Chapter Forty-Five

No matter how hard she tried to go back to sleep after she hung up the phone from Richie, she couldn’t. The smell of Jon had drifted back into her life, as well as his touch and warm breath that haunted her through the night. Images of a young boy behind bars, his career completely over just as it had began, filled her mind. The associates of her father down in Chicago, were good lawyers, no they were great lawyers but the overwhelming need to see this out her way, was eating at her very core.

She twisted the sheet around her, and tried to bury the guilt in her pillow. It wasn’t possible, she had too much on to make this work. Between her med assignment and her father’s little jobs, it just wasn’t feasible right now to drop everything and go to Chicago, and do what? Try and get Doc off drug trafficking charges? What if Jonny had been involved? I mean, she doubted it but what if she underestimated it and wasted all her time, and risked everything she’d worked for in the last few months.

“Ugh!” She rolled over and sighed, and then got out of bed. She padded to the kitchen and made coffee, which would help her see sense, yes it would. He broke your heart Callie, you don’t owe him anything here. He’s not who you thought he was, and he’s not who you want him to be.

Well that was a load of crap, he followed his dreams and he kicked her in the path of hers. She just didn’t want to listen to him at that point, even though he was completely right. “Dammit,” she felt hot coffee splash her hand, this would not do. She had to forget about him. He had the help he could get, god, what if they didn’t have any money? How would they pay for these lawyers?

“Shit,” she grabbed her rolodex and found the number she’d given Richie. Sherwood Manning was a very prestigious lawyer, but boy did he come with a price. She dialled the office, noting the time would be just on 8am. After getting past the receptionist she held again to speak to Sherwood.

“Sherwood Manning.”

She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. “Hi, Mr Manning. It’s Callie Richards.”

“Oh hi Callie, I was just thinking about you. I got the Bon Jovi case, I’ve just got back to the office after seeing them first thing. Thank you for referring the case to me. I appreciate it. How’s your father?”

God so much info at once. “He’s fine, listen I was just making sure they were ok with your fee and things.”

He chuckled, “You’re going to pay for it? I didn’t think you were still married to him Callie?”

She rolled her eyes, he could be an arrogant ass sometimes. No wonder him and her father got along so well. “No, no I’m not. I know their financial situation isn’t that great...” She rolled her bottom lip over her teeth.

“No, it isn’t and they can’t afford me...so there is that small issue, but Jon said we’d make an arrangement as soon as they got some money in, so I’m considering it.”

“Considering it?” She blurted it out without thinking. How could he just consider it? This was freaking important.

“Well Callie, you know we don’t work for free, although this is a pretty good Pro-Bono case, if it gets the media attention, so the pay off would be there...hmmm.”
She held her hand over the receiver while she growled. Damn her to hell.

“Don’t worry about it. I’ll do it.” She couldn’t leave Jon in the hands of someone that didn’t realize how more important this was than money.

He laughed, “You will huh? Well and here your father was just telling me you were now studying medicine. I’m sure I can work something out them Callie, if you’re worried.”

Her hands shook, she should say no dammit, she should go back to her already tangled up life and do what she was meant to do. If she thought quickly, she could finish her father’s errands before she flew out later that day, and then take her assignments with her and make sure she studied at night after she’d done the case notes. It’d take a couple of days at the most to get the information and fly back, finish the assignment and then get a date set for trial, if it went that far. She’d know what she was dealing with once she had all the facts.

“No, Mr Manning, as you can appreciate I have some form of affiliation to the group and I would very much like to see this through myself. I didn’t think I had the time on the schedule, but I see now, that I was wrong.” She held her breath, if he refused, she’d have a problem.

“Ok. Fine, have the case. I think it’s pretty cut and dried anyway. They’ll both end up in prison, you’ll just have work to do to reduce the sentence.”

“My ass they will,” she muttered.

“Sorry?”

“I said, well we’ll see about that. If you don’t mind.”

He chuckled, “ok ok, Well I’ll have the case notes faxed over to you. You can take it from there. They’re being detained until the manager fronts up with some bail money.”

Callie rolled her eyes, “oh god, and how much would that be?”

“Ten thousand.”

She nodded, ok do-able. “Fine, thanks again. Sorry to have mucked you around.”

They hung up and she called her father, if this was going to work, she had to bury her pride right about now. “Dad, it’s me. Listen, I need twenty thousand dollars.”

