There was nothing keeping me here.
“She doesn’t look much different,” the whispered voice had me tensing.
I didn’t look up from my menu as I listened to the two ladies across the aisle from me discussing me.
“Do you think she had to become a dominant in prison to get her jollies off?” Another voice whispered.
“No. She’s too small. She’s probably the one that was on the bottom. Isn’t prison a good way to get AIDS and stuff like that?” The other one countered.
My eyes closed and my cheeks flushed with embarrassment.
Yes, it was a good way to get AIDS.
AIDS was high in the male population.
It wasn’t as easy for women to spread it to other women.
That wasn’t to say that women didn’t do things to each other in prison.
Women got just as desperate as men.
I didn’t, though.
I was too busy hiding from guards to worry about the other prisoners. Thank God for Ruthie, or I’d be just another person on a list of women that the guards tried to, and did, hurt.
And the other prisoners liked it that way.
More attention on another inmate meant less on them.
Ruthie and I had been the ‘beautiful ones’ according to the other inmates.
We’d had to become quick, smart and imaginative to protect ourselves against the guards.
I’d like to say they were all perfect gentlemen, but they weren’t.
Far from it.
“I’ll bet she sold her vagina out to the police officers that worked there to get more privileges,” the nasty woman continued.
I was done.
I scooted out of my seat and started to run.
I didn’t realize I was running away from the bathroom, not toward it, until I came to a hallway that led nowhere.
Fuck!
It came to a line of doors off the back hallway.
One was marked as a supply closet.
Another as an office.
The last was unmarked.
Then there was the emergency exit.
Although I didn’t push out of it since it said that an alarm sounded when the door was opened.
Tears welling up my throat, I went to the very end of the darkened hallway and turned my back to the wall before sinking down to my butt, using the wall at my back as leverage so as not to fall over.
Wrapping my hands around my knees, I buried my face into my legs and tried to will myself not to cry.
But it didn’t work.
Tears soaked through my clenched eyelids and my breath started to come out in pants.
I felt, more than heard him.
He dropped down in front of me and placed both hands on my arms.
“I kicked them out,” that deep, sexy voice said to me.
“You didn’t have to do that,” I mumbled into my knees.
“Yeah, I fuckin’ did. I don’t want bitches like that in my restaurant. Fuck that,” the man said eloquently.
I laughed through my tears, sniffling delicately as I raised my head from my knees.
Jesus, the man was really close to me.
“We should stop meeting like this,” I told him, wiping my tears with the back of my sweatshirt.
He grinned, showing off a smile that was brilliant.
The left side tilted up more than the right, making it more of a grin rather than a smile.
But he totally worked it.
“Your friend’s concerned,” he told me.
I closed my eyes and leaned my head against the wood paneling behind me.
“Yeah, I’m sure she is,” I said tiredly.
I was exhausted.
I knew I shouldn’t have come out today.
“Come on,” he said, picking me up by my elbows.
Easily, I might add.
He didn’t even strain.
Then he took both of his hands and wiped my tears off of my face before smoothing them down either side of his thighs.
I blinked.
“Thanks,” I said.
He shrugged. “Anytime.”
Then, with the man’s arm around my shoulders, he led me back into the main part of the restaurant.
And nobody took notice.
Not one single person.
They were all looking down, doing their own thing.
Which was surprising to me.
Normally, when a hysterical woman runs through the restaurant, when she comes back you’d expect them to stare.
But not one single person did.
Bristol smiled sadly at me as I was helped into my seat.
“Food will be out shortly,” he mumbled as he walked away.
I watched him go, impressed with how well those jeans fit his ass.
And still, not one single person looked up.
“Holy shit!” Bristol said, leaning forward and capturing my attention from the man who’d just walked around the bar.
I raised my eyebrow in question. “What?”
She blinked.
“You didn’t hear him?” She asked in surprise.
I shook my head.
“No, why?” I asked.
She bit her lip and leaned forward.
“He ripped the whole fuckin’ bar a new one. Those two ladies that were talking about you ran out of here crying. And he sent one of his men after them to make them pay their bill!” Bristol informed me.
I blinked.
“What’d he say?” I asked.