22. Chapter Twenty-Two
Chapter Twenty-Two
Griffin’s Beach Brock
L aying in his cell and staring at the ceiling, Brock kicks himself. His stab wound was superficial, and he’s healing well enough. As well as a prison doctor is willing to stitch up an inmate.
He’s lost track of exactly how much time has passed since he’s been locked in here. And the last time he saw Beckett was the afternoon they were brought to the yard to die. To the best of his knowledge, Beckett’s still in solitary.
The other five were released shortly afterwards, but not Beckett. Brock’s been locked away there once before, and he nearly lost his damn mind. He can only imagine how Beckett feels, especially not knowing how Shannon is doing.
All this alone time has really shown Brock how stupid he was.
If he’d given it even half a real thought, he could have come up with a plan to save all of them without anyone being the wiser.
Shannon would be safe, Donald Ramsey could be taken down, and he wouldn’t be in prison right now.
But no, he had to jump in on the action. Prove he still had it.
“Bradshaw.”
Brock looks up to see Tony, the guard who seems to have his back. As much as any guard has for a prisoner, that is. “Yeah?”
He stares at the tall man with a full head of dark hair with thick chest hair sticking up out of the collar of his uniform. Must be Italian or Middle Eastern decent.
“Come with me.”
Knowing better than to argue with a guard, especially one who helped him out, he does. “You’re letting me call someone?”
“Got word you should call your wife. But this never happened.”
The time away from Summer and Marie has been hell. The last time he was locked away, he had no one on the outside besides the club, and he misses them more every damn day he’s locked away. Without hesitation, he calls his wife.
“Brock?”
“Hey, baby.”
“Lex said you got stabbed, and I haven’t been able to get in touch with anyone to find out how you are. Are you okay?”
How did Lex find out? He hasn’t been allowed to talk to anyone, and Beckett’s still in solitary. “It’s not big deal. I’m fine.”
“No big deal? Are you serious?”
Her shriek forces him to pull the phone away to save his eardrum. Tony holds back his chuckle as he hears the screech. “I’m okay.”
“He’s going to try and get you killed in there,” she whispers. “I talked to Dad, and he can’t do anything. Ramsey won’t work with him. Brock… I’m scared.”
He hears the tears, ad he hates how stupid he was. “Baby, don’t cry. We’ll figure it out.”
“What you did was really stupid, Brock. We have a family, and you went off and did something without letting the club know. You know better.”
“Summer—”
“You acted like you have no one waiting for you. Is that what you want? Because I thought we wanted to grow our family. I thought we both wanted another baby.”
Sighing, he looks at his feet. “We do, and I’m so sorry, Summer. When I get out of here, I’m going to make it up to you. I promise.”
“Lily can’t get in to see you again. No judge is willing to go up against Ramsey, and she’s trying to take it as high as she can. With the number of people in power he has under his thumb, it could take years before she’ll make any traction.”
“I love you, Summer.”
“Stop it.”
Closing his eyes, Brock forces the tears stinging his eyes to stay at bay. “Stop what?”
“Stop acting like you’re saying goodbye.”
“You always knew me better than anyone.”
“You can’t tell me we’ll figure something out and turn around and tell me you love me like it’s the last time we’ll ever talk to each other.”
His tongue slides out over his lips as he takes a moment to collect himself.
“I want to have hope, but the truth is, there’s a good chance I’m going to die in here, baby.
What I did was stupid. So fucking stupid, and I felt like I had something to prove.
You’re right. I knew better, and I just…
did it anyway. There’s no good excuse, but it’s the truth.
And in retaliation, Ramsey will probably have me killed. He owns the warden.”
“You have to get out, Brock,” Summer whispers. “I need you home.”
“You’re so strong, Summer. You always have been, and you’re the best mother I could have imagined for my child.”
“Children. I’m pregnant, Brock.”
He nearly drops he phone. “What?”
“I was going to wait until you got home, but I need you to fight to stay alive and get out. I can’t go through this alone. We made another baby, and he or she deserves to be raised by both of us. At home. Together.”
“You’re pregnant?”
“Guess we were meant to have another one considering how quickly it happened, huh?”
He knows the laughter is to hide her tears, but he hears them anyway. “I love you,” he whispers. “I’m going to figure it out.”
“You better. I can’t do this without you, and dammit, I refuse to not have you here to run out and get whatever I’m craving throughout this entire pregnancy.”
“You sure do know how to motivate a guy,” he says with a chuckle as he wipes his eyes. “I’m sorry I’m not there, baby.”
