by Alexa Davis
"I'm not lying, Dax," he said, in a voice that immediately slammed me back into the past. A store owner on San Pedro had accused Beck of stealing candy bars. And when I'd found Beck cowering in the back storage area of our grandmother's store, crying as he held a bag of frozen vegetables on the spot on his face where the shop owner had hit him, I yelled at him for stealing. He'd looked at me that same way he was looking at me now and swore that he wasn't lying. I hadn't believed him at the time, but later, when I'd investigated the incident, I found out that he had been telling the truth. The storeowner had wrongly accused and punished him for a crime he didn't commit. From that day on, I vowed to believe my brother when he told me he wasn't lying.
I had to remind myself that this wasn't a sober Beck. This was the Beck who was shooting up and who would do anything for a fix. This was junkie Beck talking, so I wasn't entirely sure if I should believe him, even though I wanted to. I pulled him over to the bench and propped him up against the wall.
"Just sit there until the lawyer gets here," I ordered.
"Why you always gotta be so bossy?" Beck asked as he leaned against the wall lost in his high.
"Because I'm your older brother," I said gruffly. "That's what I do."
"That's good," he smiled as he slipped into his chemically altered mind.
I stood watch over him until the officer came and told me my lawyer was here to see me. I took a deep breath and steeled myself as I prepared to tell Brooke the truth.
CHAPTER FORTY
Brooke
Jordie greeted me as I walked through the doors of the precinct and headed to the desk. He frowned when I asked where Roger was. "I don't know," he replied. "I haven't seen him since he said he had an errand to run and walked out of the station."
"How long ago was that?" I asked.
"Couple of hours," Jordie replied. Then, anticipating my next question, he continued, "I have no idea where he was going."
"Text him and tell him to get his ass back here," I said. "We're going to need to present a united front when we go before the judge, and we might need him to sit in the second chair."
"What about me?" Jordie asked.
"You might have to be first chair," I said as I signed the logbook at the desk and asked to see Dax Malone. The desk officer nodded and told us to wait while she sent someone back to get him.
"Why the hell would I be first chair on this one?" Jordie asked.
"Because I might not be able to take the case, Jordie," I said as I gave him a meaningful look. He was confused, and I didn't want to have to explain why I might not be able to take Dax's case. "Just trust me. Text Roger and get him back here ASAP."
"Uh, okay," Jordie said as he pulled out his phone and started rapidly tapping the screen.
Meanwhile, I thought about how I was going to approach this bail hearing. I was going to have to ask Dax a lot of personal questions about why he thought he'd been arrested and who he thought was actually responsible. I knew that there was no way I could defend him if I had any doubts, and I wasn't entirely sure that I wouldn't have doubts, thus the backup plan consisting of Jordie and Roger.
I took some deep breaths as I prepared to face Dax. I had to be his lawyer, not the woman who he'd pushed over the edge of sexual ecstasy in the back room of Dooley's last night. My body had other ideas, though. It wasn't going to be thrown off so easily, and I could feel my pulse begin racing as I thought about Dax's dark eyes looking down into mine as he'd run his hands over my bare skin.
"No!" I said as I shook my head and tried to clear those thoughts out of my mind.
"Huh?" Jordie looked up from his phone.
"Nothing, just talking to myself," I said as I worked to clear my mind. I needed to think about the issue directly in front of me and that was that Dax had been accused of murder. The question was why. Why would a club owner want to kill his lawyer? And, was it possible that a man with Dax's capacity for tenderness could be capable of killing someone? I walked a dangerous line as I tried to reconcile the possible sides of Dax Malone.
"Ms. Raines?" the desk officer called. "Malone is being brought to the interview room now. Please follow me."
I stood up and smoothed my skirt, picked up my briefcase, and followed the officer to the back. She patted me down as she asked if I had any weapons on my person. After telling her I did not, she dug through my briefcase before nodding to the guard behind the gate who buzzed me in. He walked me back to the interview room and punched in a number on the key pad before the door swung open to reveal Dax sitting cuffed to the interview table wearing the clothes I'd last seen him in.
