I was barely settled against the pillow before she rolled into me and threw her arm across my chest, which made falling asleep nearly impossible. I drifted off listening to her breathe while willing my body to calm dafuq down. Parts of me that I’d trained myself to ignore were once again getting out of control because of her, and the scent of her hair as it tickled my nose didn’t help.
In the morning, I came fully awake and flung myself out of bed before I embarrassed myself. I stood in the shower minutes later, looking down at my dick, glaring at it like a best friend who’d betrayed me. “What is wrong with you? Since when are you allowed to think for yourself?” Bastard just jumped as I soaped up and fought hard not to pleasure myself to thoughts of her. This is bad; this is really bad.
I marched into the bedroom after toweling off and pulling on a robe to tell her that she must never under any circumstances come to my room that late at night again, but she was gone. I deflated like a pricked balloon, and that quickly, my irritation disappeared.
Knowing her, she was probably almost as embarrassed to wake up here. Besides, what if she needs me again in the night and refuses to come to me because of some foolish edict given in the heat of whatever this is.
I resigned myself to the knowledge that when it comes to her, I’ll always put her needs before my own. Knowing that that might cause problems with other things in my life somewhere down the line is not something I want to think about right now.
BECKY
It’s morning! I’ve just spent the most hellish night of my life alone in a cell, without any human interaction in the last eight hours. By the time someone came around, I was ready to light into them until his words stopped me. When I was told that I had a lawyer, I figured it was Felix’s doing. If there’s one thing I know, it’s that he’s all about appearances.
My worry now was how much was he told and what does he believe? I’d spent the night thinking of excuses for what happened and knew there was very little breathing room. My best bet is to pretend that I got the money from the bank; that way, I can buy myself some time. I’ll say it was for Victoria that I was trying to cheer her up after she’d been expelled.
Worst case scenario, he gets mad that I’d tried to spend that much on something frivolous, while the alternative didn't bear thinking about.
“You’re in luck. Your lawyer has got you a hearing before the judge this morning. It looks like someone is paying your bail.” Again my mind went to Felix, because who else? Then I started thinking about what little I knew about the justice system and felt a lot better. Isn’t it the law not to give bail if the crime is really serious? Obviously, this wasn’t as bad as I’d been thinking.
There was no sign of Felix in the courtroom; then, again, I can’t expect him to have hung around New York until morning. He had to get back for work after all, and Felix never misses work unless there’s an emergency. Adding more fuel to my assumption that my crime was not as bad as those two agents had tried to convince me it was the night before, I barely spent any time in the courtroom before I was being told I was free to go.
The lawyer tried telling me about a pending court case in the next few months, but I tuned him out. I was more interested in the here and now. I have to find that man who’d bought the car and get it back, which shouldn’t be a problem since he wouldn’t want the cops to know that he’s the one who’d passed me the bogus cash.
He probably goes around doing that mess to people all over the place; how hard can it be to pin this all on him if it comes to that? Right now, the most important thing is getting the car back before Felix notices that it’s gone.
I found my car in the store parking lot, hoping I didn’t run into anyone from the night before; how embarrassing would that be. I was well on my way out of the city when I was struck by a sudden thought. “Oh hell, where’s Victoria? I calmed myself with the thought that Felix had taken her home.
VICTORIA
I sat in the dingy booth in the rundown diner someplace in New Jersey, listening to the man who claimed to be my father speak. He seemed overly excited, reminiscing about things I’d long forgotten if they ever really happened; meanwhile, I’m just here for information.