Chapter Twenty-Nine
Just a short warning! I know nothing about what would actually happen during the second scene. I'm not a lawyer, I'm not a law student. I never took Law 12. So, if some things are wrong, sue me (lol) but I'm making this up purely from my imagination. I realize that it sounds ridiculous, but this is fiction, right? Deal.
Joey put the phone down on the counter, a puzzled look on his face as he stuck his head in the living room to see if Brooklyn was still there. The television had been shut off, and her half glass of water was still resting on a coaster on the wood top of the coffee table. His head cocked to the side as he heard a guitar playing softly someone in the house.
Making up his mind, he decided to follow the music until he came to a closed door. He knocked quietly, trying not to startle her. Instead, he heard, "It's open. I won't kill you for coming in here." He turned the gold knob and looked in to see her sitting on the couch with a pair of headphones, covering one ear and leaving the other open, and a sparkling red acoustic guitar resting on her lap. "Yeah?"
He looked around. "Damn, girl, how come I didn't know this was here?"
"Because most people aren't allowed in here, but I'll break the rules and let you come in. What's up?"
He sighed and shook his head. "There's a phone call for you. He asked to talk to his client, Miss Turner, and then told me to tell you that Mr. Fletcher was on the phone. I didn't know that you were working the streets again, but you have to admit that Fletcher isn't that creative of a name for a pimp."
Her eyes lit up with recognition, but it joined the confusion. "That's the lawyer that I hired for the court case, but...he hasn't called me since after I got the restraining order against Tim. He hasn't had to. I wonder what he wants now."
"Maybe one of your cheques bounced or something."
She shot him a bad look as she put the guitar down and got up, stretching her arms above her head. The headphones slipped off by themselves and landed on the couch. "Cute, but I don't think so. I had more than enough in the bank to cover the cost." He followed her out of the music room, and sat down at the counter as she picked up the phone. "Hello, Mr. Fletcher. This is Brooklyn Turner. What can I do for you?"
He watched as she nodded a few times, made a few noises of agreement, and then sighed. "I'm not sure that I completely understand. This has to do with Tim, but it doesn't have to do with me directly? I never filed anything against him, and-" She was broken off, and she nodded a few more times. "So...basically, I'm a witness? A witness to what?"
Joey shot one of his eyebrows up as he listened to the one side of the conversation. There was a nagging feeling that something wasn't quite right here, and yet something seemed to be completely right. It was like all the pieces were coming together, but he was still missing a few.
"Well...California? Yes, I could get a flight out to California immediately, but I'm not sure-" Brooklyn tapped her fingers impatiently on the counter top, rolling her eyes. "Informal? Does that mean that Tim won't be there? Yes, I understand, Mr. Fletcher. I'll call for a flight to leave sometime today if possible, and if I can't get one, I'll call you in an hour. If I do get one, I won't bother calling, and I'll meet you outside the building at eleven. Yes, sir. Goodbye."
She hung up the phone and looked down at it thoughtfully, not moving her hand. "Brooke? What's going on?"
A sigh sounded from her as she turned around to look at him. "I'm not exactly sure. He called to tell me that someone is bringing some sort of complaint or something against Tim, and I'm basically a witness to the whole thing, but I have no idea what he's talking about. Some judge wants to ask me a few questions down in California, and see if I can straighten this whole mess out. The one good thing is that Tim won't be there. He's not notified of what's been going on." Her head turned to the side ever so slightly, and she bit her bottom lip. "I swear, my lawyer gets paid by the word, not the hour. He never shuts up."
He laughed and reached for the phone. "Look, why don't I see if I can get you a flight to California, while you go up and pack."
She nodded, moving away. "Oh, if you can't get a commercial flight, there's a number that's taped on the fridge. It's my managers. If there are no flights before seven o'clock tonight, call him, tell him who you are, and ask if he can arrange for Curb's jet to take me as close as possible to where I'm going, all right?"
"Sure, no problem."
She started up the stairs, her mind racing, when her and Lance almost collided. "Whoa," he said with a laugh, catching her as she stumbled. "Sorry, but I was just looking for you. Is there a reason why I'm being called down to California for some court case or trial or something that involves you?" He smiled sheepishly. "I didn't really listen that closely."
Pausing, she put her hands on her hips, looking at a space above his head. "That's strange. Why would you be called to come? I just got a call from my lawyer, saying that I had to be some sort of witness, or something close to that. I swear, I don't understand any of this. Where's Mia when I need her," she groaned, bringing one hand up to rub her forehead like she had a headache.
"Most likely in a hotel suite in Paris, with your brother, doing something that a little sister shouldn't know about." He broke off when they heard a ringing from one of the upstairs bedrooms. More specifically, what the Stripper song sounded like on a cell phone. "Justin's phone," Lance said, matter-of-factly.
Just as he went to say something, they heard another ring, this one sounding suspiciously like Camptown Races. "And that would be Joey's, I presume," she said with a smile. "Huh. I always thought that Joey would have The Stripper play on his phone, and for Justin to have something like Camptown Races. That WAS Camptown Races, wasn't it?"
He nodded. "Same, but I'm not stupid enough to question it." They both looked down as the slim silver cell phone in Lance's hand started to ring...or play a song. He looked down at the caller identification and frowned. "It's my lawyer AGAIN."
"Bach? On a cell phone? The world is going to hell apparently," she said quietly as she waved and walked past him, going into her room. She was met by Justin sitting on her bed. "Don't say a word, curly. Let's see if I can guess. You just got a call from your lawyer, telling him that you had to be in California as a witness to something, right?"
