Jared took a seat at the other end of the bar.
“You gotta understand, I didn’t have a family like Cole did. When he showed up in the group home, it was a temporary thing, you know? I’d been there for two years, since my last foster placement kicked me out.”
Joey struggled to keep up. She didn’t want to interrupt or ask too many questions, but they were swirling as he spoke. Cole had been in a group home? That had never come up anywhere that she’d been able to find.
“Cole was the new kid. And a rich one. I mean, none of us had a family. But at least he had money, you know? The other kids didn’t like that so much.”
Joey’s heart sank for Cole in that situation. She was enraptured by the story and silently encouraged Jared to continue with a nod.
“We sort of hit it off. He wasn’t there for long, but we were tight. I watched his back, I guess.”
“I’m glad he had you,” she offered.
The corner of Jared’s mouth quirked up. “Yeah, well. That was when it all went down and I got arrested. It was Cole’s turn to have my back, I guess.”
“Will you tell me about it?”
He sighed and leaned back. “Ah, why not? There was this big shot lawyer that used to come around the home. Acted like he wanted to give back. Told the staff he wanted to mentor the kids and all that crap.” Jared ran his hand over his short hair. “Basically, the guy was a scumbag. I found him with some of the younger boys. Making them… do stuff they didn’t want to do.”
Joey’s gut rolled and she tossed her sandwich to the counter. “Oh, sweetie.”
Jared shrugged. “It is what it is. I was seventeen at the time. I talked to Cole and we were both so angry. I knew the odds. I was going to end up in jail anyway. I decided it was probably as good a cause as any.”
Her heart broke for the young, hopeless man he must have been to make that decision.
“There wasn’t any denying to the police that I beat the snot out of him. He was in the hospital for months, and he still lives in a nursing home.” He looked toward the stairs again. “Cole used his trust fund or whatever to pay for my lawyer so I didn’t have the public defender. Got me a good deal, all things considered.”
Joey shook her head. “I’m so sorry, Jared.” She had definitely misjudged him. With limited information, she’d assumed Jared’s felony conviction meant he was a bad guy. So what else was she missing?
“It’s okay. I’m okay now. It’s pretty hard to get a decent job with a record like mine, but working for Cole isn’t a bad gig.”
She smiled. “He can be a little bossy, I’d say.”
Jared laughed. “Yeah, he can. But he’s got a good heart.”
The words, spoken by a convicted felon with clear admiration and trust, settled over her. Did she believe him?
“How can you be sure, Jared?”
He leaned in. “I see a lot of Cole that other people don’t see. He might be uptight and work too much. Sometimes, he’s too demanding or insensitive. But he would never do anything that wasn’t above board. He wouldn’t compromise his integrity for anything.”
“Not even for the cure?” That was the rub. If Cole had convictions but was willing to set them aside, get in bed with Senator Morris and bribe a judge for the Syndicate, then those convictions were meaningless.
Jared shook his head. “Not even for that. I’m telling you, he’s a better man than me. Even though that dude was a total dirtbag, Cole pays for his nursing home through some anonymous thing. Says it’s our responsibility, since I made the choice to handle it like I did. I don’t know about that. I like to think I’d handle it differently today, but I’m not sure. The guy was married to a judge. A lawyer himself. Upstanding member of society and all that. If we’d gone to the police, I’d bet Cole’s entire fortune on nothing changing.”
“What are you betting my fortune on this time?”
Joey jumped at Cole’s sudden intrusion to their conversation.
“Oh, you know. The Red Sox making the World Series this year,” Jared said with a wink.
“Yeah, right.”
They finished their lunch, and Joey walked back through everything Jared had shared with her. The payoffs to the judge in Salem… She’d double check, but it was all starting to add up to a very different picture than the one she’d painted initially.
Cole smiled at her between bites of his sandwich. “You okay?”
She nodded. “Yeah. Just thinking.”