A Lavish Prison
Title: A Lavish Prison
Author: bahama_breeze77
Rating: NC17ish
Pairing: J2, Jared/Josh Duhamel, Chris/Steve
Warning: Violence, Abuse, Sort of non-con, Bad language
Summary: Jared’s life is hell; he has one friend, a horrible boyfriend, and his future being decided for him. But that all starts to change when a gorgeous green eyed photographer moves into the next door apartment.
A/N: I have very little knowledge of medical related things, so forgive my ignorance when it comes to medications and such. Just go with the flow!!
Previous Chapters
Ch. 12
Jared walked into his mother’s spacious kitchen for a cup of morning coffee. His mother was sitting at the table; papers spread out all over it. He could guess that they had something to do with the wedding.
“Morning honey. If your looking for Josh, he had to go meet his boss for an hour tops. He’ll be back later this afternoon.” Diane greeted.
Jared continued to make his coffee completely ignoring his mother. It was something he had been doing with his mother and Josh for the last few days. The only good thing about being here was that it was easily done. The house was so big; Jared could easily avoid Josh and his mother all day. Josh was really busy with work and his mother was so busy with last minute wedding plans that they had been just pretty much ignoring Jared’s presence; which was just fine with him.
“Honey? Is something wrong?” Diane asked with concern.
“My whole fucking life.” Jared muttered to himself; keeping his back to his mother.
“I can’t help if I don’t know.” Diane pointed out. “Are you just nervous about the wedding tomorrow? It’s to be expected with any one about to get married; but they always feel so relieved and happy after.”
Jared snorted, “Sure, but those people actually wanted to get married.”
Diane smiled patiently, “We’ve talked about this Jared. You just have to give it time. Your father and I…”
Jared whirled around to look at his mother. “Don’t talk to me about my father! You will never be half the parent he was!” He yelled. “God! I envy him right now! I wish I was dead so I wouldn’t have to put up with you either!”
His mother gasped; tears in her eyes. “How can you say that to me? I’ve done everything I could to give you a good life!”
Jared shook his head. “You want to do me a favor? Don’t talk to me ever again.”
Diane sighed, “This anger is just from your nerves. Everything will work out okay in the end.”
Anything Jared was about to say was cut off as the butler walked into the kitchen. “Good morning Ma’am.”
Jared turned back around to pour some of the now made coffee from the pot while his mother warmly greeted the butler. His hands were shaking from the sadness, depression, and anger strumming though his veins.
“Everything is all set at the gates. These are the new codes to get through. The gates are being kept permanently closed for the time being.” Humphrey stated.
“Wonderful.” Diane said standing up. “Now we won’t have anymore unexpected quests. I’ll just go give Josh a call and tell him the new codes.”
Jared turned in confusion and saw his mother walk out of the kitchen. “Who was here yesterday?” he asked Humphrey.
Humphrey shrugged. “A young man about your age with blonde spiky hair and a bad attitude. He wanted to see you.”
“Chad?” Jared wanted to know.
Humphrey only shrugged.
Jared could feel his anger rise more. “Why wasn’t he let in?”
“Your mother said no one was allowed in to see you. The young man got quite angry and your fiancé took care of it.”
“Yeah I bet he did.” Jared seethed as he walked past the butler and into the library where he knew his mother had gone to make her phone call. She was just hanging up the phone when he threw open the door and walked in.
His mother jumped at the loud bang created by the door hitting the wall. “Is something wrong honey?”
“Why wasn’t I told Chad was here yesterday?” he asked immediately.
Diane crossed her arms over her chest as she regarded her son. “I thought it would be the best dear. You have so much on your plate right now; I didn’t think anymore stress would be good for you.”
“How is talking to my friend adding more stress?” Jared asked outraged, “And what the hell do you mean I have a lot on my plate right now? I’m a fucking prisoner in my own house; I’m bored out of my mind.”
“You’re not a prisoner here.” Diane stressed. “This is your home.”
Jared nodded his head. “Great! So I’m just going to go visit Chad then.”
Diane frowned. “Josh is on his way home, he wouldn’t like for you to be gone.”
“I don’t really give a shit what Josh wants.” Jared grounded his teeth together. “I want to see Chad. You can’t keep me from having friends!”
Diane smiled and nodded. “Of course not dear! It’s just that Josh has a great reputation in this town. His career is taking off so fast and he has to keep up appearances. What do you think people would say about Josh when they find out his husband is conversing with…someone like Chad.”
“Someone like Chad?” Jared asked slowly; confused. “You mean someone who isn’t filthy rich and doesn’t live in an expensive house.”
Diane sighed. “Josh and I decided it would be best if you don’t see Chad anymore. You need to think about all of our reputations.”
“Why?” Jared asked with tears in his eyes. “Why do I need to care about you guys when you couldn’t give a shit about me?”
Diane gasped. “That’s not true, we love you! This wedding tomorrow should show you that!”
Jared shook his head and laughed. “Well I hate you!” Jared yelled as the tears trickled down his cheeks much like his anger and frustration were pouring out. “You have done nothing but ruin my life! I hate you!” Jared screamed as he hurled his coffee cup at the huge stain glass window, relishing the sound of the breaking glass as he turned and ran back to his room.
Once inside he locked the door and fell back against it. He brought his hands up to cover his face as he slid down to the floor; sobbing. Bringing his knees up he buried his face in his knees as all the held back emotions came pouring out of him; fear, anger, sadness, longing; and helplessness all rolled into one.
He couldn’t believe this is where his life had led him. If he had any faith or belief in a God left, he would be most certain that he must have done something horrible to get dealt this hand. Even though his mother had said he wasn’t a prisoner here; Jared knew he was. He had been for a while now, ever since he had been introduced to Josh. He was given everything money could buy from Josh; an expensive lifestyle and even a lavish home. Things people could only dream of; things people would see as a miracle; but Jared had only seen a prison cell, complete with regular beat downs from the guard. And now he’s temporarily found himself in another lavish prison; this one complete with two guards.