"How did you know?"
Her eyes rolled. "Apparently, my house has turned into a law convention. I've gotten a call from my lawyer, Lance has gotten TWO calls from his lawyer, you got one, and I'm guessing that Joey just got on. Something's going on."
A frown started on his face, before it began to deepen. He distinctly remembered JC and Chris saying that they had to go to California the other day...and now they were all being called down there. Something WAS going on, but he wasn't about to say anything, because he was just as curious as everyone else.
Still, he had a good idea of what it was, and he couldn't help mentally applauding his friends...even if he still thought that they were pricks for what they did to Brooklyn.
"My GOD, this bench is uncomfortable," Justin complained, as he sat forward again, placing his elbows on his knees. "I still don't understand why we're here, and I suppose that it's not a good sign when your lawyer doesn't know why you're involved in something that has to do with the law system, either."
Brooklyn rolled her eyes and ran her hands nervously against the legs of her black pants. The matching blazer was laying in her lap. "Well, I can't exactly explain it to you, because I don't know what's going on, either. All I know is that you've bitched about this during the ENTIRE plane trip here, the WHOLE night last night, the WHOLE morning, including through breakfast, and you usually don't say much before you have at least four cups of coffee in your system. Then, you bitched all the way down here, in the car, while we're walking through the lobby, in the elevator, as soon as we got out-"
She was broken off when Joey raised his hand to silence her. "I think what Brooke's trying to say is that she wants you to stop bitching about it."
Her head moved in a nod, her shoulder length hair falling behind. "Thank you, Joey. That's exactly what I wanted to say."
One of the lawyers sighed and rolled his eyes when they heard the young group complaining about everything under the sun. Justin complained about not knowing why they were there. Brooklyn complained about Justin complaining. Joey complained about not getting enough sleep. Lance complained about having to hear everyone else's complaints. It had definitely been a tense morning.
Joey stretched his long legs out in front of him as he yawned, his arms above his head. "All I know is that I could have gotten a couple more hours of sleep," he grumbled.
"Shut up," the three of them hissed in unison, before Lance sighed, checking his watch. "Hey, if we're all here, where are JC and Chris? You'd think they'd be involved in what's happening...whatever it is."
She crossed her arms defiantly and slouched down on the bench. "Where ever they are, they better remember to stay out of range of my feet and fists from now one," she murmured with narrowed eyes. Not only was she pissed off at JC (and with good reason), but every time that she had tried to talk to Chris since, he had bowed out and practically ran from her. She wasn't happy with either of them at the moment, and she didn't see that changing anytime soon.
Colden Fletcher, Brooklyn's lawyer, looked at the expensive gold watch on his wrist as well, before standing up from the other bench. "Come on, it's time for us to make our grand entrance." As he said that, a court official opened the door and asked them to come in. She quickly slipped on her blazer, settling the collar of her blouse outside of it, and lifting her hair out, before taking a deep breath and closing her eyes. Almost instantly, she felt a light touch on her back, and she opened her eyes to smile thankfully towards Lance before he guided her in.
The first thing they noticed was that it wasn't a court room. Instead, it looked like a conference room. She remember what one looked like after the ones that she had been in during her first monumental trial against Tim. The second thing that was taken in was the fact that a woman was dressed in a judge's robes at the head of the table, and there was a tape recorder in the center of the table, near a glass pitcher of water and a tray of glasses.
The very last thing that Brooklyn let her eyes fall on were the two men, with their lawyers, sitting on one side of the table. Her eyes immediately widened when she recognized JC and Chris, before she turned her head, her chin pushed out stubbornly. She wasn't going to give them the satisfaction of seeing her surprised.
"Please, take a seat and then we can finish this as soon as possible," the woman said, gesturing to the chairs with a smile. Brooklyn's eyes automatically went to her lawyer, watching as he took a seat near the judge, and she hurried to sit beside him. She remembered the drill, and apparently, the rest of the guys knew it, too. She smiled as Joey settled himself into the leather chair beside her, flashing a quick smile her way. "First off, I should probably introduce myself. I'm Judge Marianne Alexander. Now, I understand that you all have no knowledge of why you're here. Before I begin to tell you, let me just say that we're all on the same side here, so we don't need any harsh exchanges of words, thank you."
Brooklyn couldn't help smiling a little when she heard her lawyer snort in disbelief. Maybe he was being paid by the syllable, and not the word. "Judge Alexander, in all honesty-"
"These men have nothing to do with the defense. All we're doing here today is seeing if you can all collaborate with their stories, and if you can, it's possible that this could be taken to court, unless the accused concedes and confesses."
She couldn't help herself. "Judge, if you don't mind me asking, who is the accused in this?" she asked in a soft voice, ignoring Fletcher when he shot her a bad look for speaking out of turn.
The judge smiled. "Miss Turner, correct?" She nodded. "The accused in this case is Timothy Croft." Brooklyn's head quickly turned to look towards Joey, both of them looking surprised. Her mouth had actually dropped open before she gasped. The woman at the head of the table caught her attention again, however. "I understand that you know him."
"A little too well," she said quietly, looking down at the table. Suddenly, the door opened again and another man walked in. Brooklyn narrowed her eyes, trying to place the man before she finally did. Leaning towards Joey, she whispered in a low voice, "That's Tim's lawyer from the trial. Obviously he know about this."
"He has to," he whispered back, before they both turned towards him. The man apologized for being late before taking a seat at the other end of the table, looking at the ground curiously, before his eyes landed on Brooklyn. He smiled, causing her to turn away when her stomach literally turned upside down.
