Chapter 16

"What do you mean you didn't kill that man?" I blurted back. It was quite obvious really. He looked at me as if the answer was black or white, yet all I saw was grey.

I had read Aaron's files and the stuff I had read was bone chilling. I think every file in this place had a sense of bone chilling danger, but that was besides the point. It struck me that some prisoners were probably innocent, I understood that, but Aaron?

Aaron pleaded guilty when faced with the judge. It seemed as if he barely fought for his freedom at all. At the time of reading that, I admired his strength to realise what he had done, but now? I was even more confused.

My heart raced at a million seconds per minute. I'm sure my fight or flight responses were starting to kick in.

"Are you going to answer me?" I snapped. He took a step forward, and I took one back.

"Chloe." He sighed. He laid his head in his hands. "Maybe you should go."

"Maybe you should go." I emphasised. "I have work to do." I tried to play it off cool but deep down I felt a little unsteady. I just didn't understand, and I hated that.

"Ok." Was his only response. Jesus Christ, was that man ever good with putting up a fight for anything in his life? Or did he just let life take him away?

"Wait." His body haltered. "Aren't you going to tell me what you mean?" He didn't say a word. "You're in prison for murdering a man, Aaron, and now you tell me that you didn't actually kill him?" I was gob smacked to say the least. "Talk to me!" I shouted.

I didn't shout much in my life but for the love of God, that man infuriated me to no end.

Aaron's body whipped around until his eyes were boring in to mine, his body one of solid rigidity. Why did he look angry at me?

"You started dating a killer, in a prison, and it's going to stay that way." He gritted his teeth. "I said what I said and I'm saying no more."

"Why are you being like this?" I snapped again. Started dating a killer? I mean it was true, but how dare he? His words didn't blow a chord within me, however. It was like what I was doing was wrong.

And it was wrong.

But I was too weak to stop it.

"Whatever I say will not make a difference in this shitty place. Forget I said anything at all." I don't know what came over me but I was angry. Maybe I didn't see grey anymore, maybe I saw red.

"You know what?" I looked him in the eyes with as much strength as I could muster. It was about time it came. "Maybe this whole thing was a mistake. I did start dating a killer, and I'm starting to regret I ever did. I barely know you. In fact, I don't know you at all. I put my job on the line for this and I don't even know why!" I blurted. "I wasn't scared of you before, weirdly enough, but now I'm as scared as ever. Who the hell have I been sleeping with?" I questioned.

My question rang true. Who had I been sleeping with? I was so dumb, so naive to have even started this whole thing. Now this man, in prison, for murder, claims he didn't kill the man at all. What was his motive? Why was he here? Why didn't he fight for his freedom? What does he know? So many questions span around my mind, I felt dizzy.

"Don't go saying stuff you don't mean." He snapped. "Those words hurt."

"Hurt?" I spluttered. "I'm scared of you." I pointed to him. In a way I was more scared of him now than I was before. It didn't make any sense to me. I should have been petrified of him the day he wanted anything from me. A murderer in the eyes of the law. Yet, as soon as he says he wasn't, I was petrified.

I just felt a little out of control.

"Don't fucking say that." Aaron's voice was low and husky and laced with anger. It was chilling and the hairs on my neck stood up to attention.

"Well it's true. I should have been petrified of you the minute I walked in here." I shot back.

"I told you not to fucking say that." He said again. He held on to the metal frame behind him that had a few cleaning utensils on it. His knuckles were white from his harsh grip.

I could feel the anger blurting up inside me. I didn't know why I was so angry, I think it was a mix of things. The fact I felt scared, the fact I didn't know what was going on, the unknown, Aaron himself and the realisation of what we were doing and a massive part of me feared the future of Aaron King.

Maybe even the future for me.

"This was a mistake." I said again. "If you're not going to be honest with me and let me help you, then I don't think this can continue any longer."

Silence. All I heard was silence.

It was deafeningly loud.

It was obvious what Aaron thought about that. It was obvious he didn't want to be honest with me.

Without another word, and a few moments in passing, I left the room. I closed the door on him without a second look back.

He didn't bother stopping me.

Aaron

I was fucking furious. Why did I have to go and open my big fat mouth? I stormed in to my cell, and as soon as that cell door was shut, I punched the living fuck in to it.

"Woah, calm the fuck down." Jeff said as he launched his body off his bunk. He grabbed my fist. He was still a scrawny man but those days in the gym were doing him a favour.

"Get off me or I will hit you." I seethed.

"I don't care about my face, but do you really want them pigs coming in here and restraining you?" He hissed. He was right, I didn't fancy my chances of restraint tonight, not when I was already so angry. "Now, are you going to tell me why you're knickers are in a twist?"

"No." I snapped. Of course I wasn't going to tell him. I wasn't going to open my mouth ever again. That type of shit gets you less friends than you started with, and I didn't fancy my chances on losing the only one I had.

Asides from Chloe.

Fuck sake, why did everything always come back to her?

"This was a mistake." Those words came back to haunt me as I stood in my cell. I must have looked a little lost.

"You seem troubled, man." He sat back on his mattress, a worried look in his eyes.

Troubled? Was that the right way to have said it? The girl didn't even want to speak to me anymore, let alone anything else.

I shouldn't have been so thick. This was bound to have happened. A girl like her should never have gone for a man like me. A man made for a life in prison, or at least most of it.

Yet, I hadn't felt this down for years. Not since the day I got sent down. I suppose I really did feel troubled.

"Did you have a lovers tiff?" Jeff kept pushing.

"Shut the fuck up."

"If you have don't you think you should go and find her?"

"What's the point?" I sighed. "I can't do anything in this fucking place anyway. It's got eyes everywhere, I don't want to get Chloe in to any trouble because of me." I jumped on to my bunk and laid down on the mattress, my body turned and my eyes staring in to the cracks of the walls.

One crack, two crack, three crack, four.

"Was it that bad?" He muttered.

"I'm not indulging any more information." I said. "But yes." To the point I didn't think we would ever finish what we started.

Five crack, six crack, seven crack, eight.

"I'm sure it will all work out in the end. I've never been so happy being here since I found out about you two. It's nice."

Yeah, nice wasn't the word I'd have used.

Chloe didn't just make me stand to attention for her, she didn't just make my body react to her body, she also gave me the urge of motivation, the potential to be better.

A part of me was glad I told her the truth, I wanted her to know that I'm not as scary as I was worried I was going to seem.

I made it all worse, though. I didn't want to say anymore because quite frankly, I was scared. For the first time since being here, I was scared.

She brought that out of me.

And that pissed me off.

"Why don't you try and sleep it off?" Jeff said. I didn't reply. Instead, I laid there. I stared at the wall some more. I wondered what it would have been like if Chloe and I had met else where.

And then my thoughts turned dark. They took me back to that night. I always tried to bury them thoughts, but now, I couldn't stop them coming.

The gun in my hand felt heavier than it ever had before. My fingers curled around the cold metal and I squeezed hard enough for the blood in my veins to slow down until the tips of my fingers were chilling.

The blood on the floor was one of picturesque grime. It splattered across the floor until there was more on the hard slab of concrete than there was inside of him. A lifeless body laid in the stains until it was swimming in the pool of red, drowning. All I could do was stare at the crime scene before me, the bone chilling picture one that would be forever etched in to my memory.

"Jeff?" I said his name to catch his attention. "There's something I need to tell you."

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Hi guys! Hope you enjoyed the update :)

My story Untamed Meets the Billionaire is up on radish and will be published there for the future. I would love if you'd be able to check it out !