A/N: Thank you all for reading and taking the time to review. teamsophia...yes, I think we can stop to get donuts. LOL.
Chapter 18
Bret and his men got a hold of the detective, having him contact Scott telling him that he needed to meet and Scott needed to bring all of the evidence he had compiled with him.
Logan gave the detective a smirk when Bret's men walked him into the house. "I hope Scooter is paying you well. You just really don't know you fucked with the wrong one this time, do you?"
"So what then? You going to kill me or something?" The detective challenged.
"No. I'm not an animal and I'm not stupid either, but this shit is going to stop today."
The detective grumbled. "Not an animal? Could have fooled me, fucking mutie."
Logan gave a low growl, ready to rip this guy's head off when the door opened as Bret walked in with Scott.
"Jerry? What's going on here?" Scott questioned the detective.
Logan gave him a stare. "You tell us, you asshole! You have me and Marie followed for months and now you think you're going to bleed her dry because she's moved on with her life? Peice of shit lowlife! You really think there's any court in the world that would let you do that? You're either very stupid or very spoiled."
Scott smirked as he patted his briefcase. "I got some damming evidence here that says Marie left me to carry on an elicit affair with you. It probably wouldn't be so bad...if it wasn't for the fact that she chose to dump me for a goddamn, disgusting mutant!"
Bret jerked the briefcase from Scott and opened it, tossing the pictures and papers to the table. Scott waved a hand. "Whatever. Burn them if you want, I got plenty of copies when this goes to court. Oh! I think I could add kidnapping charges and threats to the lawsuit." He glanced towards Jerry.
Bret scoffed. "Your detective was politely asked to join us here today and walked into the house on his own accord. Isn't that right?"
"If you call you and 3 other huge guys surrounding me as being polite...I guess then." Jerry responded defiantly.
"Did me or any of my men touch you? Was there a weapon? Did any of us make any type of effort to deny you to walk away? In fact, there's the door, you can leave anytime you want."
Jerry lowered his head and slightly shook it. "No. No weapon, no one put a hand on me, but you were intimidating, making me feel as if I had no choice but to comply."
Scott shook his head. "Fuck!" He huffed out. "Shit Jerry! That doesn't have much of a chance in court and you know it, they really walked a grey line. Unless they forced you to come here...you really fucked up on this one."
Marie shot a look at Scott. "Oh, you want to talk about a grey line? You know damn good and well I left you because you were screwing Jean! Now you want to twist it around because I'm seeing someone? You're a real piece of work Scott Summers! I can't believe all the years I've known you, I never saw any of this."
Scott sneered at her. "No, all you saw was my family's money. My parents paid for the wedding, house, cars...everything! Hell...you didn't even bother with going to college, as long as me and my family could support you. Classic golddigger move."
"That's not true! I wanted to go to college, but you wouldn't let me!" Marie argued.
"Can you prove it?" Scott smirked.
Logan cleared his throat. "Actually, she can. I found her college application while helping her go through some boxes. It's dated from 3 years ago. I also found letters from other colleges, one of which is UCLA and the other NYU, accepting her application. I'm sure it wouldn't be hard to convince a judge that the only reason she didn't accept is because those colleges are far away from Colorado and I'm sure you had something to do with convincing her to not go."
Marie nodded. "In fact, I remember saying in my letter to NYU that I had to decline because my husband's career wouldn't allow him to relocate and that it would be too far to commute. I'm sure they would still have a copy of that letter in their files somewhere."
Scott's face visibly dropped at that bit of information. Logan gave another smirk as he dropped more bombshells. "And it's funny, for someone who's not intrested in furthering their education, the first thing Marie did when she got hired on was fill out the paperwork for the company's tuition reimbursement plan. That benefit will kick in when she's been with the company for a year, but she's already made her choice of college and what courses she will study."
Scott shook his head. "Well none of that means a damn thing. There's still the issue of you leaving me for...a freak!"
Logan laughed. "Oh, did you forget how your little tart was so proud to show off her fiancé on the news? I'm sure it won't be too hard to get copies of that footage, you know the one, the hate mongers FOH group that came through here...before you hired your little private dick here. As for me being a mutant? One, prove it. Two, so what? You think a judge is gonna care? Just because you and your friends don't like people who are different, there's no law against it."
Scott scoffed. "Actually, I had Jerry on Marie before the FOH march. Got pictures of the two of you hanging out together, smoking together at work, her visiting you at your volunteer place, even pictures of her going to your house the day after the march.
"I was going to the pantry to get food, Scott!" Marie barked out.
"Mr Howlett, sir. You should take a look at this." Bret said as he was looking through the papers that included the copied texts from Logan's hacked phone, the letters Marie never got, saying how much he loved her and couldn't wait for the day he would make her Mrs. Howlett, and the slew of pictures of the pair on dates, dancing, kissing, arms around one another that Scott had brought with him.
Logan looked at the pictures that had Bret concerned. The pictures were from the day that Marie was attacked, showing Wolverine fighting with the punks, claws extended and one picture showing the claws running through the one who got a collapsed lung and surgery for his troubles.
"You-you set this up? Just to get some bullshit evidence on Marie trying to prove that she somehow wronged you? You're sicker than I thought!" Logan growled.
"Hey! Wait a minute! I had nothing to do with Marie getting attacked, what can you expect from that kind of neighborhood? But it does show evidence that you're a freak and that will go a long way for me."
Marie rolled her eyes. "Like Logan said, there's nothing illegal with being a mutant. You're an idiot, Scott."
Scott let out a chuckle. "Marie, you always was a stupid girl. Never did see the kind of power and influence my family has. Friends of Humanity has members from all walks of life, including lawyers and judges, like judge Pearson, the signature on those papers you got this morning, and who will be presiding over the case in court. It may not be illegal to be a mutant, but I'm sure he'll see things my way. By the time I'm through with you, you won't have a penny to your name and Logan here...well, let's see how long he sticks around when he's got to pay for everything for you, including your spousal support. You should have just turned a blind eye to me and Jean and stayed, would have been easier for you. It's not too late, just come home with me right now and all this will go away."
Logan's eyes flashed. "You fucker! You fucked with Marie's car, letting her be in danger for what? Money? Because she left you? They were gonna fucking rape her, could have killed her if I hadn't showed up when I did!"
"Wait! What? Fuck with her car? What the hell are you talking about? I didn't do anything to her car!" Scott protested.
"My battery and some wires were missing, Scott. Logan said that there wasn't anything that showed the car was broken into and that it had to be someone with a key. My back up key went missing a few months before I left you. Did you take it?"
Scott looked at Marie in shock. "I didn't take it. After you left, I was moving some furniture and found it under the bookshelf in the den...along with a shit ton of dust and some coins, you never was a very good housekeeper. It must have dropped and got kicked under there. I gave it to Jerry so he could put a GPS tracker on your car, more proof of you coming here to Logan's house. Jerry? What do you know about the battery and wires?"
Jerry shifted a minute. "I wasn't getting any good pictures of them together in a romantic fashion to help you make your case. All I was getting was them talking outside of their work and sometimes them going out to eat, but it looked more like friends than anything else. I figured if her car wouldn't start, she would call him and, being at her place, they might let their guard down and maybe I could get a picture of a kiss or something...something that might be more concrete of an affair."
Marie laughed loudly. "We were just friends...until that weekend you idiot!"
Logan was seething. "You mean to tell me you were there the whole time, sitting in your car or somewhere watching her getting attacked and you did nothing!"
Logan lunged at Jerry, grabbing him by the collar. "I'll fucking rip your guts out!" He screamed out as Bret, his men and even Scott grabbed hold of Logan pulling him back.
Once Logan released Jerry, Scott glared at his hired man. "How dare you put Marie's life in jeopardy like that? That's not what I asked you to do! You're fired! Get the hell out of here now! Once I tell my father what you did, you'll never get another contract from us again!"
Logan straightened to his full height. "I think you got bigger problems than that, bub." He turned to Bret. "You get all that?"
Bret smirked. "Every word." He reached into his shirt and turned off the concealed microphone.
Logan turned to Scott with a cocked brow. "You really want to take this to court, Scooter? We got everything. Your admition of your affair with Jean, you trying to manipulate Marie to stay with you, you stalking her, stalking me, putting your wife's life in danger, even your bias judge friend. Take this to court if you want, but we'll make sure it goes to a court that you don't have any friends at, and in front of a judge who doesn't care about a person being a mutant."
Scott chuckled. "You have no idea the kind of reach my family has, or the kind of reach Friends of Humanity has."
"I got friends too." Logan stated with a dark undertone.
Scott looked over with shock when he heard a crackling. Bret began slowly pulling his hands apart as the electric flashes between them grew larger. One of Bret's men made a flick of his wrist as a large blaze of fire suddenly jumped to life in the fireplace and another of his men suddenly vanished from sight, only to reappear behind Scott, making him jump.
"We're everywhere, and we're not going anywhere anytime soon. You and your hate group should get that through your thick, prejudice heads." Bret said with a smirk.
Marie wrapped an arm around Logan's waist. "Scott, I'm not going to allow you to control me any more." She looked up at Logan and gave a smile, remembering Wolverine's request next time she saw Scott. "You can take your money, the house, your family, even Jean and shove it straight up your ass!"
Logan's eyes flashed to the full amber and Wolverine let out a joyful howl. "Woo! Tell 'em mate!"
XXX
After the house was cleared, Logan wrapped his arms around Marie. "I don't know what's going to happen next, but at least we know Scooter or his hired dick won't be bothering us anymore."
Marie gave a soft kiss to his lips. "We'll worry about what happens next in the morning. Right now...come here, Wolverine." She jerked Logan hard against her as his eyes flashed to the amber.
Wolverine lowered his head. "You're not still mad at me for the last time?"
She ran a hand through his hair. "No honey, I'm not mad, but you do need to learn not to be so rough. I might have to keep a rolled up newspaper to smack you on the nose until you learn to be good though." She chuckled.
"I'll be good, I promise to be good." Wolverine smiled excitedly as Marie led him down the hall towards the bedroom.