Page 43 of Pen Me

“What in the name of—?”

Larissa hurried toward him, but I saw her in the mirror, her pace slowed when she realized she was busted.

“Sarge, the EMS is demanding an escort,” a voice sounded on the radio.

When he didn’t answer it squeaked again after a few moments, “Sarge?”

“Send it.” He scoffed, stepping toward me.

“You– you said something about a pipe?” He looked round the empty room, double-checking his safety before his gaze swung back to me.

“I was hit in the face with a pipe. I’m fucked up. Let me go with that ambulance. Please, I’m begging you. Don’t let them come back and kill me.”

Somehow, I knew in my soul, that hospital was my only way out of this alive.

He looked at my chin and his face scrunched, “Shit!”

“Calloway went with them, Sir. That leave—”

“Shut the fuck up,” the Sarge clipped, staring at me. “I know what it means. They got room in that ambulance for one more?”

I could see the stress on Larissa from across the room, even if she kept her gaze locked on the floor and pretended she was straining to hear the radio.

“Negative, Sarge.”

“Shit.” The Sergeant carried on, as he thrust the radio back onto his belt. “H– how did you?”

“They wrestled me into a chair and tried to kill me. Thank God you and Deputy Porter arrived.” I tried to snap Larissa out of it, hoping against hope that she’d come to my side, if I played her.

The sergeant slowly undid the restraints.

“Can you st–?”

I shot out of the chair and shoved my hands behind me.

“Well.” He seemed stunned, hesitating just a moment before he put the cuffs on me and rubbed his beard.

“Porter, you’ll take him to Memorial Hospital for treatment in a squad car.”

“I can’t–” Larissa tried to deny.

“You will. You’ll take him. I can’t send one of the others and risk that.”

I was good at reading between the lines, one had to be when they made a living through criminal means. Some conversations couldn’t be had out in the open or directly spelled out.

I wasn’t sure I was in my right mind, though, because I was pretty sure he just conceded that he’d rather risk my escape, than risk losing control of his jail with whatever populace of male guards he had left.

Chapter Twenty-One

The First to Know

Henny

I wasn’t much one for sitting around with my thoughts. I tried to stay busy, whether it was in the gym, at work, with the club, or my daughter. She was with her mother for a surprise spring break, or whatever Octavia had said when she called last night, so I figured it was as good a time as any, to throw down a few cold ones with Zig.

We were on our second one when he finally huffed, and that shell cracked. I knew it would eventually.

“What the fuck am I doin’, Henny? Goddamn. My daughter has the cancer, she’s starting over with nothing but the military under her belt… and shit, she can’t put that on no reference. Not now, right?”

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