CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE
Alexandra picked up the cordless phone and dialed the number she’d memorized that Jonathan had been using.
His mother must have added him to her phone plan again. How pathetic that he was willing to bow down to his mother and accept money and gifts from her.
The phone rang three times before he finally answered, “Yeah? It’s too early whoever this is!” His voice was as irritating as radio static.
She was surprised he’d even picked up. “This is your disgruntled ex-girlfriend, you no-good S.O.B.”
“Welcome back from your honeymoon, Nicky. Did you have a nice time? Did you like my wedding gift?”
Alexandra sucked in a breath and choked back the tears. No way would she let him hear her cry over something he’d done. “What the hell are you thinking, Jonathan?”
“Oh, so I have a name now?” he cut in. “What am I thinking? You cheated on me, left me in jail without even trying to bail me out, and then hooked-up with a car salesman, and got engaged within a matter of weeks. And you ask me what the hell was I thinking?”
She let him finish before speaking again. “Jonathan, I warned you if you ever started dealing or got arrested again, I’d leave you. I told you I’d never bail you out, and I’d move where you could never find me. The only problem is you got out faster than I was able to move out this time.”
“Nicole …” His voice softened. “Six years, baby. Doesn’t that mean anything to you? And are you really pregnant? How can you take my baby away from me?”
Alexandra blanched. “It’s not your baby. And how did you know I was pregnant?”
“The same way I found you. Cruella told me. You know, I think your stepmother has always had the hots for me.”
The tears started pouring beyond her will. She’d trusted Lilith. She’d finally felt as though she might have a connection to family, and this is how she’d repaid her. After telling Alexandra how much her father would’ve been proud of her leaving him and marrying Cameron, she’d told Jonathan about her new life. Would the woman always hate her because she looked like her dead mother?
She wasn’t Cinderella, as she’d always felt, she realized; she was Snow White incarnate. Would her stepmother have poisoned her if she’d gotten the chance?
Alexandra sucked in a breath. “What do you want from me, Jonathan?”
Jonathan chuckled into the phone. “I want what I’ve always wanted. You. The prettiest girl in school, the hottest chick in Brevard County. Just you, Nicky.”
She huffed into the phone. “Well, you can’t have me.”
He clucked his tongue. Something she’d always hated. “No? We’ll see about that, Nicky. I don’t care if I go to jail. Mom will get me out. I’ll be out in months. Cameron, on the other hand, will stay for years from the amount of drugs I stashed in his trunk … along with his previous record. Yeah, Mom found all the dirt on my supplier for me. She wanted to do whatever she could to help me offer up a plea. Did you know your new husband beat someone to a pulp when he was seventeen? Did he tell you that?”
Alexandra sighed into the phone. “Yes, I know. What do you want me to do, Jonathan? What will it take to get you to drop this? To admit you set him up. To give them your real supplier. And how did you get the money to set all this up anyway?”
He harrumphed. “You really don’t know me, do you? There’s only one way and that is for you to get an annulment and marry me.”
She dropped the phone in her shock. As she reached down to pick it up, she felt a stab of pain surge through her as if he’d kicked her in the stomach and his foot had gone straight through to her back. A grunt exploded from her throat. She stayed down on the ground and reached for the phone again. “Why are you doing this to me, Jonathan? Please, if you ever loved me, as you claim you do, please let me go.”
The line was quiet for a second. “Are you okay, Nicky? What happened?”
Her tears finally burst free. “Dear God! What the heck do you care?”
Her bedroom door burst open and Candy flew in. “Alexandra, are you okay? What happened? Did you get bad news? Why are you on the floor?”
Alexandra pressed the end button on Jonathan’s call and allowed Candy to lift her to her feet. She must have been louder than she’d thought. “I’m okay. I just need to rest.” She let her mother-in-law escort her to the bed, then decided to change the subject. “Did you hear back from the attorney yet?”