"With that little interruption," the judge began distastefully, "I believe that we're going to recap what you've told me yesterday for the rest of the lawyers to catch up, all right? Mr. Chasez, we'll start with you again."
Brooklyn leaned back in her seat, crossing her arms loosely. She couldn't help looking over at him. For some reason, he had dark circles under his eyes, like he hadn't slept for the past two nights. There was a haggard look about him, but he had managed to pull himself together, and though she tried to stop herself from thinking about it, she still thought that he looked terrific in a suit.
She wasn't going to let any of that affect her, though, she thought as she turned her chair ever so slightly so that she could see both him and his lawyer at once. Making sure that there was no kind of emotion whatsoever in her eyes or on her face, she let her eyes land on him again, staying as still as possible.
For a brief moment, he looked up at her, and tried to manage a smile. Tried being the right word. It never made it all the way on his lips, and definitely didn't touch his eyes, but he had tried. She wasn't going to give him anything for trying. There was no way in hell that she was going to do that.
JC's lawyer turned towards him, shuffling a few papers before presenting the first question. "When was the first time that you met Tim Croft?"
"The morning after the night that I spent at Brooklyn's house in Tennessee. Close to when he had first met."
"And the reason why you were staying there for the night?"
He flicked his eyes towards Brooklyn curiously, but she wasn't watching him. Rather, she was watching his lawyer. "That night there was a particularly bad thunder storm, and since she didn't want to risk driving me back to Nashville, she asked if I wanted to stay the night."
"What was your first impression of Tim Croft?"
He shrugged slowly. "We didn't really talk. Just basically exchanged names, and then him and Brooklyn continued their conversation. I could tell that he wasn't happy that I had stayed overnight at his girlfriend's house, but he didn't seem that bad to me." He wasn't making excuse for Tim's behavior. He would never do that, but rather he was speaking the truth. That's exactly what he had gotten from him. For the longest time, JC thought that Tim wasn't too fond of him because he had spent the night at her house. He could almost understand that. If his girlfriend had spent the night at a person's house, someone that she had just met, he would wonder about it, too.
"The first time that you realized Mr. Croft has some sort of animosity towards you?"
He let out a breath that he didn't know he had been holding. "Probably...it was either the second or third time that I had come up to Tennessee. Right after he proposed to Brooklyn. Her brother, Austin, and Tim were fighting in the driveway, and I went out there to see if they could at least take it into the house so that they wouldn't embarrass themselves in front of the neighbors. Tim and I exchanged a few words before he hit me. I hit him back, he hit me again, and Brooklyn ended up breaking it up before it got too bad."
Quickly, he looked back to Brooklyn, and he was surprised to see that she was actually looking at him, even though her eyes were filled with remembrance as she relived that morning. Very slowly, her eyes came back into focus and she saw JC staring at her. The last thing he expected was to see that look that was full of nothing directed to him. No remorse, no sadness, no anger...nothing was showing. It was unnatural. "That night, Tim called me on my cell phone. From what he had said to me, it was obvious that he didn't like me."
"Were you present during the physical fight between Tim Croft and Brooklyn Turner?"
JC shook his head. "No. I was in a hotel in Nashville."
There was a slight pause as his lawyer poured himself a glass of water. He looked across the table and watched as Brooklyn's lawyer gestured something to her. She nodded and soon enough, a glass of water appeared in front of her, as well. "When was the next time that you believe Tim Croft had in contact with either you or Miss Turner?"
"In New York City, when Brooklyn came out to visit us during a week break that we had there. A bellhop knocked on her door during the first night, and gave her a package that had her engagement ring in it. Actually, it was a clever copy of her engagement ring, not the real one, but it looked real enough."
Tim's lawyer immediately jumped to his feet. "Objection, your honor. They have no clue that it could have come from my client or not."
The judge slowly lowered her glasses and stared with amusement dancing in her eyes at the man. "My apologies, but there will be no objections here. This is an informal meeting. It's not like you're in a court room, so please hold your objections and anything else that you think might burst out. As for what Mr. Chasez is saying, I've heard a preliminary account of this, somewhat short. If I'm correct with my assumption, Mr. Chasez and Mr. Kirkpatrick will very easily cover their bases and give the proper information to prove what they had been told."
"Your honor, it will come, but it might take a little while longer than you expect. May I continue?"
"Please, and I apologize on his behalf for the interruption."
Brooklyn shook her head slowly, leaning back as far as possible in the leather chair. Something wasn't right. She was listening to the words carefully, but they weren't making sense. It had been her engagement ring that she had held in her hand, and it had been very obvious with the small indent and scratch on the inside of the band. There was no way that it could have been a fake. "Miss Turner?" she snapped to attention when she heard her lawyer's voice.
Her head shook again, this time to clear her mind. "Yes, I'm sorry. I was thinking about something."
"Miss Turner, I was wondering if, just by chance, you could identify which of these rings were your engagement ring?" JC's lawyer asked her, pushing two rings across the table.
She wet her lips nervously. "That should be no problem. There was a small indent put on the inside of the band when Tim had it resized for my finger. That's the only way that I could...oh." As she was talking, she had lifted both rings and looked inside of them. Inside each of them was the identical indent, with the tiny scratch in the middle. Each had it in the same place. Turning the rings around, her brow furrowed as she recognized the same settings, the same gold accent, the same platinum band, the same garish diamond. "But...that's impossible. They're exactly the same."
