60. Bay
SIXTY
bay
Whoever said it only gets worse before it gets better can go fuck themselves.
No one who’s lived through the worst, underwent it, and survived.
There’s no way.
Because, when I received a call from the St. Clair Shore County Sheriff’s Department with Levi’s voice on the other end, thoughts of running my car into a tree filled my mind.
Dad’s gone. I had to leave him there…alone.
The nurse told me that they’d take care of him for me and practically dragged me out of the room, but I heard the urgency in Levi’s voice and I needed to help him.
So, I’m here.
“He’s down there,” Muncy states with pure amusement laced in his tone as he points toward the end of the janky room. It’s all one big shithole with a few desks that are unoccupied and three jail cells that face whoever is working tonight. So they can keep an eye on their prisoners. “You don’t have any weapons on ya, do you, girl?” He makes a move for me, but I step out of his reach and seize him with a glare.
“Don’t fucking touch me,” I seethe. “What’s his bail?”
“Bail?” He laughs, as if that doesn’t exist in the law anymore, and I’m ready to punch him in the throat and watch him choke. But what good would that do me?
What good would it do my sisters if Levi and I were both locked up for some shit that would stick? “He doesn’t have one.”
My brows knit. “What are you talking about? There’s always?—”
“Where are you gonna come up with the money, huh?” He scoffs, as if I’m so below him he can’t stand being around me for this conversation. But he’d have no problem fucking me. “You got five minutes.”
I don’t bother wasting them on him and stride in the direction of the cells. My head feels hazy and out of body. Like the last twenty minutes wasn’t me screaming at Dad to wake up. That I didn’t just lose him.
“Hey,” Levi greets me, seeing me before I do him, and rises to stand from the cement bench. “Thanks for—what the hell is wrong?”
I grip the metal bars and rest my forehead along one of them, clenching my eyes closed because I’m about to rip his heart out, too.
I didn’t save Dad.
I must’ve done something wrong, didn’t talk to him enough, maybe he thought it wasn’t worth it?
“ Astor .” Warm fingers wrap around mine that are gripping the bars, and I feel his face right there.
Right on the other side of the metal rods.
“What happened?”
“I’m…sorry, Lev. I…”
His fingers squeeze mine a bit tighter and his tone turns dangerous. “What did he fuckin’ do? Did he touch you?” I’m not sure what he he’s talking about, but I have a funny feeling it’s Torin. Levi releases one of hands and the crook of his finger lifts my chin up to face him. “Bay…talk to me.”
I can’t.
I don’t know the appropriate way to relay that Dad is dead.
That his dad is dead.
Mine still roams this Earth like the devil’s spawn, testing people’s limits and making bad shit happen around him.
It’s his fault, Dad’s dead. His presence sucked the light out of him.
“You’re freakin’ me out.” My eyes crack open, and I’m tired. I’m so fuckin’ tired as I stare up into Levi’s green eyes. “What did he do?”
“It’s…Dad.”
Levi freezes, his touch instantly falling away from my flesh. “What happened? Did he stroke out again? Did the doctors see something?—”
“He’s gone,” I blurt out. The two words acid coming up my throat as a wrecked sob comes shortly after.
“No…” Levi begins to shake his head, brows tightly knitted together. “I just saw him. He’s fine.”
My lips part, but I can’t keep saying the word or even thinking it. I don’t understand why it happened, how, all I know is that I rushed over here with Levi on my mind and absolute devastation on the other end of my brain.
“Bay…”
“I’m sorry, Levi, I tried to save him. I don’t know what happened. They all ran into the room, and then they were doing that thing to bring his heart back and I yelled at him to wake up, but he didn’t. He didn’t move. What did I do wrong? Did I stress him out? I didn’t say anything about the house or the girls. I was just talking about hamburgers before?—”
“Bay—”
“What did I do ?!” I carp out because anger is the only thing that doesn’t hurt. “Why does this happen when I’m around? Everything sucks. I wreck things.”
Levi frowns. “No. No, you don’t?—”
“I’m so sorry, Levi. I didn’t mean to.”
“What did you do?”
“I…Emilio came by the room…he was bothering me?—”
“Did he touch Roger?”
