Priest
Leaving visitation was always hard. It didn’t matter how many times I told myself I was used to it; I wasn’t.
Seeing Solae smile across that table or over a video call filled me up and emptied me at the same time.
She looked strong and always carried herself with that quiet kind of grace that made me fall in love with her.
But underneath that calm, I saw the tiredness in her eyes, the kind that came from pretending prison walls didn’t weigh on her.
I dropped the kids off at her parents’ house after.
Her mama always greeted me at the door with a grateful smile.
It didn’t take long for her parents to start treating me like family.
Her father always chopped it up with me, and her mama always packed me a plate before I left every time.
She would always say, “You’re takin’ care of my babies, so I’m taking care of you. ”
And she was right. I was doing everything I could to take care of Solae and her children.
When I left their house, I headed to the spot. Blu was already there, in the back room with the scale and the brick laid out.
He looked up when I came in. “’Bout time, nigga.”
I dropped down in the chair across from him, grabbed some baggies, and started filling them. “Had the kids,” I said. “It was visitation day.”
Blu nodded while scraping powder into a baggie. “How she doin’?”
“She solid. Holding it together. I hate leaving her in that motherfucka.”
Blu smirked. “That’s exactly why we’re about to do something about it.”
He reached for a notepad, flipped it open, and tapped a name written at the top: Harold Denton – Deputy Warden of Programs.
“That’s our guy?”
Blu nodded. “Yup. He’s the one who approves early-release recommendations. If he vouches for a prisoner, they move up the list.”
I tied a bag and tossed it onto the scale. “So, what’s his deal?”
“He’s got a bad gambling problem. He been hittin’ up this underground poker spot in Joliet every Friday. He lost thirty racks in the last two months. He owes a crew that don’t play about their money. They been pressing him hard, so he’s desperate.”
“So, we help him out.”
“Exactly. We pay off the debt. In exchange, he pushes Solae’s file to the early-release board and puts in the recommendation himself.”
I leaned back, thinking it through. “You already talked to him?”
Blu shook his head. “Nah, but he knows we know. I made sure of that.”
I raised a brow. “How?”
Blu grinned, wiping his hands on a towel. “I left him a little care package in his mailbox; an envelope with the debt balance, the poker spot’s name, and a copy of the IOU he signed. At the bottom, I wrote: ‘If you want it gone, call this number.’ I gave him the number to the burner.”
I nodded, impressed. “Smart. That gives him a choice. Makes it feel like he came to us.”
“Exactly. Ain’t no cornerin’ him. We just lettin’ him see the door we left cracked open for him.”
I sealed another bag and set it aside. “You think he’ll bite?”
Blu smirked. “That man’s hurtin’, and I heard the crew he owes is ruthless, be cutting off body parts and shit. He’ll make that call by tomorrow, trust me. Then we clear his thirty racks, and he moves Solae’s file up for consideration.”
“Good,” I said, exhaling slow. “Then it’s set.”
We bagged in silence for a while. My head wasn’t really on the money, though; it was on her, on that way she smiled for the kids, pretending the time wasn’t killing her inside.
Blu finally broke the quiet. “You sure you wanna go this far for her?”
I looked up at him, feeling guilty. “I haven’t gone far enough.”
I was stretched out in bed, trying to sleep, but my mind wouldn’t quit running. Though I didn’t know when Harold would get Solae release, knowing it was in motion had me wired.
I reached for my phone, scrolled through the call logs, and hit the number labeled “CO Drew – Late Shift”.
He picked up with a laugh in his voice. “Man, you the neediest dude I know. You ever sleep?”
“Put my baby on the phone, motherfucker,” I said, half-grinning.
“You mean, you didn’t call to talk to me?” he joked.
“Nigga, stop playin’,” I said with a bit of a chuckle.
“A’ight, hold up. Lights out just hit.”
Soon, I heard him moving, keys jingling, doors creaking open and shut, and the crackle of a radio in the background. I knew what that meant. Drew was sneaking her into the utility closet next to the office, the one with no cameras and just enough distance from the dorm to keep her out of sight.
Then I heard Drew tell her, “I’ll be back in fifteen minutes.”
Her end of the line was quiet, then I heard a door close softly.
“Hey, baby.”
That sound alone brought me to my knees and made my dick rock hard.
“Hey, baby. You good?”
She whispered, “Yeah.”
