Slipping a needle full of heroin into my vein felt better than sinking deep inside a hot tight pussy. There was no comparison. The rush that exploded in my body after hitting that plunger pushing the liquid into my veins was like nothing else. I couldn’t get enough. For the next two years, I lived on the streets sleeping in flop houses and doing anything I could to score my next fix. It was the only thing I cared about.
“Hey sexy,” the hot blonde next to me on the sunken couch eyed the full needle I was about to push off with. As soon as the dope hit my veins, sex would be the last thing on my mind. I just liked to ride the high. I’d done so much it took a lot to get me high.
And cost a lot more money too.
“Go away,” I growled at her as I hit the plunger. In mere seconds, I went from down in the depths of despair to soaring on cloud nine.
“Wow. I’ve never seen anyone push off that fast!” I could hear her voice, but the words didn’t make sense to me. I fell back on the couch and closed my eyes.
Hours maybe days passed, I awoke to exploding pain in my head and her mouth on my cock. She wasn’t quite so hot now that I was sober, but her mouth felt incredible. I grabbed her head and bounced it up and down my cock. The house was infested with bugs and one raced across my foot.
That did it. I lost my erection immediately.
“Get off me,” I stood up and pulled my jeans on.
“Out with it, Ayden. You’ve wasted two hours of my time going on and on about your struggle with heroin. I can appreciate that must’ve been painful, but nothing that’s happened to you excuses what you did to Amber.”
“Oh, I know that, Ash, and if you thought that’s why I’m telling you my story you’re wrong. I just wanted you to know.”
Ash stood up and poured himself a glass of water. He handed me one as well. He walked over to the enormous picture window overlooking the ocean.
“So, how did you get sober, Ayden? Based on what you told me, you’d been using for years. What stopped you?”
Gulping down the water, I leaned back on the sofa. I felt the veins in my arms pulsate.
“First, let me tell you about the time our father came to see me in prison.”
Ash’s eyes grew wide.
“Yes, Clayton mentioned that. I guess that must’ve been a surprise to you.”
“You have no idea, Ash.”
“Visitor’s call! Line up! Andrews, Butler, Cody, Connors, Davis, Donovan, Marks, Nightshade, Owens, Phillips, Warren, Yardley.”
I rolled over in my bunk.
“Hey, Donovan! Wake the fuck up! You got a visitor.” The burly guard banged his club against my bunk.
“What? Who the hell is it?” I hadn’t had a visitor since I’d been here.
“Do you think I give a shit? Get out here now or you lose visiting privileges.”
I stumbled out of my bunk. I ran my hands through my hair and jumped into line.
“Donovan, since when do you get visitors?” Davis, a heavily tattooed burly guy who was doing life for murdering his ex-wife, asked standing next to me.
I shrugged. I’d been in here exactly nine months to the day.
“You got some hot piece of ass coming to see you?” Another inmate who was in there for rape asked me.
The gray walls of the prison seemed to rise up all around me.
I shuffled down the hall to the visitor’s booth. I sat down on the stool looking down at metal counter. No one was there yet.
Suddenly, a man dressed in an expensive Italian suit sat down across from me. At first, I didn’t recognize him.
Initially, I thought it was my attorney. Perhaps the appeal had come through.
He motioned at me to pick up the phone.
“Ayden?”
His voice. Oh my God.
“Ashler?”
His eyes, so like my own, gazed at me. The corners of his mouth turned up in a smile. His dark brown hair was streaked with a touch of silver.
“I was hoping you’d call me Dad.”
I nearly fell off the stool. Never in my wildest dreams did I think he’d come.
I opened my mouth to talk, but no words came out. I was stunned.
He laughed at my astonishment.
Finally, I found my voice again.
“How did you know I was here?”
“It wasn’t hard. I had my attorney do a little digging. When I read about your alleged crimes online, I knew I had to find a way to see you.”
My mind was still reeling.
“How did they let you in to see me? You usually have to be on an approved visiting list.”