I shake my head. “No, I made him leave the room. I wouldn’t even let him speak in there with Dad. And then I saw the doctors and nurses rush the room. I don’t understand—he was fine. Everything was—” Levi pulls me against the bars and wraps his arms around me. The metal blocks full contact but I feel his face brush against my hair, and I just let go.
My tears, the sobs and whimpers, all the pent-up disappointment, grief, and regret.
I can’t believe he’s gone. Why did I do?
“Muncy, let me out of here!” Levi carps out suddenly, stroking my hair in gentle brushes.
“Fat chance,” Muncy bites back from a distance away, again sounding bored out of his mind. “You’re not gonna get out to fuck your girlfriend, you dumbass meathead.”
“He’s fuckin’ dead,” my best friend sneers above me, still petting my hair. “I’m gonna get out, okay? I’ll help—we’ll get this figured out. It’s gonna be okay.”
“Why are you here?”
“Don’t worry about it. I need your head screwed on straight.”
I lift my chin to look up at him, but he doesn’t move, still holding me through the metal bars and I’m met with his black tattoos embedded in his throat. “What happened? How bad?—”
“Ten years, two which would be mandatory or?—”
“ What? ” I yell-whisper, because the last thing we need is Muncy up our ass about what we’re talking about. “For what ?”
“Two minutes, Wallace,” Muncy extolls like an asshole. “Kiss your bitch goodbye and let’s go.”
Levi’s nostrils flare, but he doesn’t steal a glance over my head at him. We don’t have the time. “He’s got me for drug possession.”
“You don’t carry drugs around like that.”
“I know, but he had no problem planting them. He’s setting me up and, right now, I’m looking at time and a conviction.”
And unless Juice and Hot Rod are planning a jailbreak, Levi isn’t getting out of here or couldn’t stay in South Shore because Muncy would hunt him down nonstop.
Which means he won’t be around for Dad’s funeral.
He won’t be with Mae and Ellie.
He’s not gonna be with me, period.
Everything that’s happened, that he’s given me, it’s gone.
“I need you strong for me right now,” Levi tells me. “I need you to keep searching for a house. I need you…to bury Dad.”
I can’t do this.
I can deal with a lot of shit, but not this. Mae and Ellie don’t even know yet. The idea of picking out the casket and music?—
“I got some money saved,” Levi chimes into my inner freakout. “It’ll take care of the month and a half rent that they’ll need for the house. I need you to keep moving forward. We need to get the girls back.”
“Lev—” He lightly grabs my hand and squeezes, silently pleading with me to give him this.
Except it’s a pipedream.
It’s not reality.
The longer my sisters are in the system, the quicker I lose them. If I can’t provide a place for them to stay and show that I’m a responsible adult who can provide for them.
I need to find another job—a legal one.
Fuck. I’m so fucked.
“Bay—”
“We need to get you out of South Shore. We have to leave.”
“I don’t want you on the run forever. I don’t want that for you.”
“There’s nothing here for me anymore but you and the girls.” I squeeze his hand, attempting to draw some of his strength into my veins. “I need you, Levi. I can’t live a life without you in it. This place is nothing now.”
His green eyes bore into me then, but it’s not in a glare or exasperation. But mirroring what I’m saying.
There is no existence without Dad. He was a pillar, one that’s fallen. But Levi is my foundation. And, without him, I can’t find ground to do anything. He needs me and I would give anything to get him out of here and break any number of laws.
“There’s a way out of this,” I state before Levi perks a brow. “One you’re not gonna like.”
“Then don’t mention it,” he quickly dismisses. “I need you to call Hot Rod. He’s gonna help with everything you need while I figure out?—”
“You can’t do anything while you’re here. In here.”
“No.” He shakes his head, already shutting down an idea he doesn’t know. “I don’t want you risking anything or giving anything. We just need the girls.”
“And while that’s definitely the goal, I have to have you, too.”
Levi’s expression softens slightly, but he’s still determined to not hear me out. “Bay, I love you?—”
“Let’s go, Astor,” Muncy orders at my back. “Time’s up.”
“One more minute.” I hold out a finger but don’t bother to turn around and acknowledge him. Meeting Levi’s steel greens, I say, “I just gained a shitshow of problems with Torin and Matteo. Two men who don’t mesh well together. Torin dug up Judah…he confirmed that he’s dead.”
