What The Heart Wants

“So, Mr. Davis, can you please tell me about the arrest that took place this past Saturday on April 29^th?”

“Is that camera on?” he responded back dodging her question. “You know we can do a few things with that camera and this table. Is that door locked?”

Paula cleared her throat. “Let me remind you, Mr. Davis, that this video is being recorded onto the firm’s server and not into some private collection. Please refrain from any derogatory comments directed toward me or any other employee at this firm. Now, can you tell me about the morning you were arrested?”

“I can tell you a whole lot about it.” Jackson enjoyed seeing her flustered. He pushed her buttons purposely. “But what do I get out of this?”

“How about a deal not to land you in prison?” Paula asserted.

“I was thinking more along the lines of dinner. Don’t attorneys treat their clients to business dinners? Let’s leave this room and go get something to eat.” Jackson pushed the camera out of focus and moved his chair around the table right in front of Paula’s.

She swallowed hard as she’d never had such a difficult client before. After having stopped the camcorder, she looked him straight in the eyes and pleaded with him. “If I agree to dinner and whatever else you want, will you stop behaving like a toddler and complete this video affidavit for me to submit to the District Attorney for your case?”

“I will, Ms. Maxwell.” Jackson’s boyish grin made her nervous but in a good way.

“Fine, dinner tonight.”

“It’s a date.” Jackson smiled as he moved the camera and his seat back to their positions in front of the table.

Paula spent the next few hours going over vital details in Jackson’s case trying to determine whether or not she could spin them in his defense. She had her work cut out for her. His prior convictions weren’t helping and neither were the people he was known to associate with.

Jackson went into details about his shop and how he rented it out to a friend of a friend. He made sure to assert that Nick wasn’t stealing the car he was found in, and if it was stolen, he had no idea. Paula didn’t like the feeling she did knowing he was lying, but she didn’t fault him either. If she were facing a few years behind bars, she would probably lie too. She stopped the tape.

“What’s wrong?” Jackson asked.

“I know you’re lying!” Paula shook her head. “I’m not going to knowingly have you commit perjury on my watch. We have to do this another way. Did you think about what I asked you earlier?”

“About what exactly?” He frowned, assuming where the conversation was headed.

“Turning in one of your buyers. Who put in the order that got you arrested over the weekend?” Paula demanded to know.

“I can’t tell you that.” Jackson dodged her beckoning gaze. “This world that I work and live in is a dangerous one. I can’t knowingly tell you that kind of information without assuming that you’re going to act on it. The man who I’d be turning over to the DA is a different kind of monster. I deal with people like him because business is business, and when it steps outside of those boundaries, sh*t gets too deep. I’m in deep enough sh*t without dragging you down with me. He’ll be watching to see if I cut a deal. Cutting a deal in this case is like signing my death certificate. You just don’t understand.”

“No, I get it,” Paula sighed. “I don’t want to be put in danger and I don’t want you in that position either.”

“Good. So, you’ll stop asking me about my buyer?”

Paula nodded her head silently.

“Are we done here?” he asked her impatiently.

“Yeah, you’re free to go, Mr. Davis,” Paula said quietly.

“Oh don’t do that.” He stared at her. “You know we’re passed that and the cameras are off.”

“You’re right,” Paula said as she stood up to gather her belongings. “We’re done here, Jackson.”

He touched her hand lightly to remind her that he still cared for her. Paula forced a half smile and he left.

The rest of the day flew by as she made progress on her assignment with Rebecca and notes on Jackson’s case. She was tired, and just like nights prior to this, she stayed later than most of the other employees there. The moon had just risen when she decided to leave work, and luckily for her the rain had finally stopped.

A chill was in the air as she walked toward the diner in search of sustenance. Another night without a home-cooked meal. It wasn’t like she didn’t know how to cook; she just never had the energy to. So, off to the diner she went. It wasn’t until after she picked up her food and was walking to her car that she felt someone following her.

The click clacking of her heels against the wet pavement echoed down the street as she took the lonely stroll to her car. Paula constantly made an effort to stop and listen for footsteps behind her but heard nothing but her own fears beating against her chest. She quickened her pace as her walk sprung into a light trot which advanced into a light sprint. Her fears had manufactured themselves into a monster chasing her to her car. When she round her the corner, she slammed into a massively hard chest.

“Ahhhhh!” she shrieked at the top of her lungs.

Jackson pushed her back with a firm grasp around her shoulders. “It’s me! It’s me!”

“Oh thank god!” she exhaled in a flurry of tears. “I thought I was being chased.”

“You are,” he said quietly, moving her behind him.

“What?” Terror returned to her voice along with the tears in her eyes. It didn’t take long for the phantom footsteps, Paula knew she heard, to round the corner. The man was met with a stiff arm from Jackson knocking him to the ground.

“Who are you?” he screamed to the pale-complexioned man cringing in pain.

“We work for Demetri,” another man said, rounding the corner with his pistol drawn.

“Whoa!” Jackson backed up with his hands in the air. “I didn’t know. You were following my lady, so I followed you.”

“We know that now. Get up, Hugo, you’re embarrassing me,” he scolded the man still cringing on the floor. “We just wanted to have a word with Ms. Maxwell about what she was going to talk to the DA about in her meeting tomorrow.”

“How did you know about my meeting?” Paula spoke out.

“That’s irrelevant,” the man with the gun waved her question away. “Just tell me that you will keep Mr. Joseph’s name out of your conversation.”

Paula nodded her head. “Of course I will. Jackson never gave me enough information to involve him in the first place.”