“Pick up your…? Are you serious?”
Tom’s confusion was rapidly morphing into anger. “
He
hit on
me
!”
“And why would he do that?” the lawyer asked with just enough condescension to bring blood into Tom’s cheeks. “My client is not gay. Why would he hit on another man?”
Tom bit the inside of his cheek hard, trying to keep his temper in check. “Because he’s angry.” The attorney opened his mouth and Tom hurried to get the words out before he was interrupted once again. “Because his brother was gay and committed suicide and he’s turned it all around in his head.”
“Shut up!” Dave snapped from his seat at the defense table. “Don’t you fucking say anything about my brother!”
“Be quiet, Mr. Schmidt,” the judge ordered with a thwack of her gavel. Dave’s glower bounced from her to Tom to the defense attorney, who responded with a tiny, almost invisible shake of his head.
Although his expression grew even darker, Dave gave a short nod and sat back in his chair. Tom released the breath he hadn’t realized he’d been holding.
“Now, Mr. Cooper,” Dave’s lawyer started in again. “Where were we? Oh yes, you were trying to pick up Mr. Schmidt at the diner.”
“I wasn’t—” Tom started to protest but broke off at a warning look from Cam. The prosecutor had told him over and over again not to try to argue with the defense attorney. Swallowing his annoyance, Tom settled for a simple, “No.”
“We weren’t there?” the attorney asked, and Tom clenched his jaw at the misinterpretation of his short answer. “Then maybe we were discussing how you followed Mr. Schmidt out to his car after he rejected you?”
“Rejected? What?” Tom felt as if he’d just been punched in the throat. He had expected the cross-examination to be rough but he hadn’t expected the lawyer to completely rewrite what had happened that terrible night, to outright
lie
to the court.
“That never happened!”
“You didn’t walk over to Mr. Schmidt when he was standing by his vehicle?” the defense lawyer demanded.
“He called me over.” Tom tried to explain but he felt as if everyone in the whole room was staring at him accusingly, believing these pathetic lies justified what Dave had done to him. “He said he was having car trouble and needed to use my phone.”
“Did he?” the lawyer countered. “Or did you follow him to his car in order to force your unwanted advances on him?”
Unwanted advances? What is this, the fifties? Who says that?
Tom wondered, feeling dazed before refocusing on the case at hand.
“No, I—”
Dave’s attorney interrupted. “And then, when he tried to get away, he pushed you off and you hit your head.”
“That isn’t—”
“Which was unfortunate,” the lawyer ran right over his words again, “but you can’t call that criminal.”
“Yes, I can.” Tom’s voice was louder than necessary but he was sick of getting interrupted. “He assaulted me and he’d done this before to other guys—
twice
.”
“No one else bothered to testify. If they’d actually been ‘assaulted’ as you claim,” his tone of voice made the entire idea seem ridiculous, “don’t you think they would’ve been here?”
“They were scared,” Tom protested.
“And ashamed. One isn’t even out to his family.”
“Hmm. Convenient.”
“Not really,” Tom shot back. “How do you explain the cops finding me unconscious in the backseat of
his
car? He
kidnapped
me!”
“He panicked after you hit your head,”
the lawyer said without hesitation. “He was taking you to the emergency room.”
“Bullshit!” The word was out before Tom could stop it and he instantly regretted it when he saw the defense attorney smirk.
“Watch your language, Mr. Cooper,” the judge admonished, and Tom nodded. He needed to be smart about this. He flashed back to Dave’s earlier outburst and had the beginnings of an idea.
“Sorry, Your Honor,” he apologized.
“Talking about that night is…difficult.” Tom almost laughed at the serious understatement.
“Understandable,” the judge said with a mere possibility of softening in her expression. “But you need to control yourself in my courtroom.”
“Yes, Your Honor.” Tom swallowed the words of protest before they could reach his mouth.
“You can continue, Counselor,” the judge said, with a nod to the defense attorney.
“Actually, I have no more questions for this…witness.” The slightest hesitation by the attorney before calling Tom a witness was a final sneering poke. Tom just gritted his teeth. After all the times he’d had to bite his tongue during the questioning, he was surprised it was still attached.
“I’d like to redirect, Your Honor,” Cam said, standing.
