"I'd need to take a closer look," he says, after a long pause. "But you may be right. My afternoon appointment canceled and I have some free time. Can you stop by?"
"Of course! Thank you, I appreciate it! I'll be right over."
I hang up and close my laptop, and then search for my shoes, jacket, and purse. I'm feeling better than I have all week. If J. Edgar is willing to review this case, then that gives me hope. Now if I can just find my keys… I look on my desk, where I thought I left them, but I don't see anything. Maybe I left them in the kitchen. With my purse on one shoulder, I quickly walk into the kitchen and look at the counter—there they are. I grab them and turn around to leave, and then I feel it—an arm is hooked around my neck.
The suddenness of it all leaves me frozen and terrified. I think for a moment and then try to break free but the man squeezes harder and I'm forced to stay still. Was I being watched? How did he get into my house? Panic starts to flood my entire body and my heart is thumping in my chest. I'm feeling dizzy with adrenaline.
"Don't move or I'll kill you!" he growls, and his voice sounds muffled, as if something is covering his face.
"Wh-who are you? What do you want?"
And then I know he—whoever this man is—isn't here to answer questions because in that instance it feels as if someone has taken a baseball bat to the back of my head and there's an explosion inside of my brain.
My legs buckle and everything is black.
Lucien
The chicken tastes like shit. The mashed potatoes taste even worse.
But who am I kidding? The entire prison is a piece of shit place. It’s peeling, crumbling, dirty, dank, infested, and full of fucking misery.
I can’t believe I used to be happy in this dump.
But that’s when she was here.
I know what you’re thinking. You probably hate my fucking guts. More than when you first met me.
But I had to do it. You saw what Grinder said. You saw what they did to me.
I’ve been around places like this a lot in my
fucking life. I know when shit’s serious and when it’s just people talking. And there's no way they were just talking with empty fucking threats there.
I couldn’t take the fucking chance. Not when I love her. Not when she’s carrying my baby.
So, I do the only thing that I can do in this situation. I close my eyes and scoop mashed potatoes into my mouth.
It tastes like fucking garbage.
“If you’re not going to eat your food, I’ll have some,” a voice says and I sigh because I would recognize that fucking voice anywhere. The guy who started all this.
“What the fuck do you want, Spider?” I ask not even bothering to open my eyes. “She’s gone, ain’t nothing I can do for you no more.”
There’s a long pause on the other side of the table and then Spider sighs.
“See, I already knew that, amigo,” he says in his nasally voice and if my eyes were open and looking at him, I’d be fucking rolling them at him right now. “That’s kind of why I’m here actually. You snitched to the Warden so she’d be safe. I understand that. The problem is she’s not.”
Now my eyes are open and I’m looking straight at the motherfucker. If something’s happened to Kerri….
I clutch my tray, ready to use it as a weapon in case I need to. Spider sees this and backs away in his seat a little bit.
“Now, hear me out before you do anything crazy, man,” Spider says hurriedly with nervous fear coating his words. “You don’t want to do anything drastic.”
It seriously takes all my mental strength to keep from flinging the food off the tray and grabbing Spider by the shirt with one hand while I use the tray as a blade, swiping at his neck. I could kill that rascally motherfucker right now if I needed to.
But what would happen to Kerri?
Is he even telling the truth about her being in danger? Or is this just another big laugh that he’s having?