Taking Charge

by Mandy Baggot

“You can’t. But you can make things better. Start by giving him that place on the team,” Cole suggested.

  “And a lifetime’s free meals at Eddie’s, at the very least,” Robyn continued.

  “It might take time. He’s spent half his life being shunned by everyone; he’ll need to learn to trust people again,” Cole said.

  “I wouldn’t blame him if he told the whole town to go to Hell…that’s no more than we deserve.”

  “I don’t think he’ll do that.”

  “No, because he’s Jason. Plain, slightly freaky Jason, who collected bottle tops and wore tank tops,” Robyn said, smiling at the memory.

  Cole smiled back at her.

  “You okay?” she asked.

  “Yeah.”

  “What is it?”

  “I called Bryn earlier,” Cole said quietly.

  “Oh, Cole, why didn’t you say? What happened?” Robyn asked, turning to face him.

  “We talked, for almost an hour, about pretty much everything,” he told her.

  “And? Have you sorted things out? Did you invite him to the wedding?”

  “Yeah. He’s coming, him and Veronica,” Cole said slightly hesitantly.

  “Are you okay with that?” Robyn asked.

  “Are you okay with that?”

  “Of course. He’s your brother and she’s…your brother’s girlfriend,” Robyn said diplomatically.

  “Well put.”

  “I’m meeting Brad tomorrow, at the arena. I don’t know what I’m going to say to him, but I can’t be responsible for him going off the rails, I have to try,” Robyn told him.

  “You can’t have a wedding day without one of your oldest friends there and things can’t be left how they are,” Cole said, kissing her.

  “Have I told you you’re really hot when you’re being understanding?” Robyn asked, her fingers circling his chest.

  “Is that so?”

  Chapter Forty-eight

  The next day Robyn called into the roadhouse to see how the breakfast session was working out. She’d ended up serving coffee and breakfasts for two hours before relieving Nancy at the house to sit with her dad and then fitting in an hour with Max at the hospital. His coughing had worsened again and he looked pale, despite being as incorrigible as ever. She worried about him and, before she’d left, she’d asked the nurse to keep an extra eye on him.

  By the time she got to the arena and onto the rink, Brad was already on the ice powering around it to the strains of the eighties band Heart. The cleaning team had a selection of soft rock classics they liked to sweep up to.

  “Hey,” Robyn greeted, crosschecking him and stealing the puck.

  “Hey! Come back with that!” Brad ordered, chasing after her.

  “You look like shit,” Robyn said, weaving away from him.

  “It was a late night,” Brad remarked.

  “At Taboo?”

  “No, I was working.”

  “In a vat of beer?”

  “If you just want to kick a guy when he’s down, why don’t I just lie on the ice and let you get on with it?” Brad suggested loudly.

  “Tempting,” she answered back.

  “Look, why are we here? I know I’ve been playing like crap lately, I know I went a little crazy and I trashed the locker room, I know I can’t stomach the fact you’re marrying someone like him, so what’s the point of all this? You want to give me a training session? Make me sweat out the way I feel about you? Think that will help?”

  “I don’t know. Will it?”

  “I doubt it.”

  “Listen, things can’t go on how they are right now. The Panthers are a player away from falling apart, you know that. We need you here, on the team. The Brad Willis I know can out maneuver anyone else in this league. I’m sorry if you thought you and I had a future together. If I said or did anything to make you think that, then I apologize,” Robyn said.

  “It isn’t too late,” Brad said.

  “Brad, don’t! You’re making this impossible. I don’t want to not have you in my life and on the team, but Cole and I are the real thing. You have to accept that. We’re crazy about each other, I can’t imagine spending a day without him. I would do anything for him. I love him,” Robyn stated firmly.

  “I don’t want to lose you, you only just came back,” Brad spoke softly.

  “You’ve always been one of my closest friends, someone I could trust. I don’t want to lose that, but you’re making it so difficult,” Robyn said, kicking the ice in frustration.

  “I’m sorry,” Brad apologized.

