Fighting to Be Free (Fighting to Be Free 1)

I frowned. What on earth was this about? This wasn’t how I saw this conversation going at all!

“Huh?”

He blew out a big breath and ran a hand through his hair, leaning against my car. “Your boyfriend isn’t as great as you think he is, in fact, you don’t even know him at all.”

This conversation was starting to make me feel a little nervous. I didn’t know Jamie at all? What on earth did that mean? “Mark, just spit it out, you’re making no sense!”

He nodded. “I’ve been helping my dad a lot recently at the weekends and stuff. It looks good on my college stuff so I’ve been helping him with menial cases, just doing little things like filing and stuff.

But last week one of his clerks was sick with the flu and he needed me to research some stuff for a high profile client of his,” he explained.

“Okay….” I mumbled, waiting for him to continue. I knew he helped his dad sometimes, he always had done, I was surprised that Mark didn’t want to be a lawyer the same as his dad instead of a doctor.

“At first I wondered what was so special about this case. It was just a grand theft auto, nothing major. The guy had gotten in an accident in the stolen car and so was busted for it. But my dad seems to be working so hard on it, putting much more effort in than normal.”

I gulped, slowly understanding what this was about. Terry. Mark’s dad was Terry’s hotshot lawyer?

Mark cleared his throat awkwardly and continued, “So I started looking into it, wondering why my dad was so bothered and spending so much time on it. Turns out that the guy that’s paying my dad’s fees, pays a lot, for a lot of different people too. It’s like he’s some kind of mafia or something, paying for my dad to represent everyone.”

Brett. He was talking about the guy Jamie worked for. I didn’t know what to say, what could I say? I wasn’t supposed to know anything about anything!

“So I start helping with the case, right? It turns out that the prosecution are trying to pin a load of other stuff on this guy too. They’re trying to link him to other known criminals and turn up other stuff that he’s into, arrest more people and stuff. They have to disclose everything they find to my dad; it’s one of the laws of court of something. They have to send my dad copies of witness statements and stuff so he can prepare his defence,” he said, looking at me intently as if he was checking that I was following what he was saying.

Was I following? I still didn’t understand why he was telling me all this. What did this have to do with me not knowing my boyfriend as well as I thought I did? “Mark, this is a great story and all but….” I shrugged, looking at my watch obviously. I needed to go soon or my mom would pitch a fit.

He nodded. “I’m getting to the point,” he confirmed. “Yesterday I got a stack of files sent over from the prosecution for me to copy and put away,” he reached into his pocket, pulling out a couple of folded up sheets of paper, “the prosecution have my dad’s client meeting up with known criminals.

They have photos, times, dates, all that stuff. One of the guys in the photo, well, it was Jamie.” He held out the pieces of paper to me, keeping one back to himself.

I felt my heart stop beating. They had details of Terry and Jamie together? Was Jamie in trouble by association? I needed to call him quickly and tell him! Would this stop us from being able to go tomorrow? Or maybe we should bring the flight forward and go tonight, just in case.

I knew I needed to play dumb. I couldn’t let Mark know that I knew Jamie was stealing cars and working for this Brett guy. “My Jamie? Don’t be so stupid!” I retorted, willing my voice to come out strong and not show that total panic that was brewing up inside me. What if Mark told my parents that Jamie was associating with a car thief? Would they stop me from going away with him tomorrow?

Mark nodded; not having the smug expression that I thought would be there due to the fact that he was probably thinking I would break up with my boyfriend because of this revelation. Instead, he actually looked a little sad, like he was worried how I was going to take the news. “Yeah. I’m pretty sure it’s him, it says his name too, Jamie Cole. Look at the photo, it’s him, right?” he said, nodding at the papers he was still holding out to me.

I gulped and took them, opening them. Immediately I was confronted by a black and white photo of Jamie, laughing with three other guys - I knew who two of them were, I’d met them before once when we were out and they just so happened to come into the same bar as us. The two guys, Terry and Ray, were actually pretty nice.

Mark pointed to Terry. “That’s my dad’s client, the car thief. And that’s Jamie with him, right?”

I nodded, unsure what I should say that wouldn’t incriminate Jamie further.

“Ellie, he’s not who you think he is. He’s not a good guy,” Mark whispered, producing out another piece of paper from his pocket.

I opened my mouth to defend Jamie and rebut that statement, Jamie was in fact a great guy, the nicest I’d ever met, well, after my dad. But Mark cut me off before I could protest.

“He’s been inside, Ellie. I have his rap sheet here,” he said, unfolding it slowly.

Inside? Like Jail? What the hell, no way! He’d never told me that - why would he have not told me that? Had he been inside for boosting cars?

“No,” I muttered, shaking my head fiercely. Jamie would have told me if he had. Sure, he had secrets and his past was bad, but he would have told me something serious like that, definitely!