Authors: Jamie Carie
Maddie shook her head. “The questions were so strange. I couldn’t answer just yes or no to a couple of the important ones. And the examiner hated me. I could tell. She wanted me to fail.”
Jake found that hard to believe. Why would anyone want this sweet woman to fail a polygraph? But he didn’t say that. “What is your attorney saying?”
“He said the test wouldn’t be admissible in court, that I was coerced to take it before he could arrive, and told me that it is a false positive. He gave the police a formal statement and told them to make their decision. If they arrest me, I may have to stay here awhile before I can arrange bail.”
Jake got up and began pacing the small rectangular room. “This is ridiculous. They can’t have one shred of evidence.”
Maddie lifted her head. “They have my diary,” she said suddenly, panic in her eyes. “They’ve had that since this morning.”
Jake squatted down in front of her. “Why would that matter, Maddie? You didn’t know anything…did you?” It was his first moment of doubt.
“No. But I haven’t read that far back, I couldn’t bear to read it since he died.” She clenched her fist together. “I can’t remember…what I wrote. I always write every little thought in my head. What if there is something that makes it look like I knew something?”
“You’re over-thinking it. It’s going to be okay,” Jake stressed, hoping he was right. “I hear someone coming.”
He stood next to her chair, wishing he could guard her from this, wishing he could deflect it like he did in a game and turn it around to their advantage.
Mr. Walters walked in. He had a smile on his face. “They’ve decided to let you go home, Maddie.”
She took a sudden breath of relief. “It’s over, then?”
He shook his head. “Not quite. They are still reviewing all of the evidence and if they find something new that incriminates you, you could still be charged.”
“What about the polygraph? How could that have turned out to be positive that I was lying?”
“I’ve reviewed the questions that were asked and spoke to the examiner. She admitted that they were rushing to get you tested before I showed up, that she might have asked inconclusive questions. It would never hold up in court.”
Maddie sagged back against the chair, looking as if a weight had been rolled off her shoulders. “That’s wonderful news. Thank you so much, Mr. Walters.”
He nodded at her, looking pleased with himself. “You will have to testify during the court proceedings against Sabrina Bridgestone. The state’s attorney’s office will no doubt contact you as a witness. It won’t be over for some time yet.”
“As long as I’m not the one they are prosecuting, I can handle it.”
“Can I take her home now?” Jake asked, wanting to get her as far from the situation as possible.
“Certainly. I’ll keep in touch.”
They shook hands and then Jake handed Maddie her handbag, leading her toward the front doors with his hand at the small of her back.
As soon as he pushed the doors open to the cold December air, he knew he’d made a mistake. A big one.
Cameras flashed in their eyes. Microphones were shoved into their faces. Questions were shouted out like barking orders.
Maddie stepped back instinctively, her back coming flush with his chest, the top of her head fitting perfectly under his chin. “What?” he heard her say.
“Jake, is it true that you and Maddie Goode are married? Did you have a ceremony in Las Vegas?” an attractive blond woman, her mic reading
Insider Tonight
, shouted at him.
Maddie gasped. “Oh no.”
Jake grasped her upper arm and whispered into her ear. “Let me handle this.”
“Maddie, did you know about your husband’s involvement in the embezzlement of over half a million dollars from First Old Bank of Indiana?”
Maddie, like most first-time victims of the paparazzi, just blinked into the bright white lights.
Jake started them down the stairs, his body leaning over her, protecting her. “Please, no questions. Let us pass.” Jake was big enough to make it happen. One cameraman stepped into the path, getting a close-up of their faces, and Jake decided to plow into him. Looking the other way as if he didn’t notice him, he walked his nearly seven-foot frame right into the guy, knocking him to one side, the camera flying to the pavement.
After that, the sea of people parted, letting them through, but the questions continued to rain down upon them, some shockingly intimate.
“Is it true that you ran off and got married in the Little White Wedding Chapel with an Elvis impersonator walking you down the aisle? Isn’t that same chapel that Britney Spears was married in?”
“Sources say there were wedding night photos? How do feel about those pictures leaking out?”
