Page 14 of Justice

Shifting his attention to the new girl walking across the stage, he side-eyes Tobias in warning. They may be the best of friends, but Drake is still the leader of this Family, and more than capable of reminding him who works for who.

* * *

“Come on,I have something you need to see.” Tobias nudges Drake’s arm and rises from his chair, dodging the girls circulating the floor in search of their next dollar. While he had nothing against strippers, he chose to spend his money in other ways. When a girl caught his eye, he had no issue showering her with gifts and attention.

Tobias and Drake step into the freezing temperatures of the Boston night, such a drastic change from the mild temperatures of Georgia. Climbing into the back of Drake’s car, Tobias shows him the security footage of Bremmer’s death he obtained from the prison guards.

“Good work, Tobias,” Drake said, as a triumphant smile splits his face in two. His eyes filled with the sweetness only revenge can give a man.

“I have another job if you’re interested?”

“Depends,” Tobias countered. “If it includes getting the fuck out of this cold, I’m interested.”

“It’s personal this time, Tobias.” Drake returned, his voice serious and deep. Pulling a photo from his jacket pocket, he extends his gloved hand in Tobias’s direction. “I need to send a clear message about what happens when you mess with my Family.”

CHAPTERELEVEN

“I’m sorry,my conviction was overturned how long ago?”

After the warden committed suicide and the state police took over the security inside the prison, a team of attorneys from Washington were called in as files were discovered inside the warden’s office during the search and seizure. Nearly half of the women in Justice’s cell block had been called in, their names among the files kept hidden from the rest of the staff.

“Three years.”

Justice felt as if she was in a dream, any minute now the buzz of the alarm would take her back to the cell she had called home for all these years.

“Shortly after your conviction, Bill Mosley contacted the Attorney General’s office with information related to a murder he witnessed.” Shuffling the pages of her file, the attorney who introduced himself as Adam Kenner, assistant to the States Attorney, pulled out several pages sliding them in her direction.

Adam was young, late twenties she would guess, with thick, brown hair and green eyes. The sleeves of his white shirt were rolled to his mid-forearm, his black tie loose and slightly off to the side as if he had pulled at it repeatedly. She found him attractive enough, with clear skin and lack of a wedding band, but with her past and inability to orgasm, he wasn’t her type.

“Here is the letter he wrote, and here are the lab reports.”

Justice raised her handcuff free hand from her lap. She couldn’t recall the last time she had been inside the visitor’s lounge without a pair on, they had become routine, like putting on a watch before heading to work.

She scanned the page, taking in the messy handwriting on the stark legal paper, smiling when she came to the end and Bill’s signature.

Bill, or uncle Bobcat as she had always known him, had been Red’s Sargent at Arms. He was a big-burley man, with long, dark hair, who wore a cowboy hat with several holes in the brim. He smelled like cigarettes and mint, always having a peppermint in the pocket of his rag. When she and her sister, Tymeless, first came to the clubhouse, he made sure the other men left them alone, gave them soda to drink and took them for lunch when their mom was busy with Red.

She could recall more than one argument between Red and Bobcat, her ‘uncle’ demanding Red do the right thing by divorcing her mother and sending them far away. Just before her trial, Bobcat had been diagnosed with lung cancer. The last day she saw him was when Red took the stand against her. She read his obituary in the paper not long after Judge Nolen died, crying silent tears in her pillow when the lights went out.

“The independent lab did additional testing on the blood labeled with your father’s name—"

“Red wasn’t my father.” Justice interrupted. With a new beginning on the horizon, she too felt the need to set the record straight.

“My apologies, ma’am,” Adam’s compassionate eyes lock with hers. He had greeted her with the same respect when she came through the doors earlier, something she would have to grow accustomed to all over again.

“Dusty Campbell’s,” he started again, emphasizing the generic name Red was born with. “Blood was originally found to have a large amount of gamma-Hydroxybutyric acid, or GHB as is the more common name.”

Justice knew the drug well, although with a less clinical name. Georgia Home Boy, the club gave it to prospects who were having issues attracting new hang arounds.

“Not only did our lab discover a large amount of GHB in the sample, it uncovered something else as well.” Tapping his index finger on the results written in red ink, a touch of a smirk on his lips. “A high amount of estrogen. The level you would find in a teenage woman, going through a phase of maturity, not a full-grown male.”

Justice tossed her head back in laughter, recalling the months following her incarceration where her tits seemed to grow overnight, now she understood why.

“They also checked the sample with your name on it, and found as you know, no GHB what-so-ever, but did contain an elevated PSA level, a hormone excreted by the prostate, found only in males. While this doesn’t tell us how your mother was killed, it was enough for the Attorney General to have ordered your release. As I’m sure you know, you cannot be convicted for a murder of the same person twice.”

Double jeopardy, Justice knew the term well as a few of her fellow inmates had wished they could dig up their dead husbands and kill them all over again. She, like the Attorney General, had no real idea how her mother was killed, but she was one-hundred percent certain Red was behind it.

“Our office has processed you for immediate release, with a full pardon and a check. An apology from the state of Georgia.”

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