Chapter 11

Two weeks had passed since the almost kidnapping at the Four Roses and Billy was getting frustrated that they couldn't find these fuckers. They had pulled in every snitch they could and still, they didn't find out shit, which led Billy to believe that it wasn't related to any beefs he was having with any gangs. If that was the case, someone would have cracked from the pressure the Darley gang was exerting on everyone.

Chris had calmed down considerably, but Billy noticed that she still remained jumpy and she didn't bitch as much about the guys Billy had following her like she usually did. She hadn't even said a word when Billy had now placed three of his guys following her at all times, which had told Billy without words how scared shitless she had been, if he hadn't known already.

On the upside, it pleased him to know that she felt safer with him there. She had taken some time off of work after Billy had pointed out that it was too easy for someone to figure out her schedule, so her boss had given her two months off in line with all the vacation time she had saved up and she now went with Billy everywhere, even when he did his shifts under the bridge. Not that he had lessened the security around her in the least. Whenever he had her with him, there were always at least two more of his guys around. Today's detail included Tommy and Heco.

After Billy had sold everything he had on him, he walked away from his last customer and over to the Mustang, watching his girl rock out to the radio she had blasting. He smirked as he knocked hard on the window, startling her and rounded the car to the driver side. As he climbed in, she turned the radio down and asked, "Finished?"

"Yeah." He replied as he lit a cigarette and scratched the back of his head, "You ready to go get something to eat?"

"Thought you were gonna starve me or something." Chris pouted at him before grinning, "The diner?"

Billy grunted in agreement and headed the car in the direction of their favorite diner. They picked up some dinner and drove to the apartment. Just as they reached the parking lot, they were surrounded by police officers that threw Billy up on the side of the car and cuffed him.

"What is going on?" Chris yelled as one officer held her back from going to Billy's side as they started reading him his rights. Joe and Dog hustled themselves out of the building and went to Chris as a tall black woman with a bitter expression on her face raked Chris with her eyes and said loudly, "He's under arrest."

"No shit!" Chris said contemptuously, "For what?"

"Murder." The black woman said with a smirk and a dark look at the blonde.

"This is total bullshit Wallis and you know it!" Billy seethed as they cuffed him, "I didn't kill anyone!"

"The victim was a Timothy Donnelly and there are plenty of witnesses to the altercation you had with him right before he disappeared almost a year ago. What happened Darley? Thought we wouldn't find the body?" she smirked again as another couple of cops stepped up behind Chris and the boys and slapped some cuffs on them too, "You are going to the station with us I'm afraid. We need you for questioning."

Billy went wild at the rough handling they gave Chris as they pulled her arms behind her back and cuffed her before Wallis said spitefully, "What's the matter Billy? Don't like your little girlfriend getting touched? Isn't that why you killed Donnelly?"

"Fuck you bitch," Billy raged, "I have no fucking idea who you are fucking talkin' about!"

"Well," Wallis said breezily as they were all pulled toward the squad cars, "then you better calm down before we add resisting arrest to the rap sheet."

"Don't worry baby." Billy called as he was stuffed in the back of the police vehicle and Chris was led to another. He heard her snort before she was put in.

They put Chris in a small, square windowless room and made her wait for over an hour before Detective Wallis came in with a file folder in her hand. She sat down opposite Chris and started to speak, "So, how about you tell me what happened in the Four Roses last June and the altercation that Billy had with a man there."

Chris simply shrugged and said, "I have no idea what you're talking about." She added as if an afterthought, "By the way, like I told the other cop, I want my lawyer."

Wallis ignored her and pressed on, "Really? Witnesses said you were the cause of the fight between Darley and the victim after you were caught making out with him." She gave Chris a sharp look.

"Then your witnesses are talking shit." Chris said flatly, "That never happened."

Wallis took a photo out of the folder and slid it across the table. It showed the man that Chris remembered had made a grab for her the night she and Billy had become an official couple after Billy had beat the shit out of the guy.

