Helios Awakened (The Helios Chronicles #1) (28 page)

Andrew nodded. “Are you sure you don’t want me to testify?”

“Yes, I’m sure.”

“Won’t they think I’m guilty if I don’t say what happened?”

“Andrew, you need to trust me. Mr. De Luca is smart. If I were in Mr. De Luca’s place and had you on the witness stand, I would eat you alive. I would talk in circles until I got you flustered enough so that you volunteered your sex offender status and admitted that you went too far.” He shook his head as he set his beer down. “Trust me, Andrew. It would be a bad move to put you on the stand.”

Andrew sighed and looked down. “I trust you, Mr. Bennett.”

Elias nodded. “Good. Alright, let’s talk a bit about what will happen tomorrow when I start our defense.”

They spent several hours talking about the case, what to expect, how Elias planned to work the witnesses and, more importantly, how Mr. De Luca would spin the case. Elias expressed that his greatest concern was Madison, as he was worried that Mr. De Luca would get her to slip something she shouldn’t. By the time Andrew left and made it back to Madison’s, it was late. They had made love and didn’t talk much. He felt she was holding back something and he took that as fear. She had doubt and, as much as he didn’t want to, he was affected by that.

The next morning came by in a blur. Andrew was now sitting in the courtroom waiting for the judge to bring in the jury. His stomach was in knots. While he trusted Elias, he was still worried. He glanced over at Mr. Bennett. He was reading over his notes. Andrew shifted his gaze to the prosecutor who was glancing at some documents. Finally his eyes rested on Madison. He smiled at her when she mouthed 'I love you'. He turned away when the judge entered the room and everyone rose.

“Mr. Bennett, call your first witness.”

Throughout the course of the day, Mr. Bennett presented a case of a man that was simply protecting his girlfriend, that Andrew had no intention of purposefully harming Mr. Bowers, and that he had a right to defend himself and Madison. Mr. De Luca tried to show Andrew’s reckless indifference but was not pulling it off as well as he would have liked. He did trip up a couple of witnesses who admitted that Andrew had probably gone too far. Overall though, things seemed to be fairly even.

“The defense would like to call Ms. Madison Ellis.”

Madison made her way to the witness stand. She nervously took her oath and sat down. Unfortunately for her she could not stop the twitching in her leg which she knew would probably be judged harshly. She wished she had something to calm her down, Xanax, a shot of whiskey, anything at this point. She glanced at the smiling face of Mr. Bennett.

“Ms. Ellis, as you know, Mr. Harrison is on trial for an altercation he had with Mr. Bowers. It is the prosecutions claim that this was an unprovoked assault,” Mr. Bennett said in a soothing and calming manner.

Madison immediately shook her head as her bottom lip slipped into her mouth. The fight was definitely not unprovoked. Jimmy asked for it with his bullying behavior.

“The defense has brought forth many witnesses that indicate that the events that transpired showed that Mr. Bowers kept pushing for a fight and that Mr. Harrison had no other recourse but to defend you. It is our claim that Mr. Harrison did not act with reckless indifference but was instead protecting you. Would you agree with that assessment?”

Madison nodded her head.

“Your Honor, Mr. Bennett is leading the witness,” Mr. De Luca said with a heavy sigh.

“Mr. Bennett, get to your point.”

Mr. Bennett glanced at the judge and nodded slightly before turning to Madison again. “Madison, will you please tell us what happened on the night in question.”

He stepped back slightly so that the jury would be able to see her. Madison took a deep breath and ran her fingers through her hair before she began.

“I was invited to the lake by Brie and Jimmy. I met Andrew later at my grandmother’s house and asked him to come along as well. Jimmy started problems the minute we arrived. He picked a fight with Andrew, and later Jayden, because Jayden defended Andrew’s right to be there. Throughout the day, Jimmy made snide comments to us but we ignored him. By the end of the night Andrew and I were, ummm, you know,” Madison hesitated, feeling slightly embarrassed.

“You two were being intimate?” Mr. Bennett asked and Madison nodded. “Were you being coerced in any way?”

“NO! God, no. Andrew wasn’t forcing himself on me at all. Anyone in their right mind could see that,” Madison said decisively.

“What happened next, Ms. Ellis?”

“Jimmy and his friends, once again, started making snide comments and Andrew got up to cool off. But I was angry. Jimmy was being an as... sorry, he was being a jerk and I told him that. We had a confrontation and he ended up pushing me and Andrew came to my defense.”

