“Lay it on the line, Mia. What are you talking about?”
“I slept with your brother.”
* * *
A giant anvil hit him in the gut. If he hadn’t known better, he’d swear he’d just been sucker-punched.
“You what?” No, not Mia. Not his sweet, beautiful Mia.
“And…”
“Fuck, there’s an ‘and?’”
“I’m pregnant.” She gulped. “With Wayne’s baby.”
Jeff went numb. Maria continued to speak. That is, her mouth moved, but all Jeff heard was white noise inside his brain. Muffles of whizzing fans and whirring engines. He stood, his legs acting on their own. And he left Mia standing there, the phone still in her hand, her cherry-red lips still moving.
“You done, Bay?” the guard said.
“Yeah. I’m done.” He cleared his throat. “I need to talk to my attorney.”
“Yeah? He just got here.”
“I’m going to cop a plea.”
Two days later, the cell doors locked for Jeff Bay. Permanently. He’d pleaded guilty to felony murder. Because he’d copped a plea, he was spared the death penalty. Bummer. At the moment, he’d welcome the blackness of nothing. But nope, it was life imprisonment for him. If he was lucky, he might be eligible for parole by the time he was sixty.
It was no less than he deserved for how he’d lived his life. He had drugged his brother and seen him shot, and a man was dead because of a crime he’d participated in. Yet for Mia, he’d have gone straight, made good, done what he could to make up for the havoc he’d wreaked.
But Mia was no longer his.
He flopped down on his bunk and said good-bye to life as he knew it.
To Grandpa Norman, who had disinherited him, taken away his future, and to Wayne, the backstabber.
To his unborn niece or nephew.
And to Mia.
Good-bye.
Chapter Twenty-Three
Maria held her ground. Inside, her body shook with tremors, but outside, she was ice-woman. She had to be. Jeff’s life depended on it. No way would she let anyone hurt him ever again.
The big man glared at her, the gun still pointed at Jeff.
“I’m not kidding,” she said, willing her voice not to crack. “I’ll shoot your ass. Now drop the gun and kick it over to me.”
“Who the fuck are you?” the man asked.
“Does that really matter? I’ll blow your brains sky high if you don’t do what I say. This is your last chance. Kick the gun over here.”
Seeing Jeff in that submissive position—on his knees before this maniac—terrified her, but damn it, she would be strong. She would not cave like she had all those years ago, running to Wayne.
“Who is she, Bay?”
Jeff stayed quiet.