Page 2 of Taken by the Lawman

“Thank you for coming, Deegan.”

“Did I have a choice? Your suits weren’t leaving unless I was in tow.”

“Have a seat. I guess you’ve seen the news?” Max clasped his hands until his knuckles were white.

Deegan sat down and leaned forward, bracing his elbows on his knees. “Yeah, I have.”

“I can’t go home. There are a half a dozen news people outside of my house and here on the street. Sorry, but that’s why I had to send my security. I’m holed up here. Lisa’s at her mom’s and I’m not sure she’ll come back.”

“Marriage is forever…until someone fucks up. She might not come back. This doesn’t just involve you.” Deegan didn’t know what Max and Lisa’s personal life was like, but he knew her. She had always been kind, supporting Max from the very beginning, even when he decided to run again after he’d lost the first election. In two years, Max had aged incredibly fast. Deegan guessed politics would be hard on any relationship.

After three beats of silence, Max said, “Tell me how stupid I was. Drill me, bro. I deserve to be raked through the coals a dozen times.”

“Hell, if you want your emotional puzzle pieces put back together, you’ll have to talk to your therapist. Why am I here? Why did you have me dragged out of my apartment in the middle of the night? If you needed a friend to sit with you while you cried in your beer we should have gone somewhere a little less…stuffy.”

Max stood and paced the floor, tearing a hand through his styled hair. “I’ve done a lot of decent things in my career. I have fought for the rights of veterans, better safety equipment for local law enforcement, affordable housing and insurance, among many things, and yet this is what the public will remember me for? A sleazy affair with an aide. This isn’t who I am.” He stopped pacing and looked at Deegan with heavy eyes marked by dark circles.

“Nature of the beast, my friend. The public loves negativity. You’ll have to pay the piper on this one.”

Max plopped back down in his chair, making the springs pop. His jaw was tight under an unfitting layer of whiskers. “Look, Deegan, I know we don’t talk much these days, and you wouldn’t know, but Lisa and I were having trouble in our marriage, had been for some time. Sure, we’d done a damn good job of keeping it from the public. We’d become trained monkeys in the spotlight, but at home it was cold…distant. God, she hated me, probably more now.” There was a thick huskiness to his voice. He swiveled his chair and looked through the window out onto the lighted buildings.

“That’s what marriage is about. You have problems and you work them out or divorce, but you don’t screw the aide. We both know you never shit where you eat.” Deegan rubbed his tired eyes. “But who am I to judge? I’ve never been married so I wouldn’t have a clue what it’s like.” Although he wasn’t against the idea of marriage, he’d never been in a committed relationship long enough to start thinking diamond rings. Growing up with a mom and dad who adored one another, he’d devoted himself in staying single until he found the one—the one who challenged him, made him want to be a better man. A woman who could tolerate his flaws, accept those times when he needed to shut the world out and destress. Deegan was known to go off on weeklong fishing trips where the only sound was one of silence. Maybe he could find someone that liked to fish too. He didn’t need, or desire, a partner who was cookie-cutter, but someone who had their own ambitions and goals.

“I fucked up, but Lisa…what if she doesn’t come back? This isn’t what I want. I do love her.”

“I don’t know, man. Maybe she’ll talk later.”

“She’ll never forgive me. Not after the media has slandered her,” Max said in a quiet voice.

“That doesn’t answer why I’m here.” He was dog-ass tired and could barely think straight. He’d been up nearly forty-eight hours chasing damn criminals.

“I need your help. You’re the only person I can trust to find the answers to this.”

“Answers to what?” Deegan narrowed his eyes. “Max, you cheated on your wife with an aide and now she’s dead. Whether you played a role in her death or not, you’re guilty in the eyes of the media. Now you must apologize to anyone you’ve hurt. The young woman’s parents. Your people. Lisa too. Take responsibility for fucking up.” His words seemed to float straight through the man’s head.

“This thing with Annie,” he blew out a long breath, “it just happened. I didn’t plan it and I wasn’t looking for an affair. The feelings, the emotions, they all snuck up on me and I was weak. I admit it, I was a weak man. Lisa and I weren’t sleeping together, she didn’t care what I was doing. Hell, she recoils when I touch her. Annie though, she was an amazing woman, brilliant, full of life. My God, she liked all this political bullshit. She was beautiful and always made me laugh. And for the first time in a long time, I felt like I was appreciated.”

“You have staff who get paid the big bucks to handle things like this for you. Where are they?”

“I need your help.”

“She overdosed. There’s not much I can do—”

“She didn’t do drugs. She wouldn’t. Annie loved life and didn’t need an artificial high.”

Deegan sat back in the chair. “How do you know? How well did you know her?”

“As much as any man can know a woman.”

“My father always said a woman had many facets.”

“For six months we were together, not once did I see her high or out of her head. I’ll show you what she was like. Every evening before bed she sent me a video message. Last night was no different.” He reached into his suit pocket, took out his phone, and said. “Watch this,” as he started a video.

A young brunette with bright blue eyes and infectious smile came up on the screen—the same woman whose face had been plastered all over the news dubbed as “Senator Kline’s aide and lover”.

“Look, Max—”

“Just watch it.”

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