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“Please, Mr. Jaxon.” I hadn’t meant to cry, but suddenly heavy, wet tears are streaming down my face. I wipe them away, sniffling, humiliated. I hate crying; I always have. Our mother used to say that only pathetic people cried. Once Julie got slapped hard for crying when our dog died. It was the last time I ever saw her shed a tear.
After a few moments of tense silence, Jaxon leans forward, lowering his tone again.
“What?” he says. “What can I do to help?”
Chapter Sixteen
I’m walking againby the time the warden finally releases me another week later. Most of the worse injuries have healed up, but my face is still highlighted with bruising and discoloration.
“It could be worse,” Lace says as we face each other on the bed in her cell. She runs her fingers over the bruises on my face, gentle as ever, her skin warm to the touch. “You’re still just as beautiful now as you were before Bull beat you to shit.”
“Gee thanks,” I said with a laugh. “That was just the compliment I’ve been fishing for.”
Lace smiles, but after a short moment her smile falters and her eyes look away from my own, and she focuses on the wall behind me instead.
“I’m sorry, Joey.” She sighs and rests her forehead against my own and we close our eyes, just holding each other.
“Sorry for what?”
“For everything.” Lace swallows, and I see a tear slip between her closed eyelids. “I’m sorry you took the fall for me and paid the price. I’m sorry that your sister stabbed you in the back. I wouldn’t wish this place on anyone.”
“Whatever happens with Julie is something you don’t need to worry about.” I scoot closer to her and place my lips on hers, reaching one hand up to twirl a strand of her beautiful golden hair around one finger.
“I can’t believe anyone could do that to someone else,” says Lace. “Especially someone who’s supposed to be family.”
“Yeah, well, I can’t say I’m not used to it.” I kiss her again and Lace returns it, a soft moan escaping her lips. “Besides,” I say, pulling back a bit. “I have a plan for my sister, and hopefully it will work.”
“Can I know the plan?” she asks, and I shake my head.
“I don’t want you involved. It’s risky, and I don’t even know if it will work. But I have to try.”
“I wish you’d let me help.”
I smile and trail my finger down Lace’s bar arm. She shivers, nibbling her bottom lip, as I go in again for a kiss. This one is longer, spicy, and when we finally part, Lace is breathing hard.
“You already help me every day,” I tell her. “Just … don’t leave me, okay?”
“Never,” she says, and when we kiss again, all the physical and emotional pain I feel in the bottom of my gut eases, just enough for me to enjoy every moment I can.
Warden Flynn calls me to her office after lunch to see how I’m doing, but I know she’s really just being nosy, and she probably wants something too. Sure enough, as soon as I sit down in the office chair across from her desk, she smiles that fake, plastered smile and folds her hand on top of the desk.
“How are you feeling?”
“Like I’ve been steamrolled, how about yourself?”
“Terrific, thanks.” She continues to smile, flashing that Norman Bates expression that the world has come to know and fear.
“Is there something you need, Warden?” I ask, pretending to look around her bland office in a bored sort of way. The warden opens her mouth to say something, but then thinks better of it and closes it. Her eyes move briefly to the glass window, where Jaxon is standing patiently outside her office door, waiting to escort me back to my unit.
“Rumor has it that you and Officer Nick Jaxon are becoming pretty close,” the warden says finally, turning her gaze back to me. “Is there any truth to this?”
“Who’s spreading the rumor?”
“I’m not at liberty to say.”
“Then I’m not at liberty to answer.”
“It is true, Ms. Taylor, or isn’t it?”
