Page 22 of Claim

“Uh, no.” I swallowed, the truth catching awkwardly in my throat. Billy being here wasn’t really because of me. Not entirely. It traced back to the man I was here about. “I was hoping you might have a couple of minutes. To talk. Somewhere private.”

Lennon studied me for a beat longer, then jerked his chin towards the back of the gym. I followed as he reached for a towel, dragging it over his face and neck.

“I’ll assume this is about a mutual acquaintance of ours?” He eyed me. “Our incarcerated friend.”

My stomach twisted. Hearing him reduced to a status, flattened into a word the system could use and discard, hit me hard. Yet, at the same time, the relief of being able to talk about him at all was overwhelming. I’d carried it quietly, locked away, never forgotten but never spoken. Trapped in my head, circling the same thoughts with nowhere to put them.

Now, finally, I could speak about him without consequence.

“Yeah.”

Lennon picked up a bottle of water from the floor and took a long swig. “You seen him?”

“No.” I shook my head. “That’s not… I can’t. It wouldn’t be appropriate at this stage.”

Lennon snorted, unimpressed. He probably assumed it was because of whatever he thought had existed between us. The messy, half-hidden thing that Razor had probably filed under unspoken history. As if that were the reason. As if I had that luxury.

It wasn’t.

“Have you?” I asked.

He twisted the cap back on the bottle and set it down. “No.”

I glanced down at the floor, my chest tightening.

“That why you came all the way out here?” Lennon tilted his head. “Find out how he’s doing inside?”

“Partly.”

“Wasted trip then.” Lennon shook his head. “No one knows how he is. He’s refusing visitors. Not even Keeley. Fucking moron.”

“Why would he refuse visitors?”

“Because he’s him. Thinks he’s doing everyone a favour. Protecting people.” He scoffed. “Don’t see what it’s actually doing. His sister barely sleeping. Her and her baby staying at mine cause she’s shit scared to stay in a house belonging to Cormac. His mum’s drinking and snorting more than she ever did. Both looking over their shoulders, wondering if they’re being watched or worse.” He widened his eyes at me. “You get what I‘m sayin’?”

I did.

I hated that I did.

But that, right there, was why I was here. Why I couldn’t leave this alone. It wasn’t just about a disastrous entanglement, or the way we’d fallen into each other’s beds like idiots who should have known better. It wasn’t about a doomed, reckless thing that had always had an expiry date stamped on it. Or even the possibility that, to him, I’d only ever been somewhere warm to disappear into. Someone convenient. Temporary.

It was this.

The fact he was sitting in there alone, deliberately cutting himself off from the only people who loved him.

And the sickening certainty that part of that isolation was because of me.

“He’s got a lot to answer for,” Lennon said quietly.

“Yeah.” I didn’t argue. God knew I wanted those answers too. Wanted to know why he’d left my bed, walked out of my flat, and straight into handcuffs. “I’m sure he’ll want the chance.” I stood straighter. “Which is why I’m here.”

Lennon frowned. “Yeah?”

“His defence team stepped back.”

He stared at me. “What does that mean?”

“It means he’s in limbo. His solicitors are still technically on record, but they’ve withdrawn from active conduct. No barrister instructed. No one steering the case.”