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The guard suddenly grabbed the drip bag Nix was hooked up to. Nix felt his arm on fire, his body burn.
“Would you get on your knees for me, you little dirty cocksucker, hmm?” the guard snarled next to Nix’s face.
Nix howled in agony.
The guard released the bag and punched Nix in the face. On top of the bruise he already had. Nix saw stars. Black stars came shooting forward and threatened to engulf him.
“Fuck you and fuck the fucking Black Coyotes.” The guard turned and slouched off. “If you aren’t Black Coyotes and you aren’t Ash’s piece of ass, then you’re nothing but fresh meat, Nix.”
Nix let the stars swirl him into the clouds as he tried to pick out the seeds of doubt that the guard had spread in his mind.
* * *
But Ash didn’t come to visit. Not that day, not all of the next day. Or the day after that. Nix was hurting. In his body yes, but he felt the dull ache in his heart, too.
The nurse was redressing his wounds when he finally caved.
“You know Ash? Ashton Rivers?” Nix piped up suddenly.
The nurse eyed him carefully.
“We all know Ash,” she said carefully, her fingers busy with the bandage.
Nix cleared his throat, which still hurt like hell but the bruises were all a pale yellow now, rather than a thundery purple.
“Is he… um… is he doing okay?” Nix didn’t quite know what he wanted to ask.
The nurse frowned a little. “What do you mean?”
Nix sighed and tried to sit up more in bed. The nurse was hot. Latino, curves, hair tucked in a severe bun. Nix knew if she let it loose it would flow down her back. As she bent over him, Nix smelled a fresh scent of floral perfume. “I mean like… is he okay?”
The nurse tied his bandage tight with a sharp tug. “He’s in solitary, sweetie.”
Nix blinked, taking a moment to process what he heard.
“You didn’t know?” she said, checking his chest now, the cold pad of the stethoscope tingled on his skin.
Nix flexed his jaw. That’s what the guard had come to say, the other day, but somehow the salient information had been lost in translation, Nix thought wryly.
“He came back from his visit with his lawyer, who’s getting him out, by the way, hearings been set, it’s moving at break-neck speed-”
“Hearing?” Nix repeated dumbly.
“Yeah, he’s a member of a motorcycle club, apparently, did you know?”
Nix rolled his eyes to the ceiling. “Yes,” he hissed impatiently. “So I’ve heard.”
The nurse carried on. “Pretty high up, by all accounts, quite the big shot.”
Nix almost laughed out loud.
“Anyway, they’ve thrown a load of money at getting him another hearing, got some decent lawyers on it, Ash will walk soon enough,” the nurse said. Satisfied with Nix’s chest, picking up his notes at the end of his bed.
“And so how did he end up in solitary?”
“Oh, he came back, heard about what had happened to you, picked a fight with Ramon’s group.”
“Fuck,” Nix muttered under his breath. His heart flopped about pathetically in his rib cage though. His curse was half in awe and half in sympathy.