Jared wasn’t sure how long he sat there crying. But eventually his sobs faded into occasional tears and the room began to darken with the coming of night. He jumped slightly when a knock came at his door and the door handle rattled.
“Jared?” Josh called.
Jared stayed quiet and continued to stare at the wall across the room from him. He had cried out all his emotions and now he just felt empty. He didn’t care if Josh got mad; he didn’t care that he had nothing to eat that whole day and was kind of hungry; he didn’t care about what tomorrow would bring anymore; he didn’t care about his future…he just didn’t care.
“Fine.” Josh’s impatient voice came through the door. “I just wanted to tell you to be ready by ten tomorrow morning. We’re going to leave for the church and get ready there. The stylists and your mother will be there to help get everything ready.”
Jared heard Josh’s footsteps fade away; he was tired out but he just continued to sit there. Tomorrow he would get married. He didn’t know if they would be living in the same place or if Josh would find them another condo to live in. Jared didn’t care either way; but he knew no matter how lavish it was; it would just be another prison to him; one with a life sentence.
*******~~~*******
Chris looked up from his reclined position on the couch as Steve walked through the door and stopped quickly at the sight of him; his eyes wide in surprise.
“Hey.” Steve greeted; rubbing the back of his neck. “You two were back quickly.”
Chris nodded. He and Jensen planned to go out for a quick dinner; he had wanted to get Jensen out of the apartment for a bit. Jensen hadn’t wanted to go in case Chad called; but Chris convinced him to go by saying Chad would call his cell phone so it didn’t much matter where they were. Steve had declined on going, saying he was just going to take a quick nap. Once at the restaurant, Jensen decided to just take the food back home; not really up to being out in public when he was so anxious. Upon returning to the apartment, Chris had been upset to see Steve wasn’t there like he said he was going to be. “Where were you?” he asked noticing his lover rubbing his neck; something he did when he was nervous.
Steve shrugged. “I couldn’t sleep; so I went to the beach. Where’s Jensen?”
Chris shrugged with a frown. “In his room…probably staring at his cell phone. What were you doing down there?”
“Just watching the people walk by.” Steve replied unsurely; not sure why his lover was frowning at him.
“You’re lying.” Chris stated. He could always tell when Steve was lying.
Steve looked at his lover with what he hoped was a confused expression. “What?”
“You’re lying. God Steve! I’m not an idiot. I just don’t know what your keeping from me or why.” Chris accused as he got up to stand in front of Steve.
“I’m not keeping anything from you.” Steve claimed.
“Lying!” Chris hissed as he got in Steve’s face. “Something has been going on with you for the last few days and I want to know what.”
Steve sighed and rubbed his temples to relieve the headache he felt coming on. “Chris please…it’s nothing.”
Chris’s anger skyrocketed as he sensed Steve lie again. “I can’t believe…”
“Guys? Everything okay?” Jensen asked in concern as he walked out of his room to see his two friends in each other’s faces.
Chris grunted and walked into the bathroom; shutting the door behind him.
“Steve?” Jensen asked confused.
Steve smiled at Jensen tightly as he slumped down on the couch. “Everything is fine Jensen; don’t worry.”
Jensen hesitated before sitting down next to his friend. “Are you guys having problems?” He felt extremely bad. He had been so absorbed in his own problems that he hadn’t noticed what was going on between his best friends.
Steve shook his head quickly. “No Jen. I promise you…were fine. I’ll go speak to him okay…he just needed to cool off a bit.” He got up after placing a quick kiss on Jensen’s forehead and headed toward the bathroom. He opened the door and headed in without knocking. Chris was leaning against the counter with his head hanging low.
Steve quickly shut the door behind him and leaned back against the door crossing his arms over his chest. Nothing was said for a few minutes.
“What do you want?” Chris asked softly. “If you’re going to lie again; don’t bother; just get out.”
Steve sighed and looked down. “This is something we need to talk about Chris. But it’s not the time; right now Jensen needs us.”
“Is it about you? Are you…are you sick or something?” Chris asked his biggest fear. He couldn’t imagine his life without Steve and his greatest fear was that something would take him away early. That was the only thing he could think of that Steve would be hesitant to tell him.
Steve’s heart broke at the pain in his lover’s voice. He hated to see Chris, who was usually so strong and confident, scared and unsure like this. “No…god no.” He quickly went to Chris and pulled him into a hug. “It’s nothing like that. I promise.”
Chris buried his head into Steve’s neck and held him tight. “I can’t loose you. I love you more than anything.”
“You’re not losing me babe.” Steve comforted as he ran his fingers through Chris’s hair. “I’m right here with you…forever.”
Chris pulled back and took Steve’s mouth in a passionate kiss. “You’re really okay?” he asked breathlessly after he pulled away.
Steve smiled and quickly kissed him again. “I’m healthy as can be. Lets just get through the next few days and then we’ll talk okay?”
Chris nodded as he pulled Steve back against his chest and held him tight. “Okay.”
The two stayed like that in each others arms until a knock on the door disturbed them. Jensen popped his head in and smiled at the sight of his two friends wrapped in each other’s arms. Once they turned toward him he said, “Chad just called and he wants us to meet him at his café in half an hour.”
Chris nodded. “Okay, let’s get this done…whatever it is.”
*******~~~*******
Twenty minutes later found the three friends walking up to Chad who was leaning against the window outside his café.
“So?” Jensen asked as soon as they were in hearing distance. His anxiety returned full force at that moment. He couldn’t wait till he had Jared back in his arms.
Chad pushed off the wall and pointed to his car. “I’ll explain as we drive.”
“Where are we going?” Chris asked as they got in and Chad began to drive them toward wherever they were going.
“Morton International; it’s the bank were Josh works.” Chad informed.
Steve groaned, “Please tell me we are not breaking into a federal bank? We can’t be much help to Jared if we’re stuck in prison for the rest of our lives.”
Chad shook his head as he pulled onto the highway. “Fuck no man! I’m too pretty for prison. So this guy that comes into my café everyday, nice old man, he works for a janitorial company that happens to clean the bank every night after it closes down for the day. I got a hold of him yesterday night and offered him free coffee for a year if he let us into the bank.”
