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Jake was giddy one moment and terrified out of his mind the next. He looked over at the man, a man sleeping next to him, and wondered how he’d been so lucky. Smiling, he got up from the bed and made his way to his office. He was too happy to sleep right now.

Forrest had passed out. Jake had thought that he’d killed him. He knew that was just crazy, people didn’t really die from fantastic sex, but it had made him feel like he’d won the bronze, silver, and gold in sex. As he turned on his monitor, he thought of the things that they’d talked about on the way back to the house.

“We’ll have to take it easy.” Jake asked Forrest why. When he laughed, Jake did as well. “What I meant was, we’ll have to move you into this sort of sex slowly. I might be painful for you.”

“Oh.” He had an idea it was going to be very painful, but didn’t care. “I’ve been reading up on it. Also watching videos again. There are a lot of things out there that aren’t so.... Well, like we had, beautiful.”

“Yes. I’ve seen some really nasty stuff. And heard worse.” Forrest took his hand in his as they continued. “If you need answers to the million and one questions I’m sure you have, you can ask me about them. I’m sure that together, we can figure things out. A way that is mutually pleasurable for us both.”

After getting back to the house, they’d gone to bed. Exhaustion took them both under; Jake was out in seconds, and he was sure that Forrest had been as well. It was nice, he thought, just to know that he was not only happy, but in love too. Jake sat at his desk and turned on his computer with a sappy smile on his face.

Pulling up his email account, he saw that there were four from Carol’s father and one from Carol. He pulled out his phone to see if he’d missed something, and saw that he had fifty-three missed calls as well as messages. Pulling up the first message, he opened the first email that he’d been sent and read it as the service went through what he needed to do to hear the messages. Tyler’s voice was the first one that came up.

“There’s been a terrible accident.” Then he sobbed. “Belinda is in the hospital on life support. I don’t know what all has happened but.... Can you call me? I know that we’ve not been on the best of terms, but I really would like to speak to you.”

The second message was a repeat of the first, Tyler asking him to call no matter the time. He also explained a little more, saying that he thought that Carol had hurt her mother and he didn’t know what to do.

Dialing the number that he’d left him, Jake wondered if he’d been correct, that Carol had really hurt her mom bad enough to have her put on life support. By the time the phone had rang three times, Jake was sure he’d misheard him. When Tyler answered, Jake simply said his name and it opened a storm of sobs from the poor man.

“She’s not doing well. They said that she has brain damage. How could she do this to her own mother? We’d talked, Belinda and me, and we decided after the furniture fiasco that we couldn’t have her there much longer. She was rude, Jake. To everyone. I’m so sorry. We made so many mistakes with Carol. And involved you in them.” He cried harder; Jake’s heart was breaking for the older man. “When I got the call, my first thought was that someone broke in, robbed us, you know? Then I came here with the butler, and Williams told me that Carol had left behind her bloodied clothing after doing it.”

“What have the police said, or have you called them?” Tyler said he’d called them first thing after getting there. “Do you know where she is now? Carol, I mean, have you heard from her?”

“No. Not even to tell me that she’s sorry. I have no idea, Jake, not one clue as to what would make her snap like that. Not that it takes all that much. She’s not right, I’m sure you already figured that out.” Jake didn’t want to tell him that he thought Carol was more than a little off, but he seemed to understand. “I was surprised, if you want to know the truth, that you finally kicked her out. Upset at first too. You have no idea how much this has cost me and my wife. So much. I would have thought.... Well, she wasn’t easy to live with as a child, and only got worse as she grew older. I swear, Jake, I had no idea how bad she’d gotten. Like she should have it all just because she thinks she should. I’m so sorry.”

“I’m all right now. I’m very glad to know that you’re not mad at me for this. She did this on her own, but I think it was long in coming, as you said.” Jake looked up when he heard someone clear their throat. It was Forrest. “I’m going to come in there to sit with you. You shouldn’t be doing this alone.”

“Would you?” He told Forrest briefly what was going on. “You have company? I’m so sorry, Jake. I shouldn’t have called whining to you. I just…I really don’t know why I called you. But as soon as I found out, you were the first person that I thought of. I need to talk to you too. Tell you some things you might not be aware of. It’s time…well, past time to get this thing out in the open.”

“I’m not sure this is the time, Tyler, but we’ll be in. Forrest Stout and I, we’ll be there in an hour. And you didn’t whine, you’re a man that has been hurt by his child.” As soon as he made arrangements to go by Tyler’s house and pick up a few things for him that the butler would have ready, he told Forrest what was going on.

