I spring forward, regretting telling him her name a year ago just because he’s good with a needle and ink. Joel’s grip isn’t as tight as it should be, and I slip away. He yanks me back by the arm, hissing, “Don’t be stupid, boy. You gon’ let him stop you from seeing your girl?”
An animalistic noise settles low in my throat. Screw him for being right. I didn’t put up with and do all this shit for the past two and a half years just to stay back because of Rico.
Sensing that reason has gotten to me, Joel steps back. The smug grin on Rico’s face almost makes me question whether it’s worth not seeing Bella for a couple more months. Rico and I were getting along, and he just had to say stupid shit like that on my last day.
“Riviera,” someone calls. We all turn to see the bored-faced guard. “Hands.”
Joel slaps me on the back—not aggressively—and points a finger at my face. “You take care of her. Treat her right.”
It’s not like I’m going to do anything other than that. I grunt in response and grab my drawings of Bella—I’m not about to leave them here for them to jack off to. That’s for me to do.
“Hurry up. I haven’t got all day,” the guard drones.
He can wait as long as he needs. Fuck him.
I push the drawings through the feeder cap, and he takes them without question, shaking it out to ensure I’m not hiding a shiv.
Tao finally drops to the floor when I turn around. He holds his hand out to me. I take it and pull him closer. “You’re going to owe me two grand.”
He shrugs. “We’ll see.”
Prick.
I narrow my eyes at Rico, daring him to say something.
He lifts a shoulder. “See you ’round.”
I don’t answer and push my hands through the feeder. The cold metal cuffs dig into my wrists, then he unlocks the bars that separate us, and I step out of the cell. I don’t understand why we must go through these safety measures when I’m a free man today, but if having the shackles around my ankles and hands means I get to see Bella, so be it.
Back to holding my drawings, I look at my cellmates one last time and nod at them, then begin my walk toward freedom, passing whistling prisoners who bang on the metal bars in celebration. I don’t need to look at the Vargas men to know they’re glaring daggers at me. The Vargas “gang” is nothing but a bunch of disorganized idiots running around claiming they’re Chicago’s newest, scariest “cartel”, when a majority of their drugs get busted one way or another.
Rico and Damien aren’t worried about them, so neither am I.
One presses his head against the bars. “You better watch your back,boy,” he growls. I think his name is Gonzales? I don’t know. I’m bad at names. “Sleep with one eye open.”
“Frightening,” I deadpan, walking past without sparing him a second glance as I flip him the bird. “I’ve never heard that line before.”
He’s in here, and I’m out there.
It’s not my fault they didn’t pay attention to their shipment. They would have done the same thing if they had found someone else’s coke.
Just as I’m about to leave the wing, I hear Rico yell, “Say hi to Bella for me,hombre.”
Next time I see him, I'll break his nose.
There she is.
Fuck me.
She’s even more stunning than the last time I saw her. I didn’t think that was possible.
Hell, I thought I was going to die spending all this time apart from her.
She’s exactly where I left her, tucked in her bed, cuddling her rugged Mr. Mickey Mouse doll. It’s like she was waiting for me.
Bella doesn’t need to worry about school anymore. There’s no reason for her to still be under the same roof as Marcus and Greg. And yet, there she lies, waiting for me. My girl knew I’d come back for her, because I would never just leave her.
I’m not sure how long I’ve stood here, staring at her, familiarizing myself with having her bracelet back on my wrist after so long without it. She’s so vulnerable like this, tucked under the blanketIgot her, dark hair fanned around her like an angel, golden skin illuminated by the moonlight spilling in through the slit between the curtains. Her soft breaths fill the room like a siren beckoning me closer.
