Page 19 of Deliver Me

A slender build, brown hair that tumbled just past the shoulders of a dark blue dress, and a simple gold cross that hung from a chain around her neck. But it was her face that captivated him. A pert nose dusted with freckles. A soft mouth, pink and turned up in a wide smile. Hazel eyes with long lashes that sparkled with laughter.

The sounds of the prison faded away, a dull buzzing of insignificant noise as he stared at her. His eyes roamed the photo again and again, trying to memorize every line of her as though someone might try to snatch the picture away from him.

This was Mia.

His Mia.

He rubbed his thumb over the image, careful not to smudge it as he imagined what it would be like to have her actually smile at him with such warmth and then hung it on the wall beside his bed. He could see her now when he woke up and when he drifted off to sleep.

“What’s that?”

Gabriel sighed and flopped back down in his bunk. Alex had become increasingly annoying since Mia’s letters had started arriving and there wasn’t much he wouldn’t do for an ounce of privacy at this point. “Nothing, it’s none of your business.”

Alex ignored him, standing up to crowd Gabriel’s bunk and peer over him at the photo tacked to the wall. “Is that her?”

Gabriel shrugged. “Yeah, that’s her.”

Alex laughed, the rumble shaking his whole body so hard he had to sit back down on his own bed again.

“Something funny? There’s not a damn thing to laugh at, she’s perfect.”

“That’s what’s so funny. You were already half gone over this girl and now you find out she looks likethat. You’resofucked.”

Gabriel pressed his lips together and swallowed hard. “She’s just a friend.”

Alex nodded. “Yep, and it kills you. It would kill me too if I had a girl that looked like that on the outside and I knew I was never getting out of here.” For a moment, there was something on Alex’s face that looked like pity, but it was gone so quickly that Gabriel was sure he’d imagined it.

Gabriel didn’t answer, but he didn’t take her picture down off the wall as he settled in his bunk to read her letter.

Gabriel,

I know this is a poor excuse for a birthday gift but I couldn’t send the actual cupcake so it will have to do. I take personal exception to the prison’s rule against sending you food. First no Halloween candy, and now no birthday cupcakes? It’s cruel, evil, and inhumane. Unfortunately, due to this, I was forced to eat your cupcake for you. I’m sure you understand that I couldn’t allow it to go to waste!

He shook his head, a laugh bubbling up from deep down inside that helped push his worries out of his mind. She loved food and he would’ve given her a hundred cupcakes, a thousand, one every day of her life if it kept that smile on her face.

Is there anything I can get for you for a real present? Surely, there’s something you want?

He glanced at the picture and pushed the thought away. He couldn’t let Alex be right about this, he couldn’t think of her that way when she was...well she wasn’t thinking of him that way, that was for damn sure. She was his friend. His closest and onlyfriend. He had nothing at all beyond that to offer her, had no right to think the kind of thoughts that were creeping at the edge of his mind.

I’m sorry I only have time for a short letter today, but I wanted to tell you that I understand how you feel. I don’t want to get your hopes up and then have the system let you down again. Even if all it got you was another chance to tell your story in front of a jury, I think you deserve a fair trial. I’m still willing to do whatever I can to help, but I won’t push you if you aren’t ready.

I’ll write more soon, and I may have some exciting stories to tell when I do because I’m going to a party with Lilly and Bryce! A real party, for the first time ever! I’ve never done anything like this before and maybe it’s ridiculous to be this excited, but I don’t care!

I promise I’ll tell you all about it in my next letter!

Mia

But the next letter didn’t come.

He didn’t get worried when the first few days passed, but by the end of the first week he’d grown concerned. By the end of the second week, he was terrified.

Alex avoided him as much as possible, giving him space to sit broodingly on his bunk and glare at the picture of her on his wall.

The letters he sent her weren’t being returned to him, so she must have kept them, but he couldn’t figure out why she wasn’t answering them. His biggest fear, though he knew he had no right to it, was that she had abandoned him, moved on at the request of her friends or her father or some boyfriend she hadn’t told him about.

He’d sagged in relief when a letter finally came, and he tore it open, eyes scanning hungrily … his joy turning to despair when he recognized the tears stains that marked the words.

What could he have done to cause her such pain?

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