~

Jon rested his head back against the cool brick, the lawyer they’d spend the last hour with, he didn’t trust. He was good, as his record suggested. But the minute they said they had no upfront money, things got weird. And Jon didn’t trust weird, when it came to money.

He popped his knuckles and clenched his fists. Anything to stop him pounding Doc into the god-damned wall. As it had transpired, Doc had been selling drugs to make money to pay for some of the band costs, which included the never ending supply of girls on the tour bus. Never in all his life, had Jon felt disgusted and dirty as he did now. Sure, he loved the girls, and he’d bed a few from time to time but he sure as shit didn’t want them to be paid to be there. That was something entirely different in his mind, something that made his belly churn.

Jon knew that money had still been tight rolling into the second half of the year, but Doc had assured him that it was all under control. How could he be so fucking stupid? Not only had they landed in a pile of shit, they were now on the tight rope to career suicide. The call he placed to his parents just minutes ago, hadn’t been a happy one. They were catching the first plane out, and thank fuck. He needed someone familiar and someone he could trust right about now.

“You ok Jonny?”

He closed his eyes and wished he could shut McGhee off. “I’m fine Doc.”

Once again, with feeling.

“I’m a thousand times sorry Jon. I won’t take you down with me, I promise you that.”

He snapped his eyes open and stood. “You think that helps? I’m still tarred with the same brush Doc, the whole fucking band is.” He ranked his hands into his hair. “If you were having issues with our finances, you should have just said. We could have worked something out, anything --- god anything but this.”

His pulse quickened, if he didn’t sit the hell back down, he was going to do some damage.

“I know, it was stupid. I wasn‘t going to do it forever Jonny, you guys just deserved the best. The hotels the girls, everything...”

Jon sank his face into his hands and pulled his knees up to his chest. “And of course we all want those things, but I want them on my own merit Doc. I realize we’ve been lucky this far. Some bands don’t even make it this far, I do get that. But drugs? Fuck, what the hell were you thinking?”

“I wasn’t thinking was I?”

“Well least you’re fucking honest. I swear to god, if my career ends from this... I’ll never forgive you. And I’ll make sure you never work with anyone again in this country, and that’s a promise.”

The silence was welcoming, there was nothing he could say now that would make this better. All Jon regretted, was not having a handle on his business enough to realize they were in trouble. He could have, god damn it, he would have done something, anything but this.

“Do you think that lawyer is going to help us with no money?” Jon asked looking over at him. He felt a little bad, he did look worse for wear being roughed up by the drug guys and his shoulders were slumped down. Good, he deserves it.

Doc shrugged, “honestly I don’t know. He seems to know what he’s doing but I get the feeling he’s no money, no service. A lot of people in this world are like that Jonny.”

Jon held up his hand. “Don’t use it as an excuse to what you did. I’m not fucking accepting that.”

God this was a mess.

“You know, I can’t believe I’m saying this, but it would have been pretty handy you still been married to Callie right now. She knew what she was doing, right?”
Jon’s jaw clenched and his knuckles turned white. “She was a hell of a lot more than just a good lawyer, she was the best—“He stopped, the fierce need to defend her didn’t surprise him. He hated what he did to her, and he hated what her father was still, he could only assume doing to her.

“I realize that, I’m just saying...”

“Well don’t, she was right about you. She told me not to trust you, and she was right.”

Doc lifted a brow, “is that so? I still find it hard to believe she is a top class lawyer, her demeanour says otherwise at times.”

“She was the best friend, I ever could have. I was just too blind and pathetic to see it.”

“What was that?”

“Nothing, she was just a good woman. She didn’t deserve what you, what I, threw at her.”

Steel clanged and the doors slid open roughly. “Bail’s been posted.”

Doc sprung to his feet, “the lawyer must have taken the case!”

Jon joined him, “I guess so.” He stuffed his hands in his jeans and followed Doc out, where Richie was waiting.

“Hey bro, good to see you. Stripes never suited you anyway.” His friend wrapped his arms around him in a brotherly hug. Only Richie could get away with joking at a time like this.

“Good to see you Rich. Thanks for sorting the lawyer, how did you find them anyway?”
Richie raised his eyebrows and grinned, “Just a friend of a friend. Come on, we’ll get you back to the hotel and get your dirty ass in the shower, and eat some food. It’s going to be a long few days.”

Jon scuffed his boot against the concrete as they left the building, he wasn’t fucking wrong.