"Jeff sat at the head of the table, his breakfast almost finished. He raised the cup of coffee — his third one — to his mouth, but just sat there ...ooking around. Several conversations were going on at the same time. Dave laughed out as he and Evie joked about something, then she poked him in the ribs with a finger. Diana and Arlene were in a deep discussion, as were Laura and Helen. There was a titter of laughter from Nat, Nicki, and Whitney. Kayla caught Jeff's eye and smiled at him.Jeff took. On the one hand the bastard was getting all he deserved. On the other he hated physical violence. Mark squeezed his elbow."I know," he said. "I don't like it either but when he comes out he'll never want to go back again so Tig is safe, and so is Deborah for that matter."Richard sighed. "Yes," he said, "and I'm thankful for that. You won't tell the girls about the violence and the suicide watch though, will you? The convictions for under-age sex will see him inside for a long while to come and. Ryan leaned over the railing."That's what you get for fucking another man's wife," he said softly. Only the convicted felon heard.Michaels took two more steps before the words penetrated. He stopped, making the chains on his feet jangle musically. Not believing what he'd heard, he turned around to stare at Ryan. His eyes widened and grew wild. Alarmed by the rattling chains, the bailiff lagging behind made a belated attempt to catch up. It was too late.Michaels lunged at Ryan. Brought up short. The mattress shook then everything jolted up in the air a couple inches. It jolted several more times then shook hard for a minute.When everything had calmed down, I was still really scared. "Bob, it wasn't a little one, was it?" I felt Don and Mom listening in."Fairly decent one. Probably low to mid five. I can't see much in the house which had any problem; one glass in the kitchen fell over and broke and that's about it."Don told us, "I've got this monkey on my back and it's trying to fuck me.