She flung the photo down on the table and said, "That's the guy that tried to cop a feel in the hallway outside the bathroom of the bar. Billy beat the shit out of him—so what?" Chris knew she had to admit to the fight. Too many people had seen it to deny.

"Well," Wallis said smugly, "his body was found last week in a garbage dump outside of Brookline." When Chris merely quirked an eyebrow, Wallis tried to get her to talk by asking suddenly, "So, how serious do you think things are between you and Billy Darley?" when Chris didn't answer, just smiled smugly, Wallis bit out, "Serious enough that he doesn't see other women? Hmm? Well, I'm afraid that's not the case you know."

Chris leaned back in her chair with a bored air as Wallis continued to talk shit about Billy seeing other women behind her back. She wondered what this bitch's deal was. She acted in turns as if she was disgusted by Billy one minute and then jealous of Chris for being with Billy the next. As for trying to get Chris to turn against Billy by insinuating that he had other women on the side, well Chris knew for a fact that was bullshit. She had made damn sure that there wasn't one that was stupid enough to try to crawl into Billy's pants when they knew that it would only end up in pain when Chris found out about it.

Chris tilted her head and asked curiously, "Jealous?" When the black woman glared at her, she laughed and added, "Ooh, I bet it's quite aggravating for you, wanting him, the Big Bad Billy— the Dangerous Darley, and being a cop and all." She leaned forward and rested her elbows on the table as she said, "Well, nice try, but it won't work. Billy isn't screwing around on me and there isn't anything you can try to tell me that I will believe. Now," she added briskly, "if I'm not under arrest, I'm leaving."

"I can still charge you with obstruction." Wallis threatened in a hiss, trying to act all bad ass.

"Then first of all, you should have read me my rights when you put cuffs on me, second, you should have given me my phone call and third, you should have known better than to try and question me when I have already asked both you and the cops outside for my lawyer—twice." Chris stood up and pulled on her jacket, "Have a nice day detective."

She strode out of the interrogation room and into the main lobby to find Wendy and Alisha there looking frantic with Mandy pestering the cop at the front desk. When they saw her, they immediately crowded around her and all started talking at once. She told them as much as she knew. They made quite the scene in the lobby, henpecking the cop behind the desk for details until Joe and Dog came out and told them what was going on.

"They think that Billy killed that guy he beat up at the bar for putting his hands on Chris and they are charging him with it." Joe said succinctly.

"But he didn't!" Chris said worriedly.

"No he didn't." Joe said with a comforting hand on her arm, "but because Billy had beaten the shit out of him allegedly the day he died, they think that gives them enough evidence that he did."

"Are they posting bail?" Chris asked as she quickly counted how much cash she had on hand and how much in the bank.

Joe shook his head and after they were joined by Dog, led them all out of the police station. "No, no bail." Joe told them all as they waited for Heco to bring the car around, "His Public Defender is good, but the prosecution is using Billy's arrest record to keep him in until the trial."

"Isn't there anything he can do?" Mandy asked worriedly.

Seeing Chris's frightened expression, Joe hugged her tightly and said, "Don't worry. Billy knows how to take care of himself. His lawyer is pushing for an early trial date so he should be out in no time."

"Jesus Joe." Chris whispered against his jacket, "What am I gonna do without him in the meantime?"

The next three weeks were hell for Chris, not that she would dare to suggest that it was a picnic for Billy either. She had long conversations with Billy's public defender, a man by the name of Bristol. They had told him what had happened at the bar, and their stories were backed up by Sammy and the rest of the gang as well as a few regulars.

She went and visited Billy in jail every other day like clockwork, not going every day so as to give others, like Joe and the rest, a chance to visit. At first, he had spent almost the whole visit trying to keep her spirits up and telling her how much he was missing her. She wanted so badly to touch him, to feel his arms wrap around her and hold her tight against his strong chest. She didn't want to worry him by telling him that she wasn't sleeping well without him in their bed, how she missed his smell and the sound of his snores and the way he would wrap her up against him. She didn't mention either that she was scared. Scared of what could happen if Billy's enemies thought it would be an opportune time for them to strike against the gang with Billy in jail. Scared that Billy did have the guy killed and that the cops could prove it.