Jake looked up at that question, startled. They
had
taken some racy shots, knowing that they weren’t going to live together right away and for fun. Had they confiscated Maddie’s phone as well as her diary? “If that shows up anywhere you’ll regret it,” he warned, opening Maddie’s side of the car door and striding around the front of his vehicle to get into the driver’s side. He started the engine, took a deep breath and gunned it.
They followed them on foot and with their cameras until Jake turned out of the parking lot and really stepped on the gas. He couldn’t get away fast enough.
Maddie stared at him in wide-eyed shock. “How could they possibly know about those photos?
Jake looked at her. “Did they take your phone?”
“No, I have it right here.” She dug into her purse and pulled it out.
“We need to delete all of those photos.”
Maddie nodded, beginning to scan through her photo library. “I only have three but…” She flashed one toward him that showed them both from the waist up and Jake groaned. Maddie panicked. “If these get out! How could anyone get ahold of these?”
“I don’t know. Did you write about them in the diary?”
She sucked in a big breath. “Yes, that and more. Oh, I feel sick. I told you I write down every little thought I have. I wrote down everything, every detail of our wedding night. How you looked and…smelled. Jake, you have to pull over. I really think I’m going to be sick.”
Jake turned into his community, only to discover more reporters hanging outside the gate. “Pull it together for a little while longer, sweetheart. Look.”
She covered her mouth with her hand. “Where have they all come from?”
Jake frowned, seeing several of the tabloids represented in the crowd. “I have a feeling we’re going to have to get used to it, for a while anyway.
“I’m sorry, Jake. I didn’t know. I’ll never write in a diary again.”
He squeezed her hand. “Just look confident. We’ll get through this.”
He drove through the crowd, doors locked, windows up tight, going as fast as he dared. They couldn’t follow them into the community, but they would have gotten a shot of them going into it together and piece together some story. It wasn’t going to be pretty.
His phone rang as they walked through the door to his condo. He dug it out of his pocket, seeing that it was his coach.
“Jake, we have to talk.”
“I know. Now’s not a good time, though.”
“Now is the only time. The owners are here. Everyone is upset here. You need to get over here now.”
Jake rubbed the muscle along his right shoulder, feeling a headache coming on. “Okay, I’ll be right there.” He hung up the phone.
“The Racers?”
“Yeah. My coach.”
“I understand. I’m going with you. I need to get my car. I need to go home to Max.”
“But you’re coming back, right? You and Max are still coming over tonight? We were going to tell him.”
“Jake. Maybe we should let things cool down first. This is all so crazy, so unpredictable…”
Jake blew out a big breath, the disappointment weighing on his shoulders like a heavy blanket. “Yeah, you’re probably right. I’ll have to settle for calling you later.”
They drove to the stadium, where they found a few more reporters. Jake dropped Maddie by her car, made sure she wasn’t accosted before she drove away, and then headed inside to face the music.
Jordan met Jake at the doors of the Racers offices. “They’re in Rodney’s office, all of them. Be careful, man.”
Jake gave a high nod. “Thanks for the heads-up.”
He walked into Rodney Hillman’s office, the president of the multimillion-dollar organization that was professional basketball. An ominous atmosphere thickened the air as he shook hands with the stern-faced men—his coach, the team’s managers and the owner of the team. They were all there.
“Have a seat, Jake. Drink?”
“No thanks.” Jake sat.
“This is a delicate situation, Jake. We like Maddie. We understand that you’ve developed a relationship with her, but to be blunt, we can’t have this business of hers muddy our name, your name.”
“Maddie’s innocent. She had nothing to do with what her husband did.”
“I believe that,” Rodney continued. “We all do. That’s not the problem. In the public eye, you know as well as we do that she’ll be guilty until proven innocent. It’s the way things work, whether we like to think the country runs better than that or not.”
“What do you want from me?” Jake looked around the room, staring each man in the eye. “We’re married. Nothing’s going to change that.”
“You’re married! Damn it man, who knows about this?”
