“I’m not doing it.” I toss the document onto his desk before slouching low in my chair. “When Dimitri finds out you’ve lied to him, you andeverymember of your family will be struck from the records.”
I don’t give a shit about Warden Mattue. As far as I am concerned, he can rot in hell. I’m more concerned as to why he wants me to deliver his lie. That not only places me in Dimitri’s firing line but my family as well—including Demi.
“They’re not lies.” When I arch a brow, wordlessly calling out his deceit, he talks faster. “It’s legitimate information he’s been seeking for years.”
His tone is honest, but I’ve been burned far too many times to believe anything without solid proof. Furthermore, why would he give up the opportunity to get into Dimitri’s good books? Rocco has stated time and time again that being owed a favor by Dimitri is priceless. Surely, that’s more beneficial to him than being Agent Moses’s lackey.
Too curious to ignore, I ask, “If this intel is true, why aren’t you giving it to Dimitri yourself?”
I scoff when I read his reply from his facial expression. He stupidly believes Dimitri trusts me. That’s as ludicrous as me saying he could be a good man if he found the right woman. He’s too corrupt to turn good now. Too greedy.
It’s showcased without a doubt when he says, “This could change everything for you, Ox. Better privileges. More leniency.” He doesn’t gain my interest until he adds, “Conjugal visits.” He stares me straight in the eyes while promising, “The world will be your oyster…onceyou veer Dimitri’s focus in the direction we need it to go.”
“We?” I already know who he’s referencing, but I want him to spell it out for me, so there’s no misconception on who’s helming this operation. It isn’t Warden Mattue.
Warden Mattue’s pupils widen as his throat works hard to swallow, but before he can sing like a canary, gravel crunching under tires trickles through a partially cracked open window on our right. He cranks his head to the window so quick, my neck muscles feel his neck’s strain. “Shit. He’s early.” After licking and spitting my hair into place like it won’t be cited as the cause of his death on his death certificate, he reiterates, “Remember, no—”
“Mention of Agent Moses, you, or the botch-shop operation you’re running here. I heard you the first time.”
After taking a moment to gauge my true response—that my heart made me his bitch long before morals did—he snatches the handwritten piece of paper from my hand before spinning to face a mirror in the far corner of his office. He’s not only sprucing himself up for his visitor, but he’s also assuring himself that he has what it takes to be the business partner of an underworld associate.
Once he has his wild brows contained with some spit, he murmurs, “We have a good thing going here, Ox. Let’s not ruin it by getting ahead of ourselves.” He straightens his jacket, breathes out the nerves he wishes weren’t fluttering in his stomach, then commences heading to the door. Before he breaks into the corridor, he issues one final warning. “Just to be sure we’re on the same team, these walls have ears. It’ll do you best to remember that.”
My hands ball into fists when he nudges his head to the spot his landline phone once sat. Now Agent Moses’s ill-timed arrival when I was talking to Caidyn three days ago makes sense. He heard every word I spoke, which means he knows I was seeking ways to shorten my stay.
That makes this way worse than first perceived. Agent Moses gets reckless when something stands between him and the profits he wrongly believes he’s entitled to. He schemes up wildly eccentric ideas, then implements them before anyone can talk him out of it.
If that occurred this time around, Demi could face something much more severe than a false murder wrap. She could be in danger—grave danger—and I’m shackled to a desk in a warden’s office three hundred miles away.
Fuck.
Fuck.
Fuck!
I halt cursing myself to hell when the door to the warden’s office pops open a couple of minutes later. You can’t curse yourself to hell when the devil is standing in front of you.
The anguish wreaking havoc with my stomach is heard in my voice when I hit Dimitri with so much attitude, he’ll never smell a rat. “If I knew it was you, I would have gotten dressed up for the occasion.” I lick my bone-dry lips before folding my arms in front of my thrusting chest. “What the fuck are you doing here, Dimitri?”
His lips tug at one side. “I thought we were friends. Isn’t this what friends do? Visit the other while they’re locked up.”
I would give anything to show him what I really think of him, but since that could fuck me over more ways than Sunday, I glare at him instead of spitting at his feet like I really want to.
“We ain’t friends,” I mutter when it takes him a minute to get the point.
With a grin that exposes I responded how he was hoping, Dimitri flattens his palms on the warden’s desk, then stares me straight in the eyes. Something has altered in them since the last time I saw them, but since they’re still full of hurt, I’m reasonably sure their change-up isn’t compliments of finding his daughter.
“That’s right. We’re not. You just used my contacts to line your pockets with money, and then you wonder why we’re not friends.”
I stare at him, too shocked to speak.
I run drugs for him to repay a debt. I didn’t do it to become rich.
Unless he’s talking about the understudy program at STEM Academy.
If that’s the case, he is correct. I did use his contacts to fatten up my bank balance because back then, I thought every dollar I siphoned from the Italian Cartel would weaken their stronghold on Hopeton. Up until a couple of months ago, I had no idea it would have taken more than three lifetimes of fights to drain one of Col’s bank accounts. I knew he had money; I just had no clue how much until I calculated the funds I helped Agent Moses amass the past eight months. The number of digits in his bank account would have you convinced greed makes the world go around.
Mistaking the annoyance on my face as agreement to his comment, Dimitri sneers, “Sit down, Maddox, and for once in your fucking life, listen. If you had done that from the get-go, you wouldn’t be here.”
