With or Without You - Complete

Chapter 2

Four days after her arrest, Rose was nearly out of her mind with boredom. After an initial interview with Hans Croft, where she denied anything to do with Tatiana's murder, the thrice-daily visits from her guards providing meals, a once-a-day trip to the shower, and Abe's fifteen-minute visit the day before, had been her only human contact.

"Three hundred and twelve," Rose announced, hearing a guard come in, presumably with her breakfast tray. Lying on her back on the cell's single bed, she didn't bother turning her head toward the bars.

"Three hundred and twelve what?" Abe asked.

"Ceiling tiles," Rose said, smiling at the sound of her father's voice. "I've counted them all."

Abe's eyes darted to the small polystyrene squares that formed the ceiling of Rose's cell as she swiveled on the vinyl-covered mattress and sat up to look at him. While the first twenty-four hours after her arrest had seen Rose panicked, that feeling had slowly ebbed, to be replaced by abject monotony.

"Thanks for coming to visit again. So far you're the only one." Rose struggled to keep recrimination from her voice, but it was hard to sound upbeat when she felt unjustly blamed and completely abandoned by everyone she knew!

"No one else has been allowed to," Abe explained. "I only got in yesterday because I'm your legal counsel. However, I've spoken with Croft, and the Guardian Council has agreed you can have visitors. I believe Lissa, Christian, Adrian, and Eddie are all planning to visit you today."

Rose nodded. It hadn't occurred to her that her friends weren't visiting because they couldn't, not because they didn't want to. In fact, she'd assumed they, like everyone else, believed she'd killed Tatiana.

"Do they...?" Rose struggled to find the words.

"All of them firmly believe you're innocent," Abe supplied, guessing what Rose was trying to ask.

"Even Adrian?"

"Especially Adrian. He has been visiting Guardian Headquarters every day, petitioning for them to consider other suspects. Lissa has been talking to the Royal Council, advocating the same. The problem is a lack of evidence. The Guardians who were on duty have been questioned several times, and no one saw anything."

"And since it was my stake, the assumption is it was me," Rose said, her voice quavering. "What's going to happen if I'm convicted?"

"You won't be," Abe replied, his voice ominous. "I won't let you."

"You said it yourself—the only piece of evidence points straight to me. No matter how good you are as a lawyer, there's no guarantee I'll get off."

"Ah kiz, you misunderstand me. You won't be convicted because there won't be a trial. Her Majesty's funeral is tomorrow, so while the good folk of Court are sending off our beloved former Monarch, there's going to be a jailbreak!"

Rose gaped at her father as he explained the steps he'd planned to secure her freedom. He carefully outlined what, and when, things were going to happen as Rose looked increasingly incredulous.

"Are you for real? Mom can't have agreed to this."

"Actually, part of it was her idea," Abe declared, decidedly smug. "She can't visit you, as we need her to be seen to have no part in this. Her being able to access intel is imperative to keeping you safe. However, she asked me to tell you she loves you very much and that she will contact you once it's safe to do so. Now, I won't be here when it all goes down. At the set time, I need you to take the mattress from your bed, crouch down in the far corner of the cell, and cover yourself with it. Pavel will blow out the corner wall, then get you into a car and take you out of Court. I'll be in touch as soon as I can."