Candy shook her head. “No. But it will take a few hours. They have to process Cameron first. Right now, Aidan will have already headed down there, but he will spend his time researching the facts while he waits to see Cameron.” Candice lifted Alexandra’s legs up onto the mattress and reached for the afghan at the end of the bed. She layered it over her. “Relax, sweetheart. Take a short nap, and I’ll come get you as soon as I hear anything.”
Candy reached for the house phone, and Alexandra snatched it back. “No! Um … Cameron’s going to call. I told him I’d keep it on me.” That was a true statement. But also, she realized, she’d just given Jonathan her home phone number. She hadn’t thought quickly enough to block the number. What a stupid mistake. Now she’d have to change the number.
“Oh, okay.” Candice narrowed her eyes as though she’d spotted her lie. “I’ll be in the front room if you need me. Are you hungry? I could make us some lunch.”
Alexandra just shook her head, and Candy left the room without asking further questions. She needed to see Cameron. She needed to find out if the attorney could get him released. She wouldn’t let him suffer for this. She’d have to do whatever she could to get him released. He’d forgive her, she hoped.
CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR
“Cameron Collins? You’re up.” The correctional officer bellowed outside the holding cell.
Cameron stood up. “That’s me.”
“Put your hands through.”
He did as instructed, allowing the officer to cuff him, and then he pulled his hands back through the opening and waited while the officer unlocked the holding cell.
“Time to make your call.” The officer directed him to a long tiled wall with several mounted phones on it and metal stools below each one. Cameron picked up the phone and made a collect call to his home number.
“Hello?” He heard his wife’s frantic voice. He waited while the operator said her rehearsed line. “Of course, I accept. Cameron, are you okay?”
“Hey, baby. I’m okay.”
“Oh, my God, Cameron. I’m so sorry. It was Jonathan; he did all of this.”
“Alexandra, I told you not to — wait … what do you mean, he did all of this?” The line remained silent for a couple of seconds. “Alex, did you call him?”
“Yes …” Her voice came out as a mere whisper.
He sighed into the phone. “Alexandra, I told you not to do anything. What did you think could come from you calling him?” He sucked in a breath to control the rage that built up inside of him. “I threw your phone away for a reason. I want him out of our lives. Do not call him again. Do you understand me?”
Silence.
“Baby, please listen to me.”
He heard her intake a large breath on the other end; she was going to argue with him. “But he did this, and now he admitted it to me. Won’t the police listen?”
Cameron couldn’t help but laugh. “No one’s going to listen to a he’s innocent speech from my wife. Seriously? What were you thinking?”
“I don’t know. I was hoping I could appeal to him to admit he’d set up everything.”
“Alex, I don’t want you to talk to him or go anywhere near him. Do you hear me?”
“I hear you, but —”
“No buts.”
“Cameron, he had his mother pull your background. He knows about your arrest. He told her you were his supplier, and if she could get you arrested, he could get off.”
He sighed into the phone again. His wife could be so naïve sometimes. And stubborn. And stupid. The man had nea
rly beaten her half to death last time. “Alexandra, I’m going to ask you again. Let me handle this, please. Did you contact the attorney?”
“Your mother did. He’s supposed to be on his way.”
“Good. Would you let me handle this on my end, the right way, please? If he hurts you —”
“He’s not going to hurt me, Cameron.”
Cameron wanted to slam the phone into the wall at this point, but his rational side told him that would be a very bad idea, considering the situation.
He needed to try a different approach since obviously she wasn’t going to listen to him. “Alex, you could have died last time. What if he hurts you again? You’re further along now. Do you want the baby to die?”
She gasped into the phone. “Of course I don’t want the baby to die. What kind of question is that? Besides, he thinks the baby is his; he wouldn’t hurt the baby.”
This time Cameron clenched the phone so tightly it felt as if it might crumble beneath his grip. This was not how he’d envisioned their phone call. “Please, Alexandra. Please just let me handle this. I promise everything will be all right. Please don’t put yourself in harm’s way.”
