“Don’t worry, honey. A glass of wine to take off the edge is fine, but we both need to be clearheaded tonight. We have a lot to discuss.”
“I know.” It was time to put all her cards on the table. He deserved that at least.
As promised, Lucas helped her clean up the mess she’d made. Then he poured them each a new glass of wine. They sat back down on the sofa. He was so close to her that she could feel the heat from his body on her skin.
For a few long sips, they sat in silence.
She took a deep breath. Now or never.
They both started to talk at once, stopping after the first word. She waited, and then began again, but so did Lucas.
They laughed.
“You first, sweetheart,” Lucas said politely.
Where to begin…“I still don’t understand why you turned Shane in for such a small amount of pot. You could’ve come to me.”
Lucas shook his head. “You’re protecting him, Phoebe. You and I both know that it turned out to be much more than just marijuana.”
“I could’ve taken care of this—like I just said—if you just had come to me in the first place.” Her heart still ached for how everything had gone down with Shane and her three Wolfe brothers. “He needed family.”
“Maybe that would’ve been a better solution, but we did what we thought was right. Everything we did was to protect Shane. When he started acting so strangely, Mitchell and I began to worry. When we found that bag of weed on him during the camping trip, we confronted him. He exploded.”
“I know.” The awful memories bubbled up to the surface in her mind. “I read everything in his case file. Besides, I was there at the trial. I heard your testimony first hand.”
Lucas looked so sad. “Honey, we had no idea it would turn out the way it did. When we found the meth in his glove box two days later, we knew Shane needed an intervention. That’s when we went to Jason.”
“He was deputy sheriff then.” She remembered how proud she’d been of Jason when he’d been sworn in. Soon after, everything had changed. She’d always known how by-the-book he was, but after becoming deputy, the only thing that seemed to matter to Jason were rules and the law. “Why him? Why not me?”
“We planned on going to you after we talked to Jason. Since he and Shane were also friends, we thought he would want to talk to you and your parents about what we’d found, too.”
That is what you’d expect a friend to do. But not Jason. “He didn’t though, did he? Same old Jason, taking charge of everything and leaving everyone else out.”
“Yeah. That’s my brother. Without our knowledge, he went straight to Shane. Shane blew up and punched Jason in the face. That’s when they really went to blows at your parents’ diner.”
Phoebe closed her eyes, recalling how upset her mom and dads had been that day. “Why? Shane and Jason had been so close before.”
“Best friends.” He shook his head. “I don’t know why Jason testified so harshly against your brother.”
Nor do I. She would never understand it. “I believe his account played a big role in the extreme sentence Shane received. A first offence getting the maximum is unheard of.”
“I have a question for you,” Lucas said. “Why didn’t you represent your brother? You’re the best defense attorney in the state. That didn’t make sense to me or Mitchell.”
“Shane refused my help.” She never understood that either. God knew she had wanted to help Shane. “No matter how much my parents, my older brother, Corey, and I tried to convince him to let me represent him, Shane wouldn’t give in. Corey tried to help, too, using whatever pull he had as a US marshal, but Shane didn’t want any of us to lift a finger. Not me. Not Corey. Not my parents.” Phoebe sighed, feeling the old weight return. “We lost Shane. I didn’t know what to do to get him back.”
“It’s so weird. One day, Shane was the same old fun-loving guy I’d always known and the next day he was a stranger.”
“Drugs, Lucas.” She hated to think about how they’d changed her brother. “He got caught up in the drugs.”
“Phoebe, it just doesn’t add up. I still find the whole thing so hard to understand.”
“Me, too.” She wasn’t about to dredge up that the search of Shane’s place had found even more drugs and tons of cash. Though her brother had never been convicted of selling, it sure appeared that he must’ve been.
“I still can’t believe this all happened with Shane. I’m sure there is so much more to this than has come to light.”
“I believe that, too.” She sighed, feeling the weight of the past three years on her shoulders. “But what could that possibly be?”