The rings were taken from her. "Not exactly. This ring," he said, lifting one of them, "was taken from a police evidence locker in Nashville, Tennessee. This ring," he continued, lifting the second one for her to see, "is the ring that you had been given in New York City. They're not exactly the same, but very close."
Both of them were left in the center of the table, and Brooklyn found it hard to move her eyes away from them. She couldn't believe that there were two different rings...but how did JC know about them? How could he have found out that her ring was still listed as evidence, and the other one was a fake. Her mind was racing with so many possibilities, she couldn't keep all of them straight.
"And the next time that either of you were in contact with him?"
He stopped for a moment, his mind racing back to the next encounter. "That would have been the first phone call. It happened when Brooklyn was staying with me in Orlando. I wasn't there, but Justin was."
Almost automatically, his lawyer turned back to look at Brooklyn. "Did Tim Croft call you at his apartment that day?"
Her head moved in a nod, thinking back to that day. To what she had felt, and how scared she had been...until JC had walked in the door. But she couldn't think of that. She wouldn't allow herself to think of how safe and how protected she had felt when she heard his voice and saw him. "Yes, he did," she finally answered.
"What was the purpose of the call? What did the two of you talk about?"
She made a face quickly. "I didn't WANT to talk to him. I told him that, flat out. He...basically wanted to know whether I had gotten his little 'present', as he put it, in New York City. He was talking about the ring. I told him yes, I got it, and that I never wanted to speak to him again."
Almost like clockwork, like she had thought he would, he turned his chair around a little to face Justin. "Mr. Timberlake, you were present for this call?"
His shoulders moved in a quick shrug. "Only for Brooke's side of the conversation. I never heard what Tim had to say."
"What was Miss Turner's reaction to the phone call?"
Quickly, his eyes moved over to Brooklyn. All three of them had to recall the same day, the same moment, and none of them were terribly excited at the idea, but what had to be done, had to be done. "What do you think? She was scared out of her mind, and...I remember her asking me to stay away from her, so that she wouldn't accidentally lash out and hit me, but other than that, she was upset, which anyone in their right mind would be."
"Did you happen to catch the ENTIRE conversation, or only pieces of it?"
"I went outside to make a phone call, but I left the door open, so I could hear most of what she was saying when I was on the phone. I might have missed a word or two, but I think that I heard most of it."
She slammed her eyes shut as she expected the next question. Justin had said that he had made a phone call in the middle of her call, and the lawyer was sure to pick up on that little fact. He'd probably already heard it before, she realized. Her eyes remained shut, so that no one could see her eyes when the next question was asked. "And who did you call, Mr. Timberlake?"
There was a slight pause, and she knew, she just KNEW, that both Justin and JC were looking at her. Wondering why she wouldn't look at them. "I called JC. I knew that he would be the only one who would be able to calm her down."
That hurt, even if it was the truth. Back then, he would be the only one to calm her down. But this wasn't back then, she reminded herself. No, something had changed between the two of them, as much as she hated to admit it. He had literally crushed her the night of her brother's wedding, and she didn't think that he could EVER be able to calm her down, to make her feel safe and secure again in her entire life. Even if they managed to repair the damage that had happened to their friendship...nothing would be the same again.
She knew that it was going to happen, didn't she? All that time ago, when she said that she would only try beginning a relationship with him if he promised that nothing would happen to their friendship...she knew that something would happen. And it did. Their friendship was one of the things that took the biggest attack from that night, and it was barely on life support. There was no way that she would be able to forgive him for that. Never.
"Miss Turner, was there any contact between you and Tim Croft between the time that you got the ring, and the time that he called you?"
Was there? She couldn't remember all that much. But her head seemed to nod on its own, as if her body knew the answer, but her mind didn't. And then it came to her. "Yes, there was. He wrote me a letter. It...there was something about it..." She trailed off, opening her eyes to look at the ceiling, as if something up there would give her the answer.
"Take your time. We're not in any rush." Very faintly, she nodded again as she tried to remember what had happened that morning. There had been a phone call, she remembered that much. "Of course!" she practically shouted. "My neighbor called me that morning, and told me that there had been a letter with my name on it, delivered to her house. My brother said that it would have been easy for someone to mistake our address, but I didn't agree, because our address is 444. You all were there. Then again, it was pretty early, and none of you were thinking that straight. I made some comment about...a fan or something finding out my address. Something like that."
Almost like it was a meek gesture, Chris half raised his hand. "I remember that. You said that it was another fan trying to get Austin-s e-mail address again, and then you went upstairs. That was the morning that you took us to the studio so that you could pick up some papers."
She regarded him with a cold look and nodded lightly, before turning back to the lawyer. "Yes. It was about three weeks after I had left New York, and probably...probably a month to two months before I was in Orlando. The note didn't actually say that it was from Tim, but it had some comment on the bottom about being from my 'loving fiancé' or something like that."
"Thank you, Miss Turner. I was just curious to know if there was more contact that I had originally known about." Turning back to his client, he posed the next question. "Mr. Chasez, when was the next contact between either you or Miss Turner and Tim Croft?"
A wry smile appeared on his face. "It wasn't exactly contact with Tim, but contact with his 'associate'. I'll also be able to explain that in a little while, but..." The smile instantly dropped from his face, and he looked over at Brooklyn, his eyes landing on her wrist. "It was when Brooklyn was attacked in the parking garage of the apartment building that I live in. Her wrist was fractured."
"Out of curiosity, Miss Turner, since I've never heard this part...how exactly did you stop your attacker?"
