by Ali Parker
My earlier thoughts about leaving came crashing back into me. I knew I had to go. Leaving was the best thing I could possibly do, but as I felt his heart beating against my back and his breath whispering over my skin, I knew I wasn’t going to be able to bring myself to do it. “Yeah, I’ll stay. For tonight.”
His only response was to hold me tighter. Soon, his breathing evened out and let me know he had fallen asleep.
A content smile spread unbidden across my lips. Being here, falling asleep in his arms, felt better than I ever could have imagined.
It was also a problem that I didn’t know how to solve because it made a very worrying realization slam into me with such certainty that I knew there was no point trying to deny it to myself anymore. I was developing real feelings for Tyson, despite my determination not to.
Real, deep feelings I didn’t know what to do with. That was what had changed for me earlier when he looked at me; it had just taken me some time to put it together. I wasn’t exactly sure when it happened, but my brain had tried to tell me earlier that it had. I had responded the way I had to his look because I wanted him to keep looking at me like that.
Indefinitely.
Don’t you mean for now?
Chapter Twenty-Three
Tyson
An electronic beep sounded from somewhere in the depths of the prison. Despite the amount of time I spent there to see my father or consult with any number of other prisoners, I’d never been beyond the visiting and consultation rooms.
Sometimes at night when I closed my eyes, I tried to imagine where my dad was lying at that very moment. I wondered whether his mattress was comfortable or whether there was graffiti from a previous inmate against his walls.
Dad had a single cell. It was one of the reasons why I knew he was safer inside than he would be on the outside. He wasn’t the type to graffiti his walls or mark down the months of his sentence there either, but I still wondered whether there was anything there or not.
I’d never asked, and he’d never volunteered any information about his current living arrangements. I didn’t know whether my brothers had asked or if he’d told them anything. If they knew, they hadn’t mentioned it to me.
Not that it mattered, because he wouldn’t be here much longer anyway. Incandescent rage still burned in my stomach when I thought about what had gone down earlier this morning. To say Dad’s new hearing hadn’t gone my way was the understatement of the century, and I was here to tell him all about it.
This time, I hadn’t called on my way to the prison to ask for him to be brought out for visitation. I needed as much time as I could get to try to figure out how to give him the news I was here to deliver.
Waiting for him to arrive was a singular kind of torture. For the first time visiting him here, I had some time to myself. It made me notice the little things about the room I’d never noticed before.
There was a faint smell of piss and stuffy, stale sweat in the air. The window was so dirty that the sunlight coming through it was hazy and seemed almost fake even though I knew it was a clear and beautiful day outside. There were scuff marks on the floor, wall, and table.
It was a really fucking depressing place to be. And yet Dad’s been living here for years.
The door to the visitation room buzzed and swung open, a green light coming on above it. A guard I didn’t recognize popped his head in. “You have one hour, Mr. Lovett.”
“Thank you.” I stood up and waited for Roy to enter the room. He took one look at me before his shoulders sagged and he sank onto the bench-style seat across the table from me.
“They granted the petition, didn’t they?”
I nodded. “You’re getting out, Dad. I tried everything I could to stop it, but they must have greased some very important palms.”
“When?”
“It’s looking like Friday.” It was only Monday, but three full days before we picked him up first thing Friday morning didn’t give us nearly enough time. “I’ll come pick you up myself if you want.”
Dad shrugged. “Don’t go out of your way for me. You can send a cab or something.”
He was quiet after that. At first, I gave him time, thinking he was just processing the news. When it became clear we were going to waste the hour we had together if one of us didn’t start talking, I put my elbows on the table.
“Look, Dad. I’m sorry this happened, but we always knew there was a chance it could. We’ve bought you all the time we could, but that’s over now. If you just told these guys where the money is, all this would go away.”
My father lifted his gaze from the cement floor, his blue eyes hard as steel. “There’s no way I’m going to do that.”
“Be reasonable here, Dad. They—”
“I don’t care what they’ve done or will do. I’m not giving up the money, and that’s final. Deal with it.”
I stared into those eyes that were so much like mine and realized it didn’t even feel like I was looking at my father anymore. I’d known the man my whole life, but there was a stranger sitting in front of me right now.
And it’s all his fault. If not for him, our family would have still been together. If not for him, my brothers would never have become my responsibility. We’d still have a family home to go to for lunch on Sundays, and we’d probably all be there every week.
Suddenly seething at the thought of what he’d robbed us of, I slammed my palms down on the table. “Deal with it? How the fuck dare you say that to me? All I’ve done for fucking years is to deal with it. Every damn day. I’m the one dealing with it. Not you. Me. It always comes down to me.”
Roy’s eyes narrowed to slits, but he remained seated. “You’re the one dealing with it every damn day? Grow the fuck up, Tyson. I’m the one living in this hellhole. You’ll never know the sacrifices I’ve made for this family.”
Memories of saying those exact same words to Sonny not so long ago raced through my mind. I lifted my chin, taking a deep breath. I was going off on Dad the exact same way my brother had gone off on me. It wasn’t going to help anyone right now.
