Gina walks through the door with a guard trailing beside her. His hand is clutched around her upper arm and he leads her around like some kind of animal, reminding me that we’re in a prison right now.
The guard stops to release her handcuffs and I notice the second Tully and Noah notice her. My nails stop tapping on the table while Tully sucks in a sharp breath, probably taking her in with wide eyes, though I don’t want to risk glancing away to check. Noah simply straightens in his seat, no emotion on his face and no other sign that anything is out of the ordinary.
Gina turns to take us in. Her eyes rake over me with that strange curiosity as she had last time, and I can’t help the weird pull within me, knowing this woman is my mother. My real mother. It’s still so crazy to me.
All my life I thought Kelly was my mom and then BAM she’s not and it’s suddenly someone else. Maybe I’ll never get used to it. I guess it’s going to be something that I’ll struggle with for a while to come, but at least my heart is at ease when I think about it, knowing that she’s really not that bad. You know, except the whole prostitution ring thing.
“She looks just like you,” Tully says, nudging my knee with hers.
“I know,” I murmur. “At least I’ll age well.”
Noah chuckles under his breath. “Yeah, sorry Spitfire, but your mom is fucking hot.”
My elbow slams down into his ribs and he grunts while we both try to be discreet. The last thing we want is to be thrown out of here without getting any answers and on top of that, it’d really suck to draw all the guards unwanted attention. I’d rather they focus on the shady as shit guy two tables over who looks as though he’s trying to smuggle something in. I mean, shit. The guy is sweating bullets and is fidgeting around way too much on his seat. He probably has something hidden in unspeakable places. Maybe he’s here for a conjugal visit.
Gina strides forward, her eyes nervously running over Tully and Noah, clearly having absolutely no idea why I would have brought friends with me. She stands behind her chair, silently studying the three of us before slowly taking her seat.
“Henley,” Gina says with a slight nod. “You’ve brought friends.”
“I did,” I say. “This is Noah and Tully Cage, Rivers’ closest friends. You and I might be his blood, but these guys are his family.”
Gina narrows her eyes, looking at them in a new light and with a strange appreciation flickering in her eyes. “What are you doing here?”
“We have questions,” Tully says.
“Why am I not surprised?” Gina murmurs under her breath. “Look, I told Henley when she came here last, I’m not in the business of revealing things about my son. He’s decided to not share his life with you, and I’m not about to go and do it for him. That’s his business, not yours.”
“We’re not here for Rivers,” I tell her.
“Fuck that,” Tully says, “now that I’m here and she’s sitting right in front of me, there’s no way I’m about to hold this shit in.”
I let out a sigh. Maybe this visit is going to go a little differently than I had thought.
Tully and Gina study each other and it’s not long before Tully’s tough exterior wins out. “What do you want to know?” Gina questions, making Noah lean in just a little closer.
“What happened to him?”
“How do you mean?” Gina asks.
“After you got locked up.”
She shrugs her shoulders. “Wouldn’t have a clue. I haven’t spoken to his father since the day I was thrown in here, but I was under the assumption that he went and lived with him.”
Noah looks over Gina. “You really don’t know him at all, do you?”
“Not anymore.” She slowly shakes her head. “He hasn’t come to visit me in six years and I haven’t asked him to. I’m sure he’s a very different kid than the one I once knew.”
“You really fucked him up, you know?” Tully says. “He’s dark. Broken and ashamed of who he is.”
Gina shrugs her shoulders once again. “I’m not surprised. The shit he would see day in and day out had to have some sort of effect on him. He was only a kid at the time.”
“Are you serious? That’s your kid! Why wouldn’t you want to protect him from that? Shield him? How could you be so cold?”
Gina’s eyes flick to mine and it’s clear as day that we’ve already worked out just how cold she can be when it comes to her children. As she turns back to Tully a fierceness comes over her. “I did shield him. I did the best fucking job I could do but the world I lived in made that impossible and he’s stronger for it.”