A sheepish smile appeared on her face. JC may be thought of as the enemy, she figured, but his lawyer was okay. Besides, even if she didn't understand everything that was going on, he was on her side. "Well, I...I used that hundred pound bag that women call purses, and smacked him in the head. He ran and never came back. I was just doing what any woman in their right mind would be." A few chuckles were heard in the room before everyone was somber again.
He smiled and nodded towards her. "Very inventive. Thank you." He looked at JC. "I understand that Miss Turner called you from the parking lot. What did you do after you got down there?"
"I drove her to the hospital, where she had x-rays done, and then a cast put on her wrist for a hairline fracture, and then I drove her to the police station so that she could make a report of the attack. They warned us that they probably couldn't do anything, because he was wearing a mask, but at least it was put on the record. I didn't know at the time that the attacker was working for Tim, but I will admit to having some suspicions about it."
Obviously, Brooklyn realized, the lawyer knew almost everything that happened, and he turned to look towards Chris this time. "Mr. Kirkpatrick, I understand that you and Miss Turner were the next ones to have contact with Tim Croft...or the person that was working for him, to be more specific."
He nodded, sipping from a glass of water before answering. "Sometime during the evening, she asked me to come downstairs and turn on the security system, because she thought that someone was out in the yard, watching her. It turned out that someone was trying to get the garage door open, and come into the house that way. They didn't get too far, and they stopped when they heard us talking. Brooklyn called the police, and a report was made, but we never found out who it was...until recently."
She couldn't help thinking about that. Until recently, he had said. How could they have found out what had happened. They had been just as clueless about it as she had...unless they were lying. If they had been lying, they were going to be in serious trouble. Her hands clenched tightly, before she relaxed them. They had better not be lying, she thought to herself, if they value their lives.
"What was the next contact with Tim Croft, and who was it with?"
JC looked over at her, but he wasn't as surprised as he had been before that she wasn't looking back at him. "Brooklyn and I went out to get something to eat, and when we came back, there was a box at my door. That was during her second trip to Orlando, right after her stay in the hospital. Uh...inside the box was a dozen roses, and it had a note with a name that Brooklyn used to be called by. Then, on the back, it told her to look towards the stems of the roses. Her engagement ring, the same one that she had thrown out in New York City, was just above the elastic band on the roses."
"Miss Turner, what did you do with the ring that night?"
She looked at the lawyer blankly for a moment. "I...um...threw it in the garbage before I went to bed. There was no way that I was going to keep it."
"Mr. Chasez, what did you do with the ring?"
Her eyes widened, and for the first time, she looked over at him. He had done something with the ring. HE had done SOMETHING with the ring. That she couldn't believe. JC told her everything, but he never told her that...what could he have done, she wondered, before her eyes went down to the center of the table, where both rings were still laying. Now, she understood, but she didn't understand his reasoning behind it.
He took a deep breath and wet his lips quickly. Brooklyn almost groaned. It was the 'tongue' thing that she had warned him not to do anymore. The one that was so cute, yet so frustrating to see. "I had a feeling that I knew what Brooklyn was going to do, so I got up in the middle of the night, and took the ring out. I stored it in my bedroom until now. I had some very serious suspicions, and I didn't want the ring to be missing."
"The next contact between you and Tim Croft was voluntary, wasn't it?"
He took a deep breath and nodded. This was what Brooklyn didn't know, and this is what he never wanted her to know. "Yes, I...I called you and had you arrange a meeting in California, at the jail that Tim's in, to have a meeting. I went there and asked Tim if he was the one behind everything that happened to Brooklyn. He acted dumb, of course, until I made a deal with him. I told him that I would leave Brooklyn for good, if he found whoever was doing this to her, and stop it. I figured that he'd become interested, but then I told him that if he DIDN'T do what I asked, I would only get closer to her than we had originally been. He agreed, and I left."
"Why did you go to see Tim Croft?"
He shook his head slowly. "Brooklyn...she told me that SHE was going to see him and ask him to stop whatever he was doing, since she had the same suspicions. I couldn't let her go. I knew what would happen if she went, so I decided to go instead. I never told her about it, but...there was no way...I just couldn't let her see him."
His lawyer shrugged. "Why not?"
"It would completely ruin her. What he did to her almost destroyed the woman that I knew. For her to see him again, after all that he had done to her...she wouldn't have survived that time. She puts herself forward as a strong person, but I know her well enough to know that she wouldn't have survived seeing him again. It would bring everything back, and I don't think that she would have been able to go through all the emotions and memories again. Once was bad enough. I was just trying to protect her."
"You said that you would leave Miss Turner for good. Were the two of you romantically involved, or were you still friends?"
His head shook again. "No, we were dating at that point. I think that's what got to Tim the most, so I used it to my advantage."
She couldn't keep it all straight at this point. He had gone to see Tim. He mentioned talking to him, but never seeing him in person. After she had said that she was going to see him...he had turned around, BEHIND HER BACK, and tried to settle it himself. And that's what got them to this point, wasn't it? Because he had struck some bullshit deal with Tim, and said that he would dump her if Tim stopped everything...that's what had killed their friendship.
No, she thought. Their friendship was dead the moment that he had decided to go to California and not tell her. He had told her that he wasn't feeling well. That he had been sick. In reality, he had been talking to her ex fiancé. He had been talking to the enemy, and he never let her know. What else was there that she didn't know?
