𝒅𝒚𝒏𝒂𝒔𝒕𝒚 - 𝒓. 𝒓𝒆𝒊𝒈𝒏𝒔

XVIII.

𝙖𝙣𝙖𝙨𝙩𝙖𝙨𝙞𝙖

"welcome to the hillsborough county sherriff's office"

walking through the halls of the prison was very eerie and quiet. jonathan, joshua, joe's lawyers, and I were walking to the solitary confinement cell that joe was placed in.

anxious wasn't even the word for how I was feeling right now. I haven't seen joe since miami and I never even thought that that I was going to be seeing him again in a jail cell.

we walked into the room and there he was. there was a cop in the corner of the room and joe was sitting at a desk. he had on a grey jumpsuit, his hair up in a messy bun, and beard stubble all messy.

joe looked very tense. his muscles were tensing up as he was sitting down, along with his jaw. I can truly tell that he was not happy at all.

"hey uce" joshua said to him.

joe shook the mens' hands but when his eyes landed on me, he lit up and I could see a bit of happiness that was missing from some time.

"anastasia...." he said.

"hi joe" I softly smiled.

"am I allowed to hug her?" he asked the guard.

"go ahead" the guard said.

he got up and gave me a tight hug. the hug lasted for what felt like forever until he sat back down in his chair.

"so how are you feeling?" I asked him.

"like shit" he said. "I wanna go home. I didn't even do anything".

"when I came back from miami, they were already at my house and they put me in handcuffs as soon as I got out of my uber. didn't even explain to me why they were there and why I was arrested. I didn't even know what I was arrested for until I got moved from the police station".

"they acting like like I did something... counterfeit money? I ain't ever do that shit" he continued to rant.

"so you know that alipate most likely set you up right?" jonathan said to him.

"I fucking know. when they said that, I knew from the jump it was his bitch ass" joe said.

"i'm telling y'all, when I get out of here.... it's a wrap for him. a fucking wrap".

"joe no.... then you'll end up back in jail and it will be for something you actually did" the lawyer told him.

"I wanna know what you're gonna do to get me out of here" he said. "cause this shit is serious. they gonna book me for something I didn't do, and once they do i'm outta here".

"how many years could I face if they actually convict me?".

"well for counterfeit... up to twenty years" the lawyer told him.

"are you fucking serious?!" he exclaimed.

"y'all need to do something! YOU better be thinking of the biggest fucking plan to get me out of here. i'm not about to face no damn twenty years on some bullshit!".

I couldn't actually imagine if joe really did go to jail for twenty years. like that can't possibly happen right....

right?

"uce calm down" joshua told him.

"i'm not calming down shit! i'm sitting in this jail cell about to face some charges and do time for something that someone set me up with!" he yelled out again.

"look.... all i'm saying is that you thomas, you better use your law school degrees to work. because you are not about to lose this case for me. you will and can not".

"trust me joe, it's gonna be okay" thomas told him.

"the easiest way to win this and get joe out of jail is to find the evidence that alipate is actually the one with the counterfeit money AND prove that he put his info out on joe" I told everyone.

"how are you gonna do that? you probably don't even know who he was working with to get it. he was probably working with mobsters, gang members, drug lords... anyone!" thomas said.

"I actually do know who he was working with.... which is why i'm gonna be the one to get him out of here" I said.

"it will actually be me, as I am his lawyer" he shot back. "and you should just leave the investigating to me".

"look... how about you do your job and I do mine" I said back.

"you play your role as the "hard working" lawyer that asks all the hard questions to the people and I play my role as investigator. okay?".

"joe c'mon...." he said.

"let her do her thing, I trust her" joe told her.

"that's my girl".

leave it to joe to always hype me up when I needed it.

"so court starts on august 26th... you gonna be nancy drew and solve it all by then?" thomas yet again asked me.

"i'll be the best damn nancy drew that court system has ever seen" I said back.

"god you two have been bickering back and forth the whole time, we haven't even been able to actually talk to joe" joshua said.

"well to be fair, anastasia has given me some hope that i'll get out of here" joe said.

"look everyone... I don't mean to be that person but the visiting time is almost up" the guard said.

"ugh fine.... look man we'll come visit later on in the week" jonathan said to him.

"ight man thanks" joe said.

joe was saying bye to everyone and I saw the look on his face like he was upset. he was down since everyone was leaving him again and he was gonna be stuck in here. it fucking sucked.

"we gonna get you out of here joe" I said to him.

"i'm gonna get you out of here".

"I trust you babygirl" he said. "now go do your thing".

I smiled and I kissed him on the cheek and walked out of the room.

"you okay anastasia?" joshua asked me.

"yeah i'm fine" I said.

"I just have a lot of work to do".