My Christmas Star

"At least before a grand jury. I'll wrangle with the Prosecutor, old Wilbur Baily, a bit then the Judge with throw this out. They have nothing proving you did it evidence wise, it's all circumstantial. Just your overall dislike of the Hotel being built. And, while a lot of people might want to blame you just on that, well, it's not a crime to hate a real estate corporation." He grinned and adjusted his glasses down his nose. "Even one about to have a fucking come-a-part this morning."

"How bad was the fire?"

Slyc shrugged looked over his shoulder as Victoria walked up. "Probably a total loss. It's still burning. So? Is Tillman still standing put?"

Victoria nodded, her eyes ablaze. "Hell, yes. He's got everyone from the Mayor to the State Prosecutor on the phone trying to wiggle this one into a no bail situation. He won't even show his face back down here today, that's for sure."

My attorney shook his head. "Not a chance. Bail will be set and it will be minimal or I will fry the balls of every person involved in this cluster-fuck of an arrest." Slyc gave me a grin. "Been awhile since I got to play hard case with a case, I've been spending too much time chasing deadbeat dads late on child support." He bit his bottom lip and gave a shake. "Gives me chills of joy just thinking about it. Excuse me Victoria, Randal. I've got to go rattle some cages."

With another tip of that blue hat, he stalked off.

Victoria watched him go. "I love him as an attorney, so long as he's on our side. Your mom recommended him to me years back and he was with me through the whole divorce. Every ugly second of it. Always just a phone call from opening a can of whoop-ass if Jennifer's dad so much as hiccuped wrong." She looked at the bars between us. "So how are you holding up in there?"

"I've been in much better places." I cut my eyes to her hips. "Some even recently."

She chuckled and shook her head. "Horny and in jail isn't a good combination."

"Oh, I've already been told that, normally, I would be at the top of the raped in prison list, except there wasn't anyone even in jail willing to fuck scum like me."

Her eyes flared hot. She was, I could see, about to start a shit storm when her phone started ringing on her hip.

"Excuse me a minute, that's my daughter."

I nodded having recognized the "Hello Kitty" ringtone. A song perfectly made for Jennifer, and totally different from the one I used for my ex-girlfriend.

Personally, I think "I Miss The Misery" fits her better.

Leaning on the bars, I watched Victoria's ass when she turned and took a half-dozen steps away. I was however distracted by my appreciation of her ass by the quick change in tone of her conversation. I couldn't hear Jennifer's side, but I could almost guess it from the part I was hearing.

My ex wanted to know why her mother was alibiing me. The way Victoria exploded back at whatever her daughter said after telling her because I was innocent drew every eye in the Sheriff's office. Apparently, my once "beloved" Friday night date girl thought it wasn't important that I was innocent and that jail was where I belonged.

Lovely.

Well, at least I always knew she thought I was scum. I mean she told me so several times. Loudly. Which she had apparently just done to her mother. Redhead woman verses redhead daughter ... that's one of those Signs of the Apocalypse, right?

A grim look on his face, Slyc was walking back over to me.

"Bad news?" I asked.

He gave a shrug. "Yes, and no. You're probably going to spend at least twenty-four hours in here. The Mayor's standing on Tillman's neck to find the arsonist and, because of that, the Sheriff's blocking a set bail with everything he's worth. They know they have crap and are trying to gather anything to prove their case has a leg to stand on before it has to go before the initial appearance judge. Given that it's Saturday, and not to mention a holiday, Monday morning is more likely for your release."

"Joy." With a sigh, I tightened my hands on the hard bars of my cage. "I take it that was the 'no' part? What's the yes? I could use some good news."

My attorney nodded. "Them doing this is only going to hurt their case come Monday when I present the evidence I have. It will show a bias against you. It also gives me time to work, which, I promise you, Randal, they don't begin to want to let me have." He looked at the bars. "They will move you here in a bit to a county holding facility for the weekend. It will suck, but keep your cool and know I will be there to walk you out first thing Monday."

I nodded. "I know you got my back. Thanks, Slyc."

He folded his arms and looked over to where Victoria and Jennifer were still going strong in what sounded like a phone call deathmatch. "Wish I could get you out of here today, sorry. You need to schedule getting arrested, for shit you didn't do, better after this."