“She’s off the reservation, you know that, don’t you?” Jake nodded. “Tyler called you; did he say why?”

“No. Only that he thought of me when he figured out that Carol had done it. I knew she was a little off, but to hurt someone like it sounds like she did is really something I never expected of her. He also mentioned that he had things to tell me. Things to get out in the open. I have no idea what he might mean by that. Did you find anything?” Forrest sat down as he shook his head, and that was when he noticed that he was dressed. “Were you leaving?”

“No. I mean, yes, with you.” Forrest leaned back on the couch. “You should understand something. I should have said something before, but I can feel your emotions, and if I need to, I can touch your mind and see what’s going on. All I knew was you were hurting and I wanted to know why. I hope that’s all right.”

“Yes. It’s fine. I just…I guess you might say that I’m still insecure about this, about us.” Forrest said he was too. “That’s good to know.”

Jake got dressed and they made their way to the hospital. It wasn’t a long trip, but it was a little nerve wracking. Carol had nearly killed her mother. What sort of person did something like that?

Just as they were pulling into the parking lot, Forrest asked him if he thought he should just wait for him to come back.

“Wait? You mean out here? Why would you think that?” Forrest only shrugged. “Are you afraid that he’ll, I don’t know, figure things out? I don’t care if he does or not. I didn’t do anything wrong.”

“No, but it could be hard on you later. I’m just saying if you want to play this low key, I understand.” Jake said he wasn’t sure what he wanted but got out of the car. “Jake, people are going to talk.”

“I know that. You think I don’t know that? But right now, I don’t care. I might in an hour or never, but right now, I’m happy being with you and that’s how I’m going to play it. If that’s not what you want, I think you should tell me.” Forrest smiled, a huge grin that seemed to take up most of his face. “What?”

“You have come a long way, grasshopper.” Jake was still laughing when they entered the hospital with the suitcase they’d gotten from the Lane residence. “I think I like this more assertive you. You’re kind of scary and sexy at the same time.”

“Don’t get used to it. I’m all spongey on the inside.” He was too. Malleable and scared, happy and ready to take on the world, all at the same time. “I have no idea if I will ever be assertive, as you said, but I do feel better about myself. And where I am in my life.”

Tyler was sitting in the hall when they arrived on the floor. He looked beaten and exhausted. As soon as he saw them, Tyler got up and hugged them both, crying about how much he appreciated them coming in. Forrest said he’d go get them something to eat and some coffee. When he was gone Jake sat next to the elderly man.

“The doctor just came by. He wants to talk to me. I asked him to wait until you were here.” Jake said that was fine, he’d be there for him. “Thank you. As I said before, I know that we didn’t see eye to eye on things, but I’m certainly glad you came in. But I really have something to tell you. Something that I fully regret now.”

“Its fine, Tyler, really. I’m glad that I could be here for you. You are my father-in-law regardless of the other things going on.” He nodded but said nothing. “Have you had any more information from the police?”

“No. I mean sort of indirectly. My attorney is keeping tabs on things. Telling me what they find out and what they’re doing. Carol was last seen at the mall, trying her best to get someone to let her use your credit cards to buy herself some clothing.” Jake told him he’d heard from one of the stores earlier and had forgotten about it. “She’s a monster.”

“She was never violent like that when we were together. I mean, she has a hell of a temper, but she’s never hurt me.” Tyler pulled a file out of a briefcase and held it. “Tyler, they’ll find her. She’ll get some help and it’ll be all right.”

“I want you to read this. Tonight if you can. It’s about Carol, and just one of the few things that we did to keep her out of prison or worse. When she was sixteen she killed a man and his wife. They were in front of her at the movie theater, just waiting in line like the rest of the people. But they bought the last tickets for this movie that she wanted to see.” He handed him the file. “Carol told them to give her one of their tickets. She explained to them, in a calm voice I’m told, that she wanted to see it and that they both didn’t need to go in at the same time. That if they didn’t hand over one of the tickets she was going to hurt them. The man, he told her that he and his wife had been saving for this event for weeks and that Carol wasn’t getting their tickets. Then he turned his back on her.”

Jake opened the file. He nearly closed it again when he saw the pictures. They were in color glossy eight by tens. Jake turned to the second photo of the crime scene, and then looked up at Tyler when he continued.

