“Well, don’t think you’re alone in here, okay? As long as you’re in Parr, me and the others have your back.” He motions to a table nearby where six men are sitting and eating their breakfast. Behind these walls, there’s safety in numbers.
My anxiety eases just a tad. “Thanks.”
He smiles. “The Brotherhood will always be here for you. Now come and sit with us. Picasso has been known to throw food if his art doesn’t manipulate in just the right way.”
As if on cue, the strange man with green hair smashes his fist into his oatmeal, making it fly everywhere, narrowly missing me.
“See what I mean? Come on, Wes, you’ll always have a home with the Brotherhood.”
But I wasn’t safe.
Not from JP. Not from anyone.
It only took a night before they had me alone, cornered, and outnumbered.
“Did you think the Brotherhood would protect you in here?” JP barks, suddenly appearing in my cell.
Where’s the guards?
The other prisoners?
I sit up on the bed a little straighter, noticing that my cellmate is also not in his bed.
“It doesn’t take much here,” JP continues, strolling into the room. “Money makes people look the other way.”
He smashes his hand against his fist, smirking. There are five of them and only one of me.
“Remember when you used to run your mouth and thought you were invincible? Well, hate to break it to you, asshole. In here, I’m God. I make the rules. And that smile of yours, the one that makes my skin fucking crawl, needs to be wiped off your face.”
“Man, when you hold grudges, JP, you hold them. Are you really going to beat my ass over something that happened in juvie?”
He smirks. “We’re going to show you just how protected you are in here, Dover. Grab him.”
One of the guys goes to grab my arms, and I swing, nailing him in the jaw. The other manages to grab my hand, but I knee him quickly in the balls, bringing him to his knees. Thank God my father taught me how to fight and defend myself, otherwise I’d be dead in the water.
I’m so distracted by the two trying to grab me that I don’t see JP’s punch until it’s too late. His fist connects with my eye, ringing my bell so hard that I drop to my knees.
I’m on my feet within seconds, throwing punch after punch, nailing him a few good times before I’m attacked from behind and thrown to the ground. The knees and kicks come next, each one harder than the first. Something inside me breaks. An arm? A rib? JP’s big, massive body pins me to the ground, his fists flying faster than I can keep up with. Blood gushes from my lip as JP lands a few more hard punches, seconds before the alarms start to ring.
That’s when all hell breaks loose.
Guards swarm my cell, and it takes six of them to pull JP off me. His goons flee the second the alarms go off, but they don’t make it far because they’re thrown against the bars of nearby cells and detained, while the other guards hold back JP.
“That’s it, Jackson,” one of the guards snarls. “We warned you what would happen if you got caught jumping other inmates again. You just sealed your fate.”
There’s a wild, murderous gaze in JP’s eyes, staring me down like he’s about to rip my face off. He lunges at me again, but the guard’s hold him back.
“It’s solitary for you until we transfer you,” the tallest guard states, pushing him out of the room.
“I’m going to kill you, Dover. Mark my words. The next time you and I see each other, you’re dead!”
You can hear him still screaming as they march him down the hall.
“He can’t touch you where he’s going,” a CO with a protruding mustache remarks. “Not sure what you did to him, but he definitely did a number on you.”
Pain ricochets through my side, and I howl out, knowing something’s broken.
The guard holds me steady. “Come on, let’s get you to Medical. If I have to guess, they’re going to take you straight to the hospital.”
