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“You won’t say anything here. Where there are other people who can hear you. record you.”
“Dean, you don’t understand,” she says then pulls her hand away from mine as she shakes her head, but I keep mine in place.
“I do. I understand more than you realize, Allie Cat.” My expression softens and when it does, hers mirrors mine, softening with a sadness. Her bottom lip trembles when I say her nickname and my throat goes tight as I swallow down the pain of it all.
“Give me something I can dream about in here and I’ll make whatever it is come true when I’m out,” I tell her and even though it’s spoken like a command, I’m desperate for it.
The tips of my fingers slip on the glass and they get her attention. She’s quick to put her hand back and her head drops down, her eyes never leaving mine, though.
“Don’t let me see you sad, Allie,” I say, consoling her in a whisper over the phone. “I need something to dream about.”
Removing her hand for only a moment to wipe under her eyes, she sniffles and then tells me, “I miss you in bed at night.”
“Oh yeah?” I comment with an asymmetric smile and she heaves in air, attempting to keep herself from crying although it doesn’t work.
My heart breaks a million times for her and it’ll break a million more with every tear she sheds.
“I miss you too. At night and always. I miss your sassy mouth and stupid jokes.”
She huffs a laugh and wipes her tears again. “Mine aren’t stupid, yours are stupid.” Her rebuttal makes both of us smile.
“You should get a big pillow. Like one of those long ones while I’m gone.”
“Dean.” She says my name like it pains her, closing her eyes tight.
“Look at me, Allie Cat.” She responds to my command without hesitation, waiting with her lips parted and her body at the ready.
“Get a long pillow, and hold it at night.” I force a grin when I tell her, “It’s the only thing allowed in your bed until I get out of here. You hear me?”
She barely laughs and the sound is saddened, but she does and presses her hand against the glass again, its warmth coming through to me.
“It’s only you, Dean,” she confesses, her voice lowered and full of sincerity on the line. “You’re the only man I want and love.”
The itch at the back of my throat and the prick at the back of my eyes is hard to hide, but I do it for her. “About time you told me,” I respond and a genuine smile paired with a huff of a laugh from my Allie Cat is my reward. “I love you too, Allison.”
She’s got to know I love her. And that makes this worth it. I would do anything for her.
ALLISON
“We just have a few more questions.” There are two detectives in the room and I can tell the men apart from their voices and picture exactly how their lips move with each word without looking up from the pile of chipped nail polish I picked off in the last hour I’ve been sitting here.
“Explain the altercation again,” the other cop, Detective Massing asks and then the other, Detective Ballinger, adds, “At what point, exactly, did your ex decide to pick up the lamp?”
My mother begged me not to come in at all. She said I legally could decline. She’s afraid I’m going to say something I shouldn’t. Truth be told, right now I’m afraid too. I made a promise to her though, that I wouldn’t tell them. That’s because I’m going to tell them all the truth when I’m on the stand. I have to. My eyes prick with tears. It’s the only way to save Dean. I have to save him. That’s the only reason I’ve been sitting in this chair.
“I told you, he didn’t decide.” My voice cracks and my eyes gloss over remembering the haunted look on his face. “I was screaming before the door burst open and when I looked up, he saw what was happening. He ripped him off of me without thinking at all.” I watch it all unfold again, barely breathing. I see it every night, a memory that will stay with me forever.
“And then?”
“And then he picked up the lamp and I yelled for him to stop from where I was, but he was so fast and …” I trail off and my eyes lift to meet theirs as I continue, “it was over before I could even breathe.”
“And then what did he do? Did he attempt to conceal the weapon?”
“He didn’t even seem to know what he’d done. Dean approached me and tried to reach out for me and there was so much blood on his arms.”
“From bludgeoning his friend to death,” the asshole one says. Ballinger. I ignore him and my response is only a whisper when I say, “It was like he didn’t realize.”
“How is it Dean entered your place of residence?”
