Bad Company

Chapter 61: Losing My Religion

Sunday morning, 23 hours before the trial hearing.

"How are you holding up?" Christy asked, plopping down beside me on the cement bench that I was at.

I shrugged, "Horrible," I answered truthfully, "But I can't show any kind of emotion like that... not here."

Christy smirked, "This ain't nothin'... wait until we go to prison."

"Exactly why we can't appear to be weak. Being skinny is our downfall, they'll take advantage of that on the inside... I don't know about you, but I ain't prepared to eat some fat bitch's pussy for the rest of my sentence," I laughed in disbelief.

"You miss Shaun a lot, huh?" Christy asked, frowning as she already knew the answer. I appreciated the subject change.

I clicked my jaw to the side and nodded slowly, staring at all the other inmates outside smoking and getting exercise. Some of the females were just staring up at the sky, happy to be able to soak up some small amount of sunlight.

"More than I can begin to explain," I said in a low tone, "He doesn't deserve to have a mother like me-"

"A mother like you? You're a great mom, don't start that bullshit." Christy cut me off.

"Bullshit?" I asked, turning my head to look at her and cocking an eyebrow, "Sorry you're the only one I got to talk to,"

"And I'm here for you, but not if you're gonna lie to yourself. You're a fuckin' good mom, we just... we're in a shitty fucking situation...." Christy replied with a sigh.

"If by some God-given chance that we get out... I'm running."

"What?" Christy asked in a hushed whisper as if someone was listening or something.

"Shaun doesn't deserve this life. I won't allow it." I said boldly.

"You can't just leave with his kid... do you know who you're dealing with here?" Christy laughed in disbelief, shaking her head.

"He refuses to leave this shit behind. He has the shop, why isn't that good enough?" I hissed.

"Because he's a criminal, Amber. It's all he knows..." Christy replied with a sigh.

I sighed in defeat, she was right, "I won't keep Shaun from him, but I won't allow Shaun to grow up to be Billy."

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"WHO ARE YOU?!" Jennifer screamed as she backed into a corner, her face tear streaked and red from screaming and crying due to being terrorized.

The three masked men stopped a good distance away from her and spread out, almost like they were making room for somebody else to just walk into the house and deal with Jennifer. Jennifer's heart raced, she couldn't believe that this was actually happening to her while she was in Witness Protection care. Wallis had promised to protect her and didn't come through.

Where were the officers of Wallis's that were supposed to be guarding the house? Did the masked men kill them? What happened? What was going on? All of these questions raced through her simple bleach blonde head.

"HELP ME!" She screamed one last time, in hopes that the officers were still there.

Nothing.

Instead, in walked Billy and Rafael side by side. Jennifer gasped in a mixture of both fear and shock as Billy approached her and grabbed her by her arm, roughly yanking her up to her feet and slamming her up against the wall.