Ben asked me not to go. I said I wouldn’t, but I already broke my promise to him in worse ways. He knew they would set a trap for me, but the thing is the trap was set the minute he got arrested. Now this is the only way out for us.
THIRTY
I sitbehind some guy named Kevin who was arrested for petty theft. There are about half a dozen of us, waiting to see the judge before lunchtime. My lawyer said I’d probably be offered a deal, but it wouldn’t be a good one. Assault with a deadly weapon often gets upped to attempted murder. If I’m lucky, it would be a year behind bars and a few on probation.
Unfortunately for me, I pissed off some powerful people. They may be willing to settle this outside of the courtroom, but the deal they would offer would be far worse than a year. It might be better than going in front of a jury, but not by much.
I don’t care about any of that right now. I’ll deal with the punishment later. Now I just need to get out of here and make sure Prue doesn’t do anything stupid. If I know her half as well as I think I do, the guilt of me sitting in jail is probably getting to her. It shouldn’t, because it’s my actions that got me here. I did this to myself.
For her, but nonetheless, this is my own fault.
I’m more than happy to explain why I did what I did to a room full of people, but I already did that once and ended up on my knees begging for Prue’s forgiveness. I highly doubt I could pull that off in front of a judge.
So, I sit as patiently as possible, waiting for my chance to plead for bail. Wes is out there somewhere, with a bunch of money and my passport. Ready to buy my freedom, much like I was when he got arrested. His charge was for far less, and everyone knew it was justified. That is not the case for me.
I take some comfort in knowing I’ll be the reason my band breaks up. Or maybe they will just replace me when they finally decide to start touring again. Either way, I do enjoy being the cause of my own ruin.
Well, I used to, now I would much prefer Prue be the cause. Her cruelty is like a drug to me. That pussy of her is heaven and I would spend forever on my knees praying to it if I could. The amount of time I’ll have on bail is not going to be enough to feed my craving, but I’ll soak up as many memories of her cunt as possible.
They will be the only thing to get me through my time trapped in the cage. After as well, because freedom will come after a few years, but by then I’ll be a distant memory to her, and she will be a constant reminder that I’m an asshole.
“Benjamin Parker?” a guard by the door calls my name.
Raising to my feet, I walk toward the door leading to the courtroom, preparing myself to grovel for mercy to authority, which I hate. But there isn’t much I wouldn’t do for Prue.
“No. This way,” the guard calls and my head snaps to the back.
“Huh?”
“The charges have been dropped.”
“No,” I say as my stomach drops. What did she do? “I think there is a mistake.”
“Nope. Just got word the charges were dropped. Guess they got the wrong guy, or the price of the lawyers weren’t worth it. Either way, you’re being released.”
“Fuck,” I groan.
“Never seen someone upset about dropped charges before.” The guard laughs.
“That’s because this time it comes with a cost. One I don’t want to pay for.”
Wes is waiting at the top of the stairs outside the courthouse for me.
“Lucky day,” he says with a soft smile. “Let this be a lesson. Play stupid games…”
“Shut the fuck up,” I snap, scanning the area for her short caramel hair. My head whips every direction. I know she is here. I feel it. She never fucking listens.
“Who are you looking for?”
“Who do you think?” I snap, looking at him.
“You told her not to come.”
“Yeah, but clearly she never fucking listens to me.”
“Maybe given how serious the situation is, she finally did. I know it took me getting arrested for Abbey to come to her senses.”
“Unlike your girl, my girl is actually insane,” I reply. “And news-fucking-flash, I’m a free man. You don’t think that just happened by some miracle, do you?”
