My hand swept out to the side. “Lead the way.”
Harry began to walk past me, pointing casually at the red swelling on the left side of my face and the slight crack in my lip. “Parting gift?”
“Something like that.”
“Glad to see you’re still good at making friends.”
His raspy laugh was soon followed by a coughing fit. Harry's cigarette habit was pretty damn bad when I left him, but I was guessing from the tight wheezing of his chest that it had gotten even worse. “Still doing thirty a day, old man?”
“More like forty since you’ve been inside.”
“Lay the guilt on, why don’t you?” I smirked, kicking a stone that was in my path out of the way. “And here I was expecting balloons and shit when I got out.”
“We’ve almost five years of abuse stored up, just for you. Now hop in the front and quit whining before we get back to The Hut. I’m the nice guy, remember that.” Hissmile disappeared around his end of the van as I went to the passenger side, clipped open the handle and threw my hoodie across my seat.
With one hand positioned on the door and the other on the frame of the van, I lifted a leg onto the ledge and took one last look over my shoulder at the place I’d lived in for longer than I’d hoped to. It didn’t look as fucked up out here. Just a red and gray box with wire all around it and towers that stood high as though they saw and owned the entire world. But I knew better. I felt the cold in my bones as I stared at it before I gave it a wink—a silent promise to never return before I groaned low in the depths of my throat and hopped up into the front seat.
Simple things like this were what I couldn’t wrap my head around. For so long, my feet had been the only thing to transport me anywhere. Now I was back on wheels again, in the hands of someone and something else, doing something the others took for granted. I couldn’t tell Harry that it made me feel weird for even a second, so I shuffled in my seat, running my thumb under my nose and leaning forward until my elbows were resting on my knees and my face was in my hands.
“Feel good to be out, Tucker?” he asked quietly as he shoved the key in the ignition and kept his voice traveling forward. He’d known more than anyone that I just needed a moment. He’d done time as a young man himself.
My head began to nod slowly before I dragged both rough palms down my face and over my lips until my mouth was held open by the tips of my fingers. “You could say that.”
“The air feels cleaner, huh?”
“Yeah.”
“The sky brighter, the silence louder…”
“Yeah.”
“Muscles stronger.”
I nodded again, not turning to face him as I stared out at the open road in front of us. “Warmer…”
He twisted his wrist and the judder of the engine brought the van to life around me. The hood rattled and the vibrations ran through my body quickly. “I remember that feeling.”
“I’ll be good in a minute.”
“I wish I had a minute to spare you, Drew.”
“Just tell the men we got stuck in traffic.”
“Don't make me lie to the family so soon out of the joint.”
“Fine, I'll tell them myself.”
“Think you already did.”
I turned to stare up at him, both my brows raised as I tried to assess that dodgy look he was wearing. The only disadvantage Harry had with being loyal was that he couldn't hide anything or lie for shit. When I saw his eyes flicker nervously behind him, I knew.
The last thing I remembered doing with any kind of conscious thought was tensing my body ready for an attack while shouting out the word 'bastards' as loudly as I could.
Then everything went dark when a fucking burlap sack was thrown over my head in one swift motion, the string pulled tight enough around my neck so it would stay in place, but not stop me breathing. It stank like rotten shit.
My body jumped forward in the seat, scrambling away to fight off the attack as best I could, but I was as useful as a limp dick in a brothel. Within seconds, there were more pairs of thick hands grabbing at my skin, my T-shirt and my hair. Before I knew it, my armpits were hooked and I was beingdragged over the seat until my body was dumped hard on the empty floor space behind me.
All the air in my lungs came out in a heavy grunt as I tried to find my bearings and not lash out.
