Part 9 (1/2)
”George Dennis is dead,” I informed him angrily, reciting the words that had kept me sane since I found out all those years ago. ”It's over, Max. The Ring of Fire is gone, and when Noah is done serving his time he will be a free man. And besides, Noah and I have had no contact,” I choked out. ”Not one phone call in all these years.” I blinked away the hot tears that were burning my eyes. ”For all I know, he's forgotten about me ”
”It will never be over and you know that,” Max interrupted, ignoring my protests. ”There is always another low life waiting in the wings to swoop in and take the reins in a gang.”
”You're wrong,” I countered shakily. ”It's over.”
”Look at what he dragged you into, Teagan,” Max snarled, clearly furious. ”Illegal fighting rings. Drug lords. Car chases. Police stations. Brothels.” I could hear the outrage and disproval dripping from his voice. ”You've taken beatings for him. You've been bullied because of him he bullied you, Teagan. For Christ's sake, that man took your innocence and he uploaded it to the Internet for the world and its mother to see.”
”He didn't do that.”
”Keep defending him.”
”I'm not. I'm stating facts.”
”And you will go back to him,” Max added condescendingly. ”Because that's what women like you do.”
”Women like me?”
”Weak women,” Max informed me. ”Dependent women. Women who bend their morals and go against everything they've ever believed in for a man. And just like your mother, you will end up getting killed because of that man,” Max added, sticking the knife in deeper.
”How dare you bring Mom into this?” I screamed, becoming hysterical. ”I am not weak or dependent, and neither was she.” Bringing up my mother and father's relations.h.i.+p was Max's favorite party trick. He did it when he wanted to hurt me most.
Well, mission accomplished.
”She fell in love, Max. My mother followed her heart, which is something you will never understand because you don't have one.” Squeezing my phone so tightly I was surprised it didn't crack, I roared, ”And I am not that kind of woman.”
”You were prepared to run away with a murderer,” Max protested smugly. ”That makes you exactly that kind of a woman.”
”Noah is not a murderer!”
”Yet.”
”At all!” I screamed, reaching my boiling point. ”Now stop this. I mean it. Stop it right now!”
”He is the worst kind of wrong for you,” my uncle bellowed. ”The moment you decided you loved him, you were lost to me. You sold your soul to the devil himself.”
”Stop talking about him like that,” I sobbed, breaking down, as my emotions overwhelmed me, and my uncle's hurtful words stabbed through my heart. ”Noah has done nothing to you, Max. Nothing!” Pulling on my hair in frustration, I cried, ”This is between you and me... so just leave him alone. Please! Just stop talking about him like that.”
”Why?” he demanded. ”Why do you care what I say about that piece of sc.u.m? I mean, let's be honest here, Teagan, at the end of the day that's all Noah Messina amounts to; criminal sc.u.m ”
”Because I love him, that's why!” I slapped my hand over my mouth the second the words fell out of my mouth.
”And there it is,” Max said sadly. ”Your allegiance to that man after all he's done to hurt you is as strong as ever.” Sighing heavily, he added, ”I'm sorry, Teagan, but I would rather cut ties with you now than watch you go down in flames because of your infatuation with that man.”
I opened my mouth to respond, to retract my words, but it was too late. The sound of beeping in my ear told me that my uncle had hung up on me.
Rus.h.i.+ng over to my bed, I sank down in a heap and cried.
I cried for my dead mother and for my unfixable relations.h.i.+p with my uncle.
But mostly I just cried for Noah.
THE MINUTE THE WARDEN, surrounded by three guards, approached me in the weight room I knew something was wrong. He didn't come around often. The guy was like the grim reaper. He only brought bad news. Everyone in this place knew that you didn't want to get a visit from the warden. I hoped whatever it was wouldn't f.u.c.k with my release date. I only had one month left in this place.
Tense as h.e.l.l, I continued lifting the dumbbells that were in my hands, ignoring the burning sensation in my muscles and the ache spreading in my chest, as I prepared myself for what I was about to hear. ”Who is it?” I managed to grunt, continuing my set. Someone was dead. I could f.u.c.king smell it. There was only one name I was praying didn't come out of the warden's mouth; Teagan.
”Your mother,” he told me without an ounce of sympathy in his tone.
If he expected me to snivel and cry like a b.i.t.c.h then he was talking to the wrong f.u.c.king inmate. No matter how much pain I was feeling or how badly I was hurting, I sure as s.h.i.+t wasn't going to show it.
”What happened?” I managed to grunt out even though my airways felt like they were closing in on me.
”Overdose.”
I took in the warden's words and realized that I wasn't surprised. Not in the least. This was the news I had spent my whole life preparing for. She had finally destroyed herself, like I always knew she would.
”You've been granted one day's leave for the funeral,” he added cagily.
”And when's that happening?”
”Tomorrow. You'll be accompanied by officers Smith and Marshall.”
In the five years and four months I had been here, I learned Smith was a decent man. He didn't take s.h.i.+t, but he didn't give it out unnecessarily either. Marshall wasn't horrible a newbie on cell block C and younger than I was, but he wasn't as bad as the other cowboys in this place.
”Fine,” I told the warden before he left the room.
I STOOD AT THE SIDE OF THE GRAVE, watching as they lowered my mother's casket into the ground.
I felt nothing.
I should have felt something, anything, but I didn't.
I was numb, cold to the bone, and emotionless.
Lee and Kyle were at the graveside, two small boys no older than four or five clung to their legs, offering me their unwanted support. Well, Lee was here to offer her condolences.
I knew why Kyle was really here and it wasn't to sympathize.
My brother was here to make sure my mother was really dead.
Mom had messed so much up for the guy in the past that I figured this was closure for him.
Satisfaction.
Kyle had his arm wrapped around his wife's shoulder proudly, guarding her like a soldier, like she was the only thing on this earth that mattered to him, as he stared at my mother's casket lying in the dirt.
I heard the sound of heavy footsteps behind me moments before hand clamped down on my shoulder.
I didn't turn to see who it was.
I already knew.