Joel doesn’t hesitate. “Deal.”
“You’re going to win for once,” I say to the old man. “If she does, I might be seeing you real soon.”
“Don’t forget what I told you,” Rico starts with his shit-eating grin firmly intact. I just know that the next words out of his mouth are going to piss me off. “Tie her up, then use your fingers to get Bella’s pussy nice and wet before you take that tight little cunt.”
White-hot fury flashes throughout my body.
I’m out of bed and on my feet in under a second. He meets me on the floor, in the small space between the two bunks. Red burns in my vision as I stare him down. “You don’t fucking talk about her.” My fingers twitch and curl into fists.
I could beat him right now. He might have been here longer, but I’m the one with the experience.
Our chests brush as we square off. He juts his chin out in a challenge. “Maybe she and I should meet up.” He licks his lips. “I could have her coming on my cock in two minutes flat.”
I’m going to–
“Hey, hey, hey.” Joel is off the bed, holding me back before I can land my first punch. As usual, Tao is useless in his bed, fiddling with his Rubix cube like nothing is going on. Asshole better be putting money on me to win.
“Shut the fuck up,” I growl.
“I’ll leave a mark on her just like I left my handiwork on your chest.” He’s goading me. I know he is, but if he doesn’t stop talking in the next two seconds, I will bash his teeth out. “Isabella,” he sings her name.
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.”