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.

“Why are you here?” I snapped, when he was finally out of earshot again. “You need to go home, Meyah. This ain’t the place for you.”

“That why you asked everyone to keep it from me?” she threw back. She sat a little straighter, and her eyes narrowed. They were already red and bloodshot, and a little puffy. Kind of like she’d spent a lot of time crying.

“Yes, that’s why,” I responded, the words making her body jump like a shot to the chest. “Like I said, this ain’t the place for you.”

She placed her hands on the table, gripping the edge like if she let go, she might fall off the Earth. She was struggling, she was fighting with her emotions, and all the shit swirling around in her head. I knew it was hard for her—she was angry, she was hurt, she was confused—because she missed me. She hated I was here, and she didn’t know why. She thought I’d betrayed her, and on top of that she couldn’t understand how I would do that if I loved her like I did.

And the answer was that I wouldn’t.

I’d never fucking cheat on her.

Meyah was fucking it for me.

But right now wasn’t the time to let her know that. Not when I knew these fuckers who ran this place were looking for any excuse to get under my skin. Word was out I was looking at walking in court this week, but they still believed I’d done it, and they were going to make my last few days here absolute fucking hell.

They were going to try and push me over the edge. Any excuse to force me to make a mistake. Anything that might change the court case and land me in a pile of shit.

Including using Meyah.

Or even hurting her.

“How dare you,” she whispered in a dark tone which surprised me. “They are my family, too, you know, and now I’m the idiot because… stupid Meyah, right? Bet everyone knew you were sleeping with the club girls behind my back, too, didn’t they? What else did you ask them to lie about?”

I gritted my teeth, fighting the urge to yell and scream about how I never touched a damn club girl. Not since I figured out it wasn’t going to make these feelings I had for Meyah go away.

I refused to fucking lie to her.

Knowing I would have to explain all this shit later, it wasn’t going to be any easier if I’d already told her I’d fucked Jess and then turned around and tried to deny it.

God, when did I dig myself such a massive fucking hole?

Her nose crinkled, and I could tell she was fighting the tears.

“I loved that place. I loved it there.” Her voice cracked, and it was near enough to break me. “I finally felt like I knew my place in the world. I felt empowered, supported… loved. And you’ve now made it feel dirty. How dare you fucking destroy that for me? How dare you take that away because you wanted to get your dick wet?”

Straight for the jugular.

This beautiful, amazing fucking woman.

She wasn’t a little girl anymore.

She was holding her own, and I knew for a fact if we’d been anywhere else but a fucking jail visiting room right now, she’d have likely kneed me in the balls and smiled.

And I wouldn’t have blamed her.

Right now, I kind of wanted to kick myself in the balls.

I was hurting her.

With every moment I held the truth in, every second that I kept my mouth shut, I was driving her away. And right now, it was getting harder and harder to convince myself it was the right thing to do.

How do you look the person you love in the eye and pretend not to care?

It was almost impossible.

“I don’t know why I thought this was a good idea. I just wanted to see you. I’d spent the last two months thinking you’d let me walk, and that you were living your life at the club.” She hung her head, shaking it back and forth. “I convinced myself maybe if I came, there’d be some kind of explanation. I bullshitted myself into thinking this was all some stupid misunderstanding.”

It was.

A huge misunderstanding.

One I never would have let continue had things been different.

When I didn’t answer, she laughed and shook her head. “Wow. You’re just like him, you know,” she murmured, placing her palms on the table as if she was getting ready to stand. “Worse actually. At least Nick didn’t lie and sneak around.”

The instant she said his name, my whole body electrified and a fire was lit inside me, one I struggled to contain. I pushed to my feet just as she did, rage building inside me. I didn’t even give a shit that two guards were already making a beeline for me, and Meyah was stepping away. “Don’t you dare fucking compare me to him.”

Her eyes were red, but she wasn’t done.

Maybe the old Meyah would have taken that as her cue and walked away. But not this Meyah. This Meyah didn’t walk away without having her say, and she was going to make it count.

“There’s actually no comparison,” she sneered as one of the guards grabbed me and pulled me back, while Kent took her arm, ready to lead her away. “At least he was honest about the disgusting pig he was.” She spun on her heel, ripping her elbow away from Kent and stomping toward the door.

Fire and rage burned inside me, and I didn’t give a shit anymore. “We aren’t done, fury fists,” I called after her, struggling against the hold this guy had on me.

She held up one hand over her shoulder, her middle finger in the air as she was guided out the door.

Common sense was out the fucking window.

I needed to get the fuck out of here.

I needed to get my fucking woman back.

Screw the damn consequences.