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Chapter 1

Xavier

A buzzer goes off, and the sound of the steel bars locking me inside a ten-by-ten concrete cell echoes around the roo the sides of my face, as I close my eyes and wish I could rewind the last few hours of my life

Anna was right I shouldn’t have gone out there I lostback

“Cold,” the guard barks my name “Let me knohen you’re ready for that phone call”

I scrub uard Who the fuck a to call? I have no family, and I sure as hell don’t want Anna to see utsand then the police carting me off in cuffs I’d wanted to be a bettermiserably

I roll out the ned tomy bed

There’s a clang on the bars behind uard who escortedthere with a pair of handcuffs

“Inmate Cold, roll up Looks like you’re out of here I need to cuff you and get you to discharge” He motions me over

My et me

I turn around and stick ular space between the bars The metal clicks around my wrists

“Arether Then he yells an order out to someone, “Open cell three two five”

When I turn around, the door to ht arh the corridor Snores come from the other prisoners as we pass by their cells, and I’ht here I’ll forever be in Anna’s debt for getting me out of here so quickly

We head through a series of doors until we coe clearly labeled across theuard leads me to a desk where a tallout for up at me “Are you Xavier Cold, number seven, one, five, two, seven, three, seven, one?”

I clear my throat “Yes, sir”

“Do you have any dress outs?” the attending officer asks while still working on the paperwork in front of him

How the hell am I supposed to know if I have street clothes here or not?

“I’m not sure I’ve only been here for a few hours,” I answer honestly, reear when I was booked

“We’ll check that,” he tells me Then, he picks up the phone on his desk, and asks whoever is on the other line to check on s up the phone and then makes eye contact with me “Do you have a ride?”

I nod “I assuirlfriend who posted my bail is still here”

He makes another note on his paperwork and a new officer comes into the room with a stack of neatly folded clothes that I inize from ones I packed in my suitcase Relief floods me as it’s confirmation that Anna is the one here for et into my hotel room

The guard that led me in from the cell unlocks the cuffs from around my wrists and then stuffs them back into a black pouch on his tool belt “Good luck, Cold I’ain soon The hot-headed ones always come back”

My fingers curl, and I resist the urge to knock that smirk off his face Even I know better than to do that here