“I love you, Cameron,” was her only answer.
He sighed as tears filled his eyes. “I love you too, but please don’t do anything stupid, Alexandra.” And he hung up.
He turned around in search of the guard. He doubted many inmates ended their call early, but it was obvious he wasn’t getting through to his wife. So instead of getting angry, he decided the best thing to do was just hang up.
All he could hope was that the attorney would be here soon and be able to get him out on bail. But since it was Saturday, he assumed he’d be here until Monday and that caused bile to rise in his throat. He picked up the phone again and quickly dialed the phone number and waited through the song and dance from the operator.
“Are you going to hang up on me again, Cameron?” she asked in her coolest voice, but he could hear the tears below the surface.
He didn’t want to ask, but if she came here, maybe she wouldn’t plan anything else. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have hung up on you. Just the thought of you —” He stopped and collected his thoughts instead of rehashing the entire conversation. “I didn’t want to ask, but I’m sure I’ll be here through the weekend. Will you come see me tomorrow? Please?”
“Of course I will. I’ll be there as soon as they allow visitors.”
He inhaled deeply and let it out. “Thank you, Alexandra. That will help me make it through the night without losing my mind.”
“I’m so sorry, Cameron.”
He just sighed. There was nothing else to say. “Try to get some sleep, okay?”
“K. I love you. Bye.”
“I love you too.” And he hung up again.
Cameron sat on the hard bench, staring at the ceiling, at the wall, at the metal door. Anywhere but the other inmates’ eyes, for what felt like hours. Time seemed to stand still as he wondered if his wife would be safe without him, worrying if that dirtbag ex of hers would show up again.
A correctional officer walked in front of the cell, interrupting his thoughts. “Cameron Collins?” he bellowed out his name as though he didn’t remember which holding cell he’d placed him. But then again, he was just a number, another prisoner.
“Right here,” Cameron said, standing up.
“You have a guest. Cuffs.”
Cameron slipped his hands through the opening again, allowing the officer to cuff him. The officer directed him down several corridors, all of which were painted the same, whitewashed color with gray trim. Clean and cool, Cameron imagined was their intention. Clean and bright looking and a cool color to appease the prisoners. He’d read somewhere that officials had even painted a prison pink in hopes of pacifying inmates. Somehow, he had a feeling that would only cause them to get angrier.
The officer unlocked a door to a small room with one glass window at the end. As soon as the door opened, a man stood up to greet them. “Officer, would you be so kind as to uncuff my client?” The officer shrugged and did as the attorney requested and then walked out the door, locking it behind him.
Cameron rubbed his wrists. They were already raw from the officers snapping the cuffs on him several times.
The attorney extended his hand, and Cameron shook it, wishing they were meeting under a better situation. “Cameron, not sure if you remember me, but I’m Aidan Grant.” He motioned to a chair and Cameron sat. Aidan sat back down in the chair he’d just exited.
“Yes, I remember you, sir. Thank you for coming so quickly.” Cameron had done his best to block that entire time of his life from his memory, but seeing Aidan again, caused all the repressed memories to rush to the surface, as if someone had opened his locked box of secrets, allowing all of his faults to rush out into the world without his permission.
The other thing that stood out was how much Mr. Grant looked like his father. He was several inches shorter, but he had the same color of reddish blond hair topping off a round and kind-looking face and pale skin. Cameron had always been thankful that although he’d inherited his father’s rounder features, he hadn’t inherited his reddish hair and fair skin.
Mr. Grant opened a file with hundreds of papers inside. “So, why don’t you tell me everything you know up to this point?”
Cameron’s eyes dropped to the file in front of the attorney, realizing all the information couldn’t possibly pertain to this new case. So much for a closed file. If someone wanted it badly enough, they could find it. Cameron detailed everything he knew, which wasn’t much.