“Don’t be sorry until you’re home. Be motivated instead.”
“Time’s up,” Tony says.
“I gotta go, baby. Love you. Kiss Marie for me.”
“I love you, too. One quick thing…”
“ Y ou knew, didn’t you?” Brock asks Tony as they walk out to the yard.
Tony just nods. “Yeah, I got word. Look, I need a favor.”
“What’s that?”
“I need you to get into a fight on the yard. Nothing big, but I need you in solitary. We gotta talk without too many ears. Just for a night.”
The thought of being locked away in a cell with nothing but a cot and toilet, if that, makes Brock’s stomach churn, but he oddly trusts Tony. “I get to go back to my cell in the morning?”
“Yep.”
Nodding, Brock agrees and looks shocked to see Beckett sitting at one of the tables. “He’s out?”
“For now. I think the warden’s trying to break him, and he’s getting pissed that it’s not working.”
He walks over to Becket and puts a hand on his shoulder. “You good, man?”
“Me? I’m fine.”
And Beckett really does look fine. “How the fuck did you not go out of your mind?”
He smirks. “Does everyone forget I was in the military? I was a prisoner of war twice. There’s really nothing they can do here that’ll top enemy forces trying to get information.”
That wasn’t expected. “What’s your opinion of Tony?”
“He’s the best of the guards. Doesn’t seem to be in the warden’s pocket.”
“Do you trust him?”
“More than the rest, I suppose.”
Sniffling, Brock feels terrible for even asking, but he doesn’t trust anyone else to be able to stay in control in a fight. “I gotta get locked up for the night?”
“That your way of asking to hit me?”
“It’ll probably get you locked away again, too. I hate to do that—”
“It’s cool. It’s my fault you’re in here anyway.”
It would be easy to blame Beckett for all of this, but Brock doesn’t. Sure, the man didn’t listen or follow the rules, but neither did Brock. He’s just as much to blame. Probably more.
“I got to call Summer.”
His eyes widen, and he glances over to Tony. “Yeah? How pissed is she?”
“Pretty pissed. She’s… She’s pregnant.”
Jaw dropped, Beckett just stares for a few moments. “Say that again?”
Brock smiles, and he nods as a weird feeling of sad happiness washes over him. What a fucking contradiction of emotions right now. “Yep, we’re pretty fertile when not using protection, I guess.”
“Fuck,” he says. “Brock, man, I’m so fucking sorry I got us into this mess. I should’ve done it alone. You’d be with your wife right now. This is all my fault.”
Patting him on the back, Brock shakes his head. Thanks to the favors Jennings called in, there’s a wide berth of enemies, including the five Beckett took out the night Brock got stabbed. Everyone pretty much avoids them now.
“No, it’s my own fault. I knew better, but I needed to prove I hadn’t lost my edge. And now I’m paying for it by figuring out how I could’ve done this without us getting locked up.”
“What are we gonna do?”
Summer’s pregnancy isn’t Brock’s only motivation. “I have a plan, but I don’t know how I’m going to get it carried out. But there’s something else Summer told me that you need to know. Something you’re not going to like.”
His head snaps up. “Shannon?”
“She’s gone.”
“ Gone ?”
He feels terrible for the panic in his friend. There’s nothing either can do from the inside, and his girl has just disappeared. Panic is really all there is left.
“She slipped out the other night. No one thought she’d voluntarily leave because she refused to come out of your apartment unless she had to. Lex has a theory, though, so they’re trying to track her down.”
“What’s her theory?”
“That she’s going to try and make a trade with Ramsey. Her for us.”
Closing his eyes, Beckett balls his hands into fists. “Fuck!”
“So, since I’ve just emotionally punched you in the nuts, now I gotta physically punch you in the face.”
They stand, and Beckett swallows. “Knock my ass out. I don’t want to think about any of this right now.”
Brock shoves him, and Beckett shoves him right back. Swinging with all his weight, he delivers a solid right hook to Beckett’s jaw, laying him flat on the ground.
Witnessing what Beckett did in that first fight, it’s clear he let Brock do this. And he just sighs as he looks at his friend. “Lights out, bud. Hope this isn’t a big mistake.”
Tony grabs him and yanks him backwards as a couple of other guards hurry toward Beckett. “Will he be okay with them?”
“I’ll make sure of it,” Tony assures and drags him to his new cell for the night and tossing him inside.
Before the door shuts, a notepad and pencil are tossed on the ground. This is definitely not typical, and Brock feels more at ease in his ability to trust Tony.
“I’ll be back down at dinner. We’ll talk then,” Tony says.