I inhaled sharply as I looked into his eyes and then quickly looked away. The effect he had on me was overwhelming, and if I was going to get him out of here, I had to focus on the job at hand – being his lawyer.
"Mr. Malone, it's good to see you," I said as I set my briefcase on the table and opened it so I could grab a legal pad and a pen.
"Do we really need to be that formal, counselor?" he asked as a grin played at the edges of his lips.
"Indeed, we do," I said casting my eyes over to the window and then looking back at Dax. They couldn't legally listen to us, but they could watch us. Dax followed my eyes and then nodded slightly before looking directly at me again. I took a deep breath and began.
"I'm here to represent you," I said. "Can you tell me what happened?"
He quickly recounted the details of his arrest as I looked down at the charge sheet. I couldn't figure out why he was being charged with first-degree murder, aside from the fact that the investigating officer claimed to have found traces of Lydia's blood on Dax's boat.
"Mr. Malone, can you explain why the DA would want to charge you with first-degree murder?" I asked.
"Brooke, can we please drop the formal tone and just talk?" he said. He looked at me seriously as he spoke. "As my lawyer, I need to tell you things that may affect the way you see me personally. Are you sure you want to hear them?"
"I'm your lawyer. Don't you think it's a wise idea to give me all the information I need to be able to defend you?" I asked. I knew what he was saying, but I was here in a professional capacity and it wasn't appropriate for me to discuss our personal relationship.
"Yeah, but this is going to be hard to hear," he warned as he stared at me. I felt like he was looking inside of me and seeing all the uncertainty and it unnerved me.
"Then you'd best begin by telling me everything," I said as I steeled myself and waited to hear what he had to say. I didn't know what I'd do if he admitted that he'd killed Lydia.
"First, I want to make two things absolutely clear," he said, fixing me in his gaze, unwilling to let me look away. "One, I did not kill Lydia."
"And, the second thing?" I asked.
"Two, you matter to me," he said dropping his voice. "I'm not letting go."
"I...I...I understand," I stuttered. Then, leaning closer, I said quietly, "You need to treat me like your lawyer right now. Please."
He nodded and began telling me everything I needed to know. Halfway through his tale, I had to stand up and walk to the other side of the room as I processed the story.
"Brooke?" he said as I stood with my back against the wall and one hand over my mouth trying to reconcile the image of Dax as an LA drug lord who ran a billion-dollar empire out of his club with the memory of him in the back room at Dooley's. None of this made sense.
"I'm thinking," I said, holding up a hand.
"What are you thinking?" he asked.
"I'm thinking about why someone would want to frame you for the murder of your own lawyer," I said as I turned the case over in my mind and looked for the holes. Something didn't sit right, but I couldn't put my finger on it.
"Yes," he said with a slight grin as he leaned back and watched me. I could feel his eyes moving down my body and knew that he was probably remembering our tryst the night before. I felt the heat rising between my legs, despite the fact that I was doing my best not to be distracted.
<
br /> "Dax?" I said.
"Yes, Brooke?"
"If I'm going to help you, you're going to have to stop imagining me naked while I'm actually in your presence," I said with a wry grin. "It's messing with my ability to be a good lawyer."
"I understand," he said as he dropped his eyes and stared at the table. "Is this better?"
"Only slightly," I smiled. "You have to stop imagining any of that while I'm still here."
"Fine, I'll meditate on penguins, baseball, and entomology," he said to the table.
"That's a weird combination of things," I said.
"Perhaps, but you have to admit that none of them are erotic." He grinned, still looking down.
"Well, you don't have to be a smartass," I retorted.
"Better than being a dumbass," he shot back, making me forget where we were as I chuckled.
"Stop it!" I said quickly regaining my professional demeanor. "I need to formulate a strategy to get you bail and get you out of here, and this is not helping."