Chris’s eyebrows rose. “And he agreed just like that?”
“No, of course not; I told him Jensen’s wife worked there and she was asked to come in tomorrow morning and tomorrow just happened to be her birthday…so we as such thoughtful human beings are going to decorate her office to surprise her and make her day happier and blah blah blah.”
“Huh.” Steve said surprised. “I can’t believe he bought that.”
“Yeah well, I said he was nice…not smart.” Chad remarked.
“I don’t care what you told him or if he believes; as long as we get into Josh’s office.” Jensen stated as he rested his head against the cool glass of the car window.
Ten minutes later they pulled into the parking lot near the bank and got out. Chad grabbed a bag from the trunk and the men began walking toward the man leaning against the outside door smoking.
“What’s in the bag? Spy equipment?” Chris asked in humor.
“Nope, birthday decorations.” Chad stated. When he got odd looks from the others, he continued, “What? We have to play the part. I know I said this man wasn’t too smart…but he isn’t completely stupid either.”
When they neared the doors, Jensen noticed the man quickly put out his cigarette and step foreword to meet them. He was an older man; maybe in his seventies and of Hispanic descent.
“Hola.” The man stated.
“Hi Felipe. Thanks for this again. Jensen here is just too good of a man.” Chad smiled.
“It is my pleasure. I always like to help young lovers…tis such a beautiful thing.” Felipe gushed as he let the men into the bank. “The offices are on the second floor toward the back.”
“Thanks.” Jensen called out to the already retreating man as they made their way to the stairs down the hallway looking for Josh’s name on the doors they passed.
Once the got there, Steve rattled the handle to see if it was unlocked. It was. The four men quickly made their way inside and shut the door behind them. Once the lights were flicked on, Jensen looked around at the huge office. There was a big round wooden table in the middle that was stacked with papers, to the side was a big desk with shelves lining the wall behind it and the other side of the room was lined with filing cabinets.
“Wow, nice office.” Chris remarked absentmindedly.
“Shit. There is a lot to go through.” Chad remarked as he threw the bag full of decorations at Jensen. “I’ll go through the shit on the table; someone take the desk and someone else take the filing cabinets.”
“Start decorating Aramis.” Chris teased Jensen as he walked over to the desk.
Jensen rolled his eyes. “Back to the Musketeers references again, huh Athos?” He heard Steve snort from where he was over by the filing cabinets. He turned to look at Steve. “What? You’re just sour because you have to be Porthos.”
“You’re all idiots.” Steve muttered as he began searching though another drawer.
Chad’s head popped up. “I love the Three Musketeers…but seriously…there are four of us…I feel left out.”
“No problem.” Chris said as he rummaged through the stuff inside a drawer. “You can be D'Artagnan; the young apprentice.”
“Yeah. He’s a hot headed youth like I am.” Chad laughed. “All for one and one for all.”
Chris looked up with a thoughtful look on his face. “Isn’t it weird how well we fit those names?”
Steve looked up then at his lover. “Speak for yourself. I’m not gullible and I don’t eat like a pig.” When his lover just continued to stare at him with a raised eyebrow, he flipped him off and went back to his search.
Jensen laughed as he looked down into the bag he was holding and saw lots of cheesy birthday decorations. Quickly grabbing some out he threw them down onto the counter that was near him holding some thick books before wandering over to the desk where he threw some more down.
Walking behind the desk, he stopped to look at the pictures that were on the shelves. A few of them were of people he didn’t know, one was of an older couple he guessed where Josh’s parents, and the last one was of Jared. He looked a few years younger and completely happy. He had a huge smile on his face and he was playing with a dog outside. Jensen could only guess that this picture was taken before or right around the time Jared met Josh…sometime before Josh turned into a monster.
He reached up and slid the picture out of the frame and stuck it in his pocket. Josh didn’t deserve to have anything to do with Jared. Looking at his friends he saw they were still searching in their respective areas. Walking to the table, Jensen threw the rest of the decorations down on it and leaned against the table next to Chad.
“How’s it coming?” He asked as he glanced out the window behind the table. It was getting dark out. Friday was almost complete. They were running out of time.
“Just lots of shit in these papers I don’t understand, but nothing about the wedding or anything.” Chad remarked quickly shifting to another stack and quickly looked through it.
“Same here.” Chris spoke up. “There is so much crap here; I don’t know how he functions.”
“Probably has all his subordinates do all the work and takes all the credit.” Jensen muttered as he began to help Chad in the search.
Twenty minutes later nothing had been found and Jensen’s impatiens was rising. There had been no talking in the last ten minutes, only the quiet rustle of paper. So it came as quite a surprise to them when the office door suddenly opened. All four men quickly stood up straight and moved to the center of the room trying to look innocent.
Jensen breathed out a silent sigh of relief as he noticed it was just Felipe coming in from the dark hallway.
“What you doing?” Felipe asked confused. “This not women’s office…this is Mr. Duhamel’s office. See sign plate.” He pointed to the name printed on the front of the office door.
The four men stood there silently with wide eyes not knowing what to say. Jensen imagined they looked like four deer about to get hit with a car and he felt the sudden urge to laugh but then Chad rounded on him with a look of outrage.
“Jensen! How could you? This is the wrong office!” he yelled. “We just spent all that time decorating the wrong office!”
Jensen was so surprised by Chad that all he could do was gape wordlessly at him.
Chad turned back to Felipe and said, “Thank you so much for telling us. We’ll just clean up here and find the right office this time.”
Felipe nodded and laughed. “Your eyesight almost as bad as mine!” he told Jensen and with an amused shake of his head turned around and left the office, dragging a vacuum cleaner behind him.
“Shit.” Chad shook his head and headed back to the table. “That was close.” Chris and Steve went back to searching also.
Jensen sighed and went to the desk this time to help Chris go through the files there.