I chuckled. "I'll make a point of it."

"Good, good, makes my job easier. Well, I'm going to go and try to see if I can do anything more to speed this along. Maybe a visit to the Mayor's house, he just loves seeing me at his doorstep after all." With a last tip of his hat, he left me and walked over to whisper a word or two into Victoria's ear.

She nodded and he left. There was a visible lessening of tension in the spine of the officer at the front desk.

I wish I could say I felt the same.

Only the presence of Victoria buoyed my spirits. Well, that and something Slyc had said in passing, but that meant the world to me.

That fucking hotel was still burning.

** ** ** ** ** ** **

True to what my lawyer had said I was soon dragged out, re-cuffed, placed back in a squad car and taken out to a county holding facility. I was processed in like I was going to be there for months. A more humiliating experience I had never lived through, but I entered knowing I wasn't going to be staying long.

Besides, no lynch mobs could get me in here.

I'm only half joking.

See, once I was settled into a holding cell, I was given a limited access to a phone and I called ... well, I called Victoria. Hearing her voice was surprisingly comforting. How men survive being in a place like this for years I'll never know and have no desire to find out. I had been in a cell no more than half a day and I was already hating it. When simply hearing the sound of a woman's voice can bring relief to a troubled mind I knew I was in love. I had already known it, but now I knew it beyond any doubt. But how to get her to acknowledge that she could maybe feel the same for me? After all, I could hear the love in her voice when we spoke.

Then she told me about the overall mood of the town.

That made me a bit glad of all the concrete and barbed wire around me. I was Judas Iscariot in the eyes of everyone. If I was to walk down Main Street a lynching would be at the top of the list, right behind stoning me to death. Guilty till proved guiltier seemed to be the current thought. My trial was only a formality to get out of the way as quickly as possible, so we could hurry up and get me to a proper hanging.

The press had gotten their foot into the door as well. I was national news apparently.

~Mad Arsonist Burns Down a Town's only hope~

~Hotel Fire Claims the Greedy Dreams of a Florida Township~

~Suicide Rates Rising on Gold Coast Due to Fire~

I did worry about The Caribbean Star being vandalized. She was sitting there in the marina all alone, unattended, defenseless amid a pack of lunatic vengeance-fueled fiends, with the cabin door left open. As soon as I could, I asked my Nana to swing by there and lock the place up. When she told me she would it was a weight off my chest. One that was instantly replaced when she told me she had to remove my two little sisters from the local school. The twins had been threatened. I mean come on people, they are like ten for Christ sake. Really?

Monday couldn't come quickly enough after that. I was ready to gnaw through steel bars.

Slyc was there early Monday morning with a court order for my release. The Judge had taken a look at the evidence the prosecutor had against me, then at the video evidence, Slyc presented and the signed witness statement from Victoria saying that she had been in my presence the whole time and that all but sprung the door open.

I was no longer a suspect. Well, not in the eyes of the courts anyway. As far as the town goes, well, that's another matter.

On the ride home I asked my lawyer to swing through a drive-thru and let me grab something for breakfast. The line was around the block so he pulled in instead and sat looking over some news articles on his phone while I ran inside.

When I stepped in I felt like Brooke Adams standing before Donald Sutherland at the end of Invasion of the Body Snatchers.

Every eye in the place was on me. All sound ended. There were a few people pointing me out to others. Moving with caution, I made my way to the counter. Before I could speak the manager moved the wage slave teen girl to the side and faced me over the two foot of cheap Formica.

"Your money is not welcomed here. Please leave before I have to call the Sheriff to remove you."

Blinking, unable to believe what I was hearing, I tilted my head and after a second chuckled to myself. Humorlessly? Well, there was nothing funny about this at all, but it wasn't without a sense of amusement that I turned and let. I could hear people behind me calling me things as I left the store.

"Scum sucking maggot!" was about the nicest of them. Old Miss Templeton was such a nice old widow lady.

Slyc was giving me the People's Eyebrow when I sat back down next to him without a bag in hand.

"Change your mind?" he asked.

"They wouldn't let me order. They refused me service," I said after a moment to chew on the words.

For a moment the older man sat there looking at me, his normally schooled and courtroom trained face showing only a hint of shock. Then it shifted. A blank look with lips pursed only hinting at the disapproval he must have churning inside him.

