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“Okay. Shower, I’ll drive you right after. We’ll get you some breakfast on the way. You skipped lunch and dinner.”
She rolls her eyes, making me desperate to teach her a lesson before we leave.
I hate prisons. The sound of the buzzer when doors open and close. The clinging metal of the bars. The guards who look at the visitors like we’re just as guilty as the people inside. It’s always so much busier and noisier than I remember. Ihatebusy places.
I like peace and quiet, and I instantly miss my peaceful cabin and my cat.
It’s also a significant reminder of where I could end up if I’m careless and lose focus. So I guess the guards are right to look at me like I’m as guilty as the people on the inside. In fact, I’m probably guiltier than some of them.
Rose and I sit at the visitors’ table, waiting. Her hands hold her thighs tightly, just above her knees. She presses for long seconds and releases. I know her tell-tale of anxiety a little too much. It’s quickly followed by the lists she murmurs to herself. Today it seems she chose something to do with the states and some dates.
“Delaware 1787, Pennsylvania 1787, New Jersey 1787, Georgia 1788, Connecticut 1788…” Her lips are moving, but the sound is barely audible. I don’t think she knows it’s not just going on in her head.
“What is it?” I cut her off to keep her mind busy with something else.
I can understand the apprehension at seeing Nate after so long. Their relationship was fragile at best. Shedidshoot him.
They repaired their relationship when Nate put Bianco in prison. The same one we’re at right now. It hits me, then. She’s not anxious about seeing Nate. She’s anxious Bianco could see her.
“He’s in an isolated facility,” I reassure her. “You don’t have to worry about him. Head of crime families are rarely put with other inmates, and he’s nowhere around here.”
She nods to herself, then adds to answer my question, “The year each state joined the union.”
I raise an eyebrow. There’s no need to lie, I have the bare minimum education. My dad took me out of high school in my freshman year and did not give a single fuck about whether I could rub two brain cells together as long as I could kill.
“You know how we became the United States by adopting the U.S. Constitution?”
I shrug my shoulders. “What was it before that?”
“Colonies.” Rose is smart, but she’s not a big fan of explaining things to people. She doesn’t care about educating others. In fact, she would rather not and cuts the conversation by adding, “Just google it.”
“I know you remember all the shit you see, but sometimes I wonder where the hell you found that stuff in the first place.”
She nods to herself. “Good question. History class?”
“Shouldn’t you remember?”
That makes her laugh. “You know I don’t actually remember everything, right? Just…a lot.”
I know, but somehow, I like to think she has a sort of superpower. It adds to the Goddess-like image I have of her.
“Yeah, you forgot my birthday.”
“No, I didn’t,” she throws back like I’ve just insulted her. “I would never. May 10th.”
“Huh.” I rub my jaw as if I’m thinking deeply. “Funny, ‘cause I haven’t received a card in years.”
She punches me in the arm as she cackles loudly, finally relaxing and forgetting that her old abuser is in the same vicinity as her. “You’re such an idiot.”
I grab the back of her neck, bringing her closer to me and dropping a kiss on the top of her head. I inhale her perfect smell deeply, letting the endorphins take over. How can it always have the same effect? Relaxing me into loving her so deeply I forget where I am.
“Aren’t you the luckiest fucker alive that I’m behind bars?” Nate’s voice startles us slightly.
Nothing that would show, but I still separate from Rose quicker than I care to admit.
I even move my chair away slightly.
He sits down on the plastic chair on the other side of the table and puts his hands on the table. His knuckles are busted, crusty blood covering every single one of them. He must have beaten up someone quite severely. He, however, doesn’t sport any visible injury that would show he took a hit. I’m not surprised in the slightest. Nate might look skinnier than most of the guys here, but he has a hidden strength no one can compare to. He’s a lethal man, built like an MMA fighter with twice the skills. His main weapon, though, is more straightforward than that.
