Love's Protector: A Maverick's Shield Novel (20 page)

“So how are we going to pull this off?” Jason asked Jax as he pulled into the parking lot of Mayor Woodson’s headquarters.

“Don’t worry man, Cheryl will hook us up. Besides, she owes me. I agreed to be her date to one of the mayor’s boring shindigs earlier this year.”

“Are you sure?” Amour asked from the backseat of Jax’s car.

“Positive. Now let’s do this.”

The headquarters was buzzing with activity all over the room. Posters of the Mayor of Los Angeles were plastered in every corner of every wall along with two televisions that constantly showcased Mayor Woodson in various debates and TV ads. Amour and Jason sat at a small bench in the corner while Jax walked over to a small desk on the other side of the room to talk to a petit woman with shoulder length brunette hair. Judging by the way her was smiling at her, she was apparently Cheryl.

She turned to Jason. “If this woman does help us get to Pierce Harrington, do you really think he’ll talk to us?”

“I honestly don’t know sweetheart. He may be willing to cooperate but it’s doubtful.”

“What if he doesn’t?”

“Then we’ll just have to find another way to get the information we need just like we’ve been doing all this time. Like I said before, we can’t exactly go to the cops with this…well, except for Chandra.”

Jax approached the two of them just as Jason finished talking. “We’re in.”

Jason rose to his feet.
“Really? That easily?”

“Well I had to promise her a few things.” Jax said with a wink.

“Oh…”

Amour stood as well. “So what’s going to
happen Jax? What do we do now?”

“Now, we stay put. The party’s not until this Saturday so we have some time to prepare. Cheryl’s gonna leave some V.I.P. passes for us at the door so we shouldn’t have any problems getting inside.”

“Great!” Jason said. “Let’s get out of here.”

* * *

Amour wasn’t quite as nervous about potentially facing Pierce Harrington as she’d thought she would be. In fact, she was eager to do so. She wasn’t sure why, but all of a sudden she felt fearless. She also felt angry. This was definitely a good time to channel all those emotions into solving this case. She looked to her left to see Jason in the driver’s seat staring at the road with a blank expression.

“What are you thinking about?”

He still didn’t look in her direction. “A lot of things.”

“Like what? Is it the party?”

“That’s one part of it.”

What was with him? “What’s going on with you Jason?”

“What do you mean?”

“You’ve been acting this way since we left Chandra’s house this morning. Did something happen while we were there?”

He remained silent for a moment before speaking. “Nothing really happened but I did get some information that’s got me a little concerned that’s all.”

“What information?” He said nothing. “Jason?”

“How come you didn’t tell me about the assault charges?”

“What are you talking about?”

“I’m talking about the assault charges that were filed against you a few years ago by that Simon guy.”

How the hell did
he
know about that? “What?”

“Don’t play dumb with me Amour! You know exactly what I’m talking about!”

“How did you find out about that?”

“Mack told me.”

“Mack? How the hell did
he
find out about it?”

“He ran a background check on you.”

Did she just hear what she thought she’d heard? “Why?”

“So I would know who I was dealing with.”

“I can’t believe this! That was none of his business or yours!”

“He was just looking out for me Amour. I haven’t known you that long.”

“I don’t give a shit! How dare you pry into my life like that! This investigation is not about me, it’s about my mother’s killer! I don’t see how checking up on me is in any way going to help with solving it.”

“I’m sorry Amour, but Mack is one of my best friends. He’s just trying to make sure that I don’t have a crazy person on my hands. You can’t fault him for that.”

Yes she could fault him for that and when she saw him again she was definitely going to give him a piece of her mind. How dare he? She’d never been more pissed off in her life. “Do you think I’m crazy?”

“I don’t know.”

“What do you mean you don’t know?”

“I don’t know why you did what you did.”

“Do you want to know?”

“I would like to but if you don’t want to tell me about it I understand.”

Well she might as well. It’s pretty much all out of the bag anyway. “I was sexually assaulted three years ago.”

“Really?
A few days ago wasn’t the first time?”

“No. That’s why I wasn’t that traumatized by it because I know it could’ve been a lot worse.”

He kept quiet for a few seconds before looking in her direction. “What happened?”

“It was my fifth year on the racing team and I had just come in first place in one of the smaller races. Unfortunately, the trophy I’d won belonged to one of the male team members the year before. He’d won it for five years straight prior to losing it to me. He was not too happy about it either. At the end of the season, my team leader always throws a party at his house for all of us to celebrate our accomplishments. Being the only woman there that wasn’t the wife of a team member, I usually just stayed in the background.”

“You didn’t talk to any of the wives?”

“Not really. I didn’t have much in common with them. I wasn’t a wife, I didn’t have kids and I don’t cook very much so I pretty much just kept to myself.”

“That must’ve been boring.”

“Not really. I always knew what to expect so I just went with it. Anyway, Simon would always get really drunk and start to go on and on about how women shouldn’t be allowed to race cars and how much better he was than everyone else there.”

“He sounds like a total jackass.”

“He was. He swore up and down that I would never beat him at any race so I was determined to prove him wrong. When I did, he was pissed so when he arrived at the party he of course got drunk and started to talk trash about me claiming that I cheated and that I only got a spot on the team because I blew the team leader. I just ignored it and when on about my business for the most part until I got sick of it.”

“Did you go off on him?”

