I widen my stance, crossing my arms over my chest while I wait for them to bring out the evidence that I know they will find.
Leroy is first, bringing two bricks of cocaine out of the kitchen and placing them on the table in front of Joel. Then Derrick comes in with a bag of money that will have serial numbers on them from a recent robbery. He’s gonna go down for a long time, that’s for sure.
“This is a fucking setup!” he screams, twisting his arms as if he could get out of the cuffs. His eyes meet mine and I shrug, letting him know with my eyes that I have him and there’s nothing he can do about it.
“Sarge?” I look up at Sanchez, frowning at the look of horror on his face. “You need to see this.”
I tilt my head at Leroy, silently telling him to watch Joel and then I follow Sanchez into the bathroom.
My hand covers my mouth at the smell and my eyes burn. A woman who can’t be any older than twenty sits in the bath, a single gunshot wound to her forehead and surrounded by blood-stained water. Looks like I didn’t need to set him up after all.
I tut at Joel as I walk back into the living room. “Looks like I have you on possession with the intent to supply, armed robbery and murder.”
“Is this because of that stupid purple-haired slut?” he growls, diving forward before being pulled back by Leroy.
I lunge at him, slamming my booted foot into his knee and watching him go down before I jump on top of him, raining my fists down on his face. “You sick son of a bitch! It’s your fault she’s where she is! I’ll make you fucking pay for what you did to her.” I lower my voice. “Watch your back in prison, I hear Jonny isn’t too happy with you either.”
His face pales at the mention of his brother’s name and I lift up off him, chuckling at his reaction. “Yeah, Jonny’s lawyers won’t get you out of this one, who the hell do you think told me it was you supplying her?”
“He wouldn’t,” he says, but both he and I can hear the doubt in his voice.
I lift my cell from my pocket, making some calls for more investigators to get on the scene before hauling him up off the floor.
He curses all the way to the car, only stumbling slightly when he sees Jonny standing against his car watching the scene. I look up at the same time, nodding at him when he tilts his head and smirks.
“You were in on it!” Joel shouts, trying to pull out of the grasp that I have on his arm.
Jonny walks toward us, a calm exuding from him as he pulls on the cuffs on his suit jacket.
“You went too far, too many times,” he tells Joel. “You needed to be stopped.”
“What the—”
“I know what you did,” Jonny growls, leaning into Joel’s face. “It was you who helped him get Gianna, you.”
“I—”
“Don’t think because we share the same blood that I won’t come for you, you’re done.”
He pulls back, his eyes not moving from Joel’s for several seconds and when they do, he pierces me with his stare and tilts his head before murmuring, “Tomorrow.”
I don’t acknowledge him, instead I yank Joel away and shove him into the waiting beat cop car.
That’s one more person off the streets, now all I need to do is take down the cartel and then everything will be right in the world again.
Harold hands me several plants, not saying a word before he walks off from where I’m knelt down in front of one of the flower beds.
I’ve been helping him silently for a couple of weeks now. Being kept busy is helping and although I still have the cravings for the pills, cravings that I’ll probably always have, they’re not at the front of my mind anymore. They’ve been pushed back and I’m able to think clearly for the first time in what feels like forever.
Yvonne told me that they’re going to give me gym privileges at the four-week point and that’s only a few days away now. I know that to be able to get back to training, I have to talk to her about how I’m feeling, to let her know what is going on inside my head. I refuse to do it in a group session though, not wanting everyone to know all about me, so she said she’s going to do a one-on-one session. I really don’t want to talk to her about what I’m going through, but I know it’s a necessary evil.
“It’s time,” Harold tells me, smiling sadly.
I nod in reply and look down at the couple of plants that I haven’t had time to put into the ground.
“I’ll do it.”
“Okay,” I whisper, pulling off my gardening gloves and placing them in the wheelbarrow.