Chapter twenty-three:
present day
Jesse
The loud clank of the cell door closing vibrated through my bones. Always hated being locked up, but right then I knew it was the safest place for me and everyone else I loved.
I had fucking lost it, that was for damn sure. And I was almost certain that I had completely lost Laney. The worst part of everything had been seeing the fear in her eyes. Sure, she knew I did shit like that for the club, she wasn’t stupid, but to see it happening right in front of you is very different.
God, I was an idiot. Yet every time I thought about the asshole touching her and shoving her so hard she fell down, I felt the rage clawing its way back up my throat.
Yeah, being locked up was definitely the best place for me at the moment. Because I’d likely go on a killing spree if I were anywhere else.
The light was fading, and no one had come to turn on any lights, which was good. I wanted to sink into the blackness of my cell and pretend none of it had ever fucking happened. What would happen next? I had no clue, but it sure as shit wasn’t going to be a slap on the wrist, that was for damn certain.
I was lying back on my bed, the cold metal underneath me. The sound of footsteps coming closer made me look up, and I watched as a guard dragged a chair over to my cell and sat down on it. He cleared his throat and then slid a bottle of water through the bars of my cell, placing it on the ground.
“Thought you might be thirsty,” he said.
I didn’t bother to reply. Instead I turned to stare back up at the ceiling.
“You don’t remember me, do you?” he asked.
“Why the fuck should I?” I replied darkly.
“We went to school together.”
“So?” I snapped, already tired of the conversation.
“Drink your water, Jesse.”
I sat up in one movement and glared over at him. “Get the fuck out of here!” I stood up and walked toward the bottle of water and picked it up, ready to launch it across the cell, but the light from the window caught his face and I realized I did recognize him.
“I’ve only got a few minutes, so sit the fuck down and listen to me,” he snapped in a whisper.
“You sure you wanna be speaking to the guy that just beat someone to death with his bare hands like that?” I growled out.
“Looks like there are bars separating us,” he replied.
“Won’t always be.”
He sighed and stood back up. “You know what? Fuck this. I was trying to help, but I can see you got your shit handled, right?”
I laughed darkly. “Wouldn’t be stuck in here if I had my shit handled.” I sat back down on my bed. “Besides, ain’t no one who can help me.”
“I have information—information you’ll want.”
I looked down at my hands, still covered in college boy’s blood. I flexed them feeling the split skin stretching. “What kind of information?” I asked, thinking of the club.
Because that was what it always came back to, didn’t it? The club and Laney. That was all I had left. Not that I had Laney anymore, of course. But I still had the club, and they’d make sure I was looked after if I got sent down. At least, I hoped so.
“It’s about your brother,” the guard replied after a long silence.
I stopped flexing my hands and looked over to him. “Ain’t nothing you can tell me about him that I don’t already know.”
He stalked forward until he was directly in front of me, his hands reaching out to grip the bars. It took me a moment to place his face, but yeah, I remembered him. He’d grown since last time I saw him, though. Of course, the last time I’d seen him he was getting his ass handed to him by the college quarterback for being gay. Don’t know what had made me do it, maybe it was that I was so full of rage at the time that I couldn’t think straight, or maybe I just liked spilling blood. Either way, I’d stepped in and beat the shit out of that quarterback and hadn’t bothered to stick around for this kid’s thanks afterwards. Little punk had turned up at my house later that day to speak to me, though. Of course I didn’t give a shit what he had to say, but Butch had spoken to him and accepted the thanks for me.
Funny thing was that he was in Butch’s year, not mine. Yet I was one angry little shit that was looking for any way to vent my fury on the world.