He smiled and shrugged.
“That’s one of the perks of being a Blackthorne. Money talks.”
I smirked. I’m sure it was nice. I wouldn’t know.
“If you’re upset that I came, I can always leave. I didn’t mean to cause you any upset.” Ashler looked down.
Shaking my head, I held the phone tightly. I still couldn’t believe he was here.
“I’m glad you came. No one’s been in here to see me since I got here.”
“Not even Debra?”
I shook my head.
“She’d be the last person they’d let in. She couldn’t make to see me without getting high first.”
“It’s still bad with her? I knew she was using some when she was with me.”
I nodded.
“Oh yeah, wasn’t a night that went by she wasn’t drunk or high. It’s been like since I was old enough to remember.”
Ashler looked pained.
“I had no idea it was that bad, Ayden. That must’ve been very hard for you.” His hazel eyes reflected compassion.
“It is what is. Nothing I can do about it. She’ll never change. That’s why I left a long time ago.”
“I know we don’t have much time here, Ayden, but I wanted to apologize for the way I treated you the first time you came to see me. It was quite a shock to hear that I had another son I knew nothing about. I knew Debra had been cheating on me, so I didn’t know if I could trust you were really mine. But just looking at you confirms it for me.”
Amazed, I couldn’t stop smiling. This was all I had ever wanted since I’d came to New York.
“Ayden, I know you’re here for a pretty serious crime. That concerns me. The stalking of that beautiful young woman was terrible to say the least.”
“I know, Ashler. I never meant to hurt her. In case you didn’t realize it, I am, was an addict.” I held out my scarred arms for him to see.
His eyes looked sad.
“I’m sorry, Ayden.”
“It’s no excuse, I know. I’ve been working hard since I’ve been in here to try and live my life differently, to acknowledge my mistakes.”
“That sounds great.”
“Five minutes!” The guard shouted.
Ashler looked down at his watch.
“Ayden, I know you have a three year sentence. I’ve got some attorneys that can try and help you. I want you to get out of here as soon as possible.”
“Why?”
“Because I feel I’m partly to blame for why you’re here. Your mother was a disaster and I’ve never been a part of your life. I want to change that. I want us to have a relationship. I want you to come and work for me after you’re released.”
My eyes misted. This was more than I’d ever dreamed. I couldn’t believe he was really here. The father I’d always wanted.
“And you must meet Ash. Why, it’s a shame two brothers have been kept apart their entire lives.”
I didn’t let him know that I’d seen Ash a few times when I’d picked Amber up from work.
“I’d like that.”
“One minute!”
“Well, Ayden, it looks like our time is up. I hope we can start to build some kind of relationship. That would mean a lot to me.” He smiled at me. He looked so warm and kind. I wanted to hug him.
But the glass was between us.
I placed my hand on the glass. Ashler stared a
moment and then placed his there against mine.
“Thank you for coming.”
He smiled at me.
“Dad.”
Ash looked at me stunned. His normally tanned face was dead white.
“When did that happen?” he whispered.
“June 2015.”
Ash bit his lip and looked down.
“Can you imagine my heartbreak when I received word he passed in December?”
“No, I can’t. I was devastated myself.”
“Did he ever mention me to you?”
Ash shook his head.
Night had begun to fall and darkness seeped in all around us.
“So, after I heard he was gone, I lost it. I didn’t give a shit what happened to me. I had been keeping my nose clean and following all the rules. After Dad died, I decided fuck it what did I have to live for?”
Ash looked down at his phone.
“Shit, Ayden, I’ve got a major crisis with work. It can’t wait. Can you come back tomorrow?” He ran his hands through his hair.
I shrugged. I really wanted to finish telling him everything.
“Sure, that’s fine.”
“Do you mind coming back out here tomorrow? Or I can meet you in the city?” Ash stood to leave.
“Here is fine. I enjoy the drive. After being cooped up in prison, anytime I get to get out and about is fine with me.”
