Page 113 of Hard Heart

Unknown

This isn’t over. We need to talk when you get back from visiting with your boyfriend.

P.S. Watch your back.

P.P.S. You spelled assholes wrong.

Was the last part a joke? When I’d called them all arseholes, I’d figured there was a fifty-fifty chance she’d take it personally, but it seemed she had a sense of humour lurking beneath the prickly exterior. I replied with a message of my own.

Me

I’m done at the prison. What do you want? I’m assuming this is Jerry?

Unknown

Making assumptions is a bad habit.

Me

Then don’t message me from a random number.

Unknown

Can you talk?

Me

I’m in a diner with three bikers. But you probably already know that.

The phone rang, and yes, it was her.

“How’s Levi doing?”

“What do you care?”

“For a long time, I didn’t. You’re right there. But over the past several weeks, I’ve seen enough to understand that I fucked up a decade ago—we all did—and now I need to do what I can to fix things. I don’t expect Levi’s forgiveness because I can’t give him back ten lost years, but I hope he’s doing okay.”

Oh. I hadn’t expected her to be quite so forthright.

Something in me unwound. Until now, it had been me, Levi, and Raelene against everyone else—the legal system, the police, the court of public opinion, and his former friends. And now to have one of them straight-up admit she’d been wrong… A little of my simmering anger was replaced with relief.

I still disliked her—strongly—as a person, but I did like the idea of having her and her band of spies on our side.

“Levi’s doing okay, considering he nearly died.”

“I understand security has been tightened?”

I thought of Jim, playing on his phone in the hallway while Levi jacked off onto my foot. Vigilance wasn’t his strong suit.

“I wouldn’t say that’s necessarily the case, but Levi’s spending most of the time in his cell. The correctional officers are bringing his meals there. And when he goes to the yard or the showers, only Diesel is with him.”

“Diesel’s his cellmate?”

“Yes.”

“Does Levi trust him?”

“Yes. Diesel’s also from the Diamondback Devils.”