  “Tell me how to make this right? Because I’ve got Pam begging me to talk to you, I’ve got Dad worrying about you when he should be worrying about getting better, I’ve got Sarah freaking out because she’s scared you’ll tell Mickey you almost ended up in bed together, and I’ve got Cole, yes Cole, who would gladly punch you out, telling me that I shouldn’t lose such a good friend,” Robyn said.

  “I don’t know what to say.”

  “Say we can put how you feel to one side and be friends, for the sake of the team, for the sake of our friends, and for the sake of the arena locker rooms,” Robyn suggested to him.

  “I guess we can try, if you’re really set on marrying the guy,” Brad answered with a heavy sigh.

  “I am really set on marrying him. Really set,” Robyn said confidently.

  “I don’t think I can come, though. It would be too much,” Brad said sadly.

  “I would love for you to be there, the whole town’s coming. It’s going to be the biggest town party there’s ever been. I’m even hoping Jason’s going to come, but it might be too soon,” Robyn said.

  “Why would you want him at your wedding?” Brad exclaimed.

  “Because he didn’t rape me. We just found out. It definitely wasn’t him,” Robyn said.

  “I don’t believe it. How? What about the DNA evidence?” Brad said a look of shock on his face.

  “It wasn’t accurate. Don’t ask me about these sorts of things, Cole’s the scientist. Another sample was tested and the DNA didn’t match,” Robyn explained.

  “What other sample? What d’you mean, another sample?” Brad demanded to know.

  He was agitated and his face was flaming. He stopped skating.

  “It doesn’t matter. But there’s no doubt,” Robyn said with a swallow, stopping opposite him.

  “What d’you mean, it doesn’t matter? Of course it matters! There were no other samples! There was one sample, my dad dealt with it, and it was Jason’s DNA!” Brad yelled at the top of his voice.

  “Well, there must have been contamination or something, because Jason wasn’t the father of my baby!” Robyn screamed back at him.

  Robyn watched the color drain away from Brad’s face and his hockey stick dropped from his gloves and fell to the ice with a clatter. He put his hand to his mouth, his eyes wide, unsteady on his skates.

  And all at once she knew.

  His reaction spoke a thousand words. Robyn felt the bile rise in her throat as she looked at him. He bent in half, fell to the floor, and doubled over on the ice, sobbing onto the frozen ground.

  “It was you,” she said, her limbs paralyzed, her skates stuck to the spot.

  Brad just howled like someone who had been cut in two. He didn’t lift his head, maybe couldn’t lift his head.

  “You raped me,” Robyn stated as calmly as her trembling voice would allow.

  “No!” Brad howled, finally looking up, his face pained, his eyes spilling tears.

  “It was you,” Robyn said again, furrowing her brow and staring at him, confused.

  “You had a baby?” Brad questioned, looking at her for confirmation.

  “Tell me the truth! When the police check this DNA profile on their computer, is it going to match yours?” Robyn yelled at the top of her voice.

  “Robyn…”

  “Is it going to match yours?” Robyn screamed hysterically.

  She felt like the arena seats were mo
ving in on her, shrinking the rink. There was no air, she wasn’t even sure she was breathing, it was almost like time was standing still.

  “Yes,” Brad said and then put his gloved hand over his mouth and let out another sob of despair.

  Her insides contracted, her heart thumped in her chest, and her head felt like it was ballooning. She looked at him, slumped on the floor, wailing like a baby, and she was overwhelmed by a feeling of disgust.

  She gripped her stick tightly with both hands and she hit him across the back of the head with it.

  He clutched at his head and tried to crawl away from her, but Robyn hit him again.

  “You bastard! How could you do that to me? How? You put a sack over my head and you violated me in the worst possible way! You were my boyfriend, Brad! My boyfriend!” Robyn screamed, continuing to hit him with all her strength.

  “I loved you, Robyn. I really loved you,” Brad told her, grabbing the stick before it could hit him again.

  “You loved me? You loved me so you raped me? Are you insane?” Robyn cried, tears falling down her face as she wrestled him for control of her stick.

