“You can’t ask that,” he finally said. Anger grew inside him.
“I can and I will. Did you ask for it to happen?”
Liam pushed away from the car. “Fuck no.”
Jack held out a hand and rested it on Liam’s arm. “That’s the worst of it,” Jack said. “The kind of thing they’ll ask you. Doesn’t matter if you answer me or not, but you’ll get asked that kind of shit. You just have to know that I’ll be there in the front row supporting you and listening to what you say. And whatever you say, I won’t think less of you or judge you. I’ll be looking at Hank, and I will be judging him. We’re on your side—Robbie, me, Marcus, Riley… we’ll always be on your side.”
“But why? What if you didn’t know the whole story? What if it was true that I led him on? Because that is what Hank used to say, and that I was a tease and a whore and my family didn’t want me because I was wrong.”
“You know that is all bullshit. He can say all that, he can try to intimidate you, but you have to be the strong kid we took on at the D and the responsible young man that I trust with the horses. I know you, we all know you, and Marcus in there loves you. So you wanna come back in and have some coffee-soaked fries?”
Jack smiled at him, and the smile reached his cornflower-blue eyes. It was infectious, and Liam had to smile back.
“Yeah, let’s get in there.”
Chapter 6
The knock on the door startled Jack. He was super focused trying to compose a text to Hayley and hell if he could get his head around the cell phone’s tiny keys to actually type a coherent sentence. He pressed send on what he’d written so far after adding a couple of x’s then opened the door a little. Two guys stood in the hall, both looking different kinds of nervous. Jack knew one of them, remembered Vaughn from when he’d come up to be trained at the D. Jack had been ill that weekend, but he never forgot a face. And another man who he’d only seen in photos. Darren Castille, Hank’s baby brother, the one who had covered Liam’s tracks and helped him get away
“Could we talk?” Darren said. “It’s important.”
Jack widened the door and ushered the two men in. He wasn’t sure of the protocol of having Hank’s brother in his hotel room but the entreaty in his eyes was somehow enough to trust. How much Darren knew about what his brother had done to the boys on the ranch was a matter for Jack to speculate on, but the fact Darren had been the one to attempt to help Liam to leave the ranch scored him a few points.
“I’m real sorry to bother you,” Vaughn drawled. “But we have some things we’d like to talk about.”
”Is this something to do with the case?” He watched when Darren moved a little closer to Vaughn, just like he might move closer to Riley, seeking support and a connection. So that was the lay of the land, then. Darren held out his hand and Jack shook it.
“I know you have no reason to believe me,” Darren began, “but I want to help.”
Even though Jack shook Darren’s hand, he wasn’t convinced he should be doing so. “Are you sure we should be talking? The trial starts in two days.”
“This is important,” Vaughn said hurriedly. He stopped talking abruptly even though Darren sent him a look of support. Jack knew what Vaughn meant by important. Liam wasn’t just an employee but a friend and part of the D’s extended family.
Darren continued. “I’m Hank’s brother. I knew he wasn’t right in the head, have always known it. He hated the fact that I was gay, and our dad was a fucking bastard, told us both that only real men…” He stopped and all the energy appeared to leave him in a rush.
“Keep going,” Vaughn encouraged. Jack said nothing, just let the situation play out in front of him.
“I didn’t know about the others,” he said. “I only knew about Liam and you can’t understand what it was like… I…” Darren looked at Vaughn. “I was stupid, and hell, I spent as much time off the ranch as I could, at college, then working accounts anywhere else than my own family’s property…”
“What does this have to do with Liam’s case?” Jack asked. Did Darren know something that would affect Liam’s case? Something about his brother? Was he somehow guilty as well? Jack moved his gaze from Darren to Vaughn, who now had a hand possessively on Darren’s arm. Vaughn was one of the good guys, Jack was convinced of that after seeing the way he’d dealt with the attack on Liam at the D. Vaughn wouldn’t be with a man who he didn’t respect, surely.
Darren exhaled, then pulled back his shoulders and closed his eyes briefly. “I’ve been at the ranch. Most of the money has gone to Hank’s defense, what I’ve been left with is a pile of notes and promises. I’ve had to let staff go, we don’t have livestock, our horses are gone…”
Jack wished he could find sympathy. He would have normally for those not involved who were affected, but he was still in Liam’s headspace and was absolutely focused on the case.
Vaughn cleared his throat. “What Darren is trying to say is that he found a whole load of money paid out to a guy who is a private investigator.”
Jack didn’t have time to react when Darren jumped in immediately.
“Clinton Asprey, out of Laredo. He’s tracking down all this stuff… I got into the reports in the e-mails, and he says he’s got evidence saying that one of the boys was bought.” He stopped and looked at Vaughn for reassurance.
“Bought?” Jack knew what that implied. “You mean a prostitute? What does that have to do with this?”
“Reasonable doubt,” Vaughn said instantly. “I don’t understand it all, but Darren’s done some research…”
Darren took up the explanation. “And if this investigator goes on the witness stand and implies the boys were selling themselves, even if only one of them was, then there could be doubt as to the reasons why these young boys decided to stay on the ranch.”
Jack considered Darren’s words. “Or the judge and jury could dismiss it as a one-off.”
“That won’t happen,” Darren said a little desperately. “I know my brother, he’ll come over as this straight-up man who was taken advantage of and I did my research, this PI isn’t known to play by the rules. You need to tell someone and stop this. Talk to the young men that are for the prosecution, hell, I don’t know what to do, but I thought you should know.”
Jack hesitated. What could he do? If the prosecution had a witness suggesting that at least one of the boys that Hank was with was a call boy, would the jury look at the rest of them with distrust? And why was a kid even selling himself? Jack pushed back his instant hate that any young person would be in a position where they had to do that. He had to focus.
“I need all the information you have,” he said. He was all about the instinct to fight, but at this moment he needed the details to back it up.
Darren had obviously been expecting that, and he pulled a sheaf of documents from a bag he’d placed on the floor. He had copies of emails, photos, and handwritten reports.
“You need to leave this with me,” Jack said.
Darren disagreed. “I—we want to do something.”
Jack nodded, he understood the need to be active in this, but he had to be honest with Darren. “You need to stay well out of this. You’ve not been called as a character reference for your brother, nor someone to support the prosecution. You need to stay out of this completely.”
“What will you do?” Vaughn was all serious and focused and his hold on Darren had moved from a gentle touch to having his arm around Darren’s waist. Darren was leaning into Vaughn.
Jack wished he could say exactly what he was going to do, but he had no fucking idea where to start. Well, apart from one, but the state of Texas didn’t look favorably on murder.