“Sure you don’t. I’ve heard you call out his name in your sleep.”
“And whose name would that be?” Melina said before she continued brushing.
“Mac,” Erika said.
Melina rinsed her mouth out quickly with the bitter-tasting water while she tried to gather her thoughts. What could she say to her cellmate? A lie would be easier, so much easier than acknowledging the emptiness that had threatened to consume her during her imprisonment. For someone who’d vowed never to fall in love, she’d fallen and fallen hard. It was hard to remember the exact moment that Mac had wormed his way into her heart.
Maybe it was when he’d posted her bail.
Maybe it was when he’d defended her honor against Tip and Vin.
Or maybe it was when he’d gone down on his knees and given her a glimpse of heaven.
Melina didn’t know and she didn’t care. All she knew was that she missed him and wanted to be back in his arms more than anything.
That is, if he still wanted her.
“So what if I did say that name?”
“After all the time we’ve shared in this cell, don’t you know by now that you can trust me?”
Melina raised a brow. “I trust no one.”
“Fine, you don’t have to trust me, but maybe talking about him will make you feel a bit better. Just think about it, okay?”
The heavy doors slowly slid open and Erika turned away, waiting to receive the go-ahead from the guard that they could exit the cell. When they were finally allowed to leave the small space, Melina considered what Erika had offered. Was it time that she let someone in? Perhaps a good talk was all she needed to center herself in preparation for whatever came next.
“I couldn’t stand him from the moment we met,” Melina confessed.
“Why not?”
Melina sat down next to Erika on a table in the recreation yard. In front of them, the other women of the facility played basketball, lifted weights and huddled together in clustered groups. During her stint in lockup, Melina had learned to keep her eyes and ears open and respect everyone’s turf. That didn’t mean that she wouldn’t defend herself, when and if the need arose.
“Because he was so … so arrogant, I thought.”
“Well, obviously things changed, so what happened?”
Melina smiled. “I learned what I thought was arrogance was simply confidence and that we had a lot more in common than I thought we did.”
Erika pulled her twists into an easy bun on the top of her head. “Like what? Go on.”
“For starters, we’re both survivors. Somehow or another, no matter how hard life knocks us down, we always find some way to get back up. There’s an energy between us that I’ve never experienced before. It’s scary sometimes,” Melina confessed.
“Now that last part sounds romantic to me.”
“I didn’t really think of it like that, but I guess it is.”
Erika rolled her eyes. “Call a spade a spade, honey. No one will think less of you because you’re a closet romantic.”
Melina shuddered. “I am not, I repeat, I am not one of those sappy women in the romance novels, so don’t even think it.”
“Whatever. So when did you go from detesting his entire existence to actually caring about him?”
“I saw him at a club and I was dancing with another guy. A normal guy would have brushed it off. Not Mac. The next thing I know, he had the other guy on the floor and me over his shoulder.”
“And you went for that alpha male shit?” Erika asked as she raised an eyebrow.
“Hardly. I tried to beat the crap out of him, and then the next thing I knew, we were all over each other.”
Erika opened her mouth to say something, but was cut off when two women started yelling at one another on the basketball court. Their voices were so loud, they drowned out practically all the other noise on the rec yard. A moment later, whistles were blown and the two women were separated and led away, no doubt back to their cells or worse, to confinement.
“Both of them are dumb for getting worked up over a stupid pick-up game,” Erika finally said.
“Yep. No telling how that little stunt is going to come back and bite them in the ass.” Melina tugged a fly away strand of hair back behind her ear.
“Anyway, now back to your Mac. Please tell me the two of you had some dirty club sex afterwards.”
“Sorry to disappoint, but no.”
“You know you missed a prime opportunity right?”
“Little Miss Good Girl is telling me I should have banged him at a club. I must have fallen down Alice’s rabbit hole.”
Erika thumped her lightly on the arm. “Hey. I’m not that goodie-goodie. I am in here, aren’t I?”
“Your point? You’re only here because the man you loved and trusted left you holding the bag. There’s no way you’d be mixed up in drugs otherwise. It’s not you,” Melina said.
“And what about you?” Erika asked quietly.
“What about me?”
“Did Mac leave you holding the bag?”