"I hate to say it's completely unexpected, or that it's going to get better anytime soon, but it's not." He sat back in the deep leather seat of the Lexus. "Irrational people do irrational things and I'm afraid this whole town had placed all their hopes in a toilet paper basket. Now all those fragile dreams have shattered and they are looking for a scapegoat to point at and say this is all his fault." Cranking his car, Slyc pulled out and headed for the marina. "And I hate to say it but unfortunately, that is you."

I shook my head in disgust. "All because I stood by what Dad told them? That is so stupid."

"Well, nobody claimed the people here was mental geniuses. If I was you, buddy I would stick close to home for a bit. Let things settle down but at the same time ... well, be ready to pull anchor at the first sign of torches and pitchforks."

I sat quiet, trapped in my own grim thoughts till I was nearly home. However, when Slyc took a left in place of a right I looked up and watched the wrong scenery passing by.

"Where are we going?" I asked even as I realized where.

"Your grandmother's. I moved your truck over there for safety sake. Figured it would save it from being vandalized." He gave me a shrugged. "Things were looking grim Saturday night."

"Was my boat damaged? Slyc?

"No, though there were a few ... incidents ... at the marina that put the possibility in mind. I had the Sheriff place some deputies there to keep things secure. He wasn't happy to do it, in fact, he was a right prick about it, but I stood on his neck legal-length-wise till Tillman relented."

"This is crazy."

"Yep." With a nod and a grimace he took the last turn and swung his car into the driveway of my Nana's place. "Crazy is a good word for how things are going to be for a few ... well, for a few."

The crunch of tires on gravel alerted the people inside to our arrival. I saw my sister Mina spill out the back door and race for the car. Her twin appeared seconds later and was on her heels after just a few steps.

"Keep close to home, like I said. The face the Judge decided you were innocent won't mean crap to a lot of people that just had their imaginary futures yanked out from under them."

Nodding, I opened the door. "Thanks for getting me out, Slyc."

He shrugged. "It's what I do." His grin split his swarthy face. "And for family and friends, I even do it at half price."

Chuckling, I reached back in and took his offered hand.

Turning, closing the car door, I opened my arms as my sisters piled into me. Seriously these two should play for the Gators.

"Randy, we were so scared."

Ugg, twin speak. "One at a time, please."

"Sorry," they both said, not even a fraction of a second out of harmony with each other.

I swear it's fingernails on a blackboard level creeping-skin kind of feeling. It was only as I was getting over the shivers that I saw Victoria's car parked next to my truck, at the side of the house in grandpa's old parking spot.

"Ms. Elliot is here?"

They nodded in-sync. I think they were doing it now just to creep me out. Brats, the both of them!

The smell of peanut butter cookies assaulted my nose the second I opened the back door. Victoria was standing in the kitchen, talking to my Nana, when I walked in. She looked up and her eyes alighted with a joy she quickly hid.

"Good to see the jailbird is sprung." Victoria gave me a smile, then looked to my Grandmother. "Call me, if you get a chance. Randal, walk me out to my car, will you."

"Sure."

My sisters fled my side to hover, ready to attack like swooping falcons, the tray of cookies I saw our Nana taking out the oven. When Victoria walked past me her hand gathered up my fingers and made me turn to follow, not that I wasn't going to do that anyway.

"So what all happened?," I demanded the moment we were out of earshot. "Slyc said there have been incidents at the marina and that the twins were threatened."

"He was being over-dramatic, but yeah, people have been angry. Some teens showed up with the intent of spray painting your boat. And Tina was called names at the school bus stop this morning. Then, well, someone shoved Mina."

"Who?"

"Another girl at school. Her mom was called, it all will blow over but things are tense at the moment."

Just how far reaching this stupidity had permeated this small town was suddenly so very very real to me. That little girls were fighting over it in grade school, three days after the hotel burned, was so telling.

Here it was only a few weeks until Christmas and the whole place had the air of a morgue. By now there should be guys with a ladder truck putting up the old green wreaths on all the power poles downtown. I couldn't remember seeing that happening when I rode through town this morning. The annual Christmas tree lighting was not that far away either and that didn't look to be moving forward yet either. Had we really allowed so many of us to be twisted around the hotel's crochet of promises that a simple fire could break this town?

