I guess there’s only one way to find out.
“I need you to find outexactlythe terms Demi agreed to. If there’s a timeframe, who it will affect if it goes through, or if there will be an aftermath of any kind.” Caidyn stops jotting down everything I’m saying when I whisper, “And I need you to do it quietly. If people inside these walls find out I may have a way out, they’ll try and stop it from happening.”
I’m not being presumptuous when I say I’m an extremely valuable asset in the prison system underworld. My dependency on Demi sees me doing anything Agent Moses and Warden Mattue have suggested the past nine months, and they’ve greatly benefited from my addiction. I’ve made them a fortune, so I have no doubt saying the overturning of my conviction would greatly impact their operation. It’s hard to run a criminal entity from a prison when the face of your empire is no longer a convict.
My thoughts shift from one sly snake to another when a tap hits the door of the warden’s office. Warden Mattue wouldn’t be game to interrupt me, he knows as well as I do that he isn’t running the show around here, but Agent Moses has no qualms shaking the fist of justice when he feels he’s been done wrong. Me not being at his beck and call the past seven hours is about as controversial as things get for him lately.
“Time to wrap things up, Ox. I thought you’d know better than anyone that you earn benefits here. They’re not a given.”
I work my jaw side to side before jerking up my chin. “Caidyn, I need to go. Can you put Demi on the phone real quick?”
He doesn’t seek clarity for the quick change in our conversation. Agent Moses kept his voice loud enough to ensure not only I know he’s endeavoring to stamp his authority, but so do half the inmates at Wallens Ridge as well.
A reminder of the change-up in Demi’s living conditions smack back into me when her groggy voice sounds down the line only three boot stomps later. In our old family home, Caidyn would have needed to sprint a mini-marathon to get to my room from the living room.
“Hey.” Just like earlier today, Demi’s one word speaks volumes. It exposes her struggles, but it also shows there’s still a warrior hidden deep inside her, biding its time. “I know we agreed to save this for tomorrow, but I want to say how sorry I am about today. I don’t know what I was thinking. It’s all so…”
“Confusing?” I fill in when words elude her.
“Yeah,” she breathes out heavily. “And painful. I miss you so much, it physically hurts.” Just as panic makes itself known with my gut, she lessens its constrictive hold. “But that doesn’t mean I should have done what I did. It won’t happen again. I promise you that.”
Conscious she never makes a promise she can’t keep, I ask, “Say that again?”
I hear her cheek incline into a smile before she repeats, “I promise.”
A brief moment of silence teems between us. It isn’t uncomfortable. It’s more heart-fixing than anything. This is the peace I was looking for when I stupidly thought I couldn’t do it with Demi in the room with me. It returns my perspective and reminds me that good things do come to those who wait.
When a cough sounds across the room a couple of seconds later, I put steps in place to make sure no length of time will stop good from prospering. “Do you remember the place we visited your birthday weekend between the ice rink and the café?”
I picture Demi’s smile when her voice comes out super husky. “Of course. I’ll never forget that day.”
The curving of my lips is heard in my reply, “Do you still have the gift I bought you that day? Not the ones I picked, the one you did?” She remains quiet, but I take her hearty swallow as confirmation she knows where I’m going with this. “Can you keep it close by for me?”
“Maddox…”
“Please. I need to know you’re safe, and there’s no better comfort you can offer me than knowing you’re protecting yourself.” I’m about to commence tiptoeing through a minefield, but before I can do that, I need to make sure none of the bomb shards could reach Demi if I take a step in the wrong direction.
The actuality in my tone halves Demi’s frantic breaths. “Okay. I can do that for you…” My smile snags halfway when she tacks on, “On one condition.” She waits a beat before murmuring, “Go easy on Caidyn. You can’t throw a non-swimmer into the deep end and expect him not to occasionally choke on some pool water. He’s doing the best he can.”
“We all are,” we say at the same time before Agent Moses’s impatience gets the better of him. He doesn’t disconnect our call by snatching the receiver out of my hand. He shreds the cable with a knife—an extremely familiar-looking pocketknife.
A tiring day could have me mistaken, but I’m reasonably sure his knife is the one Demi stuffed down her bra before we traveled to what should have been my second death match. If that’s the case, that means he’s been in my house, or worse, in Demi’s room.
My blood boils over when I lock my eyes with Agent Moses’s. He doesn’t even try to hide the confirmation on his face. He wants me to know how close he’s been to Demi because he knows she’s the only person capable of bending my spine.
It’s a pity for him, my spine snapped hours ago. “You fucking son of a bitch.”
In quicker than he can blink, I pin him to the wall of the warden’s office by his throat before jabbing my fist into his face. I get in three solid whacks before my campaign is ended by the brutal zap of a taser. It brings me to my knees in an instant, but no amount of electric charge can slacken my smile when Agent Moses bobs down to my level. I may have only got in four hits, but his face will carry the marks of my beating for days to come.
As will the scorches his next set of words burns my heart with, “Trace the location of the last call received from this phone.” He nudges his head to Warden Mattue’s now ruined landline before he scoots closer to me. “It’s time to level up, but I can’t do that if you refuse to fall into line.” He sighs like he’s disappointed it’s come to this. In case you’re wondering, he’s a woeful liar. “So perhaps I should remind you exactly how much is at stake here?”
He steals my chance to reply by signaling for the guard to taser me for a second time. The prongs’ close proximity to my heart and the high voltage of the zap have me on the verge of coronary failure, but no amount of wattage has me missing Agent Moses’s next set of demands. “Call India. I’ve waited long enough. It’s time to get this show on the road.”
21
Demi
Istare at Caidyn’s cell phone for over twenty minutes, willing it to ring. Lengthy telephone conversations weren’t a privilege Maddox had before today, and if the duration of his call this afternoon is anything to go by, I don’t see them becoming a regular occurrence. In all honesty, I’m more than okay with that. Ten minutes of one-on-one time cost him valor, dignity, and respect, so I’d hate to consider what he had to give for a seventy-three-minute call.