“She broke his neck. Just jumped up on his back and twisted his head until it snapped. Do you have any idea how much strength it takes to do that?” Jake said he thought it would take a lot. “Yes. To break a person’s neck fatally it would take the equivalent of a person hitting a windshield while not wearing a seat belt. And an upper body strength to turn the head with enough force to just snap it.”

“And you’re sure that she did it?” Jake was told to go to the next picture. “Christ, Tyler. I had no idea.”

Carol was on the back of the man in the first photo, her hands wrapped around his head in a way that he’d seen on television. He looked up at Tyler, asking him about the woman. He looked away before staring at him.

“She was four months pregnant. Carol hit her so many times in the face that she was only identified by the tattoo that was on her ankle. There wasn’t much of her head left. Carol had used a brick, one that had been just laying there when she’d gone into her rage.” Tyler leaned back, his body spent. “Then she took the ticket from the woman’s dead husband’s hand and proceeded into the theater. As if nothing had happened. Those pictures, they’re from a camera that some shop had outside because of a robbery. Otherwise, we might never have known the extent of her violence that night.”

“What did you do, Tyler? I’m sure you had this covered up. How did you make that happen?” He cried again, telling Jake how sorry he was. That he shouldn’t have done anything, but she was his child. “What did you do?”

“I paid them. All of them. Millions of dollars to keep her out of prison. I should have just let her go, let her get the help she needed.” Tyler looked at him again. “Then she met you and I thought.... Well, I had hoped that you could fix her for me.”

~~~

Forrest reached out to Jake again. There wasn’t any connection. It was as if he was walking into a wall every time he tried to contact him. Driving around town didn’t help Forrest find him either. He was turning down the main street near the hospital when he thought he saw him walking. Parking the car, he got out and nearly sobbed with relief when he found him sitting on a park bench near the river.

“Jake? Jake, are you all right?” Nothing, not even an acknowledgement that he’d spoken to him. Touching his fingers to his arm had him turning, but still no words left his mouth. “Jake, I’ve been looking for you.”

“He wanted me to fix her.” He nodded, not entirely sure what Jake was talking about. “He knew what sort of person she was long before I met her. He knew this, Forrest, and let her marry me.”

“I didn’t talk to Tyler, Jake. I don’t know what happened. I came back with coffee and sandwiches and you were both gone. The nurse said you’d walked away and Tyler went to see his wife.” Jake nodded and stood. “Tell me what’s going on. Your mind is a jumble of thoughts right now.”

“Carol. She really is a monster.” Forrest walked with him, not interrupting him, hoping to get an idea what was going on. “She killed a couple for a movie ticket several years ago. I have the file. Or I did have it.”

“The one on the chair where you were sitting at the hospital?” Jake nodded. “I have it. I saw the pictures and didn’t want to leave that on the.... Are you saying that Carol did that? Killed those people?”

“Yes. And their unborn child too.” Forrest stopped walking, his head trying hard to wrap around what Jake had just said. When he caught up with him, Jake was still talking. “...looked it up and it said that it would take a grown man with a weight of about two-fifty to do something like that. But there she was, leaping on his back and turning his head like he was nothing more than a twig. Then she bludgeoned the wife to death.”

Jake stopped moving, and Forrest nearly ran into him when he turned around. He looked terrified, like he was fearful that Carol would do the same to him. Forrest said his name again and was glad when he started walking back the way they’d come.

Jake didn’t speak during the rest of the walk. Nor did he talk on the way home. When the car stopped, Jake got out and walked to the house and went inside. Forrest pulled out his cell phone and called his friend at the morgue. He asked him about the murders.

“I remember that. A younger couple, not even in their mid-twenties I think.” He asked what he knew. “Nothing much. The bodies came in one night while I was just leaving work, and before I came to work two days later, they were gone and no one was talking about it. And no matter who I asked no one spoke about it.”

Pay off. Forrest knew that it happened more often than not with the rich and stupid. He even had a name for it. Bloody cash. He’d never actually known anyone that had had it done to them, nor a family that had been paid off. But a lawyer didn’t get far in this business without encountering it at least once.

He asked his buddy to see if he could dig anything up. It had been about fourteen years, so maybe enough time had gone by to get someone to loosen up a little. As he made his way into the house, he wasn’t surprised to find Jake sitting in the dark living room holding a glass of some sort of amber liquid in one hand and the house phone in the other. Taking the phone from him, Forrest put it on the cradle. He sat across from him and waited. He didn’t have to wait long.

