I tapped my foot impatiently waiting for my brother to come in. Romeo came in every couple weeks. Usually, they wouldn’t let criminals who were still carrying bail conditions visit inside a jail, but Matt had somehow managed to pull some strings. Or one of the boys had managed to alter Romeo’s records for a short time, so the bail conditions weren’t showing.
Either way, it was good to see him.
I told Op and Blizzard not to come after the first time. It’d had only pissed the guards off, and I’d ended up in a world of pain with them rambling on about how, when they were done with me, they were going to go after my brothers and our women.
The club made them feel threatened, and it was better for everyone if they just stayed away. If they knew what was going on, the shit I was dealing with and the weight I’d lost, I knew exactly what they’d do. Half of them would get themselves thrown in here on petty shit just so they could have my back.
I knew because that’s exactly what I would do.
Not only that, but I knew asking them to keep this shit from Meyah was already causing tension within the club. I knew I was going to catch hell for it when I got out. But this was how I needed it to be for now.
One by one, family members were guided through the doors by guards, each one quickly finding their inmate and taking a seat at the tiny visiting room tables.
When the door buzzed open again, I felt the air shift, and the bristles on the back of my neck stood on end. I wanted to curse out loud, make a scene, and order them to get her the hell out of here. But I knew the more attention I drew to her, and the more upset I got about her being here, the more they would zone in on her.
This is what I’d spent the last two months trying to fucking avoid. Having her see me like this. Having it made known she was important to me. Giving the guards something to use against me.
I knew this was Romeo. He’d fucking done this. And he, of all people, should know how important it was to keep your cards close to your chest when you were alone.
I didn’t look up, not even as she took a seat at the table and the scent of her shampoo drifted past my nose. I wanted to take her by the neck and drag her across this table, bury my face in her hair and touch every inch of her fucking body that I’d been missing for the past eight weeks.
The struggle to control myself was very fucking real.
And that only made me angrier.
“You’ve lost weight,” she commented softly.
I had.
Because I was being fucking starved.
“The fuck are you doing here, Meyah?” I finally growled, raising my eyes to look at her. I sat back, the dark purple locks that blended and weaved through her dark hair were a shock, but I instantly fucking loved it. I loved it because I knew it meant she was finally stepping out, taking what she wanted and owning her choices.
Fuck, I was proud of her.
I wanted to tell her that and ramble on about how everything she thought she knew about what happened that day was false. I hated knowing she thought I would ever do something like that. The need to just admit what was going on, so I didn’t see the obvious pain in her eyes almost caught me, but my eyes spotted Kent and two of his buddies across the room, eyeing me and whispering between them.
Instantly, I shut down.
I needed to get her the fuck out of here.
“What happened to your lip?” she asked, her voice soft and her brow knitted.
It was a fresh split, courtesy of an elbow on the way here. She reached out, across the table, like it was natural for her to want to touch it and examine it. I flinched, pulling away. Her eyes ran over me, and she shook her head like she was confused.
“What’s going on here?”
She’d barely drawn her hand back, and Kent was already marching across the room with that menacing grin on his face. “Excuse me, miss,” he addressed Meyah, placing one hand on the back of her chair and the other on the table in front of her, boxing her in. She leaned back, obviously uncomfortable with how close he was to her. “You need to keep your hands to yourself. If you fail to do so, I will need to strip search you before you leave. Just as a precaution.”
Meyah squared her shoulders, looking him directly in the eye. She could feel there was something off, but she wasn’t backing down. Instead, she clenched her teeth as she spoke, “Sure. Sorry.” Her words were short and snappy, and I almost laughed, except I saw the way Kent reacted to her tone.
He didn’t like to be questioned.
He continued to stand there for a moment longer, his eyes flicking to me, trying to gauge my reaction to him invading her space.
I gave him nothing.
A couple more seconds and he pulled back, his eyes moving between us in confusion as he stepped away again, leaving us be.