Page 61 of Absolution

The officer jerks me back, and the cracked smile on my father’s face fades out of my view.

“Officer Mentone,” a male voice calls out from down the hallway. “Azzo has another visitor. Take her down to room four. Give her ten more minutes, and then take her out.”

Another visitor? Could this actually be the lawyer I so desperately need right now?

Shuffling down the hall, the other room’s door is wide open. A gasp slips from my lips as I find Ratchet sitting at the table. As soon as I step near the door, he’s up and out of his seat, charging towards me.

“Shit your ass down, sir.” The officer with me orders. “You can’t touch the prisoner.”

Ratchet bites back the response I know is on his lips, but he does as she demands with wavering. The officer repeats the same motion as before, and steps out with a warning of our limited time together.

I outstretch my hand toward him, and he grabs it quickly.

“I didn’t do it, Jude. The drugs weren’t mine,” I blurt out. Tears begin to stream down my face.

His hand squeezes mine, and the damn of my tears breaks.

“I know, Siren,” he reassures me. “I would have noticed if you’d started again, and cocaine was never your thing. What I don’t understand is why this happened? Who would have it out for you to the point of planting drugs in your truck?”

I waver on revealing the truth to him. If I am going to escape this, all of the cards need to be on the table. No more lies. No more secrets. He was my last chance, and I need to let him in completely.

“I lied to you about something, Jude. Asher isn’t being fostered by some random person. He’s in the care of my father,” I confess. He remains silent almost knowing there’s more to this. With the likelihood of the room being watched, I have to closely guard my words. I don’t want Ratchet or I implicated further, should this go the way I suspect it will. With my father’s blood being spilled by Ratchet. It will be a justified killing if there ever was one.

“The night before the court case, he came to me at Willie’s and told me to drop the case to get Asher. He didn’t tell me why he wanted him, but he threatened me that if I didn’t that he would take matters into his own hands.”

Ratchet’s eyes flash with anger, and his entire body tenses with the truth of my betrayal exposed. In this moment, he could see my soul, and only he could decide what to do with it.

“Say something, please,” I beg him.

“You lied to me, Siren. Something we promised each other never to do again and yet, you did. Why?”

My heart sinks as his face falls into a deepened frown. He’s angry with me and rightfully so, but this isn’t the way I envisioned this going.

“I’m sorry, Jude. I wanted to protect you from all of this. I thought my father’s threats were empty ones and yet again, he’s proven me wrong.”

He huffs at the thought of me protecting him. The look on his face is clear as day, as he processes the words about to leave his lips.

“My job is to protect you,” he growls. “Not yours. Not anyone. Mine. You had no right to hide this from me. I thought we were in this together.”

“We are, but it’s not that simple,” I try to spit out, before the officer returns.

“Time’s up.”

She releases me from the table, and Ratchet stands as she drags me from the room.

“Just know that I love you,” are the last words he speaks to me, before I am taken back to my cell. Those were words laced with a promise that I knew would have dire consequences. My lies may have driven us a part, and lost Asher forever. Just like everything else, this is my fault, and there’s nothing I can do to take it back.

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