Steve closed the file drawer and tried to open the last one. This one was locked. He frowned. He didn’t understand why this one would be locked when all the other ones were unlocked. He quickly pulled open the drawer he had just looked through and pulled two paperclips off some files before shutting it. He twisted them to get them into the shape he wanted and began to try and pick the lock. It was a technique his ex, Ben, had taught him many years ago. He hadn’t had to use it in many years so he was afraid he might have forgotten how to do it correctly. But a few minutes later he heard the tell tale sound of a lock clicking and smiled happily. Oh yeah, he still had it.
Opening the drawer, he was disappointed to find it empty. He began to close it when a rustling caught his attention. Bending foreword a bit, he tried to peer into the back. There was just one folder in there, jammed into the very back. Reaching his hand in, he grabbed the folder and brought it out; spreading it open on top of the cabinet as his eyes tried to make sense of what he was seeing.
“What did Jared do with his money?” Jensen heard Steve ask; breaking about fifteen minutes of silence.
“What money? Jared didn’t have a lot of money; Josh made sure of that.” Chad remarked in disgust.
“No, I mean the money his dad left him in the will…I can’t see him spending all that money.” Steve clarified as he flipped through the pages in front of him.
Chad shook his head not looking up from what he was doing. “His dad didn’t leave him anything…it all went to the she-devil.”
“Not according to this.” Steve said simply.
That statement had everyone’s head snapping toward Steve before they all walked over to gather around him. “What are you looking at?” Jensen asked.
“Is that a copy of the will?” Chad asked confused as he pulled it out of Steve’s hand to read it over. This didn’t make any sense. Jared would have told him if he had this much money left to him. “It says he left Jared about 4 million dollars…but Jared said he didn’t get anything.”
“Who presided over the will? Morton International?” Chris asked.
“Yeah.” Chad said slowly his brain trying to make sense out of this. “His dad banked here.”
“I think these pages are records of the money trail.” Steve informed as he held up a few more pieces of paper. “This shows money going into two accounts; the second of these accounts was for four million dollars.”
Chad took those papers and looked at them. “The dates for these transfers are about a week after his dad died. Those seem right…but look here.” Chad pointed to a spot on the paper. “It looks like a few months later the four million was taken from this account and placed into the first account…the account numbers are the same.” Chad flipped to the next page. “Fuck man. Josh was the one to approve that.” He said as he spotted Josh’s signature on the paperwork.
“What the hell?” Jensen asked. “So he took Jared’s money and placed it somewhere else…who’s account is that?”
Chad shrugged.
“Wait.” Steve said. “Read those account numbers to me.” As Chad read them off he looked in the appropriate filing cabinets and pulled out the folders that corresponded to the numbers. “Wow shocker. The first account belongs to Diane Padalecki and the second one…” Steve flipped it open toward them; it was empty.
“What the fuck?” Chad asked as he took Diane’s file and opened it, scanning through the pages. “Here is what she got from the will, about 7 million and Jesus Christ…”
“What?” all three men asked simultaneously.
“Then nothing!” Chad finished. “Totally broke. The amount in those few moths after the will drops rapidly until she had nothing left…no money. Then a few days later 4 million dollars gets put into the account.”
“Jared’s money.” Chris stated.
“Huh.” Jensen pondered as a memory suddenly came back to him. He remembered something Jared had said after he learned the truth about Josh beating him.
~~~~~~~~~
“What happened?”
“Josh came home early, he didn’t like that I wasn’t at home where I should be…he said I smelt like sex.”
“I just don’t understand…if he is so awful to you…how come you stayed with him?”
Jared shrugged, “Fear of the unknown, no money, no where to go, only one friend who I couldn’t bear to tell, my mother…I don’t know…because I’m weak…take your pick.”
Jensen shook his head. “You’re not weak Jared. What’s your mother got to do with this?”
“She was the one who set me and Josh up and seeing us together made her so happy. She had been so upset by my father’s death…it didn’t hit her until a few months after he died, she got so upset and depressed, and then she met Josh and set us up and then her whole attitude changed…and I guess I didn’t want to see her sad again…she’s my mother you know…”
~~~~~~~~
“Huh what?” Steve asked.
Jensen quickly told them what Jared had said to him that day.
“Fuck! He didn’t even know about the money. I bet that bitch never told him.” Chad cursed.
Chris nodded, “So the bitch spends all the money that was left to her within a few months and gets depressed because she runs out of money and is desperate so she takes her sons also. I don’t see how she could have done that without Jared signing off on it.”
Chad snored. “That’s where Asshole comes into play. He oversaw the will, so he could just move the money; no harm no foul. Someone can’t miss money they didn’t know they had in the first place.”
“Why would he do that? Wouldn’t it be a huge risk to him? He could lose his job and go to prison for fucking with the government’s money like that.” Jensen asked confused. “Do you think Diane blackmailed him or something?”
Steve shrugged as he began to look in the drawers for another folder. Once he found it he seemed even more confused. “Look further down her records. After the transfer of the 4 million, every month there is ten thousand deposited in it from a third account.”
“Whose?” Jensen asked although he bet he could guess.
“Josh’s?” Chad guessed.
Steve nodded. “Bingo.”
“Why? That doesn’t make any…” Jensen trailed off. He was going to say that didn’t make any sense but really it did. The last piece of the puzzle seemed to fall into place. “No fucking way.” When the other’s looked at him he continued, “So Diane, broke and desperate for money goes to Josh, tells him she never told her son about the money he was left and wants it. Josh, who has to have seen Jared by this point and wanted him, agrees to give her the 4 million and gives her a bit to survive on each month as long as she gives him Jared…”
“That fucking Bitch!” Chad shouts in anger. It all made sense now. “Selling her son like a whore…turning a blind eye to the way he’s treated…all for fucking money! And Jared’s too innocent and nice for his own good to see it.” Chad slammed the files he was holding down onto the cabinet and began to pace back and forth. “I’m going to kill them!”
“Well…you may get your chance.” Chris said from the desk. Jensen hadn’t even noticed he had moved back there. He was holding up a small stack of papers. “Look what I found.”
“Does it say where they are getting married?” Jensen asked cutting right to the chase.
When Chris nodded both him and Chad quickly went over to him to look at the findings. So no one noticed as Steve collected the files and pulled out all the papers; folding them and placing them into his jacket pocket.