  “I wanted you to be serious about me, but you never seemed to think that way. You didn’t treat me like a proper boyfriend. Yeah, we went to the movies and we hung out with Mickey and Sarah but…” Brad started, keeping a firm hold on the stick.

  “I wouldn’t sleep with you,” Robyn stated, horrified.

  “I loved you. I still love you,” Brad repeated.

  “I wouldn’t sleep with you, so you followed me home from the arena, you put a bag over my head, and you made me have sex with you? You make me sick!” Robyn exclaimed, clutching at her stomach and struggling to stay on her skates.

  “I just wanted to be with you, Robyn, be close to you…like we should have been,” Brad said, reaching for her hand as he stood up.

  “Don’t you touch me! I’m calling the police,” Robyn said, backing away from him.

  “Look, I know some of what I did was wrong. You were scared and I didn’t want you to be scared, that’s why I came back,” Brad said.

  “You raped me, then you left me, then you came back and pretended to find me,” Robyn said, her mind returning to the dark, wet night.

  “It was so cold that night, and I remember your mom’s coat was soaked right through. I watched you put your clothes back on, and when you made it back to the road, I went back to my car and made sure I was the first one to find you. I wanted to look after you and take you home,” Brad continued.

  “You put your arms around me and held me when I told you what someone had done to me. It was you,” Robyn stated, unable to truly believe it.

  “Where’s our baby?” Brad questioned bluntly.

  “Our baby,” Robyn said, the words almost hurting her mouth.

  “You said you had our baby.”

  “I had an abortion,” Robyn stated.

  Brad looked visibly shaken. Tears sprung out of his eyes and he let go of her hockey stick.

  “Then I really don’t have anything left,” he yelled out, his voice echoing around the arena.

  “Do you expect me to feel sorry for you? You’ve ruined half my life…you’ve ruined half of Jason’s life,” Robyn said, staring at him.

  “Jason didn’t have a life. I did him a favor. What was he going to do around here? He’s a better person now, he’s read a lot and taken classes he would never have done on the outside,” Brad continued.

  “I can’t believe you’re justifying what you did. And what your dad did covering it up? You framed an innocent man and sent him to jail!” Robyn screamed.

  “I wanted you to realize what we had was special,” Brad continued, reaching out and taking hold of Robyn’s hand.

  “Get off me!” she shrieked, trying to pull back her hand.

  “You call it rape, but it wasn’t really like that, was it? I didn’t really hurt you, I loved you that night, just like I’ve been loving you ever since,” Brad said, keeping a firm grip on her hand.

  He’d driven flat out all the way to the arena. He only hoped he wasn’t too late. Sweat was beading on his forehead and his heart was thumping in his chest as he ran up the corridor toward the rink. A friend of a friend had run the DNA profile through the police database, and he now knew the identity of the rapist. When he got to him, he was going to make him pay, and if he’d done anything else to hurt Robyn, he was going to kill him.

  He burst out of the tunnel and saw Brad holding onto her. Leaping over the barrier, he skidded across the ice toward them.

  “Give me your stick, Robyn,” Cole ordered, appearing on the ice, out of breath and shaking with rage.

  “Let me go!” Robyn begged, tears seeping from her eyes as she tried to release her fingers from Brad’s grip.

  Cole picked up Robyn’s ice hockey stick and caught Brad around the head with it, knocking him off his skates and onto the ground.

  He hit him across the face and raised it again for another strike.

  “Police! Put the weapon down!”

  Robyn looked toward the tunnel at the team of officers making their way into the stadium, and she hurried over to Cole and took the stick from him.

  “I know what you want to do, but give me this one. Let me see them put the cuffs on him,” Robyn begged.

  “Bradley Willis, you are under arrest on suspicion of the rape of Robyn Matthers. You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law. You have the right to speak to an attorney. If you cannot afford an attorney, one will be appointed to you. Do you understand these rights as they have been read to you?” the officer asked as he cuffed Brad’s hands.

  “Yes,” Brad replied, bloodied and battered, but still looking at Robyn.

