Page 7 of Jackson

He held his hand out with the water bottle in it, handing it back to me. I shook my head, waving my hand at him to keep it. It was the least I could do for causing him to get burned in the first place, even if it was an accident.

“Let’s go, Gonzalez,” Browne’s gruff voice cut through the room again.

Roxy whimpered softly at him moving, standing up slowly from his chair.

Gonzalez hesitated and then reached down to pat Roxy’s head gently.

Her mouth opened, her long tongue lolling out and to the side while she panted at him. His smile widened slightly, clearly amused by my dog and her rather insatiable nature when it came to pats and attention.

“Bye… um…” He glanced over at me briefly.

“Roxy,” I said, knowing that’s what he was searching for.

“Roxy.” He patted her head one last time before stepping around us both and heading out the door to follow his CO.

Roxy turned and whined at me again.

“I know, girl.” I squatted, pulling her into a hug while rubbing at her sides. “We’ll see him again soon.”

Hopefully.

CHAPTER 3

Ayen

My hand feltlike it burned for the rest of the night.

I tried to not take it as a sign of the days to come—ones where I’d be left coming back to my cabin with more bruises and burns than I’d left with that morning. Sometimes, it felt like a penance; usually during my darker moments while I laid away in bed, staring up at Tyson’s bunk as he tossed and turned above me while the distant sounds of the jail settling down for the night echoed around me.

That sort of thing happened a lot when I’d first gotten sentenced. The adjustment had been hard and not just because I wasn’t used to having my every move watched or to follow a strict schedule that deviating from got me thrown in the hole for a few days.

I’d never felt such profound loneliness as I did those first couple of weeks. I no longer had my beautiful house, or my annoyingly noisy neighbors, or the garden I’d worked so goddamn hard totend to while I’d been left for weeks on end playing my dutiful house-husband role.

That small slice of utopia that I’d created for myself had been the only thing that I felt was reallymine.And yet, I’d flushed it all away in a matter of thirteen minutes.

Some would say it was justified, but the courts had thought differently.

Self-defense only counted if the person who was trying to hurt you was a stranger breaking into your house and not the man you vowed to stick with through thick and thin.

At least I had Tyson to keep me company here, too, or rather, to help with keeping my busy mind occupied and not stuck on a certain handsome fireman and his sweet-as-pie dog.

“How’s your hand?” Tyson nodded to my bandages as we sat down at one of the tables inside of the mess hall. He already was digging into his plate of food by the time we both got comfortable.

“It’s fine. Still kind of hurts but I’ll manage.”

He nodded again, shoving another fork-load of eggs into his mouth. Honestly, I couldn’t really blame him. We got shit for food back at SAC, so freshly cooked eggs and bacon felt like we’d somehow reached heaven without even realizing it.

I sliced a bite onto my own fork and ate slowly.

While it was true my burn hurt less than it did yesterday, it was still all I could focus on during the night along with watching my back.

The cabin Tyson and I were staying in was also occupied by two other guys, Alvin Richards and Lucas McMurphy. They had been fine enough last night after lights out but I knew better than to trust anyone with my eyes closed and my back facing away from the door.

If there was a bigger lesson in prison than not letting your guard down when you least expected it, I didn’t know what was.

Sure, we were all considered non-violent, but desperation made you do crazy things. This was the first time any of us were actually all out on a program like this. Outside of the cabin was a long stretch of forest that was acres deep that, given the right circumstances, anyone could get lost in before our COs were any the wiser.

All of that was purely speculation on my part, of course. But it didn’t hurt me to consider all of the possibilities. I was not strong, nor was I adept in any kind of physical combat, so if some kind of fight broke out, I’d be a sitting duck waiting for someone to punch me stupid.

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