Page 34 of Believing Bailey (Granton University 2)

I’d have to find a new place to live, probably a new place to work. The university barn tended to only employ AGR boys.

Whether I liked it or not, things had just changed. My entire life was different now.

Judge Gudrun started talking again then, but the words couldn’t seem to focus in my head. All I kept hearing was, “the state drops their charges,” and I couldn’t focus past that, because that sounded good. I needed something good. I needed something good more than I needed my next breath. When the judge slapped her gavel against its block, I jumped and turned to Stempy again for translation.

He finally turned to me, holding out his hand with a big gleaming smile on his face.

“Well, I have to say that was the best win I’ve had. Beckett, thank you. You’re actually one of the ones I like to defend.”

I shook my head as I took his hand. “So this means I’m free, right? Completely totally free?”

He laughed. “Yep, completely and totally free? Just like that?”

“Yep, just like that.”

“No O.R.?”

“Nope. You can return to your life now. They’ll take you back to the jail where you can collect your personal affects and sign out.”

I stared at him as if he spoke a foreign language. But free? I was really free?

For some reason, I couldn’t yet trust it.

Chapter 12

BECKETT

It felt strange changing back into the clothes I’d been wearing the night I’d been with Melody. I actually wanted to set them on fire and watch them burn to ash, incinerate any kind of reminder of her and what I’d been through these last few days.

The things they’d taken from my pockets had been stored in a manila envelope that they returned to me next. After slipping my wallet, loose change, and keys back where they belonged, I tried my phone, but it was dead.

Okay, so I guess I was walking back to campus.

Typically, a walk like this would’ve been invigorating. I would’ve grinned the entire trek and lifted my face to the cold breeze and swam in the feeling of being free again. But I still felt like shit. My face was bruised and battered, my ribs ached and made my breathing wheeze, and I walked with a limp because my fellow convicts had kicked me pretty good in my knee.

Also, I’d been arrested without a coat, so I was a popsicle by the time I reached Alpha Gamma Rho. When I saw the white pillars rising up in front of the front door, I wanted to weep with relief. I stepped onto the porch, groaning from the aches and pains, just wanting to get inside to the warmth and sit somewhere soft for a minute.

I wasn’t even thinking about Chance and what he might do, so when I opened the door and saw Max first thing, lounging with his feet up, watching TV, I grinned, just happy to see my bud.

But his eyes flew open wide, and he jumped to his feet, already looking around for other people.

“Beck?” he hissed on an exaggerated whisper. “What the hell are you doing here?”

“They dropped my case,” I said. “All the evidence showed I told the truth.”

“Well, you can’t stay here.” He wasn’t looking at me as he hurried forward and took my arm as if to usher me right back out the door. “If Chance saw you—”

“I can handle the cowboy,” I muttered, pulling my arm from his grip and glaring at him. Honestly, I doubted I could handle Chance, especially in the shape I was in. We were the same height but he outweighed me by a good thirty pounds.

I was too ticked at Max to really think about that, though. He hadn’t said one thing about my fucking mutilated face, or how glad he was to see me free, or that hey, he was sorry he never got around to visiting me and showing his support.

“All my shit is here,” I said. Where else did he think I’d go? “My truck’s parked out back. My—”

“We boxed up your stuff already,” Max rushed to say, finally looking at me long enough to pull back in surprise before scanning my wounds from head to toe. Then he sighed and more quietly added, “I put it all in the bed of your truck.”

“So, there’s no way they’ll let me back into the fraternity?” I gulped, dreading his answer.

His eyes widened. “Dude, there’s no way they’ll let you back into the university.” He glanced into the kitchen to make sure it was clear before he dragged me inside. Then he picked up a piece of mail and handed it to me. It had my name on it, but it had already been opened. “Man, I’m sorry.”

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