X
I stood in the showers, using the lukewarm water and commissary bought soap to wash away the scum of the jail. I lifted my face to the stream of water, closing my eyes and trying to pretend I was somewhere else.
The conditions here were terrible—only a handful of the showers worked and there were always massive lines waiting for them. I’d taken to getting up earlier, even though we were already woken up at a stupidly early time, purely to get into the bathroom before anyone else did. Of course, I was never completely alone—others had the same idea—but it was still a vast improvement on the multiple inmates all waiting for one shower. The top dogs still pushed in, despite others waiting longer, but no one ever said anything.
The shower door slammed open, making me jump.
Getting caught naked in the shower was not something you wanted to do in a place like this.
“What the fuck.” I reached out and grabbed my towel from where I’d slung it over the top of the door, not caring that it was getting wet.
Callum and his friends—the same ones who had attacked me in the grounds—were standing outside of the shower door. Several bangs sounded, and wet feet on tiles, as the few others using the showers realized trouble was coming and made themselves scarce.
“Hey, pretty-boy,” said Callum, propping himself up against the side of the shower. “Relax.”
“You just burst in on me in the shower. The last thing I’m going to do is fucking relax.”
“Jesus.” Behind Callum, Shawn’s gaze took in the patchwork of scars which littered my torso. The towel I held against me was only big enough to go around my waist. “What happened to you?”
“None of your fucking business. Now get the hell out of here.”
Bizarrely, Callum laughed. “We just wanna talk.”
“Yeah, right.”
“Who was that broad who came to visit you the other day?”
My stomach sank. Fuck. I knew someone would recognize her.
“No one. Just some chick I’ve been screwing.”
Callum’s eyes narrowed. “Bullshit. If you don’t know who that is, you’ve been living under a rock.”
I shrugged. “What can I say? I guess I like rocks.”
“That was Verity Guerra sitting opposite you the other day. She’s the daughter of the mafia don, Michael Guerra. Mickey Five Fingers. Don’t tell me you haven’t heard of him.”
“Rings a bell, but I’m not from around here, so I guess I don’t hang out with the in crowd.”
“Thing is, Verity Guerra vanished several months back. Rumor was she’d gone into Witness Protection so she could testify against Mickey, who was locked up for his wife’s murder. Can you believe that? She’d testify against her own father? What a fucking bitch.”
I clamped my mouth shut. Now wasn’t the time to defend Vee.
“So, what am I supposed to think when I see you sitting opposite a known rat?” Callum continued. “Do I have to start wondering if we have our very own rat in our midst? You know what we do with rats? We catch ’em and we kill ’em.”
“I’m no rat,” I said, trying to hold it together. I didn’t need this shit right now, and I hoped this wasn’t going to affect Vee in any way. I hated the idea of her not being able to come to visit me, but this was going to go down the road to trouble. If it didn’t cause problems for me on the inside, which it clearly already was, then I was sure these men had people on the outside who would be able to track her down.
He sidled closer and the knot in my stomach tightened.
“Well, if you’re not a rat, and she’s not a rat, maybe we can be friends. Friends help each other, you know. I see you’ve been having problems with one of our local C.O.s. That could either get better, or worse, depending on how you play things now.”
“I don’t need friends like you.”
Callum swiftly stepped forward, his arm against my throat, slamming me up against the wall of the shower. His buddies moved in as well, tightening the circle.
“Wrong. Fucking. Answer,” he said, slowly.
I shoved him away. “Get the hell off me!”
“I’ve got friends on the street, you know. Verity Guerra has contacts we could use, and I want you to make that happen.”
“How the hell am I supposed to do that when I’m in here?”
“You tell her to play nicely. If she does, we’ll let you keep your teeth.”
I clenched my fists, ignoring the pain that shot up through my injured hand. “I don’t give a shit about my teeth.”
“You care about her, though. If either of you step out of line, the other one will find a whole heap of crap falling on their heads.”
“You’re blackmailing me.”
He laughed then clapped me on my bare, damp shoulder. “Excellent. You’re finally getting it. So, here’s how this goes. I’m going to be sending some people Verity Guerra’s way, and she’s going to give them some business. Blood Legion, the gang I’m part of, is sick of using robberies and counterfeiting to get money. We need something a little more profitable.”
“Keep your goddamned white supremacist shit away from Verity,” I snarled.
“Or what? What are you going to do? I’ll tell you. Not a fucking thing. You try anything in here and I’ll send them around with more on their minds than a little business. You understand what I’m saying?”
I gritted my teeth against my fury, causing pain to throb up through my face from my bruised jaw. “Verity is never going to work with those men, and you know Mickey Five Fingers is her father. You think he’s going to go for this shit? He’s not going to hand over some of his business without good reason.”
“Word on the street is Mickey is away right now, so it’s up to Verity what happens.”
“She won’t work with your gang,” I insisted.
“She will if she knows I have your balls in a vice.”
Fuck. There was nothing I could do. My silence was enough to be taken as my agreement.
Callum reached across and patted me on the cheek. “There. I knew you’d see sense. Nice doing business with you.”
With that, the three of them turned away and left the shower block.
I breathed out slowly and placed my forehead against the cool of the tiled wall. What the hell was I supposed to do? I needed to make a phone call and try to warn Verity, but what could I say to her? If we didn’t go along with what Callum wanted, one or both of us would end up hurt. The thought of men in a gang called Blood Legion hurting Vee—and most likely the baby, too—was like ice to my heart.
Prisoners weren’t allowed to make phone calls yet, so I had no choice but to dress and head back to my bunk. I was relieved to see Callum and the others weren’t there, but had congregated around one of the other’s bunks farther down the dorm. I climbed up onto my bed and threw myself onto my back, trying to figure a way out of this mess.
“You okay, dude?” a voice hissed at me.
I glanced over to see Eddie, the young guy who’d given me his Cheetos on my first day here, looking over at me expectantly. I’d returned the snacks, with extra as interest.
“Yeah, I’m fine.”
“You sure about that?”
“Seriously, you don’t want to get involved.”
“Trouble with those assholes, huh?” He jerked his head toward where Callum and his groupies were hanging out. “They’re just a bunch of overgrown bullies who never got out of high school mentality.”
“Yeah, maybe, but I bet they’re a whole lot meaner than they were in high school.”
His gaze searched my face. “I think you could be trouble, too, if you decided it.”
The guy was more perceptive than I’d given him credit for.
“Me? Nah. I’m a puppy-dog. Wouldn’t hurt a fly.”
The guy smirked.
I didn’t want to continue the conversation, so I picked up the book I was reading. I stared at the pages without taking in a single word. Those sons-of-bitches knew who Vee was. She’d already ended up in danger once because of me, and I didn’t plan on letting it happen again. But cogs were already turning. Things already set in progress. I knew Vee could handle herself, but I needed to warn her about the possibility of dangers coming from a direction she wouldn’t be expecting. She had to prepare herself for a gang of skinheads potentially trying to get something out of her. I hoped them knowing Mickey Five Fingers was her father would keep them away. They wanted me to be the one to convince her to hand over part of the Guerra business so they’d avoid bringing down the wrath of Mickey. Of course, they didn’t know he was dead.
It suddenly became vitally important that Mickey’s body was never found.