The Alpha King Call Boy
Chapter 263

Third person

Having his wrists in handcuffs was still unpleasant. Lucas wondered if the sensation of wrist restraints would ever stop triggering memories of his time in captivity. But after weeks in prison, where he was given adequate food and reasonable living conditions, Lucas was pretty sure that nothing he could face here would ever be as bad as that cold underground storeroom where he'd been chained to the floor and tortured.

Alexander had even arranged for Lucas to have a cell to himself. Something Lucas hadn't expected when he first came to terms with the fact thatcontacting Alexander meant he was going to be arrested and incarcerated. Lucas knew full well that he wasn't made for jail. But what choice did he have?

His brother had shown him mercy, though, by providing Lucas with the security of that private room where he could sleep in peace at night without fear of being attacked. And Alexander had sentenced him to only ten years in prison - the minimum sentence for any crime involving treason - instead of throwing the book at him and locking him up for life.

A buzz sounded and a green light flashed over a prison door as it was unlocked. The guard escorting Lucas to the visitation room pushed the door open and shuffled the prisoner inside ahead of him.

Lucas had been surprised when he heard someone was here to visit him. He wasn't expecting anybody.

But he was even more surprised when the guard led him to the booth where his visitor awaited, and he saw her. A pretty, young blonde woman in a pink and white dress, with a face that belonged in a magazine. Or a painting.

It was an unreal moment. Lucas both did and did not recognize the woman in front of him at the same time.

She had smooth, flawless, sun-kissed skin. Long, curled eyelashes lining crystalline, sea-green eyes.

Light, shiny blonde hair just begging to be touched. And a genuine smile, with perfectly imperfect, slightly crooked teeth.

"Whoa," Lucas said on reflex, falling into the chair on his side of the booth with his jaw agape.A smudged plexiglass partition separated the prisoner from his visitor, who was seated directly across from him and holding a bulky plastic phone receiver to her ear. She pointed at a matching receiver on Lucas's side of the glass, pressing her glossy pink lips together against a smile.

Lucas shook himself back to reality and lifted the receiver.

"Hey, stranger," his visitor said quietly.

"Tuesday."

Enjoying Lucas's completely, wholeheartedly flabbergasted response to seeing her, Tuesday broke into a full grin. "I clean up nice, right?" she asked flirtatiously.

"Fuck yeah," Lucas grumbled, adjusting his posture.

He'd been completely stunned at first. But now that he was dialed in to the reality of this situation, his eyes started roving Tuesday's face and body hungrily. It'd been weeks since he'd even seen any woman at all, and here was a f*****g knockout in front of him, flirting with him a gorgeous woman who he cared about, to boot. The one person in the world he'd ever felt close to and comfortable with, now that he thought about the bond that they'd developed during their time together.

Lucas struggled against a surge of s****l arousal that had no place in this setting.

He turned to the left to gaze upon another inmate for a moment. The man sitting in the cubicle beside him was bald, fat, and covered in ugly prison tattoos. That did it; Lucas was in better control of his mental faculties when he shifted his gaze back to Tuesday. "You look incredible," he said. "What are you doing here, though?"

"Shopping for shoes," she quipped sarcastically, rolling her pretty green eyes. "I'm here to see my friend, of course."

"Why, Tuesday..?"

"Cuz I missed you, dummy."

"How'd you even get here?"

"Well, I flew into the city last week. I got a job and a little apartment. I moved here, Lucas..."

"Tuesday." Lucas groaned, wringing his face with his free hand. "Don't do this. Don't waste your time here with me."

"Hey, I can decide for myself what's a good use of my time, 'kay? I thought about it a lot before I came out here. There's nothing, no one left for me back home anymore, Lucas. My mom left me what little money she had, and it was just enough to get me here. I can follow my dreams here in the city and be close to you at the same time. You know you need me, Lucas. And the truth is, I need you too. I...

I really missed you. I missed my friend. Missed talking to you.""I missed you too, Tuesday." Lucas closed his eyes. "But I'm going to be in here for years. You don't deserve to be wasting your time visiting me in prison..."

"Hey," she interrupted gently. Then she waited till

Lucas opened his eyes and met her gaze again before continuing. "I'm working on that, too, okay?

A bunch of people wrote letters to your brother, and I'm going to the palace tomorrow to hand-deliver them."

"What? You got a meeting with Alexander?"

"Surprisingly, yeah. I mean, he remembered me from before. From when we were with those people out in the desert, the ones who saved us. I left a message for him and he called me back and invited me to meet with him and the Queen."

"Why, Tuesday? Why are you doing this?"

"Because I think if he knew about what you did...

how you took care of me and Sheri out there in the desert, how you saved my life and.."

Lucas cast his eyes down. They'd flushed with hot tears at the mere mention of her name - the woman he and Tuesday had tried to save, who perished in the desert before they could get to help. The two of them had listened to Sheri's final-requests, and promised to return her body to her family. And then they'd watched Sheri breathe her final breath. That was a moment neither would ever forget.

"I told Sheri's family what she said at the end,"

Tuesday explained. "That she thanked you for letting her die a free woman. That she forgave you, and prayed for the gods to bless you. It was their idea to write the letters, Lucas. And I read them.

Anyone who has a heart would be moved by these words. And Alexander is a just and merciful King.

That's what they say about him, at least."

Keeping his head hung low until he could blink away the threat of tears, Lucas mumbled into the greasy receiver, "And then what? What if he does let me out?"

Tuesday waited until Lucas looked up at her again before answering.

When he finally did, she said, "Then I'll make you a chocolate cake."

Lucas smiled in spite of himself. He ran a hand back through his hair, feeling self-conscious about how oily and unkempt it must be. He resolved to get a haircut somehow before Tuesday came to visit him next. "Actually," he said, "I think I'd prefer a pie, if that's alright. Or two pies. Peach and pecan."

She grinned. "Even better."