“No. I had a headache so I just went to one of the bedrooms to lie down for a little while and rest my eyes. I was only in there for about fifteen minutes when he walked in.”

“Did he know that you were in there?”

“I’m sure he did because he wasn’t surprised by it. All he did was smile and tell me that we were going to finally have fun at the party for once. I thought he was joking so I just got up and started towards the door. Before I knew it, he had me by the arm and he threw me back onto the bed.”

“Are you serious?”

“Yes, very. I tried to fight him but of course he was stronger than me. I managed to hit him in the face with my bag but it didn’t do much. He just punched me really hard in the face and broke my nose. That’s why it’s a little crooked if you even noticed.”

“I did.”

“He got on top of me and tried to part my legs but I wouldn’t let him so he just got even angrier and started slapping me. He kept telling me that I had no business trying to be a man and that he was going to put me in a woman’s place.”

Jason frowned. “Did he rape you?”

“Yes.”

“Is that when you stabbed him?”

“Yes. I managed to get my switch blade out of my bra and stab him in the stomach. By that time another one of the guys had come in to get his coat and called the cops.”

He stopped at a red light and looked at her. “Damn sweetheart…No wonder you’ve gotten over what just happened to you in no time flat. That must’ve been very hard for you back then.”

“It was. It caused me to spiral out of control temporarily.”

He stayed silent for a moment. “That’s why you were in therapy.”

“Yeah.”

“Does that explain your drug habit as well?”

“Yep.
It took me all these years to be able to cope with it. Don’t get me wrong, I am a little freaked out by what recently happened to me but the difference between now and then is that I know that I can get through it.”

“You’re a strong woman Amour.”

“I wasn’t always and I’m still not all the time as you know.”

He reached over and grabbed her hand. “But you’re strong when it counts and that’s all that matters.”

When he smiled, she knew that no matter what the outcome of this trip to L.A. will be, she would be okay. Having Jason by her side was a big help as well. He made her feel safe and comfortable. He cared. For the first time since she could remember, besides her father, someone cared. “You’re right.”

“Is that why you said that about my mother?”

“Said what?”

“That you understood why she forgave my father. Did you forgive
him
?”

“Eventually.
It wasn’t easy but it was necessary.”

“That’s what my mom said but I just don’t understand why?”

“Because Jason. She doesn’t want to be a victim for the rest of her life and neither did I. Holding on to hatred for someone does no good either. I’m not saying we should forget about what happened to us, never, but forgiveness causes you to let go of all the bitterness you held on to and frees you to live your life without fear and anger. I knew that wasn’t Simon who raped me, that was someone else; someone angry and bitter.”

“What did he do, call you and say I’m sorry?”

“He did in the beginning but I never answered his calls. He got angry at me because of that so he went to the police and pressed assault charges against me for stabbing him. Of course the charges didn’t hold up because there was a witness there, there were bruises on me as well my broken nose and his DNA was inside of me. He was convicted of rape and is now serving six years in prison.”

“Good.”

“I went to visit him for a couple of hours and he explained to me what he had been going through at that moment and how much he regretted doing what he did to me.”

“That was no excuse to rape you!”

“I know Jason but I understood where he was coming from. I knew he was genuinely sorry because I could see the pain and regret in his eyes. He actually cried. I forgave him because I wanted to put all of it behind me and live my life. Maybe you should try it, it won’t be easy but it’s worth it. Maybe you won’t be so angry anymore if you do.”

“I can’t forgive him for what he did to her. I just can’t.”

When he pulled up in the parking stall in his complex and parked in his space, he sat there instead of getting out of the car and stared at the steering wheel. She could see he was considering what she was suggesting, whether or not he was going to go through with it remained to be seen. She placed her hand on his thigh. “I know you think your mother and I are foolish but believe me, we’re not. You can’t go on like this Jason. You’re just torturing yourself. I can see the pain in your eyes as well and you need to let it go. I know it won’t be easy but you have to try. It’s the only way you’ll be happy again.”

“You don’t understand Amour! I can’t even face him. I tried to go visit him once but I just couldn’t handle it. When I saw him roll out I just froze and I couldn’t speak. I was so angry but at the same time I felt guilty about him being there.”

“What do you mean rolled out?”

“He’s paralyzed.”

“Oh…”

“Yeah…”

“Why did you feel guilty? Do you somehow feel responsible?”

“Yes now can we please stop talking about this?”

“Okay.” He was holding in a lot of pain and anger and she hated it. She had to find a way to get him to at least talk about what happened for longer than five minutes. He needed to relieve himself of it. Yes, she wanted to help him but she wasn’t sure exactly how she would be able to do that.

When they got inside the apartment, Jason headed straight for the shower. While he was in there, Amour figured that would be a good time to fix something to eat and maybe straighten up a bit. After frying up some turkey burgers and French fries, she went into the living room and cleaned up some the mess that was left earlier today. It was only six-thirty so she didn’t mind. She spotted what looked like an old blue photo album on top of the fire place mantel as she was dusting it. Putting the dusting cloth down, she hesitated before picking it up but she figured if he didn’t want anyone to look at it, he wouldn’t have it out for anyone to see. She grabbed off the mantel and sat down on the couch. Looking through it, she smiled at all the many photos of him as a child. Some with what she’d guessed was his mother, and judging by the facial features, his father.