"The witness will answer," the judge announced.
Fuck, Magnus had been played. I knew it without a shadow of a doubt because he would have told me if he'd thought for even a second that the defense would bring up Jenna. Which left the question of what the hell Mel was doing here. How had she even found out Magnus was testifying in the trial?
"Mr. DuCane," Salvatore said, his voice dripping with satisfaction. "Do you need me to repeat the question?"
For the first time since he'd taken the stand, Magnus looked rattled. But he kept it together as he said, "No, I don't. My daughter, Jenna, was seventeen years old when she ran away from home to meet up with her boyfriend. She never came home."
"She wasn't alone when she left, was she?"
The prosecutor made some weak-ass objection about leading, but the end result was the defense attorney asking the same question in a different way.
"No, she took her son with her."
Salvatore acted confused. "Your seventeen-year-old daughter had a son?"
"Yes."
"How old was her son?"
Magnus hesitated for the briefest of moments before saying, "Almost three."
Salvatore nodded. His back was to me so I could only imagine the pretense he was putting on as he supposedly did the math in his head.
"So, your daughter was thirteen when she got pregnant?"
"She'd just turned fourteen."
Anger flooded my system as a few whispers filtered through the crowd.
"And how old was her boyfriend?"
"Objection," the prosecutor snapped. He was clearly pissed by the turn of events as well. "Relevance."
The judge put up his hand. "Move on, Mr. Salvatore."
"Of course, Your Honor. Mr. DuCane, is it true your daughter was an addict?"
My eyes were on the jury as the question was asked and I saw their already disapproving faces fall even further when Magnus answered, "Yes."
"What kind of drugs was she addicted to?"
"Meth."
To Magnus's credit, he was still in control of himself, but his answers were clipped and he'd dropped his hands to his lap, presumably to conceal the physical reaction he was undoubtedly having.
"Is it fair to say that your daughter's addiction led to her death?"
Magnus took a deep breath and said, "Yes."
Salvatore was facing the audience when Magnus answered and I wanted to punch the smile off his face.
"So just to be clear, your drug-addicted daughter died as a result of her addiction to meth after having a child out of wedlock at the age of fourteen."
I glanced at Mel and wasn't surprised to see her smiling even as her child's reputation was being ripped to shreds. She was only here for one reason and it had nothing to do with her daughter or even her grandson.
She wanted vengeance. Pure and simple.
"Yes," Magnus murmured, his voice breaking for the first time.
"So are you still asking this jury to believe that you didn't have any strong feelings towards my client, even though a young woman, not much younger than your daughter, died in your arms of a drug overdose after accusing my client of forcing her to consume those drugs?"
I knew no matter what Magnus said, the slick lawyer would spin it.
"I don't allow my personal life to affect my professional judgement," Magnus began, but Salvatore cut him off.
"Just answer yes or no, please."
"Yes," Magnus bit out.
The singular answer without the benefit of any kind of explanation made it sound like Magnus was in denial, which only helped Salvatore's unspoken argument about Magnus's credibility.
"Mr. DuCane, is it possible that by blaming my client for Miss Vasquez's death, you're trying to assuage your own guilt for the role you played in your daughter's death?"
There was a furious objection from the prosecutor, but it was quickly dismissed and the judge ordered Magnus to answer the question. I felt utterly helpless as I watched Magnus drop his gaze. He forced his eyes up and said, "I'm not blaming your client for anything, Mr. Salvatore. I'm simply stating the facts as they were told to me by Ms. Vasquez. It's up to this jury" – Magnus jerked his chin in the direction of the stunned twelve men and women who were hanging on his every word – "to decide your client's innocence or guilt."
It was a good answer, but I knew the damage had been done. I hoped like hell it was over, but when I saw the irritation in Salvatore's gaze as he briefly faced the audience while he was pretending to look through some papers on his desk, I knew he wasn't done.
"Mr. DuCane, is it true that on the day your daughter disappeared, you told her to leave and not come back. That you were done with her?"
