AJ's Salvation (20 page)

She rode him slowly, set on driving him just as crazy as he had done to her. The problem was that she hadn't exactly considered how much it would turn her on, too. She placed her hands flat on his chest, staring into his eyes while she made sure that neither of them was able to think further than those four walls that surrounded them right there and then.

Jam kissed Aly's forehead, knowing they couldn't stay away from reality forever. She was somewhere between sleeping and being awake. “We need to leave,” he mumbled, and she shook her head against his chest.

“If I get up now and you get up now, we need to deal with the fact that our son -” He loved how she now called him that. “- is gone, and that we shouldn't have spent the last hour ...” He hushed her with his lips on hers because the way that sentence would have ended wasn't right. 

“We did exactly what we should have done. I'd even let you sleep for a few hours because I don’t think you’ve had much sleep over the last days, but there are lawyers to tend to and solutions to find,” Jam whispered against her hair then kissed her another time before getting up. He pulled his boxers over his hips and then looked back at her. She looked like a mess, and he missed the happy glow from earlier.

“Lenard told me that there's no legal scenario where I can get Alessandro back. He's not my son by blood nor by law. Besides, I will go to prison if you try to get your son, Jamison. Do you even realize that?” Jam knew it, but he was determined to find a loophole, and the way he saw it, so were Lenard and Shannon. Which was exactly why they needed to move now.

“If you stay where you are, they’ve won. Don't let them win,” he pleaded, and she shrugged; a movement so small he knew how little hope she had left. 

“They already did, Jamison.” Suddenly, he knew exactly what Dorly and Phil had talked about when they had sworn Aly needed him. She was worse off than he had guessed. 

“Alessia, when in the world did you turn into someone who had no hope?” He knew he shouldn't be challenging her, but he couldn't help it. She had been Miss Optimistic for as long as he could remember. He wouldn't deny that things looked bleak, but giving up the battle before they even started? No, he wouldn't let that happen. Sitting down on the bed, he cupped her cheek, seeing how she closed her eyes. 

“Jam ...” He leaned in and kissed her until they were both breathing hard, and then he pulled back. 

“Move that cute ass off the bed now and get pretty. We'll fix this. Somehow, we'll fix this,” he promised, and Aly watched him for a long moment before nodding and getting off the bed.

Aly sat next to Jam in silence, letting him drive her car because she wouldn't be able to focus enough. It was crazy, but she didn't look forward to hearing anyone tell her how many years in a federal prison she'd get. Or what Jam would get for having kidnapped his son. At least he hadn't brought Alessandro over state lines. Alessia had made the mistake of looking up penalties on Google, and even though her knowledge of legal speech was very limited, she had read enough to shut down her browser immediately and break out in a cold sweat.

She hadn't told anyone that she had dared to look it up, but the way Jam was acting, she was sure he hadn't.

They parked in front of her café, and she was startled. “Spencer opened up for us. It's just for private business, seriously. I didn't want to do it in your house. I think there are enough bad memories there now. We don't need to add any more,” Jam explained quietly. Obviously, Phil had told them where to find her key. She couldn't help but be glad since the café alone usually offered her solace.

“Let's do this,” Aly said, getting out of the car. Spence welcomed her in the door and hugged her tight. She could tell it was for Jam's benefit, and it made her shake her head slightly. “Don't even start anything with him today, Spencer,” she pleaded in a low voice, and he sighed.

“I'm sorry. Of course, not,” he promised and then shook hands with Jam. It was obvious the two guys didn't like each other much, yet Spencer proved how grand a man he was by telling Jam how sorry he was about this whole situation.

“So am I,” Jam gave back, placing his hand on the small of her back to lead her inside. Just a second later, Aly understood his need to mark his territory because the redhead from the pictures was sitting at a table across from Lenard. It made Aly ready to kiss Jam smack on the mouth. Obviously, she must've tensed because he leaned in and kissed the side of her head.

“Just a friend,” he promised, not really easing her worries. She had never known herself to be that jealous; then again, Jam had never been hers for the keeping before either.

Shannon got up and instantly pulled her in a hug. “Hi, I'm Shannon, Greg's girlfriend and Jam's lawyer,” she explained, but Aly didn't like the way she called him Jam. It didn't matter that everyone else did, too.

“Hey, I'm Alessia,” she replied and then focused on the people she actually knew in the room—Lenard and his mother. “Mrs. Cleo.” Aly smiled, being a lot warmer toward those two than she had been toward Shannon. Behind her, she could hear the woman whisper with Jam, but she tried to ignore it. 

Eventually, they all settled down, and Jam reached for her hand again. The grave expressions on the lawyers' faces told her everything she needed to know. It took everything within her not to burst into tears at their sight.

“It's legally not possible to get you and Jam out of going to prison unless a mistake is made during the trial,” Shannon started.

