Chapter 20
CHAPTER TWENTY
RORY
Ihad a shitload of money in my account, so I bought a bunch of snacks and cigarettes to split them among the girls, making sure to hand some out to others like Maxwell and her girls to keep the good relationships going.
If I ever needed a favor on the inside, I knew a lot of them would help me.
Vines had avoided me since getting out of the hole, and Roberts squeaked out short replies when I asked her something, but she mostly stayed away too.
We spent Saturday night having a movie night with snacks, kind of like a goodbye party for me, and by Sunday, everyone was talking about me leaving.
So I shouldn’t have been surprised when trouble wandered straight over to me in the yard to try and ruin it for me first thing on Monday morning while I waited for the warden to come and get me.
I was smoking and playing basketball with Maxwell’s girls and Tilly when someone barreled into me and knocked me to the ground. My attacker was pulled off me fast by Maxwell, and I scrambled back and turned to see Roberts being restrained by Maxwell, a shiv in her hand.
“I fucking knew it was you,” I snorted, and she started screaming curses at me as the guards rushed over to handle it.
Lexi squatted beside me, checking me over.
“Did she get you?”
“Don’t think so. Maxwell was fast,” I replied, cringing when Maxwell was hauled to her feet kicking and screaming too.
“See you next time, Donovan! You’d better fucking think of me when you’re topping up commissaries!” she shouted, giving me a wide grin.
“You’ll be first on my list!” I called back, Roberts still cursing me out as she was dragged away too.
Tina sneered at me from a distance, but her crew had been avoiding us since the hole and the Anderson incident, making our lives a lot easier.
“You’re lucky that happened in front of the guards or you’d be stuck in here while they dealt with it,” Lexi huffed, helping me to my feet. “We should head inside to make sure we can avoid more of that happening.”
“You just want to get me alone,” I joked, and she shot me a wink.
“You caught onto that, huh?”
Lexi had slept in my bed all weekend, and as much as she was doing well at containing her emotions, she let it slip more when it was just us. It made me feel bad that she wasn’t getting out yet, but she should be out by the end of next month.
She’d been in here since October.
A bunch of us spent the next hour watching TV and hanging out, my heartbeat increasing with excitement when the warden appeared with a small smile.
“Ready to go?”
“Don’t let her leave, Warden,” Lexi whined, grabbing me in a bear hug.
“You won’t be far behind her, Bryant,” the warden replied with a chuckle, motioning for me to hurry up.
I gave all the girls a hug, even Kat, and it was really fucking hard to walk away.
“Hey, Donovan,” Lexi called when I’d finally managed to walk across the room, making me look back. “I’ll see you soon, yeah?”
“Count on it.”
“Get the fuck out of here before you get in a fight and fuck it up or something,” she grinned, blowing me a kiss and making a lump form in my throat.
I playfully flipped her off, making them laugh as I followed the warden through the prison and into a room I hadn’t seen since I’d arrived.
“Your friend brought some clothes in for you since you weren’t exactly dressed when you were arrested,” the warden murmured, pointing to a bag on a table. “You can get dressed behind that curtain and head out the other door. It leads to reception.”
“Thank you,” I said with a smile, and she sighed.
“I don’t want to see you on this side of the walls again. Clear?”
“I won’t make any promises,” I chuckled, and she gave me a knowing look before leaving me to get changed, grateful that one of the guys had grabbed my comfortable clothes and a baggy hoodie.
My confiscated metal piercings were in a little bag too, so I put those back in and finally felt like myself again.
The front desk was quiet since it was after the morning’s visiting hours, and they barely acknowledged me as I walked past them to the main doors, pushing them open and walking down the path to the parking lot to find Hunter leaning against his car with a grin on his face.
“Hey, Hot Shot.”
My emotions were running rampant, and I couldn’t help myself as I ran the rest of the way and threw myself at him as he stepped forward, his arms catching me easily as I wrapped my legs around his waist.
It hurt my tattoos a little, but I didn’t care.
“Thanks for coming to get me,” I mumbled, hugging him tightly.
“Do I get a thank you kiss?”
“Don’t push it,” I scoffed, pulling back so he could put me on my feet.
He was smirking, leaning back on his car again to pull his cigarettes from his pocket.
“So, what do you want to do now you’re a free woman?”
I took a cigarette from him and he lit it for me, and I thought about it for a second as I enjoyed the first drag.