"Now, see there's one other thing I need to talk to you about," he said.
"What's that?"
"I'm not the only one who needs to be bailed out of here," he replied as he looked up at me. "I need you to get my brother out, too."
I stood staring at him for a full minute before I said, "Mr. Malone, if there are any more surprises you intend to spring on me, I suggest you get them all out on the table right now. Because if you continue doing it this way, we're both going to be screwed."
Dax looked up at me with a roguish smile that caused my heart to pound hard in my chest and then said, "Nope, that's about it."
CHAPTER FORTY-ONE
Dax
I looked up at Brooke as I told her about getting bail for Beck. She shook her head, which loosened her braid a little and made me recall the way her silky hair had felt when I'd run my fingers through it the night before. I watched a long strand wind its way around her neck and I breathed deeply as I tried to maintain control of myself while she talked.
Brooke hadn't seemed too surprised by my drug business, but I could tell she had a lot of questions she wanted to ask. I knew her well enough to know that she was only going to ask what she needed to know and try to avoid getting caught up in shady dealings that would put her at risk. She was smart enough to recognize that defending me meant skirting the law in a way that wouldn't leave either of us vulnerable. And as I watched her do the mental acrobatics necessary, I found myself even more attracted to her.
"Dax!" she snapped.
"What?" I replied, shaking my head to clear it.
"If we're going to work together, you're going to have to stay focused on what we're doing," she scolded. I knew she was right, but I couldn't help remembering the way she'd moaned when I'd caressed her beautifully shaped breasts.
"DAX!" she yelled. "Jesus, you're going to have to focus! You do understand that your life is on the line here, right?"
"Got it," I said as I stared down at the table, willing myself to stay focused on the questions she was asking.
"You're going to have to give me a timeline of where you were the day that Lydia disappeared," she said. "Then, you're going to have to trace your movements for a week prior and post disappearance. Do you understand?"
"Sure, no problem," I said. I knew that the cameras at the club would verify my whereabouts. Every digital tape was time and date stamped and stored on a server away from the club. This was dangerous, because it meant that if someone conducted business on the premises we'd have evidence of that, as well. I crossed my fingers and hoped that no one had been that careless the week before or after Lydia's murder.
"Then, I'm going to need to check out the boat," Brooke said as she made a note on the yellow legal pad on the table. She was definitely formulating a game plan. "I think the police have it under surveillance until they can haul it back to the station for someone to go over it with a fine-tooth comb."
"Probably," I said, focusing on the legal pad and its yellow color. It was helping me keep my mind on what Brooke was saying and off of how she looked while she was saying it.
"Is there anyone you can think of who would be out to get you?" she asked.
"You're kidding, right?" I looked up at her in disbelief.
"What?"
"Brooke, I'm a drug dealer in LA," I said. "Of course there are people out to get me. The question is who would be so pissed at me that they'd kill my lawyer?"
"Alright, well, I'm going to need you to make a list of the people you think might be out to get you so that I can have Jordie and Roger go interview them," she said.
"Get the fuck out of here," I shot back.
"There's no need to swear, Mr. Malone," she said, as if speaking to a small, stupid child.
"Look, Counselor, do anything you need to do to win this case and prove my innocence," I said, my voice getting louder as I continued until I was shouting at the top of my lungs. "But do not send your legal colleagues into rival gang territory to ask questions about whether or not they framed me!"
"Do not yell at me, Malone," she warned as she narrowed her eyes.
"Oh, you're dispensing with the courtesy title, are you?"
"Only when you act like an idiot," she retorted.
"Me, act like an idiot? ME?" I shouted. "Jesus, lady, for a college-educated lawyer, you are one stupid woman."