Maybe he was just looking for a convenient excuse to get out of the relationship, she couldn't help wondering. Were things so dismal even then? Nothing seemed to be making sense, and she didn't want to try and muddle her way through it. She had enough on her mind as it was, and this wasn't helping any. Besides, she figured that everything would have been explained. It had to be. They couldn't just leave it like this. There had to be more to the story. Chris couldn't have been brought in just to talk about the time at his house. The rest of the guys couldn't have been brought in just to be witnesses to the fact that they had been there the first time that her ring had made its reappearance in her life. There was something that was still sitting wrong with her.
"I know that this is beginning to sound repetitious, but what was the next contact with Tim Croft?"
JC looked down at the table for a moment, before answering. This was beginning to hurt him more and more, because these were the parts that she had never known about. He had never told her what was happening, and maybe if he had, it would have helped. She could have helped him form some sort of plan, and then they wouldn't be in the position that they were in at that moment. "Right after Brooklyn and I did an interview for Seventeen magazine, that night, Tim called just after we finished watching a movie. I told her that it was my mom, but it was him. He was angry, because the two of us had announced on national television that we were officially dating. He told me that I had two weeks to break up with her, or else. He also told me that he had someone watching us, to see what we were doing."
"Or else what?"
"He never said."
She let out the breath that she had been holding. She remembered when he had come back to her room, angry about something. A fight with his mom, her ass, she thought now. There was no fight, at least not with his mom, but there had been a fight with Tim. And she could remember, plain as day, what those fights were like. No wonder he had been so tense. But why would he lie to her? She could have helped him, if she knew. It didn't make her feel any more friendly towards him, though. It was plain enough. He had lied to her, and she was sick and tired of people lying to her. She wasn't going to take it, ever again.
His lawyer looked down at the papers in front of him. "There were only two more incidents, and they both occurred on the same night, didn't they? What were they?"
It was JC's turn to let out a deep breath before rubbing his eyes, as if he could rub away the weariness and hurt that everyone could see. She didn't care. She had to tell herself that she didn't care. She couldn't allow herself to care about him anymore. "The night of her brother's wedding. During the reception, someone from the hotel came up to me and told me that I had a phone call waiting at the front desk. I knew that I couldn't keep doing this alone...so I took Chris with me. I remembered what Tim had said about us being watched, but I figured that because he was always insanely jealous of whoever was with Brooklyn, if I was out of the room, whoever that was watching us together would be watching her and not me.
"Chris listened on another phone. Tim told me that I had to break up with Brooklyn tonight, no questions asked. It had only been a week and a half since the last call, but I guess he couldn't wait any longer. He also told me that if I didn't...he said that his 'associate' would go to her tour bus and cut the brake line on it, so that they wouldn't work. He said something about me turning on the news one day and hearing that her tour bus had crashed into the side of a mountain...and I knew that he was serious. He had to have known that her tour buses were in Seattle, Washington and that she would be continuing her tour from there. I think that's the only reason that he said the thing about the mountains.
"I had to explain to Chris what was happening, and he definitely wasn't too happy about it. I went outside with Brooklyn, though, and it wasn't until I could hear Tim's 'associate' in the hedges outside the balcony that we were standing on. I broke up with her so that he could hear, and then left her there."
A gasp sounded from Brooklyn, and her hand raised to her throat for a moment, before it dropped. She was as pale as if she'd seen a ghost, and everyone could see the hand that had been raised was trembling lightly. "So...so that's what happened to the necklace and the bracelet." Everyone looked at her, and she couldn't help dropping her face towards the table in embarrassment. "I never touched them that night, but I went back the next day to find them, and ask the hotel workers...but someone took them. He must have them, then," she finished quietly.
JC's lawyer looked confused for a moment. "Pardon me, but what necklace and bracelet are you talking about?"
Her face turned an even deeper red, but JC saved her. "She used to wear a silver necklace that said 'NEW YORK' on it. It was my nickname for her. And...the bracelet she's talking about is the bracelet that I gave her a little while ago. But New Yo...Brooklyn, he doesn't have them." She flashed her eyes towards him when he almost slipped and called her by her nickname, not her real name. "Justin has them. He took them after he went out to see you. Why did you go back for them?"
Her eyes flashed with anger one more time. "Just because the feeling and meaning behind them is gone doesn't mean that they don't mean something to me. I'm sorry for the interruption. Please, continue." Her tone was icy cold, and he didn't like it, but he had no choice.
"The second call came about twenty minutes after I came back inside. Chris came with me again, and I figured that by then, Tim had enough time to call his associate off. So, I started to ask a few questions, and for some reason, he told me. Maybe because I wasn't a threat anymore. I asked him about the ring, and he told me that he had his friend, who was actually his cellmate for awhile, before he was released...make a duplicate, right down to the scratch and indent to give to her in New York. It was him who had sent Brooklyn the letters. It was him who had attacked her in the parking garage, and it was him who tried to get into Chris's house through the garage that night. He told me how he planned it, how he arranged to pay the man, how each thing had gone through as he wanted it to. He had other plans for the two of us, but he didn't get to use them. He told me some, and...and they were worse than what he had already done.
"The entire conversation took about a half hour. But he told me enough to let me know what had been going on, and how long he had been planning this. Basically, ever since Brooklyn had testified at the trial, and put him in jail."
The ending to the story was almost anti-climatic. If it was a movie, it would have had a fight scene, he thought. Some way for him to defend Brooklyn, and for them to be together again. But it wasn't a movie, and it wasn't a soap opera. It was real, and by the look in her eyes, he never had a chance with her again. Was he going to be able to deal with that?