“Tyler killed himself about an hour ago. First he killed Belinda, then himself. He left a note, telling the world that he could no longer live with himself and that he had disowned his daughter. That was all, just that.” Forrest asked him if he was all right. “I’m not sure, really. I never cared for Tyler; Belinda was all right, nice to me when I’d go to events at their home, but I didn’t know her well. The doctor told the police that he’d just informed Mr. Lane that Belinda had no brain activity, nor was there going to be any quality of life for her other than in a nursing home hooked up to machines for the rest of her days.”

“I’m sorry, Jake.” He nodded. “What are you going to do now? I’m sure that there will be questions for you. And then there is the added fact that Carol is still out there.”

“The police are searching, but I’m betting that she’ll just turn up somewhere and wonder what all the fuss is about.” Forrest had to agree with that. “I’m going to help them find her.”

“All right.” Jake looked at him, surprise written all over his face. “Did you expect me to tell you no? Or maybe tell you to leave it to the police? I don’t think they’re going to have any luck. She, however, thinks you and her are still going to work this out. You could lure her out faster than most, I think. But I would ask that you have the cops here or wherever.”

“Yes. That’s what I’m thinking as well. I just want this over with, so we can move on.” Forrest told him that’s what he wanted as well. “She’s going to be dangerous. I mean, more than just what she did to her mom, she’s going to be coming here with one thought in her head; that I’m going to do as she tells me.”

“No, you’re well past that.” Jake nodded and handed him the file that had been in the car. “When Tyler told you what he’d done, did he mention who had taken the case? Who had worked out the settlement?”

“My father.” Forrest dropped the file and swallowed twice as he waited for the punchline. “My dad used to be this great attorney. I think that’s the reason that I was allowed to become one too. To see if I could be better than him. Anyway, I did some digging and Tyler has been paying my dad ten grand every two weeks for the last fourteen years. And there was a big settlement put into his account on the day that Carol and I married.”

“Your father knew.” Jake said that was his assumption. “So these two couples, they get together and sort of throw you to the wolves. Christ, and I thought my family was bad. What are you going to do?”

“Tell Grandma.” Forrest felt his cat shiver over him, a fear so profound that Forrest was sure his cat would never have come out for any reason now. “She’ll need to know anyway, but I think this will be just what all parties deserve.”

“Yeah. She’s going to shit a brick. And I’m pretty sure that she’s going to hit your dad with it.” Jake laughed. “Have you told her yet? If you don’t mind, I’d really like to be there for that. I might even take pictures.”

“Good. Because we’re having dinner here with them tomorrow night with Grandma.” Jake stood up, pulled him to his body, and kissed him. When he let go, Forrest staggered slightly. “We’re also going to tell them about us. So gear up.”

Forrest was still standing there when he heard the front door shut. He had an idea where Jake was going and why, but he wasn’t sure how to help him. Thinking of the dinner party and what it might entail, he thought of telling his parents that he was his lover. Forrest was laughing as he entered the kitchen to talk to their cook, Mary.

“We’re having a party of sorts.” Mary asked who was coming and when. “I’m not sure of their names, to be honest. Jake’s parents and Jenna. There might be an attorney or two here, just for the fun of it, but you should also know that it’s not going to be a welcoming party. More of a coming to meet the devil sort of thing, as my grandmother used to say.”

“Ah. Well, we should have something that cannot be thrown at one another.” Forrest said that might be good. “And a good fattening dessert. I don’t believe many will enjoy that part of the meal, being that they’ll be upset and leave early. But I can do that.”

Forrest told her to make and do what she needed, including hiring someone to help her out with serving. He was nearly to the door again, having to get busy moving out of his rental, when Mary stopped him.

“Sir, if this is a celebration of your life with Mr. Jake, then I would suggest you invite your father as well. It might be an enlightening sort of thing to get everything out in the open.” Forrest said that might be too much. “It might, but you won’t have to do it again, ever, if you play this correctly.”

Forrest wasn’t sure what he’d have to do to make his father come. The man hadn’t said a word to him in over a decade. But then he thought of Jenna. The woman was going to hate him for this, but he’d ask her to do it under the guise that he wanted him to meet Jake.

Which was true, he did, but there were other things too. He wanted his dad to see how happy he was, how he’d found his mate, despite all those years of his father telling him he’d never do it. Yes, Forrest thought, this could be just the thing to do.

As he made his way to his house, he was smiling. At one point he whistled. Forrest hadn’t whistled in years. And found that he liked it.