“That’s fucked up,” I finally said. “If I’m hurting, her ass should be here commiserating with me.” Just as I’d been there for her. “She’s being a shitty friend.”
He smiled. “Want me to drag her over tonight so you can tell her?”
“Yes. Bring pizza and ice cream because we’re going to cry it out until we’re both in a food coma and back to being best friends.”
“Sounds like girl bonding. Does Cruz work tonight?”
I sighed. “He works every night.” Not only was he paying on Ryatt’s R1, but he worked out a deal with Dozer on a Harley. Ryatt didn’t know it yet, but he’d become part of the MC.
“Cruz seems to like working for the Brunos,” Blue said.
“He does. I don’t know what they have him doing. I think it’s better I don’t know.”
He circled the rim of his coffee mug with his fingertip. “How’s Ryatt doing?”
“He asks about Kiss when we talk. If it would help her, I can ask him to use one of his phone calls to reach out.” Those fifteen minutes were all I had, but Kiss’s sobriety was important to Ryatt, and it was important to me.
Blue smiled. “She’d appreciate the thought, but she wouldn’t accept the call. If she only had fifteen minutesa day with me, you’d have to fight to the death to get her to give up even one of those minutes.”
My phone buzzed on the table. I flipped it over. “It’s Ryatt,” I said breathlessly. My heartbeat escalated and a kaleidoscope of butterflies exploded in my belly. My finger trembled as I slid it across the accept call bar.
Blue walked toward the bedrooms, and I jogged up to the pool table platform and curled into the corner of the couch. There was always a second or two of silence before the recorded message from the jail came through. I pressed one to accept.
“Hi, baby.”
Tears filled my eyes with the sound of his voice. “Hi,” I squeaked out with emotions balling up in my throat. “I didn’t think you were going to call today.”
We’d be up to visit him this afternoon.
“I only have a few minutes. When you come to visiting, we won’t be alone.” He didn’t have to say the words for me to know he wasn’t talking about Cruz being with us. There would be guards and potentially other inmates.
“I don’t care as long as I can touch you.”
His voice lowered. “If this call wasn’t monitored, I’d tell you exactly how I’d like to touch you.”
“You don’t have to say it. I dream about it every night. Just the three of us.”
“I do, too.” He sighed. “I want you here. I miss you. And I miss that asshole’s charm, but I’m looking at five years, McKelle.” I heard the catch in his voice and the ragged cadence of his breath. “You can’t build a relationship on weekly visits and fifteen-minute phone calls.”
That was fear talking. I was scared, too.
“I trust Tank, and he says Willy is the best. He’d have to be to keep Hellers out of jail.” I bit my tongue. “Because everyone knows cops are always looking for an easy mark. Like guys who did nothing wrong.” Stupid girl. Everything I said on the recorded call could make the situation worse for Ryatt.
“I’ve already been convicted. I’m here until I see the judge and that could take weeks.”
I closed my eyes, listened to his voice, and imagined he was here with me. “One day at a time.”
“Time is all I’ve got right now.”
I didn’t know what to say to him. I couldn’t tell him everything would be okay because we both understood this separation could last a long time.
“I wanted to tell you what to expect when you come today. You’ll probably want to get to the jail early, like thirty minutes. You’ll go through security. Bring your ID but nothing else. You can bring your phone, but you won’t be allowed to use it. No taking pictures. But you can show me pictures on it as long as they aren’t explicit. Save those for when I get out. And no cut for Cruz.”
“Okay. I’ll see you in a couple hours.”
And then the phone disconnected.
Ryatt