He had read some of her thoughts on her face and swore to her that he didn't have anything to do with that guy's death, and she believed him. He also arranged for the guys to take shifts so that she was never alone as well as having Bodie drop off Billy's share of the dope money to her to make sure that she lacked for nothing until his trial.

But as one week turned into two, then three, she noticed a change in his behavior. He started questioning her about where she went and what she did more closely than before.

"Billy," she sighed exasperatedly after one such interrogation, "what's going on?"

"What the fuck ya mean?" he asked with a narrowed eyed look.

"If you think for one minute that I'm cheating on you, you are out of your fucking mind!" she hissed so as not to draw the guard's attention in the elongated room with the banks of plexi-glass separating the visitors from the prisoners.

"You better not fucking be woman!" Billy, dropping any pretense that that wasn't what he was thinking, hissed back dangerously as he poked the glass with a finger, "I find out you been riding another guys dick and I'll kill the fucker!"

"Jesus Billy," Chris asked as the hurt welled in her chest, "you don't fucking know me at all if you think that I would want anyone else!"

"A hungry pussy don't have a conscience." He retorted. Tears welled in her eyes at his cruelty as she gathered her things and stood up. "Where the hell do you think you're goin'?" he snapped with a scowl.

She took a deep breath and answered steadily, "Home."

"Fuck that!" he swore, "We still got another fifteen minutes."

"Yeah, well—" she said furiously, "When you decide to pull your head out of your ass, let me know!"

As she walked out of the room with her head held high, she could hear him calling her name, knowing that he was screaming it, but the sound was muffled from the glass. She sat down on a bench outside the county jail and let herself cry for a minute. Lately, she felt like her relationship with Billy was falling apart and she didn't know what to do about it. The stress just from not being near him everyday alone was killing her.

She understood that with him locked up, he was unable to feel as connected to her as he was before when they were sharing the same bed, but damn, she had been feeling a little fragile herself lately and she just needed to hear him tell her that everything was going to be alright.

Not wanting to go back to the apartment and have Joe asking her questions about how the visit had gone, she instead headed towards Stygian Street and the apartment she used to live in with Chrystal. She hadn't talked to Chrystal in about two weeks, right after Billy had been arrested and Chrystal had jumped at the chance to run him down in front of her. Chris had ended up getting very angry and telling Chrystal that she had had enough of Chrystal's antics. Just because Chrystal had not found someone that loved her for more than a romp in between the sheets did not give her the right to sit there and tell Chris that her relationship with Billy was wrong in any way. She had been going on about Billy's being a drug dealer which Chris told her was highly ironic seeing as Chrystal was an addict.

Instead of going to the apartment though, Chris went to the bar that she used to hang out at where she had first met Mandy. Greeting the owner Mary, she ordered a drink and the two women chatted for a while. The bar was dark and smoky and from where she was sitting, at the far end in the darkest corner, Chris could see everything without easily being seen. After a couple of hours, and a few Bacardi and Cokes, Chris was feeling a pleasant buzz and called Joe to come and get her.

The door to the bar opened and Chris glanced up idly, only to groan when she saw Chrystal stumble in, looking high as hell and hanging off the arm of some guy that looked familiar to Chris for some reason. It didn't click where she had seen the guy before until he tapped the bar and called loudly to Mary for some drinks as Chrystal giggled.

Chris froze in her seat as the memory of where she had heard that voice from clicked in her brain with the force of a bullet. That was the guy. The guy that tried to grab her at the Four Roses. She tried to still the trembling of her hands as she prepared herself to go over there and yank Chrystal away from him. What the hell was she doing with a guy that tried to kidnap another woman a little over a month ago? But as Chris started to rise from her seat at the bar, she overheard a small part of their conversation as they sat in the backroom right around the corner from her.

