“You setting me up?” I asked.
Mick laughed. “No way, King. Come on.”
Mick opened my cell and stepped out. I offered my hands and he nodded, appreciating my cooperation as I was led through the prison. I was in no position to try and escape. Even a guy like Mick would shoot me dead. Hell, as much as I wanted to be out, I was used to the life inside. As long as my boys outside were doing fine, I could handle anything that came my way.
That thought would become something like a plague for me.
Outside, the sun hit my face and it was a fucking beautiful thing. Take away the sights of the tall fences wrapped in barbed wire and towers where guards were ready with rifles to take anyone out, it was like I was free.
I took a deep breath.
“Feels good, huh?” Mick asked.
“You fucking with me, Mick?” I asked. “What is this?”
“Earned time,” he said. “Come on.”
We walked away from a group of inmates. They all stared me down like I had tentacles hanging off my fucking face. And why not? I was rumored to be the baddest guy in the prison. I was the guy all set, ready to be injected and sent to the reaper. Fuck, not even a fighting chance against the reaper, you know? Just a needle, some warm stinging feeling, and then darkness.
I already knew what I’d think about when that time came. I had a long time to figure it out. If I told the boys about it, they’d laugh me off. Knox would probably fucking try and knock my jaw off.
I smiled.
I goddamn missed him.
I missed all of them. I missed the Reap. I missed the life. I fucking missed protecting and looking after everyone and everything.
“Right around this shed,” Mick said.
We were at the far end of the outside compound. When I turned a corner, I more than half expected to be shot dead. I’d been around long enough to know what a set up looks like. And this was a clear as fucking day set up.
I turned the corner and braced myself, readying that final thought.
There was a man standing against the shed, a cigarette in his mouth. One foot up on the shed. His head back, bobbing left to right as though he were listening to music. But he had no earbuds in and there was no music.
“Here you go,” Mick said.
The man snapped his head to the right. When he saw me, he smiled. He took the cigarette out of his mouth. He stuck his hand out and nodded.
“You want it?” he asked.
“No thanks,” I said.
He dropped the cigarette and stepped on it. “Ah, Mick. My man. You came through for me. Go take a break. Let me have some time with the very dangerous Kingston.”
Mick patted me on the back. “I’ll be back in a few.”
The man waved a hand at me and I walked toward him. He grabbed the door to the shed and opened it.
“Not the best office I’ve ever had, but not the worst,” he said. “Come on, let’s sit down and have a chat together. Just you and me.”
I stopped. “Who are you?”
“Anderson,” he said and stuck his hand out. I didn’t move. He forced his hand to mine to shake it. “There we go. Now we’ve met. You know me. I know you.”
“What the fuck is this?” I asked.
“Just get the fuck in here,” Anderson said. “Or I’ll shoot you.”
“On what grounds?” I asked.
Anderson laughed. “I shoot you in the fucking head. I take your cuffs off. I fill out a report that states you came at me, without cuffs on. Then it falls back on Mick. I open an investigation to steer eyes away from me killing you. Then Mick’s life is picked apart piece by fucking piece. Want me to keep going?”
I gritted my teeth and stepped toward the shed.
Anderson let out a growl sound. “That’s my guy! Let’s fucking do this.”
I stepped into the shitty storage shed. “And what exactly are we doing?”
Anderson walked by me and took a seat at a card table. He looked up at me and smiled. “Simple. We’re going to get you out of prison.”
I TOOK a seat and stared at Anderson. “What are you talking about?”
Anderson opened a bag and took out a folder. He opened it and spun it around. It was a picture of Tito, my brother, shot to death. A photo I saw once before and one I swore I’d never see again.
I turned my head. “Don’t…”
“This is why you’re here,” Anderson said. “And it’s why I’m here.”
“Close that,” I said.
“Look at it.”
“I will fucking choke you with these cuffs if you don’t close that folder.”
“Wow, it really gets you worked up. You must have really loved him.”
“He was my brother. Of course I loved him.”
Anderson closed the folder. “Your brother was a goddamn street rat fucking criminal. And the bullet he took… that had his name on it in so many ways, Kingston.”
“What does that have to do with right now?”
“You shot the man who shot your brother,” Anderson said.
“Hence my current position,” I said.
“You shot, but did you kill?”
“What the fuck are you talking about?”
Anderson waved a hand. “I’m too far ahead. Wait. Let me back up. I’m part of an organization that’s going to make the wrong now right.”