He paused with his hand on the knob, and turned back to her.
“Are you going back to New Orleans? Will I see you again?”
“I’ll be around for a while longer. You’ll see me again, sweet cheeks.”
Then he walked out.
She yelled through the closed door, “Quit calling me that.”
She heard a fist hit against the wall of the hallway, and she smiled.
About an hour after Blood left her, Boo came in with a fast food bag. He stepped over the broken glass and approached the bed.
“I brought you a hamburger. Ghost called and said it’d be another hour before they get back, and he thought you might be hungry.” He set the bag on the bed and handed her the drink cup. Then he righted the table she’d thrown across the room, and he set it back next to the bed so she could set her drink back on it.
“Thank you. Can you let me go to the bathroom?” She lifted her wrist and rattled the handcuffs.
He eyed them. “Um, yeah, sure. Let me get the key.”
A couple minutes later he returned with the key, released her and escorted her down the hall to the bathroom.
When she was finished he escorted her back and waited, allowing her to finish eating before he put the cuff back on her.
“I’ll get one of the girls in here to clean up the mess.”
“Thank you, Boo. I’m sorry about that. I was a little upset.”
He just nodded without comment, then slid out the door.
About five minutes later, there was a tap on the door, and Ashley stepped in, holding a broom.
“Boo sent me in to sweep up the glass.” She looked anything but happy about it.
Why did it have to be her? He couldn’t have sent anyone else? She supposed the girl was going to rub her nose in it now. Ashley began sweeping the glass in a pile.
“Guess you were pretty pissed off. I would have been pissed, too. I don’t blame you for smashing up everything in sight. I’d have done the same thing.” When Jessie just glared at her without commenting, Ashley’s eyes lifted. “I told you the truth, you know.”
Jessie turned her head away, trying to fold her arms, but the handcuff prevented her from doing so, and it rattled with her attempt.
Ashley’s eyes dropped to the cuffs, then she put her finger to her mouth, as if warning Jessie to stay quiet.
Jessie frowned as she watched Ashley peek down the hall, wondering what on earth she was doing. She quietly closed the door, and then approached Jessie. Her hand slid into the hip pocket of her jeans and pulled out a key ring, holding it up.
“I was at the bar when Boo came in to get the key to let you go to the bathroom, so I saw where he kept it. When he told me to come in here and clean up, I went behind the bar when he wasn’t looking and grabbed it.”
“And? Are you going to let me out of these?” She rattled the cuffs.
Again Ashley shushed her and hissed quietly, “Do you want us to get caught?”
Jessie shut her mouth.
“It’s no secret I want you gone, but I wasn’t lying to you. I told you what JJ told me. Now, its up to you if you want to believe it or not.” She shrugged. “Maybe Ghost will let them turn you over, maybe he won’t. But is that a chance you want to take?”
“Are you going to release me or not?”
Ashley crossed her arms. “If I do, you better never rat that it was me that let you go.”
“Who do you think they’ll blame it on?”