Page 14 of Jackson's Redemption
* * *
Jackson
I tucked the blanket around her then dumped the condom. I started a fire in the stove so she would have heat. Then I got dressed and quietly left the cabin before she knew I was leaving.
I waited until I was in my truck, the door closed behind me.
“Fuck! Shit, fuck, fuck!”
I shouted, pounding my fury out on the steering wheel. That was not supposed to happen. That was not what any of this was supposed to be about.
Wasn’t it?
The dark thought in the back of my brain said differently.
I started the engine then headed to camp. Tonight did not go according to plan, and I knew fuck all about what that would mean for tomorrow. I needed to work out what I would say, how I might get things back on track.
All I’d needed was a semblance of self-discipline but obviously when it came to Kate, I didn’t have any.
Come back to my place and have some fun? What the hell had I been thinking?
Her. Always her.
I quickly decided the sex didn’t have to matter to the overall plan. Yes, we’d crossed a line.
What happened was the fucking definition of crossing the line.
But it didn’t have to ruin everything. Not when I had waited this long. If I could have what I wanted and fuck her, too, then that’s how it would go down.
* * *
Fifteen years ago
Jackson
This was not happening. This could not be real. I didn’t do anything. I was in a room in the local jail, now talking to my lawyer.
A public defender since my parents obviously couldn’t afford anything else. Marco was in the wind. My mother was devastated. I couldn’t tell if she believed me or not. My father, though, he was the worst. He was fucking smug. He knew I had plans for a future. Knew I wanted out of this shit life. It was as if he was happy to see me brought down a peg.
“I want to plead not-guilty,” I insisted to my public defender lawyer. “This was a setup. The Chief was trying to flip my brother and he’s using me to put pressure on him. Those drugs in my car weren’t mine. None of that shit was.”
My lawyer sighed. An older woman in her fifties, she, at least, appeared to give a shit, but she was shaking her head.
“Jack, I hear you. And I’m not going to sit here and tell you you’re the first person to talk about being set up by the Chief. But you have no proof. You have his word against yours and…”
Her sentenced trailed off, but I heard what she was going to say anyway.
No one was going to believe me over Chief Lazio.
“If we take the deal, you’re talking three years. Out sooner with good behavior.”
My jaw tightened. “But I’m a convicted felon. I have to live the rest of my fucking life as a felon!” I said, slamming my hands on the table in front of me.
“Hey! Watch it!” This from the cop appointed as security for the room. This was my life now. Under watch, under guard. No freedom to even raise my voice.
“Jack, if you plead not-guilty and lose, the judge will not look favorably on that. Especially when your only defense is to attack the chief of police. You could be looking at up to ten years. I have no idea how or why you hit the Chief’s radar, but you did. This is the best way out.”
I knew how I hit his radar. That day three months ago when all I did was help his daughter home after she sprained her ankle. Then a few weeks after that when he caught me walking by their house.