“Thank you, Ms. Ellis.”

Madison smiled, thinking that wasn’t so hard. Mr. De Luca stood just as the judge asked him if he wanted to cross examine the witness. He approached Madison and gave her a smirk.

“Ms. Ellis, did you honestly think that inviting someone like the defendant would be okay with everyone?” Mr. De Luca stated coyly.

“Object, Your Honor,” Mr. Bennett immediately stated.

“Mr. De Luca, watch where you’re treading.”

Madison began glaring at him. “Andrew has every right to be wherever he would like.”

“Well, with his history...”

“OBJECT!” Mr. Bennett stood. “Clearly Mr. De Luca has either forgotten or is ignoring your previous decision on this matter.”

“Mr. Bennett, sit down.” The judge scowled at him and then turned to Mr. De Luca. “Mr. Harrison’s past criminal behavior may not be brought up.”

Mr. Bennett rose yet again, anger radiated off of his body. “I move for an immediate mistrial. Your Honor, you have permanently biased the jury against my client with the mere mention of possible past criminal behavior. He is not on trial for any acts he may or may not have committed. You cannot...”

“Do not presume to tell me what I can and cannot say in my own courtroom, Mr. Bennett,” the judge stated angrily as he cut off Mr. Bennett’s response.

“Your Honor...”

“Approach,” the judge said cutting him off again and motioning for Mr. Bennett and Mr. De Luca to approach the bench.

Both attorneys walked up to the judge. Madison looked at Andrew confused, hoping she hadn’t said or done something that messed up Mr. Bennett’s defense. Andrew looked worried and then they both turned suddenly when Mr. Bennett turned quickly, annoyance and irritation clearly on his face. He started to move and then stopped suddenly as he spotted Senator Bowers in the back row, a smirk on his face. Mr. Bennett narrowed his eyes at him and sat down next to Andrew.

“As I was saying, with Mr. Harrison’s history, Mr. Bowers had a right to be skeptical about him being there.” Mr. De Luca turned to the jury and gave a sympathetic look. “For the well-being of everyone else.”

“Andrew is a good man,” Madison gritted her teeth, wanting desperately to leap on Mr. De Luca and smack him for the way he was talking about Andrew.

He turned to her and leaned against the witness stand. “Well, Ms. Ellis, generally speaking, good men don’t go around beating people up,” he said with a glance to the jury.

“They do if the person being beat up deserves it,” Madison said with bite.

He smiled and walked to his desk pulling out one of the pictures. He showed it to the jury before placing it in front of Madison, who didn’t bother looking down. She stared at Mr. De Luca, determined to not let him trick her into saying anything that could harm Andrew in any way. Mr. De Luca smiled as he picked up the picture and made her look at it.

“So he deserved this?” he said, cocking his head slightly.

“He pushed me, hard enough that I fell. He would have hit me had Andrew not intervened,” she said looking at Mr. De Luca.

“You can’t be sure of that,” Mr. De Luca said in a condescending way as he glanced at the jury.

When she didn’t answer, he looked back at her, giving her an evil smirk, feeling that he had her right where he wanted her to be.

“Can you say with certainty that had the defendant not brutally assaulted Mr. Bowers that Mr. Bowers would have harmed you?”

Madison didn’t say anything. She just pursed her lips and narrowed her eyes at the man before her. Of course there was no way to know that for certain. That’s the whole point. Andrew acted so that nothing would happen.

“You can’t, can you, Ms. Ellis?” Mr. De Luca said coolly.

Madison swallowed and shook her head. “No, I can’t say with certainty.”

Mr. De Luca nodded. “So it’s quite possible that Jimmy would have just backed away,” he said dramatically, and then grimaced at her. “Instead, he was beaten to within an inch of his life by the defendant because he was angry. Mr. Bowers called it like he saw it and that enraged the defendant. He wasn’t trying to defend you, Ms. Ellis; he only wanted to hurt Mr. Bowers because Mr. Bowers knew what he was,” he said forcefully as he slapped the edge of the witness stand forcing Madison to sit back in complete shock.

Madison swallowed and furrowed her brows. “Andrew...”

“Yes, yes, I know, he’s a good man,” Mr. De Luca stated flippantly as he crossed his arms.

“But Jimmy thre...” Madison began to say in a timid voice.

“Nothing further,” Mr. De Luca stated quickly, cutting Madison off.