For a moment, it seemed like no one was going to talk. The information still had to sink in for the four of them on the other side of the table, and all of them were pale, wide eyed. It was hard to believe that it had all happened. There was so much that none of them had known, and their lawyers were more dumbfounded than them. There was only one person at the table who didn't believe a word of it. "Mr. Chasez, if you don't mind my interrupting for a moment...how do you know that it was my client, Timothy Croft, that told you to break off everything with Miss Turner. How do you know that he was the one that mentioned having the brake line on her tour bus cut."
"Since I knew that being able to recognize his voice wouldn't be enough, and Chris didn't know what he sounded like, I played dumb. I said that I couldn't hear him and asked who it was. He finally said that it was Tim Croft, and yes, if you're wondering, I did recognize the voice. I would never forget that voice."
JC lawyer smiled and looked around. "Now, if you don't mind, I have a few questions for your clients, and then we should be done."
Brooklyn stormed onto the floor of the hotel that she was staying on, and looked into the elevator. "You two, in my room, NOW!" she practically roared, pointing to both JC and Chris. They stepped out of the elevator willingly, though they had looks of apprehension and worry on their faces. "You three better bring your asses along, too, because I'm going to need more than one person to hold me back. Come on."
She led the way to her room and unlocked the door, pushing it hard enough for it to bounce against the door. She waited until everyone was in the room before shutting the door and walking over to the two beds, where everyone was sitting. "What, in all of hell, convinced you two to do this. Not just to me, but your friends as well. To everyone that was ever involved in this. I thought that you were enough of an ass to break up with me during my own brother's wedding, but this really takes it."
Her arms crossed, and one shoe tapped on the ground as she looked directly at Chris for the answer. Instead, JC started to talk. "Brooklyn, I was-"
He was cut off when her head whipped around to look at him. "Oh, no you don't. Don't say a God damned word. You sit there and keep your head down, because I'm not ready to have this conversation with you right now. Let me get warmed up with a lightweight fight, please, before I start onto a heavyweight one. So just shut up, and let him answers. Besides, I wasn't looking at you, now was I?"
Chris raised his head and looked at her carefully. "How the hell was I supposed to know what was going on? JC just told me that he had a phone call that I had to listen to. He never told me that it was Tim that was threatening to kill you. I'm just as involved as you are, now, so don't bother putting all the blame on me. I've had enough shit as it is, dealing with this. How do you think I feel about this? You're my best friend, Brooke."
"I think you better keep your conversation down to past tense. None of this 'are' crap, all right? Try 'was'. As in 'I WAS your best friend'. What I don't understand is the fact that you couldn't tell me what you heard. Why not? Why did you just let me assume what happened. God damn it, you could have saved me a lot of hurt and a lot of tears if you would have just TOLD ME!"
He jumped up off the bed and stared at her hotly. Everything that happened was beginning to effect every person in the room, so no one was surprised when he started to get angry at Brooklyn's questioning. "Was, huh? So, because I tried to help JC keep this asshole and his friends away from you, you instantly kill our friendship? Well, I'm damned sorry that I tried to help save your life, all right? I never meant to get myself involved. I never WANTED to be involved, but JC pulled me into it without even asking."
"No, Christopher, I didn't 'kill' our friendship, as you put it, because you tried to help the ass," she hissed, jerking her thumb towards JC. "I'm saying no more for the fact that you should have told me, but you didn't. That, in my books, is just as bad as lying, if not worse, and you know how I take it when someone lies to me. And don't try to put the blame on someone else, no matter what I think of that person. You deserve some of the blame yourself."
"You know what? I've had enough of this shit. You're just looking for someone to attack, MISS TURNER, and I'm not going to let it be me. I did everything that I could to get you two together as a couple, and you know what? Now I wish that I hadn't. You're an ungrateful little bitch can't even BEGIN to TRY to understand what we were trying to do. I never should have spent so much time on you, or even TRIED to be your friend. I thought that you were different than this. It turns out that underneath, you're even worse than the God damned devil."
He started for the door, but suddenly turned around to look at her, his brown eyes practically turning red with his anger. "Just remember something, Miss Turner. I want you to remember who held you all those times that you were crying. I want you to remember who gave you all that advice when you were so confused. I want you to remember who you turned to whenever you needed help. Gee, I wonder who could be coming to mind for all of this?" He smirked and opened up the door, still looking at her. "Now, I can say that I'm sorry that I wasted all that time on you, because you don't deserve it. You never deserved it."
The door slammed behind him, and everyone could hear his muffled curses and his feet stomping down to the elevator, still mumbling to himself. Lance jumped up quick. "I better go after him and make sure he's okay," he said, running out of the room and after him before Chris could leave the floor.
She turned to JC, her eyes still blazing. Quickly, she pulled off the blazer she was wearing and tossed it towards the corner of the room. "I'm giving you two minutes to explain before I start to get really nasty. I've had my warm up and I'm ready for a real fight, so don't you dare even THINK of testing me like he did, because it will be so much worse."
"What am I supposed to say, New York. You're not in the mod to listen to reason."
Her hands landed on her hips. "First off, don't you EVER call me that name ever again. You don't deserve to, after what you did to me. I never want to hear that name come from you ever again in my entire life. Second, you want me to listen to reason? I've heard you talk all day, and I don't need to listen to reason. You could never reason with me, but what I do want...what I NEED, is for you to help me understand why you would even begin to think of doing this to me, of hurting me this way. God damn it, I thought that there was something there between us, JC. I was stupid to fall for someone like you. I did it all over again. I fell for Tim, and he hurt me. I fell for you, and you hurt me. They may have been different types of hurts, but you did it to me all over again after I swore that it would NEVER HAPPEN AGAIN!"
