Confession of a King

I chugged the drink that was in my hands as I made my way over to the dance floor. My long, dark hair, which was curled into loose waves, whipped from in front of my shoulders and onto my back. Swaying my hips along with the music, I let my mind wander.

“What are you thinking about?” One of my closest girlfriends, Chelsea, said with a smirk while grabbing my hand to dance along with me. “Or should I say, who are you thinking about?”

“Confidential” I laughed and twirled my body around, holding our hands in the air. “I need another drink.”

“Allow me to buy you one,” a somewhat familiar voice spoke from beside me. I turned to look at the person and they grinned at me. “Hello, Ivy.”

I could’ve melted into a puddle of goo right there. How embarrassing to run into someone I knew from work out at night. I saw Chelsea give me a confused look as I sighed and ran my hands through my waves. “Chelsea, Brian. Brian, Chelsea,” I motioned between the two. “I know him from work.”

“I’m a lawyer,” Brian said with a smile, his dark eyes twinkling at Chelsea. “And a friend. How about a couple drinks ladies?”

“I don’t know if that’s a really good idea…” I started to trail off.

Brian laughed, “Come on, Ivy.”

“Yeah! Come on, Ivy!” Chelsea chimed in. “I’ll take a drink.”

“I won’t tell Matt if you won’t,” Brian smirked at me.

I raised an eyebrow, “What does that even mean?”

“You know he would skin me if heard I asked to buy you a drink,” Brian stated like it was nothing. “So we won’t tell him. What would you like to drink?”

“Vodka tonic, extra lime,” I sighed.

“What about you my dear?” Brian turned at Chelsea, his eyes still twinkling at her.

“Surprise me,” she smirked at him. When he turned to walk toward the bar she looked at me with wide eyes, “You didn’t tell me Matt’s lawyer was so fucking hot!”

I shook my head, “Sorry I don’t study my inmates lawyers, get boners over them, and tell you about it.”

“No, you were probably too busy staring at your jailed boy-toy to notice the delicious piece of ass that is Brian,” she giggled and I frowned. “I know you keep it confidential, but the amount of times I’ve seen his name on your coffee table and the constant usage of his name, I’d say you have yourself a little crush on him.”

“A crush on who?” Brian chimed in, handing us both our drinks and looking me in the eyes with a smirk. “A crush on who, Ivy?”

“This is so inappropriate” I grumbled and started to drink my drink. “My boss would literally shit himself if he found out I was drinking with you, let alone talking to you.”

Brian chuckled, “Don’t be ridiculous, Ivy. We’re just colleagues that ran into each other.”

“They think I’m trying to get him out. Or at least Red does, and is feeding that information to my fucking boss,” I growled. “So don’t tell me not to be ridiculous, Brian.”

“Are you?” He raised an eyebrow.

I rolled my eyes, “My job isn’t to get someone out of jail. It’s to help them with their emotions while they’re in jail. You’re the one who has the leverage to get them out.”

“But ultimately it is going to be your report that can say whether or not Matt is mentally stable enough to ever go back out into society,” Brian said, as if he knew the exact video of Maria’s that had been getting at me for the past two weeks. “Red is intimidated that you are not like Maria. You are actually doing your job, and you aren’t trying to drive your patients into insanity.”

“My report isn’t going to matter, Brian. They are still trying to collect more on him and get him to make another confession. There are tons of threats that he has made against Maria that were caught on video tape. She accused him of multiple things, and he just threatened her every time. I can’t get him to talk to me with the voice recorder on. Other inmates think that I’m screwing him. I’m fairly certain Red thinks I’m screwing him. My report doesn’t matter because they can’t hear things from his own voice.” I groaned, “I should not be talking to you about this at this location. Let alone with someone who isn’t in this business, “ I motioned toward Chelsea.

“Thank you for that information,” Brian smirked. “Call me,” he handed Chelsea his business card then vanished into the crowd within the bar.

“Fuck, fuck, fuck,” I shrieked. “I shouldn’t have said any of that. No, no, no.”

Chelsea frowned, “Ivy, how do you think that what you just said is going to cause something to go wrong at work?”

I huffed, “He’s going to tell Matt to talk to me while the recorder is on. I gave him a piece of the puzzle he was missing. He needs Matt to talk in order to build a case to get him out. He needs him to seem like he isn’t as harsh as he was with Maria.”

“Is he?” She asked.

“I don’t want to talk about this anymore,” I sighed and chugged the rest of my drink. “I just want to get wasted.”

