“Hey!” she answered calmly, a smile in her voice.

“Hey, sweetheart.” I hated the fact that I was going to be wiping that smile away. “It’s time.”

“What? I thought you had a few more hours! I thought—”

“Sugar, we went over this. We knew it was coming,” I corrected her gently as I slid my sleeves down my arms and buttoned them around my wrists. I couldn’t hide the tattoos on my neck or the ones on my hands, but I didn’t think my full sleeves of ink needed to be on display.

“I know,” she whimpered dully, sniffing into the phone.

“Now, we went over everything so you shouldn’t have any problems, okay?” I told her urgently as I heard car doors shutting and the lawyer tapped on the driver’s side window. “I’ll have one of the boys call you once we know what’s going on.”

“Okay.” I heard her sniff again before her voice grew stronger. “I’m fine—we’ll be fine. You just do what you need to do, and I’ll wait.”

A lump formed in my throat as I opened the door and climbed out of the car. Fuck, but she’d grown up since I’d met her as a scared sixteen-year-old girl.

“I love you,” I told her fervently as the lawyer started ushering me toward the front doors.

“I love you, too—so much.”

“Be strong, okay? This’ll be over soon, I promise, and then we can finally move you up here and be a family,” I promised frantically as we joined the line in front of the metal detectors and I patted down my pockets, making sure I hadn’t accidentally dropped my pocket knife in there like I usually did.

“Don’t hang up!” she sobbed hysterically, making my chest feel like it was imploding. “I’m not ready! Don’t hang up!”

“I love you, Sugar. Stay strong,” I answered calmly as I heard a rustling on the other end of the phone.

“Hey, Asa,” Cody greeted while I heard Callie sniffling in the background. “I got her, you just worry about your shit. Take care.”

The click of the phone call ending made me flinch.

I was standing with my hand over my face and my phone dangling from my fingertips when the security guard called for me.

Once the lawyer found the right courtroom, we walked in silently to find some seats, and my heart raced as I saw the back of a familiar gray head sitting two rows from the front.

“Rose?”

“Asa,” she called back with a nod as she stood from her seat.

“What are you doing here?” I asked, confused. I thought she’d be in California taking care of Callie.

“I’d never let one of mine face something like this alone,” she told me firmly, motioning with her hands so I’d lean toward her.

The minute my head was lowered, she pulled a blue checkered tie out of her purse and wrapped it around my neck.

“Get that top button,” she ordered as the courtroom started filling up. After I’d followed her direction, her fingers started flying as she knotted the tie.

“There, now you don’t look like a hooligan.”

“I don’t think a tie is gonna make a difference,” I told her sincerely, afraid that she was envisioning a far different outcome than I was expecting.

“Doesn’t matter. You know you did your best to put the right foot forward, that’s what’s important,” she stated seriously, smoothing down the tie with her gnarled fingers.

“We need to take our seats,” the lawyer interrupted behind me.

“My lawyer,” I informed Rose with a motion of my hand.

“Yeah, the suit tipped me off,” she replied wryly, scooting down the aisle so there was room for the three of us to sit.

When we got situated in our seats, I felt the walls start to close in around me. Fuck. Jail time wasn’t shit; I’d done it before, no problem. But the thought of leaving Callie was like a lead weight in my gut. I was pulling at the collar of my shirt when I felt a small dry hand settle onto mine.

“Nothing wrong with your shirt. Stop fidgeting,” Rose ordered quietly, facing straight ahead.

Her hand in mine and the no-nonsense tone of her voice had me instantly pausing, and I took a deep breath as I squeezed her hand.

“Thanks for coming,” I whispered back.

“I wouldn’t be anywhere else,” she assured fiercely.

We had to sit through two other cases before it was time for mine, and she held my sweaty palm the entire time. When they called my name, she gave me a squeeze and let go as the lawyer and I stood.

“It’s time, son,” she murmured, looking intently into my eyes. “You ready?”

“Yeah.” I looked down at her as my heart beat frantically and my head began to throb. “I’m ready.”

Chapter 64

Callie

When we prepared for Asa to go away—that’s how I liked to think of it—we hadn’t envisioned the length of time that would entail.

They gave him twenty-five months. Twenty-five months because he’d broken his probation and it had nullified his suspended sentence for an assault charge from three years before.

Twenty-five months because Slider had asked him to carry a gun to Sacramento.

The first week he was gone, I barely got out of bed.

The second week, I raged.

The third week, I played the what-if game.

The fourth week, I realized that I had a baby growing inside me that didn’t deserve a basket case for a mother.