"That's enough, Malone," she said in a voice that was so calm it chilled my blood. She placed both palms on the table and leaned in so that she was inches from my face and quietly said, "I'm going to say this one time, and one time only. I am the lawyer on your case, and you either cooperate with me and play nice or I will walk out of here and leave you high and dry. You've had your one freebie mistake – do not make a second one. Got it?"
In that moment, I knew I wasn't dealing with a sweet innocent girl from Lincoln Heights. No, I realized I was dealing with a woman who definitely knew what she was doing and that if I didn't let her do it, she'd leave me defenseless.
"I'm sorry, Brooke," I said. It was one of the few times in my life that I'd apologized, and I was glad that no one else was here to witness it.
"Apology accepted. Bygones," she nodded before looking back at the legal pad. "Now, I'm going to go arrange for your bail and bail for your brother. What did he do, anyway?"
"He's high as a kite," I sighed. "They arrested him for trespassing on the boat, but it's a bogus charge because it's my boat and he hangs out there all the time."
"He what?" she did a double take.
"He hangs out on the boat," I repeated. "Takes it out and goes fishing, you know. Stuff that a fuck-up little brother does."
"God, Dax, don't you get it?" she said. "Your brother could have killed Lydia! Or one of his cronies!"
"Who? Beck? That little fuck-up?" I laughed. "Right. He can barely tie his own shoes these days."
"But we don't need him to actually be the killer. Think, Dax, think!" she urged. "We just need him to cast reasonable doubt on your guilt. This is good! Very good!"
"It's a fucking joke," I said shaking my head. I knew where she was going with this, but it was so ludicrous that I didn't have any faith in it actually working.
"Alight, I'm going to go plead your case and get you two out," she said. "This will take a few hours. I've got to file paperwork, arrange for a bond, and get you both to the courthouse."
"Call Riza. She knows how to arrange the bonds," I said and gave Brooke the number. "How likely do you think it is that you'll get us out today?"
"I don't know. I've got to see who the judge is and then get the paperwork filed," she replied as she scribbled furiously on the legal pad. "I need to get this to Jordie."
Brooke quickly gathered up her things and shoved them in her briefcase before she looked at me and said, "I'm going to do everything in my power to get you out of here. Please don't do anything to screw that up."
"Now who’s being insulting?" I said defensively.
"I'm not kidding, Dax," she
said quietly. "I'm only going to get one shot at it. Do not screw this up."
I could see the gravity of the task weighing on her, so I simply nodded as she walked to the door and knocked to be let out. Before the door opened, she turned and looked at me over her shoulder. The look told me everything I needed to know about what she was thinking.
I nodded as she left me sitting chained to the table. Alone.
CHAPTER FORTY-TWO
Brooke
As soon as I left Dax, I found Jordie and gave him the sheet of notes and told him to call Riza so she could arrange for bail. Then, I went to the court to take care of the paperwork for the bail hearings. I knew that the docket was light today, so it would be likely that both Dax and Beck would come before the judge. I wanted to be absolutely prepared for any eventuality.
I trusted that Dax had, in fact, told me everything, but I didn't trust that he knew everything himself. Beck was the wildcard, and I wanted to meet with him before I walked into the courtroom and found out that I was asking for bail for the actual murderer. I returned to the jail and asked to see Beck. As his lawyer, I had the right to meet with him and advise him. But I didn't particularly care about advising, so much as finding out what was going on with his story.
The officer brought me back to the interview room where'd I'd met with Dax, and there I found a smaller, weaker version of the man I was so intensely attracted to. Beck was shorter than Dax by a good four inches and his hairline was receding where Dax's was still thick and curly. Beck's scraggly beard and dirty clothes were the exact opposite of Dax's neatly maintained scruff and perfectly pressed pants. It was a study in contrasts, and I wondered how two brothers could be so incredibly different.
"You my lawyer?" Beck slurred as the officer sat him down and cuffed his left hand to the table the same way he'd done with Dax.
"I am," I said in a crisp voice. "My name is Brooke Raines, and I'm going to be representing you at today's bail hearing."