“Fucker,” Shane muttered lazily.
Llew chuckled at Shane as he answered the phone with a groggy, “Yeah.”
“Bro. What are you doing?” Leslie said breathlessly on the other end.
“Les, it’s three in the morning what do you think I’m doing?” Llew stretched, groaning at the delicious ache in his ass.
“Oh god no. Eww, don’t tell me,” Leslie said, dramatically.
“Les, you idiot. I was asleep, man.”
Shane obviously heard his simple-minded brother, because he started laughing, pulling the covers up over their naked bodies.
Leslie’s good mood was obvious. “Are you with Shane? Is that him in the background? Tell him I said hi.”
“You’re fuckin’ acting high, Les. Is this why you called me at three a.m., dude?”
“Oh, no. I called because you are not going to believe this.”
Llew sat up against the headboard, running his hand through his hair. Damn, he hated when his brother did this. He always had to try to build up to a story with anticipation instead of just telling him. “Les, spit it out.”
“It’s all over Emporia, bro.”
“What is?” Llew yelled in exasperation.
“Moss held a press conference. He resigned as CEO of McGregor Enterprises, and came out to everyone.”
“Good for him,” Llew said drily. “Now if you don’t mind, I was having a really good dream.”
“That’s not all.” Leslie paused.
Llew huffed. “Well, are you gonna tell me the rest? Damn, you tell a story like a high school cheerleader.”
Leslie laughed. “Fuck you.”
“Les, I’m hanging up.”
“You and your brother are really weird.” Shane chuckled beside him, his face buried in Llew’s hip.
“No, he’s weird,” Llew mumbled.
“Llew are you listening?”
“Yes! But you’re not saying shit, Leslie.”
“Okay. Well not only did he resign, but he was arrested.”
Llew sat up higher. “For what?”
“You wouldn’t believe.” Leslie laughed.
“Oh, my god. Les, just finish the fuckin’ story!”
“Okay, okay.” His brother paused again for affect. “Moss McGregor the sixth was arrested for perjury.”
Llew’s mouth hung open, Shane’s did too. He leaned against Llew’s chest and put his ear closer to the phone.
“He. I quote, ‘Admitted to lying during sworn testimony given in the Commonwealth of Virginia versus Llewellyn Mark Gardner, resulting in Mr. Gardner being sentenced to ten years in prison for a crime he did not commit. Due to my overwhelming sense of guilt and the need to do the right thing by Llewellyn Gardner and his family, I can no longer in my distressed mental capacity continue to run McGregor Enterprises’.”
“Holy shit,” Llew and Shane said in unison.
“Bro, do you know what this means?” Leslie’s loud voice was barely registering as Llew held the phone limply in his hands. Moss had told everyone. He told the truth.
“You should sue the hell out of them, Llewellyn. That whole damn family, man,” Leslie said eagerly. “Use it to put yourself through college and get the degree you were robbed of, man.”
“No,” Llew whispered, talking to himself.
“No! Llew are you crazy! They put you through hell. That whole fuckin’ family. Hit their asses where it hurts. In their damn pockets!”
“Leslie. Thank you for telling me. I need to talk to Shane now.” Llew’s voice was still low and distant. He couldn’t believe this. After all this time. He didn’t know if he should be happy, or if he wanted to find Moss and rip his fucking head off. The whole “too little too late,” ringing in his mind.
“Shane if you can hear me, talk some sense into my crazy brother. He’s still trying to be the nice one. Always the damn good guy. It’s time to bust some heads, Llew,” Leslie yelled.
Llew pulled the phone from his ear. “Leslie. I love you. I’ll call you later.” Leslie was still yelling when Llew disconnected the call. He dropped the phone on the bed and pulled Shane into his arms.
“Llewell, are you okay?” Shane hugged him back, affectionately rubbing his shoulders and his arms.
“Yeah, baby. God, I love you so much.” Llew’s voice was shaky when he spoke.
Shane looked at him with concern. “I love you too, babe. What’s wrong?”
“Nothing. I just don’t want to sue anyone. I don’t want a dime from him. Moss’ big-time lawyers will get him off on a mental insanity plea or some shit, but his life was already wrecked before he confessed.”
“I thought you’d be happy.”
“I’m not happy at anyone’s misfortune, baby.” Llew sighed.
Shane looked at him in wonder. “You are such a good man, Llewell. Always considerate of others, no matter what. But, this is still good, everyone will know the truth now. You can win this in the end.”
Llew scooted back down under the covers, taking Shane with him. He held him in his arms, sighing at the inherent sadness in what he’d just said. “Yeah. They’ll know the truth now. But I can’t be happy about it, Shane. Because they should’ve known all along. I grew up in Emporia, so did my parents. They all knew me. Classmates, teachers, guidance counselors, even the damn sheriff. But when it came time for trial, not one person testified on my behalf.”