Apparently Jordan had been true to his word and not said anything. Should he tell them what just happened at the police station? At his own house? About the diary? It was much worse than they thought, and it would all come out in the next couple of days anyway.
“The press already knows. I just got back from taking Maddie to the police station. There was a pack of them there.”
Rodney took a long puff from his cigar and leaned back in his chair, eye squinting at Jake. “It’ll be all over the six o’clock news.”
Jake sat up in his chair. “What’s the big deal? Maddie didn’t do anything wrong. Anybody that knows her knows that’s true. Her name will be cleared and everyone will forget all about it. We got married over the weekend, so what?”
“Your game has slipped since you met her. Your head’s not right,” his coach commented, adding fuel to the fire.
Jake shrugged. “For a game or two. I played my best when we were dating and she was there. It just took her a while to come around. I’ll play great now. Now that she’s mine.”
One of the men chuckled. “Sounds like true love, all right.”
“We’ll lay low. Dodge the press until this is over. You should put out a statement supporting her, telling the world that we know she’s innocent. Do you realize what her husband did to her?”
“Do you realize what marrying a woman with that kind of baggage can do to you? At least tell me you got a prenup, man.” This was spoken by one of the team managers.
“I don’t need advice as to how to run my personal affairs. This is really none of your business,” Jake shot back, about to stand.
Rodney smiled without humor. “Unfortunately, Jake, that’s not entirely true. We own you. You signed a contract that says you won’t do anything embarrassing to the team image. This is damned embarrassing.”
“What do you want?”
“Separate. Temporarily, at least. Give it some time. Heck son, you hardly know the girl.”
Jake envisioned his fist in the man’s face, but took a deep breath instead. “That’s not acceptable. We are planning a second wedding for family and friends in a few weeks. We didn’t want it to get out that we’re already married—she has a son and our families would have been disappointed to miss it, so we’ve been saying we are engaged. It’s all planned.”
“Well, unplan it. You don’t own your life, we do. And it would be best if you remembered that fact.”
Jake stood. “This conversation is over.”
“You think about it, Jake. We can always trade you.”
“Yeah, you do that.” Jake stalked from the room.
He was seeing red as he walked to his car in the parking garage. He was almost looking forward to the intimate details of the diary coming out. Expect for the parts that were going to make him look like a lovesick idiot to his teammates, he might even laugh about it.
~~~~~~
Maddie drove home, tears dripping down her face, ignoring the constant ringing of her cell phone. She just couldn’t talk about it anymore. She needed a break.
Glancing at the screen, she saw that it was Sasha and changed her mind. Sasha was always good for her.
“Okay, what exactly is going on?” Sasha demanded without preamble.
“Oh, Sasha. Thank heaven you’re back in town. I can’t talk about it on the phone. Can you meet me right now? I need to see you.”
“Of course. I’ll meet you at Moe’s in fifteen minutes.
“Okay.” Maddie hung up, knowing she wasn’t ready to face her parents just yet.
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
M
oe’s, the bar and grill where Sasha and she always met, was quiet, thank goodness. Maddie slid into a booth, deep and private, the darkness of the room suiting her mood, the blaring of the big screens drowning out any confessions. Sasha was quickly recognizable as soon as Maddie caught a glimpse of someone walking in wearing a plaid skirt, dark tights and boots.
She slid into the seat, folded her hands together and leaned her chin on them, looking at Maddie with deeply compassionate eyes. “Okay, tell me everything.”
Maddie started with the New York trip, telling her how Jake had asked her to go on business and then all the roses in the plane.
“Oh my gosh. I’ve never heard of anything so romantic. You didn’t call me? How could you not have called me?”
“I haven’t had time. Really. So much has happened in the last few days. And you were out of town at Rob’s parents’. You have to tell me how that went.”
“Oh no, not yet. Your life is much more interesting than mine right now. How did he propose? Was the wedding wonderful? I only know that much because Jake called to get advice.” She quirked a brow. “But it seems everyone knows about it now. It’s all over the news.”
“It was wonderful and so spontaneous. I guess it was naïve of us to think we could keep the marriage a secret for a while.”