"Anything else?"

"I've been called a few names."

"YOU?"

"Yep. Apparently, my daughter spread the word that I was your alibi for when the fire was set." She turned and leaned her shapely ass against the side of her car. Victoria gave me a shrug. "Jennifer only told a few friends but it seems they told a few others, that kind of thing. So now ... well, I'm being seen as a liar at best, your accomplice at worst."

Unfuckingbelievable. Seriously unfuckingbelievable.

"Don't fret about me. I could care less what people want to call me." She gave me a smile. "I had my ex-husband call me all those things a many a time, and hell, I slept with him."

"I'm sorry."

"Don't be."

The guilt ate at me. Burning like acid in my gut. "I can't help but be."

"Well, it's not your fault."

"Seems like it to me," I said.

"Nope." Victoria reached out and took my hand. "If you had set the fire, some of it might be your fault but, as it is, there is nothing you've done that was wrong. Not by me at any rate." Pulling my hand making me move closer she looked me in the eyes. "I do think we might have to pass on that dinner date you wanted Friday."

"Yeah, I can't take you anyplace in town that's for sure, they won't let me eat there."

"What?"

I told her about stopping on the way here to get breakfast and what had happened.

"That's outrageous!"

I shrugged and took another step closer to her. "How about we go someplace away from here? Down the coast, maybe.

Victoria's smile was sassy. "You're determined to have a date with me, aren't you?"

"I'm determined to have a lot more than that with you."

She sighed and shook her head. "How about I come to your boat, Friday night. I'll bring the food and you provide the entertainment."

"Entertainment?"

She looked past my shoulder at the house, bit her lip and moved forward a hint till her hand cupped my cock in my jean shorts. "This."

I must have been a grinning fool. "Sounds like an interesting night. Maybe this time I won't get arrested the next morning."

"Well, we'll have to see." She gave me a smile, checked the house against and placed a light kiss on my lips. "I've got to go, see you soon."

The next kiss was far from light. If we had even a hint more privacy, I'm sure that clothes would have begun to vanish. It was that kind of kiss. The type that leaves you breathless, trembling with aroused emotions. Yeah, that kind of kiss. Fingers tangled in hair and clothes, lips hot as the summer sun in Key West, bodies hard against each other, and a desire to merge them even closer.

Yeah...

With great reluctance, we parted.

"Bye," she said, the word little more than a puff of breath.

Her fingers slipped from mine as she stepped away.

"See you soon." Stuffing my hands in my pockets, I turned and made myself not stand there and watch her drive away. I wanted to, but I had to be strong and not act like a lovesick puppy. That would be a turnoff and she would leave me alone in a heartbeat if I began to let her see what I really felt for her. Oh, how badly I wanted to scream from the rooftops what I felt, but I had to manage to keep it half-hidden behind the idea this was only about sex.

But it was already so far from that.

Unable to keep from doing it, I stood by the back door and watched the taillights of her car when they turned out to sight at the corner.

Oh, fuck my life.

Going into the kitchen, I went to the fridge to scrounge some of the last of the Thanksgiving leftovers. There was plenty, but for dessert, I had to fight to get even a taste of those peanut butter cookies.

** ** ** ** ** ** **

I allowed myself to be talked into staying at my grandmother's that night but allowed no one to talk me out of going back to my boat the next morning. I had to check on it. The idea of not going there to check on it emotionally hurt. It was mine. It was my life. It was my future and that anyone might take it from me wasn't something I could contemplate.

The Caribbean Star was fine.

Let me tell you, this town needs to be damn thankful that the Caribbean Star was fine. Because, by this time, I was well past the point of easy-peasy dealing with things. I was at the Godzilla stomping on Army tanks in Tokyo level as far as this podunk town and its shit goes.

Not playing.

Not playing anymore at all.

Mad -- and not really realizing just how pissed I really was -- I pulled into the grocery store to grab a few thing I had seen that my grandmother was just about out of. Milk, bread, eggs that kind of shit. I grabbed my red hoody off the the backseat as I got out. The fall had finally decided to act like fucking fall. Walking in, I grabbed a buggy and began to gather up the basics, with a few goodies tossed in just for the fun of it. Hell, I was about out of a few things myself.