Chaos erupted as the jury gasped and the prosecutor shot to his feet. "Objection," he shouted. It didn't matter that this time around the judge sided with the prosecutor because all Salvatore had had to do was get the ugly words out there. Even with the appropriate context, there was no denying the impact those words would have on Magnus's credibility.
I wanted to believe the defense attorney had made the words up, but the fact that Magnus had gone completely pale at the question and had barely moved as the fight between lawyers raged on around him told me otherwise. I had no doubt there was more to the story, but it didn't matter. The defense had raised enough questions about Magnus's credibility that some of the jurors were bound to question his version of events. I turned to look at Mel and saw her practically beaming. She stood up and held Magnus's gaze for several more seconds before leaving the courtroom. Magnus was dismissed from the stand a minute later after the prosecutor tried to undo the damage, but it was clearly too late because several of the jurors were looking at Magnus with heavy disapproval.
Magnus stalked past the prosecutor without a word and he completely ignored me as he strode by. I kept up with him, though I wasn't really expecting any threats … Trent and his lawyers had gone after Magnus in such a way that there'd been no way for me to protect him.
"Magnus," I said as I caught up to him. His rage was palpable and I was actually nervous about trying to stop his forward motion. My fear was that he was going after Mel because I saw his eyes lock on her where she was waiting by the elevator with the attorney who'd escorted her into the courtroom.
The woman had the sense to look afraid as he neared her. The lawyer she was with put up his hand and began calling for security, but Magnus ignored him. I was about to put myself between him and Mel when Magnus suddenly veered to the left and headed towards the stairwell. "Keys," he snapped as he held out his hand.
"Magnus-"
"Give me the fucking keys, Dante!" he snarled. I handed him the keys and kept pace with him. Once we reached the car, I was worried he'd only unlock his side, but he pushed the button twice, unlocking all the doors. I climbed into the passenger seat and just held on as he tore out of the parking garage. He had the sense to pay the parking fee, but after that he was a man on a mission.
"Magnus-"
"Not now," was all he said in response and I fell silent, hoping like hell he just needed to use the hour-long drive home to cool off. He didn't say a word and none of the white-hot rage seemed to leech from his system the closer we got to Blakely. But it wasn't until we flew past the road leading up to his house that I knew this wasn't over.
"Magnus, talk to me," I urged even as the car nearly careened into the ditch as he made the turn onto the very next road.
The road leading to Colton's ranch.
My whole body jerked as Magnus didn't even try to avoid the larger ruts in the dirt road. The car came to a skidding halt in front of the barn and Magnus was out of it the second he slammed it into park, not even bothering to turn the SUV off. I rushed to follow him as he strode towards Colton who'd come out of the barn to investigate the commotion.
"Magnus-" Colton said in surprise, but that was all he got out before Magnus punched him in the face. Colton hit the ground hard, but Magnus was dragging him to his feet a second later and hitting him again.
"How long?" he shouted as he reached for Colton a third time. Blood was already trickling from Colton's split lip. I got between Magnus and Colton and pushed Magnus back, though it took all my strength because he was like a fucking brick wall.
"What the fuck?" Colton sputtered after spitting a mouthful of blood on the ground. "What the hell is wrong with you?" he yelled as he climbed to his feet.
Magnus's hands were on my arms as he tried to get past me, but he wasn't hurting me.
"How long have you been fucking Mel?" Magnus bit out, his cold eyes on his friend.
I was so stunned by the question, I nearly released my hold on him. I glanced over my shoulder and saw that Colton had gone pale and his mouth was half-open. He began shaking his head and looked like he wanted to say something, but no words came out.
"You were the only one who knew what I said to Jenna the day she ran away, you fucking piece of shit!"
Things began clicking into place for me at that. I'd assumed that the defense attorney had been the one to reach out to Mel to try and discredit Magnus, but it was entirely possible she'd gone to them on her own after learning about the trial. Which only would have happened if someone had told her about it since the judge had put a gag order on the case and ordered Magnus's identity kept secret. According to Magnus, the only ones who'd known about the trial were his fellow Rangers. And Colton … who he'd told about the trial the day we'd arrived in Blakely.