TBC next Monday!
Author: bahama_breeze77
Rating: NC17ish
Pairing: J2, Jared/Josh Duhamel, Chris/Steve
Warning: Violence, Abuse, Sort of non-con, Bad language
Summary: Jared’s life is hell; he has one friend, a horrible boyfriend, and his future being decided for him. But that all starts to change when a gorgeous green eyed photographer moves into the next door apartment.
A/N: I have very little knowledge of medical related things, so forgive my ignorance when it comes to medications and such. Just go with the flow!!
Previous Chapters
Ch. 12
Jared walked into his mother’s spacious kitchen for a cup of morning coffee. His mother was sitting at the table; papers spread out all over it. He could guess that they had something to do with the wedding.
“Morning honey. If your looking for Josh, he had to go meet his boss for an hour tops. He’ll be back later this afternoon.” Diane greeted.
Jared continued to make his coffee completely ignoring his mother. It was something he had been doing with his mother and Josh for the last few days. The only good thing about being here was that it was easily done. The house was so big; Jared could easily avoid Josh and his mother all day. Josh was really busy with work and his mother was so busy with last minute wedding plans that they had been just pretty much ignoring Jared’s presence; which was just fine with him.
“Honey? Is something wrong?” Diane asked with concern.
“My whole fucking life.” Jared muttered to himself; keeping his back to his mother.
“I can’t help if I don’t know.” Diane pointed out. “Are you just nervous about the wedding tomorrow? It’s to be expected with any one about to get married; but they always feel so relieved and happy after.”
Jared snorted, “Sure, but those people actually wanted to get married.”
Diane smiled patiently, “We’ve talked about this Jared. You just have to give it time. Your father and I…”
Jared whirled around to look at his mother. “Don’t talk to me about my father! You will never be half the parent he was!” He yelled. “God! I envy him right now! I wish I was dead so I wouldn’t have to put up with you either!”
His mother gasped; tears in her eyes. “How can you say that to me? I’ve done everything I could to give you a good life!”
Jared shook his head. “You want to do me a favor? Don’t talk to me ever again.”
Diane sighed, “This anger is just from your nerves. Everything will work out okay in the end.”
Anything Jared was about to say was cut off as the butler walked into the kitchen. “Good morning Ma’am.”
Jared turned back around to pour some of the now made coffee from the pot while his mother warmly greeted the butler. His hands were shaking from the sadness, depression, and anger strumming though his veins.
“Everything is all set at the gates. These are the new codes to get through. The gates are being kept permanently closed for the time being.” Humphrey stated.
“Wonderful.” Diane said standing up. “Now we won’t have anymore unexpected quests. I’ll just go give Josh a call and tell him the new codes.”
Jared turned in confusion and saw his mother walk out of the kitchen. “Who was here yesterday?” he asked Humphrey.
Humphrey shrugged. “A young man about your age with blonde spiky hair and a bad attitude. He wanted to see you.”
“Chad?” Jared wanted to know.
Humphrey only shrugged.
Jared could feel his anger rise more. “Why wasn’t he let in?”
“Your mother said no one was allowed in to see you. The young man got quite angry and your fiancé took care of it.”
“Yeah I bet he did.” Jared seethed as he walked past the butler and into the library where he knew his mother had gone to make her phone call. She was just hanging up the phone when he threw open the door and walked in.
His mother jumped at the loud bang created by the door hitting the wall. “Is something wrong honey?”
“Why wasn’t I told Chad was here yesterday?” he asked immediately.
Diane crossed her arms over her chest as she regarded her son. “I thought it would be the best dear. You have so much on your plate right now; I didn’t think anymore stress would be good for you.”
“How is talking to my friend adding more stress?” Jared asked outraged, “And what the hell do you mean I have a lot on my plate right now? I’m a fucking prisoner in my own house; I’m bored out of my mind.”
“You’re not a prisoner here.” Diane stressed. “This is your home.”
Jared nodded his head. “Great! So I’m just going to go visit Chad then.”
Diane frowned. “Josh is on his way home, he wouldn’t like for you to be gone.”
“I don’t really give a shit what Josh wants.” Jared grounded his teeth together. “I want to see Chad. You can’t keep me from having friends!”
Diane smiled and nodded. “Of course not dear! It’s just that Josh has a great reputation in this town. His career is taking off so fast and he has to keep up appearances. What do you think people would say about Josh when they find out his husband is conversing with…someone like Chad.”
“Someone like Chad?” Jared asked slowly; confused. “You mean someone who isn’t filthy rich and doesn’t live in an expensive house.”
Diane sighed. “Josh and I decided it would be best if you don’t see Chad anymore. You need to think about all of our reputations.”
“Why?” Jared asked with tears in his eyes. “Why do I need to care about you guys when you couldn’t give a shit about me?”
Diane gasped. “That’s not true, we love you! This wedding tomorrow should show you that!”
Jared shook his head and laughed. “Well I hate you!” Jared yelled as the tears trickled down his cheeks much like his anger and frustration were pouring out. “You have done nothing but ruin my life! I hate you!” Jared screamed as he hurled his coffee cup at the huge stain glass window, relishing the sound of the breaking glass as he turned and ran back to his room.
Once inside he locked the door and fell back against it. He brought his hands up to cover his face as he slid down to the floor; sobbing. Bringing his knees up he buried his face in his knees as all the held back emotions came pouring out of him; fear, anger, sadness, longing; and helplessness all rolled into one.
He couldn’t believe this is where his life had led him. If he had any faith or belief in a God left, he would be most certain that he must have done something horrible to get dealt this hand. Even though his mother had said he wasn’t a prisoner here; Jared knew he was. He had been for a while now, ever since he had been introduced to Josh. He was given everything money could buy from Josh; an expensive lifestyle and even a lavish home. Things people could only dream of; things people would see as a miracle; but Jared had only seen a prison cell, complete with regular beat downs from the guard. And now he’s temporarily found himself in another lavish prison; this one complete with two guards.
Jared wasn’t sure how long he sat there crying. But eventually his sobs faded into occasional tears and the room began to darken with the coming of night. He jumped slightly when a knock came at his door and the door handle rattled.
