“I’m sorry!” I wailed. “Please, stop. I promise I will do better.”
“That’s what you said last time. You need to learn your lesson, girl!”
He showed me no mercy. The lashes continued to come, covering nearly every inch of my back. I screamed, begged, cried, pleaded, promised, anything to get him to stop, but it all fell on deaf ears.
“Harper! Talk to me, sweetheart. Are you okay? Do you want me to get Duke?” Phoenix’s frantic voice broke into the nightmare of my past.
“No. Don’t do that. I’m fine,” I croaked.
“Bullshit. What happened just now?”
“Flashback. It’s over, I’m good.”
“Aw, shit, darlin’. Because I yelled at you,” he said, more to himself. “I’m sorry, sweetheart. I guess I forgot who I was talking to. You sure you’re okay?”
“Yes, sir. I’m fine now. Sorry about the way I spoke to you earlier.”
“No worries. Now, you want to tell me what’s going on with you and Carbon?” he asked.
“I don’t exactly want to, but I feel like maybe I should. I’m sure you’ve noticed how he’s been disappearing once a week or so for the last year…”
Phoenix laughed. “Sort of. I mean, he’s rarely ever here on Friday nights, but I assumed he was…well, I’m sure you know what I thought he was doing without me saying it.”
“Um, you weren’t entirely wrong.”
“Go on,” he encouraged.
“He’s been coming to see me. And before you ask, my brother doesn’t know. As far as I know, no one does. It started as just a casual thing, but somewhere along the way, things changed. I care about him, and I’m really worried, Phoenix. Will you please tell me what’s going on?” I pleaded, hoping my honesty would be met with the same from him.
“He’s in jail,” he blurted.
“What?” I shrieked. “Why?”
Phoenix sighed. “I’m guessing he was on his way back from your place yesterday morning when the cops pulled him over. He was about halfway between Sugar Falls and Croftridge. Anyway, there was a fight between two street gangs in Atlanta Tuesday night. Everyone scattered when the cops arrived. They found a gun registered to Carbon, with his prints on it, next to a dead body. When I talked to him, he told me it was his gun, but swears it was locked up in a closet at his condo. He said he hadn’t touched that particular gun in months, and that was just to clean it. We’ve got the club’s lawyer working on it, but due to the severity of the charges, we can’t just go and bail him out right away. He has to see a judge first and, depending on the judge, bail might not even be an option,” he explained.
“I can help!” I screeched excitedly. “He was with me the entire night before.”
“That’s good, but I think we are going to need a little more than just his secret girlfriend’s word, Harper.”
“Judge installed a security system in my house on Monday while I was at work. I set the alarm when Carbon and I got home Tuesday evening. Isn’t there some kind of log or something that would show if the system had been deactivated during the night?” I asked, crossing my fingers that I could help prove Chase’s innocence.
“Yeah, there is. If it’s one of Judge’s systems, you can sign in to your account and download or print the activity log. Email me that log, and I’ll forward it to our attorney as soon as I get it. Maybe that and your statement that he was with you will be enough of an alibi for him. Are you willing to go in and give an official statement?”
“I’ll do anything to help him. Oh, I have some pictures, too, on my phone. We took a couple of selfies that night, but you can definitely tell that we are in my house and they’re time-stamped,” I said, my excitement growing. I could prove it wasn’t Carbon and get my man out of the clink. My man? Nope, not going there.
“Send those to me with the alarm report. In the email, you need to add a statement along the lines of ‘Chase Walker was in my presence at my personal residence’ and include the dates and times. I’ll call the lawyer now and let her know what we’re sending. Hopefully, this will be enough to get the charges dropped.”
“If it is, when will he be released?”
“They have to release him immediately after the charges are dropped, and I’m going to do everything I can to make sure that happens first thing tomorrow morning.”
“Thank you, Phoenix. Please keep me posted. And if you talk to him, please tell him I was worried, but I’m okay.”
“Will do, sweetheart.”
“Oh, one more thing. Um, can we keep this conversation between the two of us for now? I’m not asking you to keep it from Duke so much as I’m asking you to give Carbon and I the chance to tell him and Reese ourselves,” I begged.
“You intend to tell him soon?”