"It's a shame that it didn't work though." Chrystal was saying in a syrupy tone, "They would have paid plenty to get her back, her family and her boyfriend."

"Man, " the guy scoffed, "it was a good idea you had baby, but I ain't trying that shit again. Me and Deek thought we were fucking goners when we realized that it was Billy Darley's girl that you were talking about snatching. So stop trying ta talk me into tryin' again, I ain't got no fuckin' death wish bitch. Drop it or I'll beat ya fucking ass!"

"But baby, the money!" Chrystal whined.

There was the sound of a slap before the man hissed, "Money shit! There's easier ways ta make fucking money without getting a bullet in the fuckin' head!"

"Ya?" Chrystal whined, "Like how?"

"Like puttin' your ass on the corner if you don't leave Billy's girl alone bitch!" the man snarled, "You're pussy ain't good enough to get on Darley's bad side!"

Chris had heard enough. She threw the money for her last drink on the table and hurried outside to wait for Joe. Just as the door closed behind her, Joe came walking up and asked, "Hey girl, where's your keys?"

Chris handed them over without a word and followed Joe to the Impala. Climbing into the passenger seat, she felt the tears from the stress of the last month burst forth and she sobbed. Covering her mouth with a shaking hand, she ignored Joe's concerned look as she thought about what to do.

"What?" Joe asked with concern, one hand on the wheel and one hand patting her hand that was clenched in a fist on her leg, "What the fuck happened?"

She didn't know what to say. Billy thought she was cheating on him and her fucking friend tried to have her kidnapped? Life was just too fucking perfect. She knew though, that Joe could be just as relentless in his quest to find answers as his brother was, so she had to tell him something.

"Billy thinks I'm seeing someone else." She admitted, not yet ready to face Chrystal's betrayal.

"WHAA?" Joe jerked his head at her and the car swerved. He righted it with a mumbled curse and then asked, "What the fuck would give him that idea?"

"I don't know Joe, why don't you ask him when you see him?" she snapped, immediately feeling sorry. She shook her head and wiped her eyes with her fingers and said, "I just—I just don't know what to do Joe. It feels like my life is just falling apart around me and there is nothing I can do to stop it."

Joe frowned, not knowing what to say at the pain in her tone. "Its jail babe. It's just fucking with his head not being with you." He told her with a comforting smile, "You'll see. His trial is in two days and when he gets out—which he will," he emphasized, not wanting her to get upset, "he'll get his head on straight again and the two of you will be fucking like rabbits just like always." He teased.

She gave a sharp chuckle and tried to smile for him. They got back to the apartment and Chris went straight to hers and Billy's room. Curling up on the bed, she cried herself to sleep.

The next two days crawled by slowly. She was distracted and jumpy and getting sick to her stomach everyday from her nerves being stretched so tightly. She was confident that the case would be dismissed and that Thursday, she was proved right as she sat behind Billy in the courtroom and the judge deemed there to be no evidence after Bristol explained that Billy didn't deny that he had gotten into a fight with the deceased, but that there was no evidence whatsoever that Billy had anything to do with the mans death, the time of death not even being able to be established because of the condition of the body.

When Billy had first been brought into the courtroom, Chris's heart gave a little squeeze as his eyes locked with hers. He just seemed so distant and so cold still. She knew he was probably angry that she had missed her visit the day before, but she had wanted to make it clear to him that she was not happy about what he had accused her of in the least. When his case was thrown out, she cried as Dog, Jamie and Joe cheered and rushed forward to pound him on the back as the bailiff waited to lead him back to the holding area to get his things.

As the guys moved away from him, Billy looked at her again with a soft expression as he held up his hand slightly as if he feared that she would reject it. She flew into his arms and he hugged her tight to him as she sobbed into his chest before he pulled his head back slightly and whispered, "I'm sorry."

She sniffed and shook her head, looking at him through her wet red-rimmed eyes and said, "It's okay."

