Chain Reaction 1.15: Let's Make A Deal

A/N: It is due to sheer laziness that the officer extra in the pictures isn't in uniform. I couldn't figure out how to unlock the uniform in CAS, and I haven't played that career enough to unlock it the hard way. So, I did what I thought would be adequate. Now, the absence of a hat bothers me...but not enough to re-shoot. :)

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3rd person

     After Graham Taylor tips off the police about Jett McKinney's whereabouts, they eventually discover him at a casino in Lucky Palms. They inform Taylor of McKinney's capture and arrest. Mr. Taylor asks to speak to Mr. McKinney, and he's granted the opportunity.

     Jett watches as the familiar face walks into the interrogation room. He remembers this man. Of course he does! It was because of this numbskull that he got all the money to afford him, his wife, and his son the luxurious lifestyle they enjoyed until his arrest.

      Graham sneers at the thief, hoping he can avoid leaping across the table to wrap his hands around the man's throat and strangle the life out of him. People like him don't deserve to be granted what he hopes to do. He's here to negotiate. After all, Mr. McKinney has something he wants.

     "Hello again," Jett says, deciding to be the first one to speak. He assumes the man is here to demand his money back or to gloat about his capture. Honestly, Jett had hoped he'd covered his tracks adequately and that his case would get lost in the shuffle. After all, it's only robbery and identity theft. Once the three of them had arrived in Lucky Palms, they changed their names, identification numbers, everything. It helps to know the right people.

      Graham looks hard at the man sitting in front of him, despising the friendly demeanor he wears. This is the same man that would outright hit the woman he loves simply because she got on his nerves walking into a room. That offense burns angrily in his veins hotter than the fact that he stole all his savings, emptied his bank account, ran up credit cards in his name, or anything else he did to him.

      "I'm not going to beat around the bush. I'm here to make a deal," he says stoically.

      Jett chortles merrily, overcome with irony. "So, what's it going to be? Whatever it is in your pocket or what's behind door number three? Honestly, I think I'll take the pocket." He grins as if to say that it worked well for him last time. "You want to make a deal? I wonder what it is that you could possibly want from me. I can't think of anything I'd want from you."

      "You can't? Your other offenses are small compared to what you did to me. I would assume you'd love it if I dropped the charges I have against you."

       Jett laughs again, his shoulders lightly bobbing. "As if you could!"

       "I would say it was all a gift. I'd do whatever I could to at least lessen your sentence," Graham states, a nasty taste in his mouth with the thought.

       Jett's laughter slowly dies as he stares at the moron in front of him. "Wow. You must really want something bad. Answer my curiosity, please, before it kills me."

        If only... Graham thinks, wishing he could punch the man. Thank the Maker that Brielle doesn't resemble her father in any way. If the man were a nicer person, perhaps their laughs would be similar, but Jett McKinney's evil nature changes a happy giggle into a cackle that one expects to hear in an old-fashioned horror movie.

      "Tell me, Mr. McKinney, you have a son, but don't you also have two daughters?" Graham asks.

      "You sound like a lawyer. So you want to discuss my family tree?" He laughs again, guessing what the man wants. "This is about Nyla?" He tries to hold in his next laugh, but it escapes anyway. "You want to drop the charges if I let you have Nyla? Like some old-fashioned prick that thinks he has to get a father's permission?" His hand waves in the air dismissively. "Hell, sure!"

     "Actually, it's not Nyla," Graham states, and he bolsters his courage to get to the crux of the matter, the entire purpose of this meeting, "but Brielle."

      The criminal immediately stops laughing, and he sits up straighter in his chair. "You sick bastard," he growls.

      "Excuse me?" Graham asks, his eyebrows going up. "How do you have any right to call anyone anything?"

      "Because that's my daughter, my child, you're talking about. Where is she?! What, do you have her shaking up with you and you need my okay so you're not arrested yourself?!" His voice raises in volume.

      Fury from the accusation rampages through Graham like a bull on fire. "She's living with Nyla, if you must know!" he snaps, losing control of his temper. His heart rate increases as he leans forward. "I convinced her to do it. She was living in a tent in the woods in order to escape you!" He stands up, wanting to punch the man at the very least. He hates that he never got his chance the night he found out about Brielle's actual age.
      Jett leans forward, one hand on the table and the other on the back of his chair, ready to throw the chair backwards in an instant should this slimeball lunge for him. Thus far, Jett's been a well-behaved prisoner, but he'll let all that go should he get a chance at this jackass that wants his teenage daughter.

      The silent police officer in the corner steps closer to the two men, ready to intervene, as the tension in the room rises. He gives them a quiet warning that they need to calm down.

     Graham slowly sits down, glaring across the table, and his voice sounds deadly when he quietly snarls, "And I don't blame her for running away after what you did to her."

      "What I did to her? All I did was try to teach the little bitch some respect, prancing around the house like an entitled princess. Kids these days have no respect for their elders." He glares back fiercely as he continues, "So, all that time I was telling you about her, you probably already knew where she was. Or...did you go out and find her after I'd talked to you about her?"

       "Actually, I was at the bar that night to drag you out back and beat the s--- out of you," Graham replies. "But I got distracted."

       The pieces start coming together in Jett's mind. "You acted strangely when I mentioned her age."

       "I was unaware. She'd told me she was eighteen," Graham confesses.

       Jett smiles proudly all of a sudden. "She convinced you she was eighteen? Chip off the ol' block." He sits back in his chair, chewing on the inside of his lip in a contemplative way. "You really had no idea, did you?"

       Graham's face starts to ache from glaring hard again at the man in front of him. "No. I believed her."

       The calculating look in Jett's eyes grows. "If you don't get my permission, you're possibly in some deep s---."

        "Nothing happened," Graham snarls, his heart rate accelerating once more.

        "Mhm," Jett replies, sounding like he doesn't believe a word of it.

       "Listen, Mr. McKinney, I'm willing to completely drop the charges if you give me your blessing to date your daughter. To me, that seems like a simple answer. I'm asking for a daughter you care nothing about in exchange for your precious freedom." His hands fist themselves under the table. Everything he wants rides on this man's decision. Will he say no just to spite him, willing to take the jailtime in order to make someone else miserable?

       A smirk shows up on Jett's face while pride for his middle child grows inside him. With her shenanigans, she provided a way for him to escape. "I have a counteroffer," he tells the tool sitting in front of him. "You drop the charges against me, and I won't charge you with statutory rape."

       "Nothing! Happened!" Graham yells, thanking the Maker that he didn't get exactly what he wanted the last evening he spent with Brielle.

       Jett laughs merrily. "What's the phrase? Oh, how do you say it? Hm?" His eyebrows go up. He hasn't forgotten what it is he wants to tell the man, but he loves playing it up. "Oh yeah. Tell it to the judge."

      "F--- you for dam-ed worthless sim!" Graham yells, standing up out of his chair.

      Jett sits in his chair with deceptive calm, closely watching Mr. Taylor's actions as he stands above him, panting from rage. "So do we have a deal?" he asks and pretends to look at his grimy fingernails.

     Graham doesn't answer him, instead asking to be let out of the room. The officer agrees, and Graham storms away.

      Jett laughs at his retreating back. Then, he sits back in his chair with his hands folded behind his head. He won't be here much longer.

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Blogger did something weird. Maybe I accidentally released the chapter too early, but it put it set as a July release date, putting it around chapter 10 if you just click the 'newer post' button.

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Officer extra is Gerret Sims by NumBudder