it’s 11:02,” I say. “What’s the great news?”
“Oh, that will have to wait until brunch,” Noah says.
“Well, let’s eat,” I reply.
“Chill. Noah and I are just finishing up preparations. Can you go grab Lane from our bedroom? He needs to wake up,” Molly says.
“Okay.” I get excited about seeing Lane. He is now eleven months old and already taking a few steps.
I go straight to the crib they have set up in their room and lean down to pick him up. WHAT THE HELL? It’s my son! My Eli is here. I grab him quickly and just hold on. The second he is in my arms, the void in my heart is once again filled. He’s gotten so big. The last time I held him, he still felt fragile. Now, he feels chubby. I laugh. He has some rolls on him. It’s the cutest thing I’ve ever seen. His mommy has been feeding him well. Wait a minute. If Eli is here, that means Kerrigan is here. I turn around and see her in the doorway with tears in her eyes. I quickly walk over and place my arm around her. Never in my life have I felt like this. With Kerrigan and Eli, I’m completely whole.
Rebuilding Stone (The Stone Brother Series Book 2) Page 17