Billy examined her face for a moment before pulling her flush up against him and tucking her head into his throat. He sighed deeply, inhaling her smell as he squeezed her to him and relished the feel of her tits in his chest and her hips against his. He wouldn't feel totally better until he was balls deep in her and he couldn't wait.

He knew that he had been acting like an ass, but shit. He had missed her so much, missed being close to her to the point that he couldn't sleep and he couldn't eat. There was not much to do in jail except read and talk to the other guys that were locked up and the one story he kept hearing repeated over and over again were tales of faithless girlfriends and cheating wives. Logically, he knew Chris wasn't the type of woman to just spread her legs for anyone, and she loved him, he knew she loved him with every fiber of his body, but that hadn't stopped the dreams.

Whenever he had managed to snatch a few hours of rest, his dreams were plagued with images of her and another man, in the moment of her climax as the flush flooded her face and down to the tops of her breasts and the way her eyes would scrunch closed and her mouth would drop open as she cried out as she threw her head back and arched against him. The thought of another man seeing that, of feeling the bliss of having her arms, legs and pussy wrap around him so tight, was enough to drive Billy out of his mind.

Joe and the others constantly reassured him once they realized what he was thinking, that she was faithful as the sunrise, but Billy couldn't help but remember the way that cunt Julie was. She was faithful to him too…at first, then she had started fucking around with every dick that crossed her path and he couldn't help but to think of the worst case scenario, that he would be convicted and spend a few years in lock-up. The question had popped into his brain with all the welcome of a fucking castration of whether Chris would continue to keep her pussy for him alone for a couple of years, or would her body, so used to the regular sex he provided, betray him.

He tried as hard as he could to shake these thoughts out of his head as he was taken away to get his property and change out of the county jail provided uniform. There was no fuckin' use to these thoughts, he told himself. Chris loved him and she wasn't the type of woman that would do that, no matter how long he spent behind bars. He told himself that the problem would be quickly resolved once he had her spread beneath him with his cock rocking inside of her body.

As he was shoved none-to-gently out of the holding area, Joe stepped up and said cheerfully, "Let's go party bro."

He looked at Chris and said, "One drink."

Joe rolled his eyes and joked, "Damn man, not outta there five minutes and you're ready to haul your ass to bed with your girl! You really are gonna fuck yourselves into coma's one of these days!" The rest of the guys cracked up as Chris swatted Joe's arm and Billy cuffed him affectionately in the back of the head.

He slung and arm around Chris and hauled her against him as close as possible, keeping his lips in contact with any part of her skin he could reach as they walked out of the courthouse. Bodie was already waiting outside with the Mustang parked right in front and Heco in the Duster behind. Everyone was there, so it was a tight squeeze in the two cars. Billy had no problem with that though and climbed into the backseat with Jamie and Dog, pulling Chris into his lap as they headed for the Four Roses, letting his hands get reaquianted with her curves the whole way there as everyone politely ignored them.

It was a measure of how much she had missed him that she didn't once try to keep his hands from roaming her body. She wished that they could just go straight home and to their bed, where he could silence the skittering of her nerves in the way he did best, by holding her as he kissed and touched her everywhere until she begged him to be inside of her. Chris knew though, that the rest of the guys had missed their leader, and they had worked extra hard over the last few weeks while Billy was in jail, doing their work, checking on her and making sure Bones had nothing to bitch about as well as dealing with their own families and lives. So she was content with Billy softly kissing her and running his mouth over her neck as his hands swept up her sides to cup her breasts under her short jacket.

There were cheers as they arrived at the Four Roses and walked in. There were plenty of people that were willing to buy Billy a celebratory drink. He had a few more than one in the space of the hour that they were there. Just when she thought he wasn't going to leave the bar until he was drunk off his ass, he suddenly stood up, grabbing her hand and pulled her out of the bar with a loud, "Later fuckers."

The crowd around the gangs table laughed and wolf whistled as the door closed behind them.

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