My eyes went to my cell as I stared at the guard who was making his evening rounds.
I raised a chin in greeting at Bull, then went back to my phone call, feeling free to talk since the two cells on either side of me were currently empty, their occupants enjoying a time out in the hole for less than virtuous behavior.
They were going to be there for the next week, too, for all the shit they pulled at Christmas when they started a fight in the meeting room.
During the process of protecting whatever innocents I could, I’d inadvertently saved Tasty’s life as well, and the life of his old lady.
The same one who’d tried to get handsy with Freya for taking the family room.
“He said that the president of the Coller Gang, Hanson Coller, will be holding some tryouts later this week, or early next, for a few key positions in his motorcycle gang,” I drawled.
I was hoping it would sound about as fucked up to him as it did to me the moment I’d heard it.
“Tryouts,” Wolf tested, clarifying that.
I laughed.
“Yeah, tryouts,” I confirmed.
I could practically hear his mind screaming in denial.
“Their gang is so fucked up I can’t even begin to tell you,” Wolf said in exasperation. “Who the fuck holds tryouts to get members into their gang?”
I laughed, long and loud.
“Apparently they do,” I admitted. “I’m pretty sure you can tell Kelly this. I bet he’ll be able to get a few men in place to try out.”
Wolf made a sound deep in his throat, and I guessed it was a confirmation at the same time he was trying not to laugh at how ridiculous it sounded.
“Okay, what else?” Wolf continued once he’d written down what I’d said.
“He said there was some rift between him and his president. Apparently, he was supposed to be bailed out of this place by now, but he’s still sitting here. Been sitting here for over two years with promise after promise from Coller and nothing to show for it,” I explained.
“So you think you can turn him?” Wolf asked.
“Yes,” I said. “But I’ll have to get him out of here to make that happen.”
Papers shuffled and then a computer’s keyboard started to click, followed by, “That’s not going to work.”
“Why?” I asked. “I looked at his file before I got here, it was nothing besides a couple of drug charges.”
“No,” Wolf said. “It was the drug charge.”
“What?” I asked.
“The drug charge that was known as the find of the century, remember?” Wolf asked.
“Fuck,” I said. “Motherfuck.”
Griffin would never let this stupid fucker out.
“You’re telling me Tasty was involved with the fuckwads who killed his son?” I asked, hoping I was wrong.
“Righty-O. He was only loosely associated with the case against Tanner but he was in on the arms sale,” Wolf confirmed. “So you’re SOL. Griffin will never let him out. They’re all screwed.”
He was right, too.
Griffin had gone for maximum charges when he’d put the people into jail who’d had a hand, whether on purpose or by accident, in the murder of his son.
There was no way in hell I’d get Tasty out of here, not even if I begged.
“Shit,” I groaned in defeat. “What else is in there?”
“I think the key to this all is his old lady,” Wolf started. “I’ll meet you during visiting hours, and give you the information. You tell him that his wife is in danger, and that Coller got her arrested for trying to help break him out two weeks ago. Get a few of the guards in on it, confirming the story. Make it sound like a botched breakout that was Coller’s half-assed attempt at helping him.”
“I like it,” I mumbled tiredly, tiredness starting to leach into my voice. “I got to go to bed. These long hours are kicking my ass.”
“You mean the inmates are kicking your ass,” Wolf supplied helpfully.
I growled. “Yeah, that, too.”
“Alright,” he said. “Hit me up tomorrow with anything else you remember, and if I don’t get back to you beforehand, plan on putting that plan into action this Saturday. I’ll keep the woman away, too.”
“Got it.” I thanked him. “Appreciate it.”
After we hung up, I closed my eyes, tucking my phone underneath my pillow, and let my muscles start to slowly unwind.
Then my phone buzzed, making my belly tighten in anticipation.
Freya (10:20 PM): You never told me your sister lived with you.
A smile broke out over my face.
Ridley (10:20 PM): Didn’t know I had to, why do you ask?
Freya (10:21 PM): I wanted to grab that book you mentioned. I was going to ship it to you. And you told me there was a key underneath the flower pot in the tool shed. I went in there, got the key, then opened the side door only to find your sister sitting at the kitchen table naked as a jaybird with her husband sitting across from her, also naked.
I winced.
Ridley (10:22 PM): They’re newlyweds, and next time you see them, tell them I said to stop fucking on the furniture…that I have to eat at that table when I get home.
I could practically see the smile lighting up Freya’s face as she read that.
Freya (10:23 PM): I did tell them I was sorry, but I was too embarrassed to say anything else. Then I ran to my car and went home.
A smile worked over my face as I thought about all that she’d probably witnessed.
Ridley (10:25 PM): They’ve done it to me, too, if it makes you feel any better. Go back after four in the afternoon and knock at the door next time. They’re always there then. Or you can go really early in the morning. They’re both either at work or doing errands.
Freya (10:26 PM): I don’t think I’ll ever be able to show my face to them again. That was the most humiliating and shocking five minutes of my life, So, sorry, but no. I’ll buy you a new book on Amazon and ship it to you.
