I huff. “So you didn’t come after me for who I am to further your dancing career?”
Tears fall down her face a little faster. “Matt, no. I swear. I was me with you. Maddison is a lie. Everything about her is only so I can pay the bills and, hopefully, have a career in dance. But Madeline, that’s who I am. I swear everything about me, everything I’ve told you… that’s who I really am, Matt.”
“And you think keeping somethingthis hugewasn’t going to be a big deal for me?” I ask, and Devon chuckles in the front seat to himself.
She swallows hard and chews on her bottom lip. I used to find it sexy when she did that. Now, all I see is the scared little girl behind this vixen.
“I thought if you got to know me, thereal me… once I told you, it might not be such a big deal.”
I can’t stop the guttural laugh that erupts from my throat as it echoes through the car. Her eyes sparkle with tears, and her mouth turns down as she gives me a forlorn look.
“Did you guys work out this little act in case you got caught? ’Cause I’m almost believing you,” Officer Devon calls out from the front with a chuckle.
I throw myself back into the seat and turn away from Madeline, staring out the window for the rest of the car ride to the station.
Chapter Twenty-Two
MATT
Madeline apologized profusely on the way to the station before we were separated and taken away for questioning. I told the officers exactly what I’d told Officer Devon. But his statement about me trying to bribe him didn’t sit well with my case, and I was put into holding until bail could be granted.
I’m in for a long wait, and I’m currently missing my friend’s wedding.
I’m fucking fuming as I pace the cell that has three other inmates in here with me. A stocky, tattooed guy who seems angry at the world. A man with dreadlocks who looks like he’s ready to stab me with his glare at any second, and a short, skinny guy who looks barely old enough to be legal, but he certainly appears troubled. Like he has voices talking to him in his mind or something, by the way he keeps looking up and to the left.
I continue to pace back and forth up against the bars, trying to figure out how the hell I’m going to get out of here. They mentioned that when they frisked me and took my cell phone and wallet, I would get one phone call. So I’m just passing the time until I can make that call.
“You that bassist from Recoil?” the dreadlocked cellmate calls out through his death stare, and I turn to him and let out a small sigh.
“Yeah.”
He stands up, his massive stature towers over me. The sheer size of the guy is daunting. He has muscles on muscles and has to be edging on nearly seven foot. His veins pop out on his skin so much that it’s like little worms running along his flesh.
“What’s your name?” he asks.
I look around the room as the young guy twitches, slightly jolting his head to the side, and the stocky guy yawns like we’re boring him.
“Matt, you?”
“T-Dog…” His lips curl up. “You know, what your crew did to Debt Money was pretty disrespectful,” he says, and I slump my body and clench my eyes shut while rubbing my temple.
Trust me to be put into a cell with the rapper Debt Money’s goon and have to pay for a beef that’s held more between Danger and Ryan than with me.
“Look, T-Dog, I have no beef with Debt Money. I know Recoil and he had history, but we’re cool now.”
He brings his fist up and cracks his knuckles as a scare tactic.
It works.
“You’re not cool. He’s my cousin’s, friend’s, uncle’s, nephew. And you mess with my family, you mess with me. You feel me?”
I screw my face up at how exactly that makes them family, but I’m not willing to argue with a giant. Nodding, I exhale. “I feel you, T-Dog.”
He steps closer as I take a step back. My back hits the bars, and he pushes right up against me. The kid giggles as he jumps on the floor, squats, then hops like a frog while laughing like a madman. The stocky guy looks, yawns again, and rolls over, facing the wall like he’s not getting involved in any of this shit. I breathe heavily as I look up at T-Dog and grit my teeth, wondering how this day couldpossiblyget any worse.
“You gonna feelall of meright now,” he says, lifting his fist as the kid laughs maniacally.
I bring my hands up in surrender and open my eyes wide. “Wait, wait, wait,” I call out just before his fist connects with my face.
