Chapter Thirteen #2
his hands. When they were free his hands simply laid on the table.
Garrett waited until the door closed and he was alone with
Keane. He quietly pulled the chair back and sat across from the man who had
been the only solid thing in his life for the last fifteen years.
How sad that a large part of that had been spent in a tiny
cell for a crime that should never have been considered a crime at all.
“Keane.”
Keane blinked and his eyes closed. He took a deep breath and
then he seemed to be back.
Meditation. He learned it those years in prison. At least
that’s what the outside world would call it. Garrett would call it survival.
He didn’t know everything that happened in prison, but he
knew the Keane who went in wasn’t the one who came out. He’d gotten better over
time, but it took therapy that Garrett had to force him into at first.
Garrett had thought he would lose him. When he’d come back
there had been too much drinking, too much silence, too much sitting and
staring and not letting anyone know the horrors marching through his head.
“I’m not going to let them railroad you,” Garrett promised.
Keane flexed his fingers and took a long breath like he’d
been holding it in, waiting to see if the air was poisoned. “I don’t think
you’ll be able to stop it if that’s what they want.”
His voice was so calm, but Garrett could hear the
undercurrent beneath it. “I assure you it’s not what Olivia wants.”
Keane’s expression tightened. “This wouldn’t be happening
without Olivia. I don’t know what went wrong, but I overheard some of the
deputies talking. Jack Barnes wanted to make sure they arrested me. I think he
wants both of us, but I’m the easy target. They say there’s a video of me
spiking her drink.”
Garrett took a long breath. “You weren’t anywhere near her
drink.”
“They claim they have a video of me walking up to the bar
and ordering beers. When the bartender turns to pour them, they say I slip
something into her drink. I suspect they’re going to find some kind of date
rape drug in her system.”
Garrett went over the night in his mind. “You did go and
order the last round. We couldn’t get a server’s attention, which is weird
since that one server couldn’t keep her eyes off Gabe.”
She’d been a blonde, and if Gabe noticed her for anything
beyond her excellent service, Garrett couldn’t tell. Gabe’s eyes had constantly
been on Gigi and the men she was dancing with. But he had thought it was odd
after an hour and a half of hovering she was suddenly nowhere to be found.
Keane had offered to grab what was supposed to be their last round. He’d only
been gone for a few moments.
The timing didn’t line up.
“We sat there for another thirty minutes after you came
back. I don’t think Miranda ordered Olivia’s drink before you ordered ours.” He
sat back. “I need to see the footage.”
“They said Olivia named me.”
The words dropped like a land mine ready to go off.
“Cops can lie. They’re under no obligation to tell the truth
to someone they’re interrogating. In fact, lying can be an excellent way to
throw off a suspect.”
“She thinks I tried to hurt her.” There was a deep shame in
Keane’s tone.
This was going to be even harder than he thought. His friend
was in a dark place. “She’s not awake, Keane. At least she wasn’t when we
left.”
“We can’t know that because they wouldn’t give us any
information. They wouldn’t let us back to see her. They let Gigi back. They let
Gabe back. I overheard the sheriff talking to Jack Barnes, and he believes that
I did this. He wants them to throw the book at me.” There was a slight tremble
to Keane’s hands.
“I think Mr. Barnes is reacting to his daughter nearly being
kidnapped. He isn’t thinking,” Garrett returned.
“Or he saw the footage and it’s believable.”
“It’s not true, so it’s not believable. Like I said, I
suspect the timing is off. I want to see it.”
“They told me you would be in here soon.” Keane seemed to
settle, clenching and releasing his fists. “I asked for my lawyer and they said
you’ll see me in a cell as soon as they have some proof. They told me they
would go easier on me if I turned you in. Maybe I could even avoid hard time if
I gave you up.”
“Like I said, they lie.”
Keane’s head nodded slowly. “They lie because I don’t
matter. They lie because they can.”
“You can’t shut down now,” Garrett pleaded. “I need you here
with me. Something is incredibly wrong, and we have to figure it out. Someone
is setting you up.”
“Have you wondered why they picked me?”
“Because you were the one who grabbed the beers.”
“No,” Keane insisted. “Because they knew about my record.
They knew everyone would believe it. It doesn’t matter how much time I spend
peacefully. All that matters is those ten minutes that cost me three years and
the rest of my life.”
Emotion welled in Garrett’s soul. He could lose Keane all
over again. “I need you to fight.”
“Garrett, they are going to try to put you in here with me.”