“Jared?” Josh called.
Jared stayed quiet and continued to stare at the wall across the room from him. He had cried out all his emotions and now he just felt empty. He didn’t care if Josh got mad; he didn’t care that he had nothing to eat that whole day and was kind of hungry; he didn’t care about what tomorrow would bring anymore; he didn’t care about his future…he just didn’t care.
“Fine.” Josh’s impatient voice came through the door. “I just wanted to tell you to be ready by ten tomorrow morning. We’re going to leave for the church and get ready there. The stylists and your mother will be there to help get everything ready.”
Jared heard Josh’s footsteps fade away; he was tired out but he just continued to sit there. Tomorrow he would get married. He didn’t know if they would be living in the same place or if Josh would find them another condo to live in. Jared didn’t care either way; but he knew no matter how lavish it was; it would just be another prison to him; one with a life sentence.
*******~~~*******
Chris looked up from his reclined position on the couch as Steve walked through the door and stopped quickly at the sight of him; his eyes wide in surprise.
“Hey.” Steve greeted; rubbing the back of his neck. “You two were back quickly.”
Chris nodded. He and Jensen planned to go out for a quick dinner; he had wanted to get Jensen out of the apartment for a bit. Jensen hadn’t wanted to go in case Chad called; but Chris convinced him to go by saying Chad would call his cell phone so it didn’t much matter where they were. Steve had declined on going, saying he was just going to take a quick nap. Once at the restaurant, Jensen decided to just take the food back home; not really up to being out in public when he was so anxious. Upon returning to the apartment, Chris had been upset to see Steve wasn’t there like he said he was going to be. “Where were you?” he asked noticing his lover rubbing his neck; something he did when he was nervous.
Steve shrugged. “I couldn’t sleep; so I went to the beach. Where’s Jensen?”
Chris shrugged with a frown. “In his room…probably staring at his cell phone. What were you doing down there?”
“Just watching the people walk by.” Steve replied unsurely; not sure why his lover was frowning at him.
“You’re lying.” Chris stated. He could always tell when Steve was lying.
Steve looked at his lover with what he hoped was a confused expression. “What?”
“You’re lying. God Steve! I’m not an idiot. I just don’t know what your keeping from me or why.” Chris accused as he got up to stand in front of Steve.
“I’m not keeping anything from you.” Steve claimed.
“Lying!” Chris hissed as he got in Steve’s face. “Something has been going on with you for the last few days and I want to know what.”
Steve sighed and rubbed his temples to relieve the headache he felt coming on. “Chris please…it’s nothing.”
Chris’s anger skyrocketed as he sensed Steve lie again. “I can’t believe…”
“Guys? Everything okay?” Jensen asked in concern as he walked out of his room to see his two friends in each other’s faces.
Chris grunted and walked into the bathroom; shutting the door behind him.
“Steve?” Jensen asked confused.
Steve smiled at Jensen tightly as he slumped down on the couch. “Everything is fine Jensen; don’t worry.”
Jensen hesitated before sitting down next to his friend. “Are you guys having problems?” He felt extremely bad. He had been so absorbed in his own problems that he hadn’t noticed what was going on between his best friends.
Steve shook his head quickly. “No Jen. I promise you…were fine. I’ll go speak to him okay…he just needed to cool off a bit.” He got up after placing a quick kiss on Jensen’s forehead and headed toward the bathroom. He opened the door and headed in without knocking. Chris was leaning against the counter with his head hanging low.
Steve quickly shut the door behind him and leaned back against the door crossing his arms over his chest. Nothing was said for a few minutes.
“What do you want?” Chris asked softly. “If you’re going to lie again; don’t bother; just get out.”
Steve sighed and looked down. “This is something we need to talk about Chris. But it’s not the time; right now Jensen needs us.”
“Is it about you? Are you…are you sick or something?” Chris asked his biggest fear. He couldn’t imagine his life without Steve and his greatest fear was that something would take him away early. That was the only thing he could think of that Steve would be hesitant to tell him.
Steve’s heart broke at the pain in his lover’s voice. He hated to see Chris, who was usually so strong and confident, scared and unsure like this. “No…god no.” He quickly went to Chris and pulled him into a hug. “It’s nothing like that. I promise.”
Chris buried his head into Steve’s neck and held him tight. “I can’t loose you. I love you more than anything.”
“You’re not losing me babe.” Steve comforted as he ran his fingers through Chris’s hair. “I’m right here with you…forever.”
Chris pulled back and took Steve’s mouth in a passionate kiss. “You’re really okay?” he asked breathlessly after he pulled away.
Steve smiled and quickly kissed him again. “I’m healthy as can be. Lets just get through the next few days and then we’ll talk okay?”
Chris nodded as he pulled Steve back against his chest and held him tight. “Okay.”
The two stayed like that in each others arms until a knock on the door disturbed them. Jensen popped his head in and smiled at the sight of his two friends wrapped in each other’s arms. Once they turned toward him he said, “Chad just called and he wants us to meet him at his café in half an hour.”
Chris nodded. “Okay, let’s get this done…whatever it is.”
*******~~~*******
Twenty minutes later found the three friends walking up to Chad who was leaning against the window outside his café.
“So?” Jensen asked as soon as they were in hearing distance. His anxiety returned full force at that moment. He couldn’t wait till he had Jared back in his arms.
Chad pushed off the wall and pointed to his car. “I’ll explain as we drive.”
“Where are we going?” Chris asked as they got in and Chad began to drive them toward wherever they were going.
“Morton International; it’s the bank were Josh works.” Chad informed.
Steve groaned, “Please tell me we are not breaking into a federal bank? We can’t be much help to Jared if we’re stuck in prison for the rest of our lives.”
Chad shook his head as he pulled onto the highway. “Fuck no man! I’m too pretty for prison. So this guy that comes into my café everyday, nice old man, he works for a janitorial company that happens to clean the bank every night after it closes down for the day. I got a hold of him yesterday night and offered him free coffee for a year if he let us into the bank.”