“Re-direct,” Mr. Bennett said as he sprung up and walked in front of Madison. “Ms. Ellis. Is it reasonable to believe that with the escalating behavior of Mr. Bowers throughout the day that both you and Andrew believed that he was a viable threat?”

Madison sat straight and nodded. “Yes.” She turned to the jury. “At that point, we both believed that Jimmy was a threat.”

“Do you still believe he is a threat?”

“OBJECT!” Mr. De Luca stated loudly as he stood up. “That is irrelevant to the case at hand.”

“Mr. Bennett, we have discussed this previously, you may not pursue this line of questioning.”

Elias stared at him and then casually glanced at Senator Bowers who was smiling knowingly at Mr. Bennett. Elias breathed in deeply and then, to his surprise, Liam walked through the door. Liam offered him a small smile as he walked up to sit in the pew with Jayden and the rest of Andrew’s supporters. Elias’s eyes followed Liam and then Liam nodded slightly to him. Liam knew that he was reluctant to go full barrel at Jimmy, out of fear at Senator Bowers’ casual threat. They had spent a great deal of time discussing the options but Liam would not budge and he certainly would not allow Elias’s guilt about the past to prevent him from doing the right thing now. Elias closed his eyes for only a moment and then turned to Madison.

“Ms. Ellis, has Mr. Bowers ever given you reason to question that his motives were anything but friendly?” Mr. Bennett queried.

“Yes, when we met he looked at me strangely but I wrote it off until the lake. He seemed very agitated that I was there with Andrew and then last week he approached me and...”

“Your Honor,” Mr. De Luca stated, frustrated that Mr. Bennett was still trying to pursue this.

“Mr. Bennett, I will not allow you to disparage...”

“Your Honor, you are hindering my defense.”

“If you pursue this line of questioning I will hold you in contempt.”

“Your Honor, Mr. Bowers threatened to rape the witness, the jury has a right to know that.”

There were several gasps and mutterings in the audience as the judge rapped his gavel several times, the sound echoing in the room as he tried to regain control of his courtroom.

“Mr. Bennett, you are in contempt, this is your last warning, one more outburst like that and I will not only have you removed but will bring you before the bar as well,” the judge shouted and then turned to the jury. “You are to disregard Mr. Bennett’s last statement in its entirety.”

Elias raised his hands dramatically in a surrender type motion. “Nothing further.”

The judge turned to Madison. “You may step down, Ms. Ellis.”

Madison couldn’t get out of the witness box quick enough. In fact, she was so desperate to get out of there that she nearly stumbled and would have fallen had a juror not gotten up and grabbed her arm. Madison muttered a 'thank you' and an 'I'm sorry' and quickly slid in the pew behind Andrew. She wasn’t sure at this point whether she had helped Andrew or hurt him, a thought that tore her up inside.

“The defense rests your honor.”

“We will adjourn until tomorrow morning where we will hear closing arguments,” the judge said before tapping his gavel and dismissing the jury.

Once the jury was removed and the judge stepped down, Mr. De Luca chuckled as he stopped next to Mr. Bennett.

“It’s not too late to change your plea, Elias,” he said, smiling widely at the look on Mr. Bennett’s face.

“Not a chance, Arturo. The jury is mine and you know it,” Elias stated firmly.

“We’ll see,” Arturo said as he walked past him, stopping to talk to Senator Bowers.

“Well, I got it in. It will counter the judge’s statement,” Elias said, shaking his head.

“Why would the judge say that, isn’t that against the law?” Jayden asked confused.

“I think it’s pretty clear now that he’s in Bowers’ pocket,” Elias said, glancing back at Senator Bowers and Mr. De Luca. He watched them for a moment and then turned back around. “He’s trying to show me he can influence the proceedings. But the judge can’t overlook the jury without appearing impartial,” he said pinching the bridge of his nose.

“Why does he even care?” Madison asked, feeling completely out of the loop.

“He’s running for office, he has political aspirations and having the man who beat his son get acquitted would not look good for him, especially since I have brought up what a scumbag his son actually is.”

“How the hell is Andrew supposed to get a fair trial?” Madison asked, unable to mask her tears.

Andrew leaped over the railing and pulled her into his arms. “Baby, don’t cry. It’s going to be okay. I swear it will be.”

Madison was crying against his chest while Andrew buried his face in her hair. Hoping that what he said was true but he was no longer optimistic about his chances. Suddenly Aaron stood up and walked out of the courtroom in anger. Everyone turned to see the door swing closed behind him, everyone except Andrew and Madison who were too lost in each other to notice anything else going on around them.