We spoke on and off for a few long minutes, and somehow we got into the subject of Amazon selling sex toys.
Freya (10:27 PM): Bullshit. I saw them on there last night.
Ridley (10:28 PM): Why were you on there looking for sex toys?
It was out of my mouth before I’d even realized I sent it to her, and the moment the icon underneath the bubble read ‘Read 10:28’ I blushed like a teenage girl.
Shit.
That had not been where I was trying to take what we had.
But then she replied, and my mind and mouth…err fingers…got away from me.
Freya (10:30 PM): I think you would know why I would be looking at stuff like that.
Freya (10:30 PM): I hear orgasms make you happier and relieve stress.
My mouth went dry.
Freya (10:31 PM): Too bad you’re not here to take care of the itch. :P
My eyes widened, and my heart started to pound as I finally let myself see the possibilities.
Freya was beautiful, yes.
She was honest, playful…and most of all, she needed me.
And I wanted to be needed.
Right after Aerie died, my sister moved in and hadn’t moved out since.
Now she had Apple and Emily, and I had…no one.
And I was left with reality.
I was lonely.
I wanted someone like my sister had.
I wanted someone to take care of, someone who would give me the same in return.
And the more I spoke with Freya, the more I realized just how much I wanted that someone to be her.
All of her.
Which was my excuse for what I said next.
Ridley (10:33 PM): Which one did you pick? Send me a picture.
But life always had a way of making me rethink things, always getting in my way and never letting me forget that my life wasn’t for the faint of heart.
Not a day went by that I didn’t put my life in
danger, and I knew within minutes of sending that message, and receiving hers in reply, that this was a mistake.
Chapter 6
I’m not miserable. I’m happy, and funny, and a good person to be around. Go fuck yourself.
-Ridley’s secret thoughts
Ridley
I couldn’t find my phone.
After the shakedown last night, and the fight that had broken out in the middle of it, I’d had it. Then this morning, after breakfast, I couldn’t find it.
At first I wasn’t too worried about it, thinking that maybe one of the guards confiscated it to protect me.
But I was wrong. So fucking wrong.
All it took was one single meeting with Tasty to know that he had it.
He was more open, feeding me line after line of information that I’d had to practically squeeze out of him the entire month prior to this day.
So no, I wasn’t stupid.
Far from it, actually.
“Your woman’s gonna try to come.”
My heart sank.
I’d told her not to come.
I’d even attempted to call her.
Or had tried. I’d had to have Wolf track down the number for me through the Sheriff’s Department since I’d never thought to memorize her fuckin’ number. I’d left a voicemail for her using the nurse’s phone that ran the infirmary with an iron fist of doom.
She hadn’t wanted to let me use it, and really wasn’t going to let me until Kelly had instructed her to allow me to do whatever the fuck I’d wanted.
Now, I realized my mistake.
I should’ve tried harder to reach her, kept calling her until she knew not to come.
One voicemail obviously hadn’t been enough.
“Tell her to leave if she shows,” I ordered, shaking my head. “But don’t let her come in here, no matter what.”
Today was the day we’d been intending to set up Tasty with the threat of his wife being in trouble, and she really had gotten in trouble.
Real trouble.
The kind that got her dead.
And today was the day that Tasty would be figuring it out.
And I’d get all the information I could out of him before I got free of this stupid cesspool of a place.
Tonight would be the night I was leaving, whether Kelly was ready for me to or not.
“You know what to do?” I asked Bull.
Bull nodded.
“Good,” I said. “I’ll see you later on. Gotta make this look good,” I mumbled, then walked out into the yard.
The first person to come up to me was the sick fuck, Jeffrey Steels, a man who was in for life for raping his niece, then killing her with his bare hands.
Why in the hell he wanted to talk to me, I didn’t know, but he did.
Every single time we got into the yard.
“Go away,” I said to him.
Jeffrey didn’t listen.
“So I heard that Rick-Rack is going to get shivved today, and that they’re going to target that big guard, you know the old one? When he comes to help,” Jeffrey said, sounding almost giddy about the possibility.
I didn’t act like his news affected me, only kept walking and keeping my eyes in the direction of the weight machines that I was walking to.
“Yeah?” I said. “That’s cool.”
It wasn’t.
When the time came, I’d make sure Bull knew to keep his eyes open.
Not that he’d really need to be told.
The man had been doing this for a good twenty years, and he wasn’t a green trainee. He knew to keep his eyes open, and also knew not to turn his back on potential danger.
This Rick-Rack, who happened to be another shithead who was in for rape, only this one being a child, rarely saw any time at all when he wasn’t hurt.
There was a rule in prison.
You didn’t rape, and you didn’t do anything to kids. Period.
That was the reason that Jeffrey thought this was so funny. For once, it wasn’t him getting the bad end of the stick.
“Yeah,” Jeffrey confirmed. “Supposed to happen at high noon.”
Then he was gone, spreading his cheer and love to the other inmates that hated him.
