Free Texas Fall by RJ Scott Page A

that what you did?”
    The judge looked at him,
then leaned forward. “Please answer, Mr. Frazier.”
    Then Liam did something
absolutely extraordinary. He half turned to address the judge. “I was answering,
sir, but this man interrupted me. It’s like no one wants to listen to me.”
    Jack waited with bated breath.
The judge took a few seconds, then addressed the defense attorney. “You will
let the witness answer. Continue, Mr. Frazier.”
    Liam nodded. “Thank you,
sir. I wanted to belong. I needed to belong somewhere. I was only sixteen, and
Hank made it seem like unless I did what I was supposed to do, I wouldn’t have
a home anymore. He was physically bigger, a man, whereas I was a boy. So if you
are asking if I led him on, no I never did, but if you’re asking why I never
spoke out, that is simple. I wanted a family that wanted me. I was scared to
lose it all again.”
    The defense attorney took
a step back before recovering his equilibrium and the questions continued. It
was Hank’s word against that of a handful of boys and Yuri, but somehow
everything had slotted together and Jack hoped to hell the jury agreed. But
that point there was Liam’s moment, and he hadn’t blown it.
    Jack couldn’t be prouder.
    Then it was Hank’s turn on
the stand and he used every smooth oily way of explaining away his actions,
calling Yuri a liar, the boys liars, talking about how he was an upstanding
member of the community. It fell apart spectacularly when the prosecution
simply asked:
    “Are you gay?”
    Talk about turning the
tables. Hank spluttered and looked as if he felt the question was beneath him,
and he looked directly at the defense team for them to intervene, to object.
Weakly they did, they finally stood and stated “objection” loudly. The judge
dismissed their stalling and directed Hank to answer.
    That was the moment where
Hank’s world fell apart, where all the carefully constructed lies against the backdrop
of how he ran a ranch and had responsibilities simply died.
    “I’m not fucking gay. They
forced themselves on me.”
    There was a collective
gasp from the jury and some well-crafted questions to revisit the point from
the defense attempting to get him back on track, but the damage was done. The
idea that four young kids had somehow independently forced Hank to do anything
was something no person would believe.
    Summing up was painful to
hear as Jack had to listen to the testimony given in sound bites. Then it was
done. The jury was retired with instructions from the judge as to points they
should consider, and Jack only felt like he could breathe when he was out of
the court.
     
    * * * * *
     
    Vaughn paced the small
room while they waited for the verdict and wished to hell that Darren would say
something, anything. He’d been utterly quiet all morning and while Vaughn knew
this had to be hard he thought that he and Darren were connected enough to
actually talk. They’d been lovers for four months now and it had been a
tumultuous time. Somehow they had come together in this fight and Vaughn wanted
more. He wanted Darren away from this case, from the toxicity that was the Bar
Five, and away from Hank.
    But laying that all on
Darren hadn’t gone down well. He’d been entirely honest with his lover about
moving away from Laredo. He wanted Darren to go with him and he wanted Darren
to give him an answer. Vaughn couldn’t spend another day at the Triple K under
Yuri Fensen when he was out from his pathetic sentence after he’d plea-bargained
down. Nor could he in all conscience have anything to do with the Bar Five
where the attacks had happened on the kids. There was hate in the dirt there.
The same hate that had sent Darren off to University and to working away from
the ranch.
    “Well?” Vaughn prompted
again. “Will you come with me?”
    Darren looked up at him,
and it broke his heart to see that Darren’s eyes were damp. He’d been through a
hell of a day as the brother to a man