“No,” I affirmed for her.
“Simon,” Tony hissed at me again. “Let’s go.”
I followed Tony out of the courtroom, trying to ignore the woman we left behind. There was a history between them, and I couldn’t help but wonder what it was. Tony never talked about his past beyond a few childhood stories. I knew he was close to a man named Christian, who was in a club in New York. I’d heard a few stories about law school and the cases he’d won and the ones he’d lost that haunted him.
But I didn’t know anything about his sexual journey. I’d told him everything about mine. How I knew as a kid I was gay. I’d never been with a woman. Never even questioned what sex with a woman would be like. I never cared to find out. Women didn’t interest me.
Had Tony experimented before coming to the conclusion he was gay? Had he questioned his identity growing up, confusion leading him to live his life in the closet? Had he slept with the she-bitch?
“Tony?”
“Not fucking now, Simon.”
My shoulders slumped as he growled out his irritation at me. I knew it was due to the circumstances, but the circumstances surrounded me; therefore, I was the reason for his anger.
We walked down to the clerk’s office. “Bail’s been paid,” Goliath said.
“Who paid it?” I asked. We’d just left the courtroom. I didn’t have the money for bail. I guess I could have used the shop as collateral.
“I paid it,” Goliath announced.
“You, Goliath? Why?”
“Because you don’t belong in a fucking cell, Simon. You didn’t do anything wrong; you aren’t taking the heat for this.”
“It was self-def—”
“Bullshit,” Goliath hissed.
“Can we not talk about this here?” Tony grabbed my arm and walked toward the corrections officer. He pulled out a chair, and I sat while the ankle bracelet was secured to my leg.
“This is a GPS monitor. It doesn’t have a short-term range, but we can track you anywhere you go. The judge ordered you not to leave the state, or even the county.”
“Apparently I can’t leave my house without a babysitter,” I whined.
The man on his knees in front of me smiled. He placed his hand on my knee and whispered seductively, “If you run, I’ll chase you.” Then he winked.
“What the fuck?” Tony growled at the man whose name tag said Freddie. Tony stepped between us and glared at him.
Freddie held up his hands and said, “Just telling him the rules.”
“He knows the goddamn rules.”
Tony didn’t say a word to me as he hauled me roughly from the chair. His jealousy had always done things to me. I remembered one night in particular…
Chapter Seven
Simon
Two years earlier at The Sanctum in Denver, Colorado...
I sat at the bar watching the festivities. I didn’t participate, not unless Tony was here with me. But I still came to see my friends. And I made sure Tony knew.
He didn’t get to dictate my life, not if he wasn’t willing to be in it.
“You alone tonight?” Gary asked as he handed me a drink.
Gary Fenmore had worked behind the bar at the club for the past ten years. We knew each other well. Intimately well. The only rule for employees having sex with club goers was that they couldn’t do it while they were working. And since working here gave them a free pass to visit the club when they weren’t, I’d spent time with a number of the employees here, as well as various guests.