With a nod, the judge made a “go ahead”
gesture and sat back.
“Did you approach Mr. Schmidt in the diner?” Cam asked.
“No, he approached me.” Tom felt a huge relief to be able to reaffirm what had actually happened—and to be able to finish a sentence.
“Did he ask you to leave with him?”
“Yes.”
“Did you?”
“No.”
“Did you follow him out to the parking lot?”
“No.”
“Why did you go over to him at his car?”
“He called me over.” Tom felt as if he’d told the story a hundred times by now but it still made his stomach turn inside out. “He said he was having car trouble and asked to use my phone.”
“Did you let him use your cell phone?”
“Yes.”
“What did he do with it?”
“He threw it.”
“How many days were you in the hospital after the incident?”
The topic shift threw Tom for a second.
“Four.”
“Thank you, Mr. Cooper.” Cam turned toward the judge and opened his mouth.
Before he could tell the judge he was finished, Tom interrupted. “Wait, can I say one more thing?”
“Go ahead,” Cam said with barely a hesitation.
Tom looked straight at Dave. “Dave, I’m sorry that your brother killed himself because people were harassing him for being gay. I don’t think he’d want you to hurt people
like
him though…do you?”
Dave’s face went white and then the red crept back in and deepened to purple. “I fucking told you not to say
anything
about my brother!” he roared, surging to his feet and vaulting the defense table. “You fucking perverted freak!” he screamed, barreling straight toward Tom.
Tom could hear people screaming but it was dull, in the background. The only thing in focus was Dave, getting bigger and bigger as he got closer to the witness stand.
There was a roar, a sound of total rage—and then Dave was gone.
And Darwin had taken his place.
Tom blinked, not sure what had just happened.
He turned his head and saw Dave hit the wall before collapsing onto the ground.
Tom blinked again. Had Darwin just thrown
the other man across the entire room?
“Let’s go,” Darwin said, holding out a hand. Tom didn’t hesitate. He scrambled down from the witness box and grabbed the outstretched hand.
The courtroom was in chaos. Except for a handful of uniformed officers bearing down on Dave, most people were trying to put as much space as possible between themselves and the dazed defendant. Darwin skirted around the outside of the courtroom, towing a willing Tom behind him while keeping the agitated crowd between them and the government suits.
They escaped into the hallway and hurried toward the stairs. Darwin hit the release bar on the stairway door without pausing and hauled Tom through the opening. Once they were in the deserted stairway, the door closed behind them with a thud and Darwin yanked Tom against him.
Tom yelped, startled, as he hit the brick wall that was Darwin’s chest. Everything else was instantly forgotten once the other man’s arms closed around him. It felt as if it had been forever since he’d been pressed against Darwin, since he’d felt that combination of security and terrified excitement.
“Poking the rattlesnake with a stick, huh?” Darwin’s voice rumbled through Tom, who closed his eyes and smiled.
“Yep.”
“That was dumb.”
“It wasn’t dumb,” Tom protested, although he couldn’t really take offense, since he was too happy being inside Darwin’s hard hug. “It was part of my plan.”
“Your plan?” Doubt positively dripped off the words.
With a laughing huff, Tom pushed back so he could look at the other man. “Yes, my plan. My
brilliant
plan.”
Muffled voices were getting louder on the other side of the door. Reluctantly, Darwin released Tom and they both started down the stairs. As they reached the main floor, Tom’s silenced phone began to vibrate in his pocket, making him jump.
“Go ahead, answer it.” Instead of going through the door into the courthouse lobby, Darwin pushed the emergency exit door open. The alarm shrieked and Tom ducked through, waiting until the door swung shut and the noise was muffled before answering his phone.
“Tom?” Anne asked.
“Yeah.” Tom followed Darwin through the alley behind the courthouse. He could see Darwin’s truck in a loading dock a half-block ahead of them, parked facing the alley.
“Oh my God, are you okay? You and that bailiff ran out of there so fast, I didn’t have a chance to check on you.”
“Yeah,” Tom answered, smiling a little dopily as he looked at the broad back in front of him. “I’m good.”
“Wasn’t that wonderful?” Anne crowed.
“I mean, horrible and scary while it was happening but Cam said there’s no chance the jury’ll acquit him after seeing that. And the way that bailiff just
threw
him! Does it make me a horrible person that I loved seeing that sadistic asshole hit the wall?”