“I want greasy food, some sun, maybe a good bottle of whiskey,” I finally answered, and he turned to open the passenger door for me.
“I can do burgers and sun. The rich pricks can handle the whiskey.”
“Where are we going for burgers?”
“If you want Burgers and Beats, I won’t say no. Peter would probably like to see you now you’re out,” he shrugged, ushering me into the car before closing the door and walking around to the driver’s side.
I kept the window down, enjoying the fresh air as we headed to Rosevale. My stomach was growling, earning me amused glances from Hunter.
“Hungry?” he asked, and I cringed.
“I was too excited to eat breakfast this morning.”
“I’m not surprised. Ty wanted to come too, but Josie made him go to school. She suggested you’d want some quiet time before coming back into society,” he huffed, and I gave him a look.
“I wasn’t in there that long.”
“No, but it’s still hard to get used to being on the outside again. She figured I wouldn’t smother you as much and asked me to pick you up.”
“That was her first mistake,” I grunted, making him laugh.
“I’m not that bad.”
“Whatever you say, stalker,” I hummed as he parked the car and killed the engine.
We walked inside together and sat at a table, Peter coming over with a wide smile.
“I heard you were getting out. Order whatever you want, it’s on the house.”
“I’m happy to—”
“I insist,” he answered, waiting for us to decide what to eat before taking our order back to the kitchen.
“Was it one of you?” I asked quietly while we waited, and he eyed me for a second before sighing.
“Of course it was. We weren’t going to leave you to rot in a cell after promising you’d stay out. I’m sorry shit went wrong.”
“What did go wrong?”
“We’ll talk about it in the car,” he murmured, flicking his eyes around the room to make sure no one was close to us.
I nodded, knowing that was a better idea, and we dug into our food when it arrived. I moaned, enjoying the greasy burger like I hadn’t had one in years, and Hunter chuckled at me while he ate his, not saying a thing.
Peter joined us for small talk when he wasn’t busy, but when the lunch rush got too busy, he said his goodbyes and got back to work, leaving us to finish our meal before we left.
“I was going to suggest a walk around the lake, but with so many people after you right now—” Hunter started as we walked towards the car, but I cut him off.
“I’d rather get on the road so you can fill me in on everything anyway.”
We filled each other in on everything that had been happening that we hadn’t been able to talk about in the prison, and he was still chuckling about me teaming up with Lexi to beat up Anderson in the bathroom by the time we’d reached Briar Falls, the country town just south of Ashburn Valley.
“I can’t believe she conned you into her bed,” he grinned, earning a dirty look from me.
“She didn’t con me.”
“You don’t even like girls.”
“No, but I like orgasms,” I huffed, my cheeks heating slightly. “I’m used to having someone around all the time. It was a hard adjustment that I hadn’t anticipated.”
“We need to talk about a few things, so are you cool with swinging by my place before I drop you home? It’s important,” he said to change the subject, and I didn’t like how serious that sounded.
“Sure. Why can’t you tell me now though?”
“Because if you flip out in the car, I’ll crash and kill us both,” he said with a wince, nerves starting as I eyed him.
“Is everyone okay?”
“Everyone’s fine,” he promised, reaching over to pat my knee.
The drive from Briar Falls to Mount Mercer felt longer than the entire drive from the prison had as I tried to figure out what the fuck could have happened while I was gone, especially if it was something they couldn’t tell me in visitation.
It felt strange to walk in the door at Hunter’s. The last time I’d been here, I’d been dragged out of bed in a T-shirt in the middle of the night by the cops.
“Firstly, here are your things. I cleaned any trace of Max’s DNA off the necklace, and your phone is powered off but charged,” he said as he handed me a small bag, my knife, phone, wallet, some cigarettes, and my necklace inside.
I reached for the necklace, putting it around my neck and hooking the clasp, feeling instantly better.
I felt naked when I didn’t wear it.
I helped myself to the fridge, grabbing a beer before getting comfortable on the couch.
“Alright, hit me with it.”
He sighed, sitting beside me and holding my gaze. “I’ll just rip the Band-Aid off. Skeet had the locks changed at Slash’s when you were arrested. He’s gotten it in his head that you played Slash, and he died for nothing.”
“He can’t do that. It’s legally mine!” I snapped, almost crushing the beer can in my hand.
“I know that, I told him as such too, but what are you going to do? Call the cops?” he grunted.
“The Mustang?” I asked, my chest feeling tight. How could Skeeter do this to me? He fