Falling For A Man Of The City

TWENTY-EIGHT

I'm convinced the weather purposefully decided to match my mood.

The little light that could escape past the grey clouds hardly had an effect on every surface it touched. It had been raining hard the night before and the leaves usually spilling morning dew had water droplets covering them.

Walking into that prison, head held high I wasn't willing to allow the guards to sniff the fear off me.

I kept my expressions controlled as I was led to a separate area away from the visitation room. Eva had been unable to get herself out of the car when we arrived and insisted I go see him. She wasn't yet willing to see her child like that so I decided to go after having come so far and left her with Daniel and Leo. I soon found myself in an empty room with nothing but three chairs and a table.

Taking a seat on the hard surface I had to ball my hands into fists to get the shaking under control. The last thing I wanted to do was fall apart especially when the door opened to reveal Nicholas in an orange jumpsuit with handcuffs on his hands and ankles. He still looked the same except for the stubble along with the bags under his dull eyes. Once he took a seat across from me, he took me in the same way I was taking him in except I was looking for any visible marks or scars.

"Thanks Matt," he said to the guard who nodded his head curtly before walking out and shutting the door behind him.

For the first time in weeks we were alone. There was so much I wanted to say but I didn't know where to begin with him an arms reach away such that I settled on a weak, "How are you?"

His brow quirked at the question, "I should be asking you that, but I'm okay. Not a fan of the orange. Unfortunately I'm not exactly spoiled for choice in here," he joked but I kept a straight face unable to laugh much less produce a fake one.

"No one's bothering you in here, I hope," I mumbled forcing the statement out to settle my anguish at the thought of him getting hurt.

"There are some perks I got; no one will touch me in here. I even got some guards protecting me," he replied rather cockily seeming proud of the power he held despite being chained like some animal.

"Why didn't you mention you lost your pistol?"

His smirk dropped before he shifted forward, "I don't want to talk about that shit, It's bad enough I have to talk about it with Sonny and Joseph."

"Well you have to talk about it with me. You claim I'm yours but you fail to communicate."

"I didn't think it was necessary, yes I lost it but I didn't think it would come back to bite me," he shrugged nonchalantly and without hesitation I rolled my eyes making him frown. "I don't like it when you do that."

"You also don't like it when I fucking swear; I've heard it all before. But you have to meet me halfway. I can't just sit around waiting for something to happen," I retorted but Nicky could equally be stubborn and insist on having things always go his way.

"I don't want you getting involved."

"I could at least help in some way to get you out of here faste -"

"Damn it, Liyah! Just do what you're told for once, we're appealing and taking this case to court."

"There has to be more you can do. It's obvious you're being set up and the public are looking for someone to quickly blame especially for killing a good cop. For god sake Nicholas..." I seethed pinching the bridge of my nose to control the sudden need to blow a gasket.

Taking a few calming breaths I looked back up to find him watching and waiting expectantly for me to finish. Though I wanted to tell him at a better time with the way things were going I had no choice but to finally tell him what I had found out in the hospital.