Page 45 of Bad Boy in Her Bed

“They framed you?”she asked, eyes narrowing.

“You said you’d hear me out,” he huffed, sitting back in the chair as he told the story for the first time ever.“Bill pulled me over on my way to work the next morning.He looked like hell, like he’d been up for days in the same clothes.He asked me to get in the car so he could talk to me, even said I could sit in front since it was a friendly chat.With Winter’s situation having just blown over, I figured it would be better to cooperate with the head honcho, so I did.”

He took a moment to recall the events of that morning, giving her a tight smile as he resumed.“He drove me out toward the Chatterly’s farm and pulled onto a dirt road, not saying a word until he parked.Then he told me everything.What Justin had done, how his wife blamed him for fixing speeding tickets for the kid, how Justin was going to lose his position in the police academy.Just let it all out.When he was done, he offered me a hundred grand—cash—to take the fall for his son.He said he knew I was behind on land taxes and Winter’s lawyer fees, knew Grey was smart and could be college-bound and that the shit money I was making every month wasn’t going to cut it for much longer.He promised he could work the evidence and negotiate a lighter sentence with the prosecutor if I turned myself in with a full confession and a guilty plea.Easy in, easy out, and a hundred thousand dollars paid in installments the moment I stepped into prison.”

She stared at him, her mouth opening and closing before she finally spoke.“Birch, you…why would you do that?Why would you throw years of your life away like that?”

“Opportunity,” he stated.“My golden goose.”

“Opportunity?”she echoed, getting to her feet.“There had to be other ways other than taking someone else’s prison time.”

Shrugging, he looked up at her.“Some people can look back on their lives and pinpoint the moment their life went to shit.They can identify the decision that set them on their path.But guys like me?Like Winter?We were born into that moment, Jocelyn.Every choice we made since birth branched off of the fucked-up road we were already on.The money he paid me kept our house.Sent River to LA.It buys Winter all the books he wants.It gives Grey a future where he won’t always be scrounging and scrambling to catch up and prove he’s not trash.”

She paced the floor in front of him, smoothing her ponytail as she did.“So you went away for three years and Bill’s son just, what, joined the police force somewhere else and continued on with his life?”

“Last I heard, he was arrested in Maine for the same thing he had been when I took his sentence for him.Except he had a decent amount of cocaine on him when he was brought in, so he’s been off the streets for over a year and will continue to be for a lot longer.”

She knelt in front of him and grabbed his hand, the simple gesture almost destroying him.“Is it him depositing the cash into your account?If Bill didn’t give you all the money upfront, how did you know he would follow through?It’s not like you had a lot to negotiate with six years ago.”

Looking into her eyes was physically hurting him, knowing it was the path he chose with such careful consideration that was putting the anger, worry, and fear there.“Bill isn’t a bad guy.He was just desperate to save his family.He used one of those old school recorders to tape his own offer and gave it to me that evening along with ten thousand in cash.River received the next ten the day I was sentenced, and every four weeks since, another grand showed up in the mail until three months ago when the deal was officially done.One of us deposits a bit of the money every couple of weeks so we aren’t showing up at the bank with a wheelbarrow.”

Her gaze moved to their hands.“What did Winter have to say about it?He couldn’t have been happy.And what about River and Grey?Who looked after them?”

The confession was lifting a weight off him he hadn’t realized he’d been dragging around alone, but the guilt over sharing it with her was quickly taking its place.“Winter was pissed we weren’t serving time in the same prison, but he understood why I took the deal.River was almost nineteen, Grey was turning sixteen.I sat them down after Fogerty dropped me off and we made the decision together.”Giving her a tight smile, he squeezed her fingers lightly.“So that’s where the money came from.We caught the property taxes up, paid off the last little bit left on the mortgage, covered Winter’s legal fees, splurged on a big hot water tank, paid for some of Serpent’s Tongue’s startup costs, and there’s still enough set aside to cover most of the next three years of tuition now that Grey’s been earning scholarships at university.”

Her eyes narrowed as she studied him, as though trying to see through him and know if he was being truthful.

“We can go to my place now and listen to the tape if you want,” he offered.

He could see her debating it in her head, her brows furrowing as she bit her lip.“I—”

“Let’s go,” he said, making the decision for her.“You can follow me in your car so you can take off after if you don’t want to stay, but I want you to hear it.Because I don’t want you doubting me.Anyone else can think whatever they want about me, but not you.”

She followed him to the door, protesting the whole way.“Birch, you don’t have to prove anything.”

“Yeah, I do.”

Chapter Twenty

Jocelyn leaned backon her hands when the tape came to an end and Bill Fogerty’s distinctive cadence no longer filled the quiet garage.She continued to stare at the cracked cement floor while Birch ejected the cassette and returned it to its box before climbing the ladder and tucking it back into the attic above.

She was emotionally drained from the roller coaster she’d ridden over the past twelve hours.Numbness was beginning to settle in after swinging through the high she’d awaken to, to the low she felt on Tower Hill, to the confusion, rage, and sadness she cycled through all evening.

Now she just wanted to crawl under a blanket, curl into a ball, and sleep.

And good or bad, she wanted to do it beside Birch.

She hadn’t realized she needed to hear Sheriff Fogerty clear his throat before he launched into a clear, almost robotic, retelling of the events leading to the deal.A part of her was aghast she trusted Birch’s story without proof, shocked her instincts had told her to listen to him.But Birch was right.Hearing Epson’s top cop confirm everything eased any hint of betrayal.

And the numbers backed him up.

He stepped off the ladder and shoved his hands into his back pockets.“So that was it.Not quite as exciting as they make things like this seem on TV.”When she looked up and met his eyes, he seemed to shrink a fraction.“Is it okay if I follow you back to the hotel?I’d feel better knowing you made it safe.”

Getting to her feet, she walked over to him and dropped her forehead to his chest.“Why is everything about you so easy and so hard at the same time?”

His arms wrapped around her, cocooning her as he rested his chin on her head.“I’m morally sound but ethically challenged?”

“Where did you hear a phrase like that?”she murmured into his shirt, inhaling the heavy spice of his cologne.

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