CHAPTER THREE

When Chloe went up to her room, Kevin went up too, but he stopped and knocked on Jake’s door.

“How are you holding up, son?”

Jake shrugged, “I guess as well as I can be. I just feel frustrated as hell. I want to do something. This sitting around and waiting is what is going to kill me.”

Kevin nodded. “I know. I feel the same way. We’re fixers and we want to set everything right. It’s why we do what we do. But as badly as it hurts, we can’t fix this. All we can do is support him in whatever way we can.”

“You’re talking about Chloe?”

“Yes, she’s a part of supporting him. He really does care a lot about her. I suspect that he’s falling in love with her.”

“Don’t you think that’s strange? Aren’t you worried that this is about him looking to replace Sarah?”

“At first I was worried,” Kevin said, “But when you see them together you know that this is much more than that. Chloe and Sarah are very different and I trust Derek enough to believe that a pretty face…even one identical to Sarah’s wouldn’t be enough for him if the woman that went along with it wasn’t a deserving soul. I don’t want Chloe to be alone. Even a hotel room in New York won’t be safe for her as long as Jesse is out there. I spoke to Vince this afternoon. The police have already been to see him, so he knows that Jesse is a suspect in this. He’s not admitting that he believes that, but he did tell me if he spoke to him, he was going to encourage him to turn himself in.”

“Is Vince supporting him? Where is he getting the money to travel from New York to Rhode Island and live in the meantime?”

“I asked him about that and he denies that he’s helping him…but when I asked if his wife was giving Jesse money, he changed the subject. I’m willing to bet that she’s funneling him whatever he needs. Allie Donovan has never been able to admit that her boy was anything less than perfect. Even now I would be willing to bet she would argue his innocence to the death. I would also be willing to be that Vince will do all in his power to save the boy, just to keep her happy.”

“That’s probably a lot of the problem,” Jake said. “Jesse’s a psychopath because he’s never had to deal with any consequences of his actions.”

“I agree son. You and I know from experience with our clients that he’s not going to change. He has no remorse. He doesn’t see anything he’s doing as wrong. He needs to be locked away. In the meantime, we have to make sure he doesn’t get to Chloe.”

Jake nodded. “So you don’t want Chloe staying alone, do you want her to stay here?”

“This is pretty far from the hospital and pretty much everything else. I don’t want her feeling like a prisoner either. I could have the car drive her around, but I would just feel safer if one of us was with her. I was hoping if I were to arrange for someone else to handle your cases for a couple of weeks.”

Jake was looking at his father like he had lost his mind. “You can’t be serious? Come on, Dad. I don’t even know her and I’m not sure yet if I trust her. You want me to take her to my home?” Jake kept an apartment in the city. It was more convenient than making the trek to and from the mansion on most weeknights.

“No, but Derek also has an apartment in Manhattan. She would be in a building with security and two blocks away from you. Jesse’s plan is to get her alone. He’s proven he’s a coward. He’s not going to try anything as long as he knows there is someone around who would be willing to help her. It’s our obligation to Derek to make sure she is taken care of. Plus, she doesn’t deserve any of this, son. If you spend some time getting to know her, I think you’ll agree. She’s been tortured for far too long. We would be remiss if we didn’t do anything even if she wasn’t Derek’s girlfriend. I would do it myself Jake but you know I have that triple murder case that I’m handling right now and we’re too far in for me to hand it off to someone else. Any spare time I have, I would like to spend with your brother at the hospital. When Derek comes out of this and he will I want him to know we did everything in our power to protect her.”

Jake had no idea what to think of Chloe. He trusted his father and his brother’s judgment on almost everything, but this was just…strange. He knew his father was right. They had to do this for Derek and in the meantime, he could keep her close and decide if he trusted her or not.

“Okay,” he said, still reluctant.

Kevin smiled and clapped his son on the shoulder.

Jake lay awake in his room that night, trying to put it all together in his head. No matter how he looked at it, it just didn’t seem possible that after a lifetime of not knowing who she really was, this woman was “accidentally” discovered by his brother. Then there was the tie to Jesse Donovan as well. He’s not usually a suspicious guy. He tried his best not to judge people and being an attorney; he had learned to take both sides of every story into account. It just seemed like so many coincidences that it was unreal or at the very least, surreal.

Jake also learned in his profession that people aren’t always what they seemed. He had defended a man or woman more than once that he swore were innocent right up until the jury found them so and then the client’s demeanor would change and become smug over the fact that they had put one over on everyone; even their own attorney. He’d even had clients who delighted in telling him when it was all over that they had actually committed murder and gotten away with it.

For his father and his brother’s sake, Jake wanted to believe that there was no more to the story than what Chloe was telling them but he was going to remain wary for a while at least until he made sure that his family was not in any more danger. He was also calling the police first thing in the morning to find out what they were doing about finding this punk, Jesse Donovan. If nothing else, they had him for beating Chloe’s friend and putting her in the hospital. Jake was still a little steamed that he had been left out of all of this from the beginning. If Derek had the time to let, his father know what was going on. Why didn’t he tell him? A wave of guilt washed over him. He had been out of touch a lot lately. He’d had nothing but a string of bad luck with women he had dated, so he had thrown himself into work, rarely having a day that lasted less than sixteen hours.

