“What’s in it for me?” I ask. This could be my ticket out. I have to explore it. If I could get out, I could live outside these walls. I could apologize to Kerri. I could be a real father.
“Nothing,” Spider says, not breaking his stare into my eyes. “Maybe getting to keep your girl safe, if that matters to you, but other than that, you’re not coming with us. You’re probably not doing anything more than starting a riot.”
I look at him wondering what kind of fucking negotiating tactic this is. It’s like he doesn’t even have the decency to fucking lie to me. That’s how fucking little he cares about this.
“So, I get nothing from doing this, then I don’t think I’ll even fucking go see that bitch,” I tell Spider, drawling out my words and taking a scoop of the chicken breast that’s on my tray. “I don’t really need to see her when she comes calling.”
“Grinder’s guys are gonna rape the living shit out of her and then leave her to die if you don’t, boss,” Spider says, his eyes flashing in fear. “You asked what was in it for you and I said nothing, right? That’s because you missed your chance. You took the hand that Grinder gave you in friendship and you just pulled your cock out and pissed on it. We could have all transferred over to St. Simons and then got Grinder to help us get out with his connections. But you took a shit on that. Now, he’s figuring his own way out. And ain’t no seats left on this bus.”
Spider looks like he didn't have to put it in those words. But those are the cards I’m being dealt.
I need a chance to think this through. What if something goes wrong? What if I end up putting Kerri in more danger than she already is? This jail is a violent fucking jungle. Do I really want to bring a pregnant woman into the crossfires of a sniper?
“I need to fucking think about it, man,” I tell Spider, leaning back. “It’s a lot to do.”
Spider shrugs. “That’s fine,” he answers. “But think fast. Because she’s already on her way here.”
“Stone,” a guard calls out from the front of the canteen. “You got a fucking visitor in Room C.”
Fuck. So much for thinking through this.
I get up from my chair, giving one last look to Spider as I head out of the canteen. Whatever happens for the rest of my life is going to come down to this afternoon apparently.
Kerri
“You’ll be okay as long as you do everything I tell you to do,” the Deputy Warden told me as he sat next to me in the car, holding a gun pointed in my direction.
This was maybe an hour after he had knocked me unconscious in my own house. At first when I had woken up, I thought he had come and saved me somehow. Like someone from work had come to my rented house and saved me from the intruder that had attacked me.
Once the fuzzy feeling in my head had cleared up and I began to understand what was happening, I began to piece together what was going on. That Depu
ty Warden Marshall wasn’t here rescuing me. He was actually the one who had attacked me.
He hadn’t said much, only to do what he told me to do. He made some phone calls.
“Where are you taking me?” I asked him when he hustled me off to my car.
“Drive,” he said. “You’re going back to work.”
He held the gun at me as I climbed into the front seat, backed out of the driveway, and tried to stay calm as I entered traffic heading toward Achillees County Maximum Security Correctional Facility.
“Why are we going back?” I asked.
There came no reply.
“What do you want me to do?”
Again no response.
I started to slow the car. I was on the right side of the freeway. I was thinking of pulling off onto the shoulder to be able to talk to him.
Suddenly, Warden Marshall’s fist rose and he brought it towards my face.
His hit didn’t sting, as much as startle.
“I said keep driving!” Warden Marshall hissed. “Or both you and your boyfriend Lucien are as good as dead.”
Lucien Stone?