I gritted my teeth and walked to the lone open weight bench, loading it up with two more plates on each side before I sat down, leaned back, and did ten reps.
“Most people work up to three hundred and twenty pounds, and sometimes never attain that goal, you start at it. Why?” Tasty wondered, bringing my attention to him.
“Work out a lot,” I lied. “Gym rat.”
He snorted.
“You get all those scars working out in the gym, too?” he persisted.
I gritted my teeth, pumping a few more reps, and then replaced the bar.
My heart was pounding, not just because of the exertion, but because Tasty was near.
I wasn’t stupid.
The man was my size, so at least six foot four in height. He was built like a brick shithouse, and could easily bench exactly what I was benching.
He may be older, in his early fifties, but he wasn’t a slacker like some of the other older inmates.
No, this guy was just as jacked as the rest of them.
Meaning he was a bigger threat than most.
And the look in his eyes didn’t really bode well.
“Got the scars from having to fight for food when I was a kid,” I murmured, purposefully being evasive.
It wasn’t totally a lie, either.
I’d been the provider for my family since I was sixteen years of age and my grandmother finally passed from her fight with cancer.
It’d been just me, Connor, and Kitt for as long as I could remember.
With Kitt being three years younger than me, she hadn’t been able to do much more than watch herself.
Connor was just a dickhead who didn’t help because he couldn’t be bothered to.
That didn’t stop him from helping himself to whatever was available though, and damning everybody else in the meantime.
“Your brother, the cop,” Tasty said.
I loaded another ten-pound weight on the bar, then waved my hand in front of the bench.
Tasty shook his head, offering the bench back to me.
I took it, acting for all I was worth like a man who could give one less of a fuck as I went about with another full set of reps.
All the while, Tasty watched me.
“What about him?” I wondered between breaths.
“I saw he didn’t have any tattoos,” he started.
I shook my head, re-racking the weights, then laughed.
“My brother’s a stuck up, uptight asshole who’d never let the ink of a needle mar his skin,” I informed him. “He’s a pussy, plain and simple. Hates my tattoos, too.”
“Is he scared of ‘em?” he asked.
My brain started to whirl as I searched for the trap, but I didn’t see it until it was way too late.
“No,” I said, hoping that was the answer he was looking for.
“Good,” he said. “You wanna go get tattooed?”
Fuck.
That wasn’t what I wanted to hear.
I looked over to where Tasty was pointing, and my heart almost beat out of my chest.
“You want me to get one of those…from him?” I asked, sounding slightly grossed out, but definitely not scared.
Good.
“T-low won’t hurt you…too bad,” he grinned. “This is what every man gets when they get into the big house. This is your first time in here, so I was just letting you know tradition.”
I could see where this would go if I didn’t do it.
Downhill.
So I did what I had to do.
“Fine,” I called his bluff. “Let’s do it.”
Luck was on my side, though, because the fight that Jeffrey told me about earlier suddenly broke out, leavi
ng the area in chaos.
Thirty minutes later, Bull and I were both bleeding.
“Thanks,” Bull breathed heavily, taking a white towel that the nurse had handed him.
He placed it on his forehead, then we both watched as the nurse busied herself with the front of the room, cleaning up the mess she’d made when she’d treated both Bull and me.
“You’re welcome,” I waved him off. “Fuck, my face hurts.”
“You’re going to have about twenty new scars when you finally get out of here,” Bull observed.
I grimaced.
“I know,” I agreed, knowing it was true.
A brisk knock at the door had us both looking up just in time to see Jessup walking in like he’d been cattle prodded in the ass.
“What is it?” Bull asked him.
“Umm,” Jessup said. “Your woman. She’s causing a scene.”
Chapter 7
I met a girl with twelve nipples. Sounds silly, dozen tit?
-T-shirt
Freya
“No. No. No!” I yelled, slamming my hand down on the table in front of me. “You promised me I could see him today. I called earlier, just to make sure, and you said yes! You owe me this time! You said I could see him today!”
That last bit was screamed at the top of my lungs, and the men and women visiting in the family room stared at me like I was a nut job.
Which maybe I was.
I was visiting a man in prison that I’d only seen three times in person.
The last week had been pure shit.
I’d been written up yesterday for intervening in something that I wasn’t even aware I had been intervening in.
I’d also been reprimanded for my ‘unapproachable’ personality. My boss cited that I was clearly not trying to get along with any of the other nurses, and that she was concerned that maybe the ER wasn’t the right fit for me as a nurse.
Then I’d gotten home to find that I’d unknowingly rented my brother’s house to Craddock.
Well, it hadn’t been Craddock.
It was Craddock’s girlfriend.
She’d played me well.
That’d been the last straw.
I couldn’t take another fucking thing, which might have been why I was acting like a total fool right then instead of going about this diplomatically.
“I’ll sit here, and you go get him,” I ordered, glaring at the guard, Jessup.
Dirty Mother (The Uncertain Saints MC Book 5) Page 8