He looked down at his lap, where his hands were folded. He couldn't even look at her. He knew that he had hurt her, but there was no other way out of the situation that they had been in. Didn't she understand that he had to? "Brooklyn-"
"Did I say that I was finished? No, not by a freaking long shot am I finished. Answer me one thing, JC. Whatever happened to that night when you promised me that you would protect me, that you wouldn't ever let anything hurt me. I knew that it was ridiculous to think that you could do that, but damn it, I figured that you would be the LAST person to hurt me, and look at that. You did it. Why? THAT is what I don't understand, and I'm sick of trying to figure it out. To tell you the truth, you could walk out that door right now and never come back, and I would NEVER CARE EVER AGAIN. I can't care about someone who hurt me."
Finally, his head raised and he looked at her. "And what if I don't want to walk out that door, Brooklyn? What would it take to make you care again. What would it take to make you care about ME again, because that's...that's why I did this. Because I care about you. I never wanted to hurt you, you have to understand that. So, what would it take, because that's all that I can think about right now. I NEED YOU. What part of that don't you understand?" He had to ask that when he saw her head shake. The thought of her never caring again literally brought tears to his eyes. She had always been the most important thing in his life, and now she didn't care about him. She never wanted to see him again. That hurt almost as bad as when he had to break it off with her that night.
She turned back from the window that she had been staring out of, and he watched as two tears slowly made their way down her face. One lingered on her cheek, and the other one dripped off of her chin onto her shoe. He wanted nothing more than to just stand up and stop those tears, brush them away, make her feel better. But if she wouldn't let him, then he couldn't do anything. "What, do you think that I'm going to keep waiting around for you? I can't. I have a life, too, JC, and it doesn't always involve you. At one time, it may have, but not anymore. I can't let it." She took a deep breath and looked down. "There's nothing you can do. To repeat what you said that night? You and me, babe. It's over."
"God damn it, Brooklyn, at least look me in the eyes. Tell me TO MY FACE, not the carpet, all right? I can't believe you unless you look at me, and if I don't believe you, you know that I'm going to pull out every single trick in the book until something gets back through there."
"That's the problem. It's nothing but a trick," she said slowly, evenly, before her head raised. The tears had left her eyes, but they were deadly serious. "I'm sorry, JC, but I'm not going to wait around forever. You had your chance, and you screwed up with me. I don't take that very lightly. There may be a chance, one day, a long way down the road, of you and I possibly being friends again, but that's it. And I can guarantee that it won't be the same. You might as well leave now, because I don't want to see you. I'm leaving tomorrow. My lawyer had my statement, and I don't have to be in court, if this does go to court, to have my say. It's all written down now." When he didn't move, just kept staring at her like he couldn't believe her, she spoke one last time. The last words that he would probably ever hear directed towards him from her. "Leave, JC. I said that I didn't want to see you."
That was it. No goodbye. No 'have a good life'. Nothing. Just 'Leave, JC. I said that I didn't want to see you'. Nothing else. So, he turned on his heel and started for the door. Brooklyn turned back around so that she wouldn't have to see him leave, staring out of the window and down to the street, watching the rain make patterns on the glass and on the sidewalk. She heard someone get up and go after JC, and that left one person in her room.
She steeled herself, biting her lip when someone's hand landed on her shoulder. She knew who it was instantly. "You can leave, Justin. I want to be alone."
"You want to be alone, but maybe you shouldn't-"
She had been breaking off a lot of people in mid sentence lately. "It may not be what I need, but it's what I want." She turned and smiled lightly before she reached up and wrapped her arms around her neck. "I'll miss you, Justin. I'm sorry that you had to see that, but..." Her chest rose and fell with a deep sigh. "Have a nice life, sweetie."
"Are you..."
"I'm sure. Please, tell the other guys that. I just...I can't. Thank you," she finished when he nodded silently. She held her breath until Justin walked out of the room, closing the door behind him. Leaning forward, she felt her face touch the cold glass before she started to cry silently. She had lied to him. It did matter to her if JC walked out her door, and she did care. But he had lied to her, and it was the only thing that she could think of.
God, she couldn't believe how much this was hurting. She turned away from the glass and looked at the room with blurry eyes before something caught her attention on the bed. Brooklyn started to walk towards it, before she saw what it was, and it only made her cry harder. Justin had left her the necklace and the bracelet. HER necklace and bracelet.
The bracelet represented the love that her and JC had had towards each other. It meant all of her dreams and hopes of the future with him, and now, just like that, it was gone. The necklace represented the friendship that they had had, but it meant more than that. It linked her to him, and that link had brought her to Chris, the second most important person in her life. And now just like that, it was gone.
He had told her to remember who had done everything for her. Chris had, and she loved him more and more for it. She had almost looked up to him. Being so much smarter than her, so good at giving out the right advice at the right time, seeming to care for almost anyone who crossed his path...just like when she had been very young and wished to be like her mom, she wished that one day she would be able to become the person that he was. But she was happy to have him in her life, to have him as a best friend.
She couldn't even begin to think of JC. No, that started a fresh bath of tears, and she couldn't stop them. Instead, she picked up both pieces of jewelry and held onto them for dear life, crying quietly. That was all she had left of the past year. The past year that had meant so much to her.
But what she never thought of was that there was still a chance for all of it. She thought that she had lost the necklace and the bracelet that represented the friendship and love in her life, but they came back to her. So, was it impossible to think that the friendship and love could come back to her, as well?
She never thought of that.
Chapter Thirty
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