Chapter TwentyTwo
"Wow...some plane," Lara remarked as they boarded the private jet Howie had
borrowed from Jive.
"Yeah...more strings that I pulled," was his reply as he followed her up the
steps. She sighed and said nothing. Lara flopped into a chair near a
window with Howie sitting across the aisle from her. She stared at the
clouds until way after takeoff, then she finally turned to look at him.
"I'm sorry. For what I said. I'm just...afraid. I feel so dumb...I
listened to everything he said, everything he told me, all the compliments,
and I was stupid enough to believe them." Lara's blue eyes were big as she
spoke. "And now I'm afraid that I will never be able to trust another man
again. All you were doing was being the friend I so desperately need right
now, and I apologize."
"It's okay," Howie said gently, coming to sit next to her. He slowly placed
his arm around her and she laid her head on his shoulder. "You've been
through a lot."
"And unfortunately there is more to come," she replied, thinking of facing
Lisa and Kevin again, not to mention Nick.
"You'll be fine. You have lots of friends to help you out, like me, and
Brian, and AJ."
"But I hardly know them," she protested.
"We're all on your side, Lara. We feel guilty, like we shoulda seen this
coming."
She shook her head. "I don't think anyone but Nick saw this coming."
Lara closed her eyes and sighed, letting herself relax and slowly drift off.
Just as she was almost asleep, she heard Howie say, "I punched him, ya
know."
Lara's head flew up. "You WHAT?"
"Punched him. Punched Nick. That night he was drunk and blabbed about
everything he was being really rude to the three of us."
"Like how rude?"
"Called me a fag, told AJ he would never consult him on fashion, and accused
Brian of always trying to fix every situation that went wrong. So I punched
him."
"Hard?"
"His eye looks like an Easter egg," Howie said, smiling in satisfaction.
Lara laughed at the smug look on his face as well as at the thought of Nick
with a black eye.
"I don't like violence, but I'm glad you did it." She grew serious. "I'd
never have the nerve to. I'll probably never have the nerve to even face
him again."
"You will. You won't have to do it alone."
"Your attorney is meeting us here?" Brian asked as Lisa came down the
steps. She had showered and changed and looked like a new person at the
prospect of putting Reggie away for a while.
"Yes. She said she was going to be in the area this afternoon and..." the
doorbell interrupted her. "That must be her. AJ, can you open that while I
find my bag?"
"Sure, let ME be the one to make small talk with a stuck up smartass
lawyer," he mumbled as he opened the door. His mouth dropped open before he
could recover.
"Hello, I'm Kelley Leffler, Lucky's attorney. Is she ready?"
AJ stared at the petite redhead who stood in the doorway. Her dark green
suit was tasteful and expensive and brought out the green of her eyes.
"Um...uh...yeah. Come on in." He moved aside, trying to get a hold of
himself.
"Hi. I'm Brian Littrell. We talked earlier." Brian walked over and shook
Kelley's hand. "This is our friend, Alex McLean."
"Alex." Kelley held out her hand. AJ just stared at it for a moment.
"Oh, yeah. Hi." He shook it, mentally telling himself to snap out of it.
He saw pretty girls all the time, but this woman had blown his mental
picture of a female lawyer right out of the water.
"Hey, Kel, glad you could make it on such short notice." Lisa came trotting
into the living room.
"No problem. When Brian told me what was up, I jumped at the chance to slam
Reggie's ass in jail." She looked at Brian and AJ. "He's kind of a
notorious slimeball in this town. I still don't see why she signed with
him."
"Young, stupid and desperate. Let's go." Lisa headed for the door.
"We'll see ya in a while," Brian told her. Her face fell.
"Y-you're not coming along?"
"Well, I thought you'd want..." Brian began.
"Please, Brian, I need you," Lisa whispered, not wanting to admit to herself
that having Brian there was the closest thing she could get to having Kevin
there.
"Okay," Brian conceded.
"I'll just stay here," AJ volunteered. "In case anyone call...I mean...in
case," he finished weakly. "Nice to meet you, Ms. Leffler."
"You too." Kelley strode out the door ahead of the others. They climbed
into her waiting black Lexus. "I scared the shit out of him, didn't I?"
She asked Brian with a smile. He roared with laughter.
"No woman catches AJ McLean off guard...until now. That was priceless."
Howie frowned as the cellphone he had left in his jacket across the aisle
started to ring. He carefully snuck his arm out from under Lara and put a
pillow in his place, leaning her carefully against the wall of the plane.
He grabbed his phone and went to the far back of the small plane. "Hello?"
He whispered.
"D, cool, where the hell ya at?"
"In the air. I found Lara and we're on our way back."
"Classic! We found out who was sending Lucky the nastygrams and we..."
"Whoa...wait...AJ...hold on. WHAT nastygrams?"
AJ took a deep breath and rapidly explained what was going on. "And that's
where they are now. You should see this lawyer, D, she is AMAZING!"
"I'm sure she is," Howie said, smiling at the thought of AJ being dumbstruck
just from taking one look at this lawyer. "Have you heard from Kevin?"
AJ grew serious. "No...I was hoping you had."
"Nope, not yet." Howie looked at his watch. "We should be landing at LAX
in about an hour. Come pick us up?"
"Sure. See ya then."
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By: Lara
© 2000
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Chapter TwentyOne
Chapter TwentyThree