“They’re going to fail.” This was precisely why he’d gone to
law school. After he gained his bachelor’s, Keane was released from prison with
the help of a smart lawyer working pro bono with an innocence mission. Mitchell
Bradford had taught him a lot and then introduced Garrett to some people who
helped him apply for law school. He’d done his internship with the man and his
partners before finding a place at Barnes-Fleetwood, where Lucas O’Malley took
over the role of mentor, and he was an excellent one. “I’m going to give Lucas
a call. We might need to bring him out here to represent us.”
“Don’t call Lucas.”
Garrett sighed. “Why? I know this is everything you ever
feared, but you have to have some faith.”
A bitter expression settled on Keane’s face. “Faith in what?
Faith in a system that already ground me down once? Faith in a town that hates
the sight of me? Faith in a woman who has never said I love you?”
“Faith in me.”
That seemed to shut Keane down. He was silent for a long
moment. “It was all pretend, wasn’t it? The whole ‘I’m in control’ thing. The whole
‘I can take care of you and Livie.’ I was never in control.”
“No one is when it comes to something like this.” There was
real fear in his heart now. “Keane, you never deserved this. Once Olivia
understands what happened…”
“It won’t matter.” Keane stopped him with a firm tone. “I
need to do the only thing I can do now, and that’s save you. I’m sorry. It’s
probably going to cost you your job.”
Garrett took a deep breath to slow down the panic he felt.
He had never realized how much he counted on Keane to be the stable one, the
one who didn’t panic, who didn’t jump to conclusions. Keane was steady, and now
it was so clear to him that Keane had been the top for years. Even when he was
in prison, he was the one who supported Garrett. Once a week, Garrett would
make the long drive to Huntsville and spend their visitation time talking about
school and wanting to quit and Keane would build him up for another week.
“This time, I don’t think you should come see me. I think
you should let a public defender take over and put some distance between us.”
The words that came out of Keane’s mouth didn’t make sense at first, and yet
they were perfectly clear. “You need to have a real life this time. Not one
that’s about trying to save me. I’m not savable.”
He had to take control. He stared at this man who had been
the center of his life until they met Olivia and things shifted, allowing for
her to find the place that balanced them. “Master, I need you to stop feeling
sorry for yourself and start fighting. I need you to be my damn Dom.”
The words seemed to shake Keane. “I’ve never…”
“You’ve been my Dom since long before we knew what words to
call it. Even when you were inside you kept me where I needed to be. I worked
my ass off so we would have something real when you got out. I went to law
school because I wanted to be able to protect you if this ever happened again.
One of the things a truly great Dom knows is when to be flexible. When to
follow his sub because his sub’s job is important, too. Olivia will feel the
same way. She’ll be pissed if she finds out you’re trying to play the martyr.”
“Play the martyr?” Keane’s voice went low, and there was
something besides morbid acceptance in his gaze now. “I am trying to save you.
You have no idea what can happen inside. You aren’t the one who had to go.”
Finally, they were getting somewhere. Keane held everything
inside. Oh, he might talk to a therapist in clinical terms, but he held himself
apart from what happened to him. He had never told Garrett everything.
“You think saving you from hell means I’m a martyr?” Keane
asked.
He was getting to his Master. “That’s what it sounds like to
me, Master.”
Keane’s head shook. “Don’t call me that. I’m not worthy of
that title.”
“And yet here we are. I don’t see it that way. I think my
Master is scared and he would rather give himself up than cause me a second of
pain, and that makes you very worthy. It also is the reason I won’t allow it to
happen.”
“You can’t stop me.”
“Watch me.” If there was one thing he would do in this life,
it was fix this.
There was a knock on the door and Deputy Morgan stood there.
“We were hoping to interview Mr. Rollins. In presence of counsel, of course.”
Garrett nodded and prepared himself for war.
* * * *
Keane thought about firing Garrett’s ass. It would be
the right thing to do. If he told the police, they would escort Garrett out
right now. He might be able to get Garrett off their radar. This was some kind
of setup, and whoever was behind this might be happy with just him.
Not that Garrett seemed to want to leave, but he should
force him. By firing him.
Instead, he sat quietly next to his partner, waiting for the
other shoe to drop.
Well, he supposed it already had, but he had the worst
feeling there was more coming. At some point he would have to face Olivia, and
he wasn’t sure he would survive it if she looked at him like he was trash. It
would be better if she never saw him again than staring through him like he
meant nothing.