Page 45 of Endangered Species
Cy didn’t realize he was standing there, frozen, until Dooley gestured to the chair opposite him. Cy hesitated, tempted to simply return to his cell. He didn’t owe this man shit, least of all his time. But something about the way he looked at Cy, like part of him still saw him as a dumb animal, as less than human, made him sit. Leaning forward, he crossed his arms on the table, wanting Dooley to see he wasn’t the scared teen from twenty years ago.
When it became clear to Dooley that Cy wasn’t going to be the one to speak first, he cleared his throat and said, “Rumor has it your do-gooder little brother has found a way to get you out of here after all this time. I thought you and I should have a talk about exactly what that means for you.”
“Excuse me?” Cy said, ignoring the obvious dig at Nicky.
He grinned, flashing yellowed teeth at Cy. “I just wanted to make sure there were no hard feelings.”
“No hard feelings?” Cy repeated dully. “For which part, exactly? Helping to frame me for a murder that cost me twenty years of my life? Putting Nicky in a cell with me, thinking I would kill him and end up in here for life, saving you the hassle of looking over your shoulder for the rest of yours?”
Dooley snickered. “Now, see, that’s what I’m talking about. I think your memory might be a little fuzzy. You’ve been in here a long time. It kind of muddles things up in your head. Makes you think things that never really happened.”
“Is that so?” Cy asked.
“Yeah. See, I didn’t set you up for anything. I wrongly believed my now deceased wife when she told me that you had murdered her husband in cold blood. There was no malice. I was just a man in love, doing my job to protect my woman. You can understand that. Can’t you?”
Cy couldn’t help the smile that split his face. “Wow. You do get that I know what Nicky knows, right? I know all about your little operation. I know everything. Nicky has agreed to keep it under wraps, and I’m going to do what he wants because he went through hell in here. But don’t come into my house and try to convince me that you weren’t an active participant in getting me put in here for half my life. I’m not stupid.”
Dooley’s face collapsed into a frown. “Now, listen here, boy. Nobody’s implying you’re stupid. I’m simply saying we can all live our lives in harmony on the outside. You and Nicky just keep your mouths shut and everything’s going to be just fine.”
“One, don’t ever call me ‘boy.’ Two, I was never coming after you when I got out. What’s done is done. I’ve already spent twenty years of my twenty-five year sentence in this place. Do you think I would risk going back to prison to take you out?”
“Well, after Nicky got here…”
Cy cut him off. “Man, you’ve never been more than an afterthought in my life. The only person I wanted dead was Phoebe. After what she did to Nicky all those years and then to my dad, she deserved anything that happened to her. From what I hear,youhappened to her.”
Dooley glanced away and back again, his words hesitant. “So, Nicky never said anything about what happened…between us?”
Adrenaline shot through Cy’s whole body, leaving a metallic taste on his tongue as his words hit home. “What do you mean…between you?”
A look crossed Dooley’s face. It wasn’t there long, just for the briefest of seconds. Relief, then defiance. “What? Nothing. I just meant how contentious our relationship was. It’s not important.”
Rage throbbed through Cy, his mouth going dry, as he started to connect the dots. Nicky’s reaction the first time Cy had laid on top of him, the way he’d hesitantly blamed his fears on the boys at the group home. “Did you…did you do something to Nicky?”
Dooley scoffed. “Don’t be disgusting. All I did was try to be a father to that boy. He lacked discipline.”
Cy’s pulse slammed in his veins, his hands tightening into fists. But, somewhere in his head, Nicky’s voice told him not to take the bait, told him killing a cop would put him away forever. Forever away from Nicky, away from the life they could have. Death was too good for Dooley. He deserved a life in prison, branded as a pedophile.
“Discipline? He was six years old. Do you have any idea the ways she tortured him before my father and I showed up? She was a fucking monster. She starved him, broke his arm, slammed his fingers in the car door, made him eat garbage. After all that, he was still the sweetest kid, but even if he’d been out of control, even if he was a little shit, he didn’t deserve to be treated like that. He didn’t deserve anybody hurting him, taking advantage of him. He needed help.”
Dooley shifted in his seat, crossing his arms over his chest. “The past is the past. I was a victim, too, you know. Phoebe fooled all of us,” he said. “We’re all adults now. There’s no reason for the past to be dredged up. You’re getting out, you and Nicky have…reconnected. Everybody gets to walk away happy. That’s why I’m here. I just want to make sure that you and Nicky are on the same page. He’s grown up to be a realist. He understands the ends justify the means.”
“The ends justify the means?” Cy parroted.
“You know what I mean,” Dooley spat. “The people who end up behind bars get three meals a day, a roof over their head, rec time, an education. Why shouldn’t we profit off of their labor? Why should the government have to subsidize their lives? Let’s be honest, if they weren’t in here, they’d be sucking off the welfare system. This way, everybody wins.”
“Jesus,” Cy muttered. “Listen, justify caging the poor anyway you like, but the truth is, you’re a racist, classist, piece of shit and so are they. I think this conversation is over.”
Dooley sneered at him. “This isn’t how I wanted to spend my day either. I’m just here to make sure that you’re going to play ball and keep your mouth shut like your brother. It would be a shame if he got hurt because you decided to go rogue.”
Cy clamped his teeth together until his jaw popped, forcing back the need to jump over the table and end the man who’d caused so much chaos in their young lives. “If anything happens to Nicky, your whole operation goes down,” Cy reminded him. “He’s smart. One of the smartest people I’ve ever met. He’ll always outsmart you and the people you work for.”
Dooley’s lip curled in disgust. “You think I give a tinker’s fuck about what happens to a bunch of fancy judges and politicians? Fuck ‘em. I care about saving my own ass. I have no problem putting a bullet in Nicky’s head just like I did his whore mother, and it looks to me like you’re already one appendage down. I’d hate for you to lose another. Just stick to the plan, stay out of my way, and we’ll be just fine. One big, happy family.”
Dooley stood then, signaling the guard they were finished, leaving Cy in the now empty room doing his best to control the raw, seething fury pumping through him. Dooley had cost Cy twenty fucking years of his life, but the idea of him hurting Nicky… He’d been so little. So small for his age. If it wasn’t for the cast on his hand, Cy probably would have punched something.
He hardly remembered the walk back to the day room. Once the cuffs were off, he didn’t go to his cell but to the bank of phones on the wall, finding the one farthest from anybody who might overhear the conversation.
Nicky picked up almost immediately. “Cy? What’s wrong?”