Chris’s eyebrows rose. “And he agreed just like that?”
“No, of course not; I told him Jensen’s wife worked there and she was asked to come in tomorrow morning and tomorrow just happened to be her birthday…so we as such thoughtful human beings are going to decorate her office to surprise her and make her day happier and blah blah blah.”
“Huh.” Steve said surprised. “I can’t believe he bought that.”
“Yeah well, I said he was nice…not smart.” Chad remarked.
“I don’t care what you told him or if he believes; as long as we get into Josh’s office.” Jensen stated as he rested his head against the cool glass of the car window.
Ten minutes later they pulled into the parking lot near the bank and got out. Chad grabbed a bag from the trunk and the men began walking toward the man leaning against the outside door smoking.
“What’s in the bag? Spy equipment?” Chris asked in humor.
“Nope, birthday decorations.” Chad stated. When he got odd looks from the others, he continued, “What? We have to play the part. I know I said this man wasn’t too smart…but he isn’t completely stupid either.”
When they neared the doors, Jensen noticed the man quickly put out his cigarette and step foreword to meet them. He was an older man; maybe in his seventies and of Hispanic descent.
“Hola.” The man stated.
“Hi Felipe. Thanks for this again. Jensen here is just too good of a man.” Chad smiled.
“It is my pleasure. I always like to help young lovers…tis such a beautiful thing.” Felipe gushed as he let the men into the bank. “The offices are on the second floor toward the back.”
“Thanks.” Jensen called out to the already retreating man as they made their way to the stairs down the hallway looking for Josh’s name on the doors they passed.
Once the got there, Steve rattled the handle to see if it was unlocked. It was. The four men quickly made their way inside and shut the door behind them. Once the lights were flicked on, Jensen looked around at the huge office. There was a big round wooden table in the middle that was stacked with papers, to the side was a big desk with shelves lining the wall behind it and the other side of the room was lined with filing cabinets.
“Wow, nice office.” Chris remarked absentmindedly.
“Shit. There is a lot to go through.” Chad remarked as he threw the bag full of decorations at Jensen. “I’ll go through the shit on the table; someone take the desk and someone else take the filing cabinets.”
“Start decorating Aramis.” Chris teased Jensen as he walked over to the desk.
Jensen rolled his eyes. “Back to the Musketeers references again, huh Athos?” He heard Steve snort from where he was over by the filing cabinets. He turned to look at Steve. “What? You’re just sour because you have to be Porthos.”
“You’re all idiots.” Steve muttered as he began searching though another drawer.
Chad’s head popped up. “I love the Three Musketeers…but seriously…there are four of us…I feel left out.”
“No problem.” Chris said as he rummaged through the stuff inside a drawer. “You can be D'Artagnan; the young apprentice.”
“Yeah. He’s a hot headed youth like I am.” Chad laughed. “All for one and one for all.”
Chris looked up with a thoughtful look on his face. “Isn’t it weird how well we fit those names?”
Steve looked up then at his lover. “Speak for yourself. I’m not gullible and I don’t eat like a pig.” When his lover just continued to stare at him with a raised eyebrow, he flipped him off and went back to his search.
Jensen laughed as he looked down into the bag he was holding and saw lots of cheesy birthday decorations. Quickly grabbing some out he threw them down onto the counter that was near him holding some thick books before wandering over to the desk where he threw some more down.
Walking behind the desk, he stopped to look at the pictures that were on the shelves. A few of them were of people he didn’t know, one was of an older couple he guessed where Josh’s parents, and the last one was of Jared. He looked a few years younger and completely happy. He had a huge smile on his face and he was playing with a dog outside. Jensen could only guess that this picture was taken before or right around the time Jared met Josh…sometime before Josh turned into a monster.
He reached up and slid the picture out of the frame and stuck it in his pocket. Josh didn’t deserve to have anything to do with Jared. Looking at his friends he saw they were still searching in their respective areas. Walking to the table, Jensen threw the rest of the decorations down on it and leaned against the table next to Chad.
“How’s it coming?” He asked as he glanced out the window behind the table. It was getting dark out. Friday was almost complete. They were running out of time.
“Just lots of shit in these papers I don’t understand, but nothing about the wedding or anything.” Chad remarked quickly shifting to another stack and quickly looked through it.
“Same here.” Chris spoke up. “There is so much crap here; I don’t know how he functions.”
“Probably has all his subordinates do all the work and takes all the credit.” Jensen muttered as he began to help Chad in the search.
Twenty minutes later nothing had been found and Jensen’s impatiens was rising. There had been no talking in the last ten minutes, only the quiet rustle of paper. So it came as quite a surprise to them when the office door suddenly opened. All four men quickly stood up straight and moved to the center of the room trying to look innocent.
Jensen breathed out a silent sigh of relief as he noticed it was just Felipe coming in from the dark hallway.
“What you doing?” Felipe asked confused. “This not women’s office…this is Mr. Duhamel’s office. See sign plate.” He pointed to the name printed on the front of the office door.
The four men stood there silently with wide eyes not knowing what to say. Jensen imagined they looked like four deer about to get hit with a car and he felt the sudden urge to laugh but then Chad rounded on him with a look of outrage.
“Jensen! How could you? This is the wrong office!” he yelled. “We just spent all that time decorating the wrong office!”
Jensen was so surprised by Chad that all he could do was gape wordlessly at him.
Chad turned back to Felipe and said, “Thank you so much for telling us. We’ll just clean up here and find the right office this time.”
Felipe nodded and laughed. “Your eyesight almost as bad as mine!” he told Jensen and with an amused shake of his head turned around and left the office, dragging a vacuum cleaner behind him.
“Shit.” Chad shook his head and headed back to the table. “That was close.” Chris and Steve went back to searching also.
Jensen sighed and went to the desk this time to help Chris go through the files there.
Steve closed the file drawer and tried to open the last one. This one was locked. He frowned. He didn’t understand why this one would be locked when all the other ones were unlocked. He quickly pulled open the drawer he had just looked through and pulled two paperclips off some files before shutting it. He twisted them to get them into the shape he wanted and began to try and pick the lock. It was a technique his ex, Ben, had taught him many years ago. He hadn’t had to use it in many years so he was afraid he might have forgotten how to do it correctly. But a few minutes later he heard the tell tale sound of a lock clicking and smiled happily. Oh yeah, he still had it.
Opening the drawer, he was disappointed to find it empty. He began to close it when a rustling caught his attention. Bending foreword a bit, he tried to peer into the back. There was just one folder in there, jammed into the very back. Reaching his hand in, he grabbed the folder and brought it out; spreading it open on top of the cabinet as his eyes tried to make sense of what he was seeing.
“What did Jared do with his money?” Jensen heard Steve ask; breaking about fifteen minutes of silence.
“What money? Jared didn’t have a lot of money; Josh made sure of that.” Chad remarked in disgust.
“No, I mean the money his dad left him in the will…I can’t see him spending all that money.” Steve clarified as he flipped through the pages in front of him.
Chad shook his head not looking up from what he was doing. “His dad didn’t leave him anything…it all went to the she-devil.”
“Not according to this.” Steve said simply.
That statement had everyone’s head snapping toward Steve before they all walked over to gather around him. “What are you looking at?” Jensen asked.
“Is that a copy of the will?” Chad asked confused as he pulled it out of Steve’s hand to read it over. This didn’t make any sense. Jared would have told him if he had this much money left to him. “It says he left Jared about 4 million dollars…but Jared said he didn’t get anything.”
“Who presided over the will? Morton International?” Chris asked.
“Yeah.” Chad said slowly his brain trying to make sense out of this. “His dad banked here.”
“I think these pages are records of the money trail.” Steve informed as he held up a few more pieces of paper. “This shows money going into two accounts; the second of these accounts was for four million dollars.”
Chad took those papers and looked at them. “The dates for these transfers are about a week after his dad died. Those seem right…but look here.” Chad pointed to a spot on the paper. “It looks like a few months later the four million was taken from this account and placed into the first account…the account numbers are the same.” Chad flipped to the next page. “Fuck man. Josh was the one to approve that.” He said as he spotted Josh’s signature on the paperwork.
“What the hell?” Jensen asked. “So he took Jared’s money and placed it somewhere else…who’s account is that?”
Chad shrugged.
“Wait.” Steve said. “Read those account numbers to me.” As Chad read them off he looked in the appropriate filing cabinets and pulled out the folders that corresponded to the numbers. “Wow shocker. The first account belongs to Diane Padalecki and the second one…” Steve flipped it open toward them; it was empty.
“What the fuck?” Chad asked as he took Diane’s file and opened it, scanning through the pages. “Here is what she got from the will, about 7 million and Jesus Christ…”
“What?” all three men asked simultaneously.
“Then nothing!” Chad finished. “Totally broke. The amount in those few moths after the will drops rapidly until she had nothing left…no money. Then a few days later 4 million dollars gets put into the account.”
“Jared’s money.” Chris stated.
“Huh.” Jensen pondered as a memory suddenly came back to him. He remembered something Jared had said after he learned the truth about Josh beating him.
~~~~~~~~~
“What happened?”
“Josh came home early, he didn’t like that I wasn’t at home where I should be…he said I smelt like sex.”
“I just don’t understand…if he is so awful to you…how come you stayed with him?”
Jared shrugged, “Fear of the unknown, no money, no where to go, only one friend who I couldn’t bear to tell, my mother…I don’t know…because I’m weak…take your pick.”
Jensen shook his head. “You’re not weak Jared. What’s your mother got to do with this?”
“She was the one who set me and Josh up and seeing us together made her so happy. She had been so upset by my father’s death…it didn’t hit her until a few months after he died, she got so upset and depressed, and then she met Josh and set us up and then her whole attitude changed…and I guess I didn’t want to see her sad again…she’s my mother you know…”
~~~~~~~~
“Huh what?” Steve asked.
Jensen quickly told them what Jared had said to him that day.
“Fuck! He didn’t even know about the money. I bet that bitch never told him.” Chad cursed.
Chris nodded, “So the bitch spends all the money that was left to her within a few months and gets depressed because she runs out of money and is desperate so she takes her sons also. I don’t see how she could have done that without Jared signing off on it.”
Chad snored. “That’s where Asshole comes into play. He oversaw the will, so he could just move the money; no harm no foul. Someone can’t miss money they didn’t know they had in the first place.”
“Why would he do that? Wouldn’t it be a huge risk to him? He could lose his job and go to prison for fucking with the government’s money like that.” Jensen asked confused. “Do you think Diane blackmailed him or something?”
Steve shrugged as he began to look in the drawers for another folder. Once he found it he seemed even more confused. “Look further down her records. After the transfer of the 4 million, every month there is ten thousand deposited in it from a third account.”
“Whose?” Jensen asked although he bet he could guess.
“Josh’s?” Chad guessed.
Steve nodded. “Bingo.”
“Why? That doesn’t make any…” Jensen trailed off. He was going to say that didn’t make any sense but really it did. The last piece of the puzzle seemed to fall into place. “No fucking way.” When the other’s looked at him he continued, “So Diane, broke and desperate for money goes to Josh, tells him she never told her son about the money he was left and wants it. Josh, who has to have seen Jared by this point and wanted him, agrees to give her the 4 million and gives her a bit to survive on each month as long as she gives him Jared…”
“That fucking Bitch!” Chad shouts in anger. It all made sense now. “Selling her son like a whore…turning a blind eye to the way he’s treated…all for fucking money! And Jared’s too innocent and nice for his own good to see it.” Chad slammed the files he was holding down onto the cabinet and began to pace back and forth. “I’m going to kill them!”
“Well…you may get your chance.” Chris said from the desk. Jensen hadn’t even noticed he had moved back there. He was holding up a small stack of papers. “Look what I found.”
“Does it say where they are getting married?” Jensen asked cutting right to the chase.
When Chris nodded both him and Chad quickly went over to him to look at the findings. So no one noticed as Steve collected the files and pulled out all the papers; folding them and placing them into his jacket pocket.
TBC next Monday!