Aidan leaned back in his chair, pulling one foot up on his opposite knee, in a position Cameron was certain was supposed to make him feel more comfortable. “Well, here’s what we’re dealing with. Narcotics agents confiscated two hundred bottles of Oxycontin, blank script paper the doctors now have to use to print scripts in the state of Florida, your cell phone with several messages from Jonathan explaining the cops were coming and you needed,” he looked down at his notes, “to hide the stash.”
Cameron jumped up from the chair. “What?”
“Please sit down, Cameron. We don’t need the guard to come in here.”
Cameron sank back in his chair. Obviously, those were the unknown numbers that had come through. Jonathan had set up everything. And Cameron had been the idiot who’d told him he was on his honeymoon and that he was going for a swim. What an idiot he had been. And he’d told Alexandra not to do anything rash.
He ran his hands through his hair. “Sorry,” Cameron said. “I just can’t believe all of this, and I’m not sure what to do.”
“Well, son, my first job is getting you out of here, but unfortunately, that isn’t going to be until Monday. The only magistrate available is sick.” Cameron nodded in understanding. He had figured that much anyway. “Even when we do, though, there will probably be a stiff bond. The State Attorney will probably request two hundred fifty thousand to start, but I’ll probably be able to get the magistrate to accept fifty to a hundred grand since you have ties to the community and aren’t a flight risk. Which means your mother will have to come up with five to ten thousand dollars to give to a bondsman. Does she own the condo outright so she could use it as collateral or have some other means of coming up with that amount of money?”
Cameron couldn’t help but smile at everyone’s conjecture. “She doesn’t own the condo; I do. And yes, I have the money in my checking account if there’s some way of getting it to you. My mother doesn’t have —”
The attorney threw up his hand, and his foot flew off his knee and back to the floor. “Wait a minute. Your mother doesn’t own the condominium?”
“No, sir.”
He riffled through some papers and pulled out one. “Bingo!” He picked up his cellphone and made a call.
Cameron just watched in confusion.
“It’s me … Yes, I’m with him right now … In a second. I have a question first.” He stopped and
listened. “Yes … I understand.” He smiled up at Cameron as he held the phone. “Candy, can you give me two seconds, please?” Aidan tapped his pen on the table as Cameron’s mother continued to ramble on. Cameron wanted to grab the phone from him and tell her to stop talking. “Now that you are finished. When the officers came to search your home, they had a warrant, correct? But did they ask you about the garage?” More smiles. “So, they came back and asked you to sign a paper to search the garage.” This time Mr. Grant winked at him. “Thank you, Candy. I’ll call you in a little bit.” The attorney pressed the end button before Cameron’s mother could object and then leaned back in his chair with a wide grin. “Well, Cameron, we still won’t be able to get you out of here until Monday, but the good news is this case will never go to trial.”
Cameron’s eyes widened. “What do you mean?”
“Well, it’s a rookie mistake, but it looks as though they had a warrant to search your condo, not your garage. So when they didn’t find anything in the house, they had your mother sign a form, giving them permission to search the garage. The only problem, your mother doesn’t own the condo or the garage, so she didn’t have the authority to give them permission. The legal doctrine is referred to as Fruit of the Poisonous Tree, which is an offspring of the Exclusionary Rule. The long and short of it means that evidence gained through an illegal search can’t be used, thus meaning they have no evidence. This case will never make it to court. So, all that’s left is getting you out of here.” He stood up and extended his hand again for Cameron to shake.
Cameron stood up beside him. “Um. Okay. So, that’s it? I just sit in here until Monday? And then I’m all done?”
“From my best calculations, yes. But again, we’ll worry about that later.” He stuffed all of his papers into his satchel and pressed a buzzer on the door. The guard unlocked and opened the door. “I’ll see you bright and early Monday, Cameron. I wish I could get you out today, but that’s not going to happen, son.”
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