The alarm blared again and Tom looked over his shoulder to see the two agents emerging from the same door he and Darwin had just used. One of them looked in their direction and called out to his partner.
“Let’s go,” Darwin ordered, sprinting the last short distance to his pickup and yanking open the driver’s door.
“Gotta go, Anne. Call you later!” He dropped the phone into his pocket and charged after Darwin, resisting the urge to glance back at the pursuing men. He reached the passenger door just as Darwin shoved it open from the inside. Tom lurched back, barely avoiding getting smacked in the face with the door.
“Sorry.” Darwin grinned at him as Tom clambered into the truck. Before he could pull his door closed, Darwin was already squealing into a left turn, the fishtailing rear of the pickup swinging toward the two agents.
As Tom watched in the side-view mirror, the taller of the two agents lunged for the tailgate.
“Darwin!” Tom warned.
“I see him.” With a crank of the wheel, Darwin sent the rear of the pickup swinging in the other direction. The agent lost his footing but still clung onto the tailgate. “Get off, you crazy clinging-like-a-monkey bastard!”
Tom laughed. It was nuts and his life was probably in danger and there was a guy in a suit hanging off the back of Darwin’s pickup and he should by all rights be completely terrified—and he was—but he was also exhilarated. Exhilarated and really, really happy to be with Darwin.
That, he knew, made him the worst kind of clingy, needy, oblivious boyfriend.
Tom realized it but truly didn’t care. He was here in the truck with Darwin—and some random government agent who wouldn’t let go—and Tom was happy, really happy, for the first time since Dave had walked into that diner.
“Hang on!” Darwin ordered, and then grinned. “I mean you, Bambi, not that guy back there.”
Tom couldn’t help it—he laughed again.
“Will do.” He grabbed the door handle and clung as Darwin cranked the wheel, making the pickup fishtail again. Tom cringed as the bed of the truck swung toward a Dumpster.
The back corner of the pickup just clipped the trash bin and Tom clung to the handle as the truck shuddered with the impact. He watched in his mirror as the man holding on swung sideways and met the Dumpster with a loud thump, knocking him off the tailgate.
“Oof!” Tom grunted in sympathy, his eyes squeezing shut.
“Got him,” Darwin said with satisfaction.
“You okay?”
“Yeah.” Drumming up the courage to look behind them again, he saw the shrinking form of the agent getting to his hands and knees. A relieved breath escaped Tom.
Despite the recent Bond-like adventures, he knew he would have had a hard time living with the knowledge that Darwin had killed the clinging-monkey agent.
Darwin slowed the truck before making the turn out of the alley onto the main street. As he moved with the other traffic, it felt to Tom as if they were crawling along.
He jiggled his knee up and down, glancing into the side-view mirror every half-second to look for possible stalker agents. He gave a snort of amusement.
“What?” Darwin glanced over, a smile already starting.
“I was trying to see if someone was following,” Tom explained. “I mean, how hard is it to pick out that suspicious, dark-colored SUV behind us?”
Darwin glanced in the rearview mirror and his smile widened. “You mean among the fifty dark-colored SUVs behind us right now?”
“Exactly.” Tom smiled at him. “I mean, why can’t evil government agents drive hot-pink Hummers? It’d be so much easier.”
With a laugh, Darwin reached over to palm the back of Tom’s head. “Shit, I’ve missed you,” he said, suddenly serious.
Turning his head so he could kiss the inside of Darwin’s wrist, Tom felt his stomach tighten with regret. “I’m sorry.”
“For what?”
“Not believing you.”
Darwin laughed again. “Please. My whole life sounds crazy. It
is
crazy. And I would’ve thought
you
were nuts if you’d believed me right off.”
It was Tom’s turn to scoff. “That’s not a big leap. I’m not exactly the picture of mental health.”
Giving Tom’s head a gentle shake before releasing him, Darwin just smiled. “Nuts or not, I can’t seem to stay away from you.”
“I noticed.” Tom gave him a sideways glance. “Nice scar. And that mustache. Smokin’ hot.”
“Thank you,” Darwin said. “Thought it might give me that dangerous ‘bad boy’ look.”