“Should we say 11 AM?”
I nodded.
As I drove back to the city, I thought about my last year in prison.
The last year in prison had been the hardest. I had gotten a new cellmate, a guy named Sinister Cayne. Like his name, he was an intimidating, imposing guy. He was a hugely muscled, heavily tattooed type. His dark hair was buzzed short and he sported a goatee. He had two deep scars on his forehead. I couldn’t help but wonder what caused them. Sinister also had several gang tattoos and one that meant he killed someone. Most of the inmates gave him a wide berth, but that was going to be difficult for me as he was my cellmate.
“So, Donovan, I hear you’re about to be released soon.” He asked one day as I was arriving back from lunch.
“Yep. Don’t know where I’m going though.”
Sinister ran his hands through his short hair. His arms had track marks too.
“I know what you mean. The motorcycle gang I ran with has it out for me now. Can’t really go back there if you know what I mean.”
I nodded. Before meeting Sinister, I felt like I was hard core, but Sinister was the real deal.
“Who’s your gang?” I casually asked.
Sinister stood up from his bunk and lifted the sleeve of his long thermal t shirt up.
“The Brotherhood of the Saints, a motorcycle gang. We have ties to the Aryan Brotherhood. We ran out West pretty hard.”
Hopping off my bunk, I studied his tattoo carefully. It was well done with a ‘1488’ with a skull and crossbones beneath it and the words, ‘Brothers in Blood’.
“What did you run?”
He shrugged pulling his sleeve back down.
“Mostly meth, but guns, smack, you name it.”
I nodded impressed.
“They don’t call it the wild west for nothing. I could get anything out there. Women-had them lined up and gorgeous ones too. Drugs, assault weapons, anything I wanted I could make a call and have it in under an hour.”
“Sounds like a sweet deal. So what happened to get you in here?”
He laughed.
“This ain’t my first rodeo that’s for sure. I’ve been doing time on and off since I was 15. But this time was the worst. See, every person in the Brotherhood has a job to do. Mine was murder.”
I had to control myself to keep from looking shocked. Showing astonishment in here could easily be misinterpreted as fear.
And to show fear showed weakness.
“Who did you kill?” I asked the question despite my knowing that it was best not to ask something like that.
He smirked.
“It wasn’t like that. I was a contract killer. Murder for hire. I only killed those I felt had a good reason for hiring me. The Brotherhood wasn’t as selective as I was. They only wanted the money. The hit I was supposed to do went wrong.”
I sucked in my breath. I tried not to look too alarmed.
Sinister seemed to be off in his own world. He leaned against the concrete wall.
“Some fucker wanted me to off his old lady. Said she was cheating on him with some other guy. I said that wasn’t reason enough to do it. Told the Brotherhood that too. But the guy had given them $20k to have it done. The Brotherhood, they try to tell you it’s all about blood taking care of blood, all that shit, but in the end it’s all about the fucking money. So, I started following the guy’s old lady. Turned out she was a petite, gorgeous little thing. I even talked to her one night at a bar even though I wasn’t supposed to. She was one of the nicest women I’d ever met. After following her for weeks, I never saw her with another guy.”
Sinister sighed as he leaned his head back on the wall.
“But what I did see was the guy fucking some other chick at a rundown motel. Turned out he wanted his wife gone so that he didn’t have to pay child support. I told the Brotherhood I wanted off the job. Told them no way in hell would I kill an innocent woman. Chain told me I had no choice. If I didn’t do it, I was out. And if you know anything about gangs, you know you just don’t leave. They fucking kill you. I didn’t have anywhere else to go and I figured if I didn’t do it someone else would.”
I stopped him as I stood up to get a sip of water. This was the most intense story I’d heard since I’d been on the inside and I’d heard plenty of stories.
“Anyway, I thought I could do it gently. Make sure she didn’t suffer any. So, on the night I was supposed to do it her idiot husband was supposed to be out of town. The guy had left the back door unlocked so I could get in. I was planning to just put a bullet in the back of her head. Quick and easy and get out. But I made a lot of mistakes that night.”