“He’s been dead,” Levi leers. “So, where the hell is the confusion?”
“I dunno, but with that video, it apparently looks like I did it.”
“You don’t carry.”
“He doesn’t know that and it doesn’t matter. He’s literally on it with me. He just took Ellie and Mae. There’s nothing he isn’t going to do. He’s not going to stop.”
“Did he say that?”
I shake my head. “No. I took his brother, so…”
Levi’s face darkens. “Prove it, so I can rectify those actions.”
“I need you out of here first,” I reply, ignoring the threat because even though I wouldn’t allow it, I need Levi to get down with letting me help. “But I need a plan. And it needs to move really fast.”
“Bay, I don’t want you to make any rash decisions right now. I need you to stay safe. For me… please .”
“I will,” I promise. “But I need to do something first. And it’s not gonna be something you’d give the green light—” A meaty hand wraps around my bicep, and I’m immediately yanked away from Levi’s cell.
“Let’s go, I said,” Sheriff Muncy chides, a droplet of spit landing on my cheek as he drags me from my best friend. “I don’t know how many times I need to repeat myself with you all the time, but?—”
“I’ll chop your motherfuckin’ hand off, Muncy,” Levi leers out with fury, clenching the bars with white knuckles. “ Drop her.”
“Threatenin’ a cop, Wallace?” Muncy taunts haughtily, still gripping said arm and looking over my shoulder at him. “That’s another charge.”
Muncy is really digging himself a hole here, but I don’t warn him about it. He’s too busy getting his dick hard to even listen to reason anyway.
“Damn, Wallace,” he provokes. “I thought you cared about your family. You should know better by now. But, all in all, it wouldn’t have mattered because I received my orders.”
I jerk my arm from his grasp, getting myself free and round on him. “What do you mean orders ?”
Muncy chuckles and not in the nervous, oh shit kind of way.
No, it’s in the I know something you don’t sorta situation.
“I got paid a lot of money, girl, to keep your little friend behind those metal bars. He ain’t gettin’ out. In fact, he might find some more charges added on.”
I can feel blood rushing to my head, making me slightly dizzy but I shove forward anyway. “That friend have a name?”
Muncy smirks. “You know the name, sweetheart. You were fuckin’ him, right? The guys you fuck need to have a title?”
Fucking Torin.
Muncy suddnely leans in nice and close, but I don’t pull away.
No, I allow him to believe he’s finally got a one up on us.
And maybe, for once, he does.
“I have the Forsaken Crew backin’ me, girl. And your ex is awful mad about you betrayin’ him. Sounds like you may have committed some sort of treason. What did you do?”
Confirmation received.
And I’m going to murder Pretty Boy my damn self with the same fucking knife I stabbed his brother with if he doesn’t lay off me.
I can’t stop the unfiltered rage immediately filling my veins, and I’m on the verge of a full-blown manic-mode attack, when I hear Levi’s voice behind me.
“Do it,” he tells me. “Whatever it is. I trust you.”
And that’s all I need.
Stealing a glance at him, I nod. He knows that I’m coming back for him. That this isn’t over, and I’m not going to leave this as last to do.
I’m greeted with the exit door minutes later, and Muncy yanking it open to kick me the hell out.
“You wouldn’t happen to know where they are, would you? I’m lookin’ for them, too.”
Goosebumps line my skin as I slowly steer my focus to Muncy. “Who?”
“C’mon, girl.” He lifts his eyebrows, and it doesn’t take a moron to know he’s searching for Rod and Juice, too.
“Are you that creative , Sherriff?” I mock, happy that I have someone to direct some of my anger toward.
His face reddens as he erases a bit of space between us. “I don’t need much to lock these motherfuckers up for good.”
Yes, you do.
Especially when I’m a woman grieving, scorned, betrayed and fuckin’ foaming at the mouth at this point.
First Mae and Ellie, now Dad…and Levi is sitting in a cell where he’s not going to rot if I don’t do something.
I think it’s time to rip some power out of Torin’s clutches and move my piece to checkmate this bitch.
He took away my family, ripped my protection in Levi away so that I would have nothing.
Game on, bitch.