Chapter 25 #2
Staring at it, nerves racing through me, I thought, ‘It couldn’t be. Could it?’ and accepted the call.
I was glad I did when a deep, husky voice came across the line saying, “Hey, Kitten.” I felt the tension release from my body, as if it had been coiled tight like a spring and the sound of his voice was all it took to release.
If he was calling me directly, it meant that everything would be okay because he was calling me from someone’s phone to come get him.
“Khayos? Do I need to pick you up?” I ask as I start tossing things around to find my shoes.
“Oh Darlin’, that ain’t possible,” he says sweetly. “Listen, I don’t have a lot of time to talk. I’m in prison, Zak’ll get you the details. Come to visitation this weekend,” Dax responded, leaving me confused.
“Baby, what’s goin’ on?” I question, needing to understand.
“Kitten, listen,” Dax starts again in that soft tone that always calms my mind and allows me to be still, “I love you. I need you to come see me this weekend. I got three years, but there are things I learned today that I never knew. I’ll answer any questions I can this weekend.”
I nodded, as tears fell silently, ‘Three years? Come see him? Zak would bring me more details?’ I thought, taking a deep breath before answering the only way I could in this moment, “Yes, Khayos. I’ll come see you. I love you, too.”
“Good. Kitten, trust me nothin’ is as it seems. We’ll talk soon. Get some sleep and just remember, we’re gonna make it through this, okay?” he says and I can hear him struggling to keep his voice even.
“Good night, Baby,” is all I can choke out before the call disconnects. As the screen goes black, I give in and allow myself to lose it.
When I finally pull it together my throat feels dry and my eyes feel puffy. Sniffling, I head into the house where I find Zak standing in the living room with my family. I sit on the couch next to Mel and she snuggles into my side. I wrap my arm around her and turn my attention to Zak.
“You get call?” Zak asks
“Da,” I respond. While I didn’t speak a lot of Russian, I had picked up on that word. Tess and Seb looked at me with curiosity.
I squeezed Mel tighter, whispering, “Three years. He’s gone for three years.” As the words leave my mouth, the realization hits me and I bury my face in her hair.
We sit, holding each other for a minute before lifting my head, focusing back on Zak. “There’s a lot I don’t know, but I’m gonna see him this weekend. Dax said you’d fill me in?” I ask, looking at him, my eyes blurry.
Zak nods, “Da, I have everything you need. He has small approved list while we dig through everything. Daniels showed up beaten badly. We know Dax did not do that.”
Mel and I look at each other and at the same time say, “Mack.”
Zak nods in agreement, “That is more probable answer. We need time to figure out.”
I crack my knuckles as I take in everything that has happened, and when the silence becomes unbearable, I let my intrusive thoughts win, “I think I’m gonna start a GoFundMe to hire a hit man.”
Tess gasps in shock, Seb smacks me upside the head and Zak laughs, saying, “Calm yourself, ubiytsa. We are handling. Give us time.”
Jumping up from the couch, I get in Zak’s face, “How many times are you guys gonna let Mack fuck up his life? You keep sayin’ you’re handlin’ it, but here we are. So what are you gonna fuckin’ do?”
Cracking his neck, Zak presses a hand into my chest, pushing me down on the couch.
“That is your one. I know you upset, but that will not be tolerated. These things take time. My Otets could give you a full rundown on what leading with your emotions gets you,” he says with a sigh.
“The information you need is on refrigerator. I am going before you do something stupid.”
Swallowing over the knot in my throat, I look up sheepishly, “I’m sorry? You’re right. It’s been a long few days.”
Zak pulls on his jacket, giving me a sharp stare, “Your one! See you soon.”
I look away, then stand and head to the kitchen to grab the information that Zak left.
As I hear the front door close, I hear Tess’ voice as she says, “You should let this go. Kai, it’ll never work.
He’s a felon. And when you’re an officer in the Army…
.How’s that gonna look? You’re young, you can move on. ”
The hairs on the back of my neck stand up and I slowly turn around and glare at her, "Seriously? Right now? This is when you wanna talk about this?”
Seb moves to stand between us, “Kai, calm down. She has a point.”
I watch Mel’s drop in shock, her eyes narrowed and through gritted teeth she says, “Seb, I wouldn’t say another word if I were you.”
Glancing around the room, I narrow my eyes, “I’m gonna marry that man one day.
I know what I want and if one more person tells me that I’m young, to let it go and move on, I will lose my shit.
Maddox is the only one who said anything when I got into West Point, he sees me.
Me. So no, you don’t get a say in this. I’m goin’ to bed,” I say, finality in my tone as I turn and head up to my room.
I hear the commotion downstairs, everyone arguing over what to do about my life.
I shut the door and let my gaze travel to the wildflower picture on the wall above the bed, remembering our promise.
Together, we will do this together. One way or another, Dax will know that I’m in this no matter where my head hits the pillow at night.
I snatch his hoodie off my desk chair as I walk by and drop down on my bed. Laying there, I breathe in the scent I’ve been addicted to for years. I felt the tears welling in my eyes again, letting them fall. In that moment, I decide that this would be the last time I let a tear fall over this mess.
As the tears subside, I fall asleep comforted by the fact that I would see Dax this weekend and he would fill me in on what was next for us.
Maddox
I was trying to kill time playing checkers in the cell block mess hall with another inmate, whose name I still haven’t learned, while I wait for my commissary order to be filled.
Zak had put a small amount in my account and I couldn’t wait to start drawing again. That would help me keep my nose clean.
I was studying the board for my next move when I heard my name called. Looking up, I meet Cas’ gaze as he said, “You have visitor.”
I stared in shock, “Me? You sure?”
He chuckled and shook his head, “Yeah, 6’2, ginger curls, green eyes. I pretty sure…” I jumped up before he finished speaking. I had heard all I needed to hear. Kitten was here.
Walking into the visitors room, Cas stopped me, leaning in to whisper a warning, “You can kiss him hello, hug him, then sit down. Keep hands where they can be seen. Do not move from table. This visit is crucial, no sudden movements. You are too new and Vanya doesn’t have reach on all guards in here today.
But we knew this had to be fast due to him leaving. ”
I wiped my hands on my prison jumpsuit, bobbing my head in agreement. “Got it. Thanks.” He motioned his head towards where Kai stood twisting his hands nervously.
I walked across the room, confident swagger in place and grabbed him roughly in a tight hug.
He buried his head in my neck, his arms around my back, fingers digging into my shoulders.
My head rested on his shoulder, hands cradling his head.
Sliding my hands down his back, I rubbed between his shoulder blades and enjoyed the feeling of him around me.
I chuckled as he inhaled my scent grounding himself.
Pulling out of the embrace, his lips met mine in a long lingering kiss. Breaking the kiss we touched our foreheads together and stood for a moment before the fog broke and I remembered Cas’ words.
“Ay, we gotta sit, Kitten. They’ll make ya leave if we don’t,” I say, nodding toward the table. As we sat next to each other, I grabbed his hands and placed them on the table. “We can touch, but hands gotta stay here.”
“So many rules,” he said as he squeezed my hand.
I shrugged, “I know. But it is what it is right now.”
Before I could speak, Kai blurts out, “I’m gonna postpone West Point.”
Shaking my head and biting my lower lip, “No, you’re not. We have talked about how demanding the next year is gonna be anyway. That will give you something to focus on and we can write and call. We’ll figure it out. But you’re goin’.”
“But, I could postpone and then we could go…” I clamped my hand down on his, stopping his argument.
“No, Kitten. You’re leavin’ in two weeks. As planned. You’re gonna kick some ass in the beast barracks and we’ll see each other at Christmas time, just as we planned,” I say sternly.
He rubbed his thumb over my tattoo like he has taken to doing when he was nervous. “What about you?” He finally asked.
“I’m gonna be okay, I met someone,” I say.
Watching Kai’s face twist up, I laugh, “Not like that, Darlin’. I met Zak’s dad. There’s somethin’ much bigger at work. Which, between us, I thought was the case since my time in juvie.”
Kai relaxed, “Sorry, had a fight with Tess and Seb last night about us and it just….” He stops talking and closes his eyes with a grimace. I reach over, brushing a curl from his forehead and smile as he nuzzles into my touch.
Lifting our clasped hands, I kiss his knuckles quickly, before sayin’, “I know Darlin’, I know. For now I’m gonna work on my GED, maybe some anger management. All things that’ll look good for my release. Also, things that were suggested by Zak’s dad.”
Kai sniffles and we shift to mundane conversation about his travel to get here and what he has planned for the next week. We talk about him using some of his monthly stipend on my commissary and about how, for a while, we’ll have to talk through letters until he gets his phone back for calls.
Before either of us is ready, visitation is over, and he has to go. Standing, he pulls me into a kiss and a lingering hug, “Kitten, I love you. See you next weekend. We’ll figure this out, okay?” I mumble, stepping back to look him in the eye.
“Love you too, Khayos. I know we will. Just, please, don’t push me away this time,” he says with a hitch in his voice.
I look around, making sure no one is looking. With a nod from Cas, I pull him to me again and whisper in his ear, “No way in hell! I need you as much as you need me.” With a kiss to the side of his head, I toss him a wink over my shoulder as I walk away.
Kai
Watching him walk away was absolute hell. I stayed as long as they would let me. This wasn’t gonna be a fun trip home, but I had his word he wouldn’t push me away and that helped me breathe a little easier.
Once I had collected my stuff and left the prison, getting back to the train station was easy, boarding the train to head home was a bit difficult. I had my orders from him and his assurance that we would figure it out, so on autopilot I headed home.
With the time spent with Dax and the trip home, it was approaching dusk when I reached my stop.
As I stepped off the L, I was lost in thought.
There was so much to do over the next few weeks.
I had to pack, make sure that Dax was good and needed to have one more conversation with Zak about the next steps and making sure I could call him when I had my phone back to get Dax messages.
The buildings blurred together as I waited to cross the street. Three years, even with time off for good behavior we were looking at another year and a half separation.
‘Fuck! I’m gonna be so far from him. Bootcamp and classes will help distract me some, but damnit, there was supposed to be phone sex and sexy pics to get me through,’ I thought as I stepped down off the curb.
The sound of a revving engine and tires squealing caught my attention and I looked up in time to see the car coming right at me. The last thing I said was “Khayos” before the world went dark.