  “Let’s go,” the officer said, pushing Brad forward.

  Robyn watched them disappear out of view and then she fell to the ice in a heap, the emotion finally catching up with her.

  “Hey, it’s okay, come here,” Cole said, joining her on the floor and putting his arms around her.

  “How could he do that to me? And lie about it, all these years?” Robyn wanted to know.

  “I don’t know,” Cole admitted.

  “I’ve been an idiot. How could I not have seen it? There must have been signs I should have picked up on. There must have been something.”

  “He was the first person you saw after it happened. His DNA was all over you, anyway. The only DNA he couldn’t control and should have thought about controlling was what made the baby. His dad took care of that sample and changed the records…put Jason in the firing line,” Cole explained.

  “I feel sick,” Robyn said, wrapping her arms around herself.

  “We’ll go home,” Cole said, hugging her to him.

  “No. I don’t want to, not yet. Can we just sit here for a bit?” Robyn asked, looking up at the scoreboard advertising the Panthers’ next match.

  “Sure,” Cole said.

  “I’ve always liked Aerosmith, you know,” Robyn said as a new tune began over the PA system.

  “Yeah, me too. But don’t tell anyone,” Cole replied, taking hold of her hand.

  “I want lilies for the wedding, you know the pink ones with the gooey orange stuff in the middle that cats are allergic to, and we still need to compile a set list for Special Guest, you know, ZZ Top, Bryan Adams…do you like Train? I love Train. And I’m not sure one party tent is going to be enough, we might need two, with proper sides and everything because Max isn’t too well at the moment and I don’t want him or Dad getting a chill. And we need plenty of gin for Ada, she’s hand embroidered napkins with our initials on them. It wasn’t my idea, she insisted, but I like it. And although I’m coming on Uncle Bob’s boat, I want Leonora decorated, you know, something classy, like shaving foam and balloons. The twins are wearing their hockey outfits by the way.”

  Chapter Forty-nine

  Now that they were home, she wouldn’t cry. She had rearranged the talking
fridge, polished Leonora within an inch of her life, and now she was outside scrubbing the decking. He could only imagine how she was feeling.

  “We’ve brought chicken and rice and stuff for the barbecue. We didn’t know what was best,” Pam said when Cole opened the front door.

  Standing on the doorstep were Pam, Bob, Sienna, Sierra, Nancy, Sarah, Mickey, Henrik, Wade, Wes, and Jason.

  “We hear news about Brad, what he did. To shoot would be too good,” Henrik said, handing Cole a bottle of tequila.

  “Thanks for coming. Come on in,” Cole invited, letting them all through.

  “How is she?” Sarah asked, her eyes brimming with tears.

  “Not too good,” Cole admitted sadly.

  “If I ever set eyes on that boy again, I’ll…” Bob began passionately.

  “We’d all like to do that, Bob,” Mickey said, patting him on the back.

  “Shall I warm the food?” Pam asked.

  “She isn’t eating, but sure, I’m guessing everyone here is hungry,” Cole said as they all moved into the lounge.

  “Where is she?” Sierra asked.

  “We’ve made a card,” Sienna added.

  “She’s outside. Cleaning the hot tub,” Cole informed them.

  “What?” Pam exclaimed.

  “She’s been at it for over two hours, says it isn’t clean yet,” Cole replied with a shrug.

  “Leave this to me,” Nancy said firmly and she marched toward the patio doors.

  “She says she doesn’t want to talk about it any more. She’s been writing lists and lists of stuff to do with the wedding and now she’s cleaning the hot tub,” Cole informed everyone.

  “I go in hot tub?” Henrik asked, producing trunks from the pocket of his jeans.

  “No, Henrik. God, you Danes are obsessive over your hot tubs, aren’t you?” Sarah spoke

  “What?” Henrik asked.

  “Right now is in-appro-priate,” she sounded out.

  Outside Robyn was scrubbing the side of the Jacuzzi with a nail brush. Her hands were red and sore from the chemicals, but she couldn’t stop. If she stopped for just a second, she would have to think about what had happened that day.