Jake couldn’t fall asleep as his thoughts drifted into memories of growing up with Derek. They were only two years apart, so growing up they had been really close. They were typical brothers and they spent a lot of time antagonizing each other and they had the occasional fist fight but there was never a time when one of them needed the other that they didn’t have each other’s backs. Jake taught his little brother to ride a two-wheeler and how to play video games. He taught him how to surf and showed him how to tie his first tie. Their mother died young and their father did the best that he could but he worked a lot and that had left Jake and Derek on their own most of the time. Jake grew protective of him and then he felt like he just turned his back on him and let him down.

Derek had a hard time of it for a while in high school. He was getting into fights and getting expelled. He was doing what he did best, of course— defending the underdog. But unfortunately that didn’t count in the school’s eyes and he was punished harshly. By that time Jake was gone to college and when he found out about it later, he felt bad that he hadn’t been there for him. He wasn’t too worried by the time he found out though because it was over and his brother was one of the smartest people Jake had ever known. He knew he would overcome all of that and go on to succeed. He wasn’t surprised when his brother began to excel in his business classes in university and went on to become one of the most successful businessmen on the east coast. He tried to keep himself in that mind set about this as well. Derek was a fighter. He had never given up on anything as far as Jake knew. He would fight and make it through this too. He had to.

Jake finally drifted into a fitful sleep sometime in the wee hours of the morning. He woke up when the sun began to peek through the blinds and after showering and dressing he found his father and Chloe downstairs having their breakfast. Neither of them looked like they had slept any better than he did.

“Good morning, son. How did you sleep?” Kevin asked him.

Jake sat down and thanked his father’s housekeeper Susie for the coffee she poured for him and then he said, “Pretty well, thanks.” He lied, but he didn’t want to worry his father any more than he already was. Kevin already had deep, dark circles underneath his eyes. “Have you gotten any news?”

“No, but I called to check in this morning and they said there were no changes. Right now, that’s a good thing.”

Jake looked at Chloe who was sipping her coffee and pushing her food around on her plate. She looked almost more anxious this morning than she had last night.

“Good morning, Chloe,” he forced himself to say in order to be polite. He hadn’t gotten any closer to trusting her. Jake had adored his sister-in-law and it was strange and a little bit creepy for him to see her face on this stranger.

“Good morning,” she said, looking like she had to force her smile.

“I’ll be ready to head to the hospital after breakfast if you are.”

“Yes, I’m ready,” she said.

Jake finished his coffee and like Chloe pushed his food around for a while on his plate before announcing he was finished. He and Chloe said good-bye to Kevin who had to head into the office for a while before going to see Derek and set off. Once they were outside Jake told her, “I know Dad said he would have a car for us, but if you don’t mind, I’d rather take my own.”

“I don’t mind,” she said.

Jake put the code into the key-pad on the garage and he saw Chloe’s eyes widen as the doors lifted. It was a six car garage. Inside sat an Aston-Martin, a Dodge Charger, a Bentley, a Harley Davidson motorcycle and a Mercedes S-Class sedan. The Dodge Charger and the Harley were his. He was actually aching to take the Harley out. It helped clear his head to just get it out on the open road and drive. The Charger would have to do for today though. He doubted a forty-five minute ride on the Interstate on the back of a Harley was something Chloe was up for.

Neither of them spoke until they were well on their way. Finally breaking the awkward silence, Jake said, “Do you mind if I ask how long you and Jesse were together?”

“No, that’s fine,” she said. “We started dating when I was nineteen and I was twenty-one when; when he was arrested.”

“Was he like that the entire time you were together? I mean, abusive?”

“Not at first. At first, he was sweet and attentive and he went out of his way to do everything right. He was putting on a really good show. The monster began to rear its ugly head about six months into the relationship.”

“So why did you stay? I’m sorry if that’s too personal, I’m just trying to understand.”

“It’s fine,” she said. Jake noticed when they talked about Jesse last night and again now that Chloe’s shell seemed to harden almost visibly. “My childhood was filled with abuse. When I met Jesse, I thought that he was my savior, but I was well-trained all of those years as an abused child to be submissive and to blame myself for whatever went wrong. You get in that mindset and when it’s all you’ve lived and all you’ve seen it’s hard to get out of it. It’s even harder when you have no one to turn to and nowhere to go.”

“I remember when Jesse was arrested,” he said. “Your name…it was different?”

“Yeah. I changed it when I moved to Rhode Island.”

“Because of the publicity of the trial?”

“Because of Jesse, I knew that when he got out, he would come looking for me. I wanted to make it hard for him to find me.”

“I remember the trial mostly because when Vince asked him, my father refused to defend Jesse.”

“Kevin did? Why?”

“Dad’s been an attorney for twenty five years. He firmly believes that everyone deserves a defense; even someone that he knows is guilty. He’s a great attorney because he believes in the system but he’s a better man because he also refuses to compromise his values for it. He knew that the fact Jesse was Vince Donovan’s son would mean he wasn’t going to have to face a jury. Even though he has been good friends with Vince for a long time, he wasn’t comfortable knowing that Jesse would be offered a cushy deal based solely on who his father was. He was also not really crazy about Jesse. There was just always something about him that was a little “off.” Dad referred them to his partner and took a step back.”

“I didn’t know that Kevin did that. I already had respect for him, but that strengthens it.”

“Yeah, it’s strange how all of our lives have been running right alongside each other all of these years. I guess it’s true what they say about six degrees of separation.” He was trying hard to believe that’s all that this was. He really hoped that his father and Derek were right about Chloe. They both already seemed attached and the Whitemore’s as well. He would hate for them all to get hurt if this was some kind of weird scheme. His own personal jury was still out on that.