I sank down on the tiny chair in the room.
“What did you do?”
He rubbed his chin.
“Well, I got high for one thing. I never did a job high, but this one was going to be tough, so I shot up before I left. Bad idea number one. Then, the door wasn’t unlocked like it was supposed to be, so I had to break in. Bad idea number two. Smashing the glass, I crept upstairs. I had a silencer on the 9 mm so I figured it would be easy to do it and get out. Well, the glass shattering must have woken up her little girl. Just as I opened the master bedroom, a tiny girl around five years old sneaked up behind me.”
Oh my God. I wondered if he’d shot the kid.
“I spun around as soon as I heard her voice. I turned and ran back down the stairs. It was too late though. I heard sirens screaming all around me. The neighbors had called the cops. As soon as I got back down to the living room, a guy was standing there waiting for me with a .45 pointed at my head. He ordered me to drop it. I didn’t. He cocked his gun. I shot him once between the eyes killing him instantly.”
My eyes widened, but I tried not to look too impressed.
He shrugged.
“So, basically, I fucked up. The Brotherhood has a saying: ‘God forgives, the Brotherhood doesn’t’. My arrest alerted the guy’s wife to his murder plot. The Brotherhood lost the money and the guy was tried for conspiracy. All of this shit brought heat down on them which they didn’t want. So now they put a hit out on me.”
I sat stunned. I thought I had it rough.
“So, I’ve been here now for twelve years. Just got transferred out of max. My attorney thinks there’s a chance I might get out sooner than expected.”
“That’s good.”
“I don’t know. I’ve been here a long time. Kind of used to it. Several guys in max were part of my old motorcycle gang. Tried to kill me a few times, too. What saved me is that AB had a falling out with the Brotherhood of the Saints, so they gave me some protec
tion against them. But due to max getting overcrowded they sent me down here.”
I didn’t exactly feel safe sharing a room with a guy like Sinister, but over time he turned out to be an all right guy.
After several months, I got accustomed to prison life. It wasn’t that unlike some of the group homes I’d lived been in when I was in foster care. I was doing my time and keeping my nose pretty clean. I learned which guys to avoid and who to befriend.
Although in prison, the unwritten rule is ‘Trust no one’.
I only had about a year left on my sentence, but I’d grown lax about watching my own back. Several Los Zetas gang members had been moved to my unit with ties to Tico. I’d mentioned to Sinister I’d ripped off a Mexican drug dealer in Chicago, so he advised me to keep a close eye out for them.
One day, I was in the shower when I noticed all the other guys started leaving as soon as the LZ guys approached the shower area. Immediately, I looked around for anything to defend myself with, but there was nothing. I knew better than to get caught alone in the shower. Up until that point, I’d never really been involved in any altercations since being locked up.
But that was about to change.
“Hey, you’re the guy who ripped our boy, Tico off.” One of the bigger guys said as a group of five LZ member surrounded me.
I held up my hands.
“That was a long time ago.”
“We don’t care you little bitch. You run around with that big guy from the Brotherhood, don’t you?”
The whole group stared me down. They were covered in tattoos and flexing their muscles.
I’d been in here long enough to know how to fight. If it had been just one of them, I’d have jumped in with both fists swinging, but there were five of them and just one of me.
My eyes darted around looking for a way out. I knew if they jumped me they’d likely kill me.
Or worse.
In prison, there are things worse than death. Being raped like a bitch is one of them.
“We’re gonna teach you not to fuck with Los Zetas!” They each balled up their fists as one guy jumped behind me.
I swung at him hitting him squarely in the jaw. He fell backwards as the rest of them fell upon me.
Suddenly, out of nowhere, a huge hand reached down and pulled of the guys up. He jerked back his head and thrust a shank deep into his neck.
Wicked Redemption (Dark Book 2) Page 12