Chapter 23

I don’t have a sense of humor anymore. It’s literally just sarcasm and a general hate of the majority of the human population.

-Fact of Life

Tobias

“I can get you maybe five minutes inside with him,” Ghost said. “My guard buddy is going to take a break and leave his post. It’ll get suspicious if he’s gone more than five minutes, though.”

I nodded.

“Make sure that you stay toward the front so the cameras won’t be able to pick you up,” Ghost continued. “You want the handcuffs on or off?”

I grinned at him.

“Let’s make this at least a little bit fair.” I said. “Off.”

Ghost nodded and left, leaving me at the entrance to the cell that held the man who had hurt the woman I loved.

I may not have been with her at the time that the assault had happened, but I was there for the aftermath, even if it was six years later.

I opened the door to the cell without knocking, and I smiled when I saw Josh sitting on the john.

“Hello, mate,” I called out. “Do you know who I am?”

I was in uniform.

I just wasn’t in the right uniform for the facility I was in, at least not in this section of the building.

Josh didn’t even bother to get up, nor reply. He only stared at me with a bored expression.

His cellmate, however, swung his feet over.

“You might want to sit up there and stay out of my way,” I told him. “I have to deal with this…filth.”

I took a step into the room and glanced up.

The cameras were there, but they were pointed at each other, just like Ghost had said they would be, giving me the ability to move around the room as long as I didn’t go all the way to the front where the window was, and the shitter that Josh was currently sitting on.

“You might want to finish up,” I told him. “I’d hate to beat the shit out of you while you’re on the john.”

Josh sighed and pulled up his pants. Without wiping.

“Gross,” I bared my teeth. “At least wash your hands.”

He didn’t, and I crossed my arms.

“You didn’t answer my earlier question,” I said.

Josh grunted. “And what was that question again?”

I bounded across the room in two strides, latching my hand around Josh’s neck and lifting him clear off the ground.

“I asked,” I said slowly. “If you knew who I was.”

He shook his head, or at least tried to.

“No,” he gagged.

He couldn’t get much air due to my tightening grip around his neck, but he didn’t need it. At least not right now.

I let him go anyway, though, dropping him to his feet so abruptly that he wasn’t prepared and fell straight to his knees.

I used the position he was in to my advantage, and lifted my knee up to aim at his face.

His nose crunched, and blood and snot started to spew.

“Let me enlighten you,” I hunkered down to his level, and stared him straight in the eyes. “You raped and assaulted my very soon-to-be wife.”

“And what, you’re here to kill me?” Josh shot back nasally.

I shook my head. “No. I’m here to let you know that you didn’t break her.”

Josh’s head tilted. “Why the fuck would I care?”

I shrugged. “I’m also here to tell your cellmate that you raped my woman. Do you know why he’s in here?”

Josh’s eyes flicked up to the bunk, and then back to me, panic started to leach into his eyes.

“I see that you do.” I stood up and backed away, nearly smiling when Josh’s cellmate got off the top bunk and hit the solid concrete floor with a soft thud.

“You told me you were in here for boosting a car,” Josh’s cellmate snarled, rage clear and evident in his voice.

“I did boost cars,” Josh lied frantically.

I backed away until I was now standing in the hallway.

Once I was clear of the door, Ghost shut it.

“I can’t believe you were able to get him moved in here with that man.”

Tate Casey was a bruiser. His arms were lined with tattoos, and it was clear that even while on the inside, he hadn’t missed a workout.

He was one of my brother’s men. He’d worked for Hail Auto Recovery and had been on a job one night when he’d come upon a couple of gang members raping a young girl, no older than fourteen.

After beating each and every one of them to death, he’d then gone and taken out five more of the gang before he was caught and detained by police officers.

Though he’d done the city justice, Tate Casey had priors, and he was sent to prison for his misdeeds.

He was going to spend a few years in the pen, but those years would be easy years. At least in prison standards.

“Thanks for the favor, man,” I said to Ghost as we walked down the hallway.

The guard who’d been on ‘break’ came back and nodded at us as we passed, grinning slightly when he heard Josh’s screech of pain. “Have a good day, boys.”

The older guard was fuckin’ hilarious, and obviously didn’t like Josh all that much either.

Although we could’ve done this without him, it worked out well that he was helpful.

“Anything else you need help with before I head home?” Ghost asked. “Mina’s been texting me all day telling me that the girls are driving her nuts.”

I grinned.

“I got one text today,” I said. “Audrey told me that I better have chocolate and dinner waiting for her when she got home from her shift, because she had a ‘really awful, no good, very bad day,’” I chuckled. “Thanks for the help,” I said to Ghost, offering him my hand.

Ghost took my hand.

“I’d do anything for you after you put a smile on my sister’s face like the one I saw yesterday,” he told me bluntly. “If you ever need me, I’m there.”

We parted ways, and as I drove home, food and chocolate in the seat next to me, I realized that I’d hit the proverbial jackpot.

And as I pulled into the driveway, I saw Audrey waiting on the porch for me, eggs in a basket at her side, and a feeling of peace swept over me.

Stepping out of the car, I rounded it and grabbed dinner, holding them both up for her inspection.

“Good?” I asked.

Her eyes crinkled at the sides.

“Perfect.” She stopped. “Almost.”

“Almost?” I asked, heading up the her.

She nodded. “Almost.”

“What would make it perfect?” I asked, stopping two steps down from her, making us at almost eye level.

“If you kissed me.”