“It's legally not possible to get you and Jam out of going to prison. Period,” Lenard corrected, and Aly pressed her lips together, let go of Jam and fisted her hands. She felt her nails biting into the soft flesh of her palm. It didn't help much to ease her heavy heart. Faintly, she heard the key being turned in the lock and looked up to find Spencer by the door.

“There is, however, a possibility you will only have to spend a few days in there, but for that, Aly needs to return to Townsend with us,” Shannon whispered, lowering her voice in secrecy.

“I can't. Alesandro's grandmother made that quite clear,” Aly replied.

“She threatened you, that's right. She will have the police take you in. This town's as corrupt as it gets. We need to hope for a mistake by the police,” Shannon went on, and Aly got up. She couldn't possibly sit.

“So you are saying you count on a mistake by the police to keep Aly out of prison? Do you even hear yourself?” Jam asked, and Aly saw how Shannon threw Lenard a glance.

“I'm going to be frank here. The mishandling of cases happens more often than you think. Miranda rights forgotten, the subject handled too roughly, or evidence not properly processed—those are all things that make it necessary for a judge to dismiss a case. Aly would be in prison for no more than a week at max, and she could never be tried for Alessandro's kidnapping again.” Lenard tried to soothe Jam, but Aly could tell it wasn't working.

“She didn't kidnap him. I won’t let her go to prison for something I did. You're hoping for a technicality to keep her out of prison. The Karmisons will make sure that everything, and I repeat everything, will go according to law. They'll be eternally happy if Aly and I are locked up. While I don't give a shit what happens to me, I'm not gonna let her suffer for me!” he cried out, the rage obvious in every rigid line of his body.

Aly moved back to him, placing her hands on his shoulders. “If you go to prison, Alessandro stays with Collene. Do you really want that, Jam?” she inquired, and he let his head drop forward, his shoulders slumping. Defeat had never been written more clearly across a man's body than it was right there at that moment with Jam.

“As it is, Collene has every right to her son, and Jam barely has any. If he wants a chance at sole custody, he can't be tied to the kidnapping,” Shannon explained carefully, and Aly felt her body go cold. “Even then, we need to prove that Lesso has an abusive mother or chances are slim to non-existent regardless of his participation.”

“So let me do a quick recap,” Aly mumbled, making everyone shut up. “If I go to prison, saying I did it all by myself, I'm going to be tried by a federal court since I took the child across state lines. I can be sentenced up to a death, depending on what they think I did to him. Either way, Jam will
not
get custody of his son unless Collene beats the child so bad she's taking him to a doctor. Let's face it. That won't happen. Absolutely no outcome will result in Alessandro being fine, right? Because if Jam takes some of the blame for this kidnapping and we can prove Alessandro was being abused, he's not gonna go to his dad, but end up in foster care, which is probably equally as bad as Collene having him,” she concluded, watching for the reaction of the lawyers.

“They never said anything about a death sentence,” Jam said the same moment Shannon reached out to grab her hand.

“Not many states have a death sentence for a case like yours. They'd most likely sympathize with you and reduce your sentence. We could always try to negotiate a deal or something,” she remarked, and Aly hugged herself, before starting to pace. This wasn't just bad; this was worse.

Jam felt frozen to the spot. No one had ever bothered to mention there was a chance they'd die over this. How had Aly known, though?

“I Googled,” she replied, and Jam realized he had obviously spoken out loud. “I needed to know what I was facing. I don't know. I guess I was hoping it said
Blackmail the bitch and you'll get the kid back without problems
,” she then admitted, and Jam finally got up to walk over to her. He needed to hold her, touch her, feel her. She evaded his arms, though, and it pissed him off. Didn't she understand they were in this together?

“This, of course, would only happen if there'd be a kidnapping case to begin with,” Mrs. Cleo suddenly interrupted the silence, and Aly spun around almost smashing into Jam. 

“What?” she asked, and when he reached for her another time, she actually let him draw her close.

“Tell them, son,” Mrs. Cleo insisted, and Jam almost growled at the suspense.

“Well, let's say Jam had full custody of his son. Then he could take him wherever he wants, whenever he wants ... like, for example, to raise him with his girlfriend out of state. No one could press charges anyone for anything because it's totally legal for Aly to raise him then. Plus, maybe one day she could actually adopt him so he'd be legally hers if the real mother would be willing to give up her rights,” Lenard mentioned, looking at them as if it wasn't a big deal. Only it was.

“I don't have sole custody, and we just settled I won't get it, either,” Jam stated while Aly turned in his arm, hiding her face against his chest. She was giving up, and he was tempted to follow close behind, even though the lawyers seemed to look pretty confident.

“How? How in the world should that work?” Spence asked, throwing his hands up. Jam almost liked him then and there. Almost.

“Well, for that we would need leverage on the Karmisons,” Shannon whispered as if she feared someone would overhear them.

Jam raised a brow at that. “Leverage? That doesn't sound exactly legal.”

Lenard shook his head. “It doesn't even end there. We'd need a judge in this, too,” he allowed, and Jam felt how Aly took another deep breath against his chest.