The rest of the night was mostly a blur in my memory. Chelsea and I danced for what felt like forever. My feet were going to kill me tomorrow, but I didn’t care. It felt so good to just relax and have a great time without any worries. The alcohol in my system allowed me to temporarily forget about the conversation I had with Brian regarding Matt and his possible trial next year. The bar was closing in thirty minutes and the thought of getting into bed was getting really exciting to me. I was mentally drained from the work week, and physically drained from all of the dancing. I went over to the bar to grab my last drink, and as soon as I started to get the bartenders attention a hand grabbed my wrist.

I looked over and came to face to face with a green eyed man, covered in a scatter of tattoos, with two rings in his bottom lip. “Allow me to get you this,” he smiled at me.

“I can really get it myself,” I smiled back, not trying to come off as a total bitch. I didn’t like guys trying to buy me drinks because it usually meant one thing - they wanted the V and I didn’t want to give it to them, so if I let them buy me the drink they usually got clingy, then pissed off when I told them to fuck off.

“No, please allow me,” he smiled again. His green eyes looked into mine and I saw a tinge of darkness, a hint of craze. “Ivy.”

“How do you know my name?” I asked while leaning against the bar, cocking an eyebrow at him and tilting my head. “I’ve never seen you before.”

“I’m a friend of a friends,” he smirked. “How about we get you a water, instead?”

“You know, I think I’m actually going to get going,” I said, starting to feel slightly uncomfortable in this situation. “Have a good night, whoever you are.” I tried to step by him and he stepped in front of me, “Please, let me go. I’m not sure how you know my name, or whatever the hell friend you’re talking about, but I am sure that I would like to get home without blood on me from ripping your dick off and shoving it down your throat.”

The mystery man let out a laugh, “I’ve been ordered to get you home safely. That’s all.”

“I don’t need your help getting home safely,” I growled. “I’m better off without your help, actually.”

“Are you sure? Because Chelsea is going home with Brian. It’s not safe for a girl like yourself to walk home alone. At least let me get you a cab,” mystery man smiled. “Sorry for coming off as a weirdo.”

“You’re a friend of Brian’s? Makes sense,” I said, the last part really being to myself.

“I’m a friend of Matt’s,” he responded, pulling out his phone to call me a cab. I froze and he let out a laugh, “Don’t look so scared, Ivy.” He ordered me a cab and I still stood there, frozen in place. He frowned and furrowed his eyebrows, looking at me like I was stupid, “Look, I’m not going to hurt you. I just need to make sure you get home safely.”

“Who told you to get me home safely?” I said quickly, not wanting to know the answer. “Don’t answer that question.”

“You already know the answer to it,” mystery man replied. “Once you step in the cab, my job is done. So let’s go outside and wait for it.”

I wanted to cry following this mystery guy out to the sidewalk. Part of me did feel safer, knowing that someone was watching out for me, but part of me wanted to cry and vomit knowing that somehow Matthew Sanders had people looking out. Did Brian call him and tell him he saw me? Did that cause him to call this mystery guy to come look after me? Why was this happening? I shouldn’t have opened my mouth to Brian. I shouldn’t have come out tonight at all… and now god damnit Chelsea was going home with Brian!!! I didn’t need her getting in bed with my inmates lawyer. This was just going to dig me into a deeper hole. It was bad enough that I was still struggling with Maria abusing her job, and me seeing inmates suffering firsthand through her video recordings. Seeing Matt suffering firsthand. Now I just had more ties to this disaster.

I closed my eyes and leaned against the outside of the brick building, feeling a tear fall down my cheek. I felt eyes on me and I opened mine and looked at the mystery man, “Sorry. I’m drunk and have way too much on my mind.”

“That’s why I’m making sure you get home safely,” he responded while sighing. He pulled a pack of cigarettes out of his pocket and lit one, then offered one to me.

Being the drunk person that I was, I grabbed one and lit it. I pulled it up to my lips and inhaled. I exhaled and looked up at the dark, star-scattered sky, “You’re part of his gang, aren’t you? He’s your leader.”

“He prefers the term alpha,” mystery man laughed. “Like a wolf.”

I nodded, “You’re expecting him to get out? Is that why he sent you? Brian told him what I said, so he calls you and tells you to watch over me because god forbid I get hurt then his big ass is stuck in prison?”

“Brian told him you were here. Brian also told him that he was going to be taking home your friend. Shadows sent me here to make sure that you got home safely, and that some prick didn’t take advantage of you alone, stressed out and intoxicated,” mystery man said before taking a puff of his cigarette.

I nodded, taking that all in. So this supposedly wasn’t part of a scheme to help get him out of prison. God my head was already starting to hurt, and I was at least eight hours away from a hangover. My cab showed up and I put out the small bit of the cigarette I had left. I looked over at mystery man, “Thanks for making sure I got home safely. You can report it back to your alpha.”

“Take care, Ivy,” he smiled, pulling out his phone as I got into the cab.

Notes