I could picture her sitting on a paint bucket, in the dark with the phone cradled between her ear and shoulder. The thought of it pulled a slow breath out of me.
“Damn, girl,” I murmured. “You know I miss you, right?”
“I know,” she said, and I could hear her smiling through the phone. “I miss you too.”
“Fuck, man,” I groaned, feeling my dick pulsating.
“You up thinking about me?”
“All the time. Ain’t much else worth thinking about.”
“What exactly are you thinking about when you think of me?”
I was fighting hard not to tell her my plan. So, I had to distract myself. “About you riding this dick.”
She winced audibly. “I miss that dick so much.”
“What do you miss about it?”
“How it feels when you first enter me. It feels like the first time every time. I love how it stretches me until it hurts but feels so fucking good—”
“Fuck, baby,” I groaned as I started to rub my dick.
“I miss sucking it too—”
“Shiiit.”
“I miss sucking it until you cum in my mouth.”
“Shit, Solae.” I bit my bottom lip, feeling my dick throb in my hands. “Play with your pussy.”
“Okay,” she breathed.
“Is it wet?”
“It’s always wet for you, baby.”
“How are you playing with your pussy?”
“I put my juices on my clit and now I’m rubbing it slowly, listening to the sound of your voice.”
“Imagine me sucking that motherfucka into my mouth and flicking it with the tip of my tongue.”
When she whimpered, I was done for.
The phone ringing on the nightstand dragged me out of my sleep.
Thinking it was my personal phone, I reached for it, but the blank screen was dark and the piercing ringing was still making me cringe.
Then I realized that the prepaid phone was flashing.
I sat up quicker than I meant to, causing my head to spin.
“Yeah?” I answered.
“Hello?” It was an older dude that was talking clipped and careful. “This is Harold Denton.”
I grinned sleepily. “Morning, Harold.”
He went quiet. I could only hear him breathing and a chair creak. “Why would … why would you make an offer to clear my debt?” he asked finally.
I swung my feet to the floor and sat on the edge of the bed. Outside of the floor to ceiling windows, I could hear the city outside starting up. “Because I need Solae Carter released from your prison as soon as possible.”
His breath hitched. “You’re… you’re asking me to risk my job. I can’t just let her out. I have to route this through the proper channels. It has to be clean and credible. If it looks like someone pushed it for the wrong reasons, it won’t move.”
“I know what you can and can’t do, Harold. You’re Deputy Warden of Programs. You sign off on recommendations. You move names through the reentry pipeline. You put a file on top, and it gets eyes. Just make it look like the system did what it was supposed to do.”
He hesitated. “If I do it, it has to look legitimate. She has to qualify. I’ll verify her record and pull her reports. If she’s a model inmate, I can put in a recommendation for consideration. It doesn’t mean automatic release, but it moves her up. I can do that.”
“Do whatever it takes. Make the recommendation. Push it where it needs to go.”
He cleared his throat. “She has a clean prior, doesn’t she? No violent history, no record before—”
“She’s clean, and she’s been a model inmate. Get my baby out of there.”
“I need the debt paid now. Those folks are on my ass,” he said nervously. “Getting her out will take at least a few weeks. If I don’t pay that debt, I’ll be dead before then.”
“I’ll take care of it.”
“Okay. Thank you,” he rushed with relief.
“Don’t tell her we’re working on this. Let it be a surprise.”
He went quiet again, then groaned as if he were fighting with himself. “I’m risking my professional career on this.”
“Your job or life, Harold. Choose one. Do this right, you get the debt handled, save your life, and I get my girl out. We all walk away. Nobody’s gotta to know how it happened.”
He was quiet for a long second. He obviously needed some assurances.
“Listen, you make this happen and you’ll be straight.
You don’t, and you’ll still owe them thirty racks…
and you’ll owe me. And Harold…owing me can’t be cleared with money or fingers.
It carries consequences that lead to slow singing and pallbearers. ”
I could hear him swallow. “I understand.”
I grinned. “Good. Call this number with updates.”
“Understood.”
I let him go first.
When the burner clicked dead, I lay back for a second and watched the ceiling.
I couldn’t shake the guilt of not being able to pull the kind of strings that could’ve kept her out of prison in the first place.
At the end of the day, I was just a nigga hustling in Chicago, not some cartel boss with political reach.
But I swore I’d do whatever it took to make sure my baby was free as soon as possible.