I was still trying to rein it in when Dad suddenly pushed to his feet. “Are you seeing Eve?”
“Seeing?” I lifted my brows. “I’ve seen her, if that’s what you mean. Don’t worry about it. I’ve taken care of it. Like I said, I take care of everything.”
“That’s not what I meant, and you know it.” The accusation in his eyes, while not unfounded, lit the still smoking fuse deep inside my chest again.
All progress I’d made trying to rein it in was lost.
The truth was that there probably hadn’t been much point in trying to rein it in any way. I’d been fuming since exactly an hour and forty-five minutes after I woke up this morning and I hadn’t stopped since.
Waking up with Eve in my arms was my personal version of heaven. She smelled like sex and me and that sweet, sweet smell that was just her. Her skin was soft, and her naked body was pressed tightly to mine when I woke up.
At first, I thought I was dreaming. When I realized I wasn’t, I waited for the familiar twang of discomfort I usually felt when waking up next to a woman. I didn’t mind sleeping next to women, but I didn’t like waking up with them.
Everything was too real, too intimate in the harsh light of the morning. The way women would look at me with expectation written all over their faces felt more intimate to me than whatever it was we’d done the night before.
If that made me an asshole, then fine. Fucking was fast and mostly impersonal to me. Waking up together? That shit was everything but impersonal.
None of that was there with Eve, though. In fact, I’d caught myself smiling and pressing soft kisses between her shoulder blades and down her spine.
It had woken her up, and she had turned over, which she shouldn’t have done if she was in as much of a rush to get to work as she had claimed to be. We had ended up fooling around in bed and fucking in the shower later.
Any pleasure the day was going
to bring me ended after that. Shortly after getting dressed, I was making coffee for both of us to take with to our respective offices when Nick called. He told me he’d just received word through one of his friends who clerked for some judge I didn’t know that my father’s hearing was happening right now.
I made every call I could and raced to the courthouse, only to be told the hearing was being held behind closed doors. “Sensitive” and “privileged” information being shared had prompted an order that the doors would remain sealed until the hearing was over.
It was complete and utter bullshit, but it didn’t matter. Nothing I did made a damn bit of difference. I called several judges I knew to get me in the room, but they couldn’t help. I raged at everyone from the clerk to the court manager, letting them know I was the fucking DA on the case and had every right to be a part of the hearing.
They had all agreed with me but made it clear that they couldn’t go against the explicit orders they had received. They also happened to be under explicit orders not to tell anyone who gave those explicit fucking orders. Apparently, they had been threatened with an obstruction of justice charge if they breathed a word to anyone.
It was all so irregular that it bordered on the absurd, but that didn’t matter. All that mattered was that an hour later, a directive was faxed through to my office. My father was being released.
I could appeal to the high fucking heavens, and his release would still happen. There was no way I could get anything overturned in the time I had, especially not considering whatever dodgy shit was happening with this case.
“I asked if you were seeing her, Tyson.” My father crossed his arms over his chest and drew himself up to his full height. “Answer me. Now.”
“It’s none of your fucking business.”
Thrusting his chin up in a move that made him look haughty instead of whatever he had been aiming for, all of which was pathetic since he was still wearing a prison jumpsuit, he glared at me. “Be careful. A lot of people in this town aren’t who they seem to be.”
I rolled my eyes, not listening to him. What the fuck did he know about the town or the people in it when he hadn’t set so much as a toe out of this building in years? Walking to the door, I tossed him a look over my shoulder as I rapped my knuckles twice against the glass pane. “You know what, Roy? I’ve had enough. Enjoy your last week here.”
Chapter Twenty-Four
Eve
“Do you prefer that one or the caramel one?” Penny asked, her eyes brimming with excitement as she waited for my verdict on the cookies she’d baked this morning. She was trying out some new organic flour she had ordered and paid a fortune for. I would have stopped the transaction if I knew about it, but she had done it from home.
“Remind me again why we had to pay four times as much for this flour than the normal stuff?”
Penny rolled her eyes and laughed. “I’ve told you three times.”
“Yeah, but I’m still not getting it. The cookies are good, but so were the others.” Plus, all this organic shit was starting to go a few steps too far for my liking. Penny was spending more and more money in order to stay true to everything being organic, and I just didn’t think it was worth it.
We were interrupted by the tinkle of the small bell above the door. Mrs. Jay shuffled into the bakery, a scowl on her wrinkled face.
Concern furrowed Penny’s brow as soon she caught sight of our most loyal customer. “What’s the matter, Mrs. Jay?”
“That criminal Roy Lovett is coming out of prison on Friday. Can you believe it?” She was clearly affronted and annoyed by the news, shoving her hand through her impeccably styled, snow white hair. “What is going to become of this town if they just keep releasing people when they should have locked them up and thrown away the key?”
“We’re going to become a haven for criminals.” Penny frowned, flicking her eyes to the windows as if she was expecting a mob of criminals to be storming the bakery like it was a damned fortress.
I would have rolled my eyes at their rant, but I was too busy reminding myself how to breathe.
Roy is being released. How the hell had that happened?
Tyson had stormed out of his house like a bat out of hell after his phone rang this morning, but I thought there was some emergency at his office. That was what he had yelled over his shoulder to me when he took off anyway, telling me to stay as long as I wanted and to leave his keys in the mailbox.
I knew for a fact he hadn’t even been sure of the date for the new hearing just yesterday, so how could people in town already know that he was being released at the end of the week?
Something serious must have happened over the last few hours. Evidently, I wasn’t going to get those last few days with Tyson I had hoped for. I should have asked him for that sheet this morning after all.
Fuck, it was weird. I hadn’t been prepared for us to come to such a jarring end quite so soon, but the cat would be out of the bag in four more short days. Or the Roy would be out of the prison, which was pretty much the same thing. Ha!
Either way, my relationship with Tyson would be fucked soon. Hoping to see that horde of criminals charging the bakery or just about anything else that would take my mind off how sucky my immediate future was bound to be, I followed Penny’s gaze to the windows.
And then mine landed on a sure distraction. The suited guys had struck again, showing up outside my job this time. I made a snap decision to go out and confront them. I was over being Ms. Nice Girl. They had gone several steps too far this time. This was my fucking job, for crying out loud.
I excused myself to Penny and Mrs. Jay, but they were still venting about how the town was surely doomed. For fuck’s sake. Get over it. It’s one damn criminal. You’ll live.
I bit the words back and darted out the door before I told them how I really felt about their tirade. The suits looked up as I pushed through the door, both of them folding their hands in front of them. I marched right up to them, tired of their intimidation tactics.
It was time for them to learn who and how I really was. “What do you want, gentlemen?”
“Ms. Cain. You really don’t want to be involved with this. We’re just keeping watch over you to make sure you don’t stick your nose in where it doesn’t belong.” Suit One had a voice like rough sandpaper. The sound of it was like scraping said paper over a chalkboard repeatedly.
In a word: unpleasant. Very much so.
I planted my hands on my hips, arching an eyebrow. “You have nothing to threaten me with, morons. Next time you go to deliver a warning, make sure you have something on the person first. It’s called leverage. He usually hires muscle with a little more experience than you two.”
“Ken really thinks—”
I snorted, a very unladylike sound that perfectly conveyed my opinion on Ken’s thoughts. “See, now there’s something else you got wrong. I don’t give a rat’s ass about what Ken thinks. It really isn’t the most effective way to get me to pay attention to you or to take your threats seriously. If Ken has something he wants to say to me, tell him to grow a pair and come threaten me himself. Otherwise, get the fuck out of here.”
Lifting my chin up into the air, I looked at them down the bridge of my nose. The power of my birthright was coursing through my veins as I watched them turn and walk away without further argument. They didn’t have any idea who they were dealing with.
I really had expected more from Ken than those two idiots, which was why I hadn’t immediately identified them as his men. The guys who worked for him were usually much more inconspicuous. They didn’t stick out like sore thumbs at open houses, and they didn’t stand like a pair of pillars in the entrance of a bookstore.
After waiting several minutes for the rush of adrenaline from finally breaking out of my poor-little-innocent-girl cage after so long stuck inside it to subside, I headed back into the bakery.
Penny was ringing up Mrs. Jay’s purchases. I caught snippets of the conversation between them, but Mr
s. Jay was still harping away about Roy and was now rehashing the “highlights” of his trial.
Apparently, she’d found it quite astonishing that real court wasn’t nearly as entertaining as the courtroom dramas she liked to watch on television. Seriously, woman?
Faking a smile as I passed them, I walked straight to my office and closed the door firmly behind me before sagging against it. I couldn’t believe this was really happening. I’d thought for sure Tyson would find a way to keep Roy behind bars.
How could he have, though, when he hadn’t even known about the hearing? He’d had no shot at stopping this from happening, not really.
Tears stung the backs of my eyes, and I pressed my heels against them. Hard.
Now wasn’t the time for crying.
I was going to go stir crazy if I didn’t do something to help. Maybe if I could figure something out, Tyson would forgive me.
It would take him some time, but time I could give him. Maybe giving him time wouldn’t have to mean time as in ‘forever’ if I did manage to figure something out.
My thoughts were racing when the ringing of my phone interrupted them. I made my way over to my desk, my knees feeling wobbly from the thrill of the confrontation and the devastating news of Roy’s release.
When I picked up the receiver, an automated voice spoke over the line—one I’d heard many times over the last few years. “You have a collect call from the Cypress Creek Penitentiary. Will you accept the charges?”
“Yes.” My palms started sweating. I pinned the phone between my ear and my shoulders, wiping my hands on my pants before hearing Roy’s tired voice.
“Eve? Are you there, honey?”
“Yeah, Roy. I’m right here. I heard the news.” What do you say to a man who just received what was sure to be a death sentence? Somehow, “I’m sorry” just didn’t cut it.
I’d had a lot of difficult conversations with the man since I met him just over a decade ago, but I had a feeling this was going to be the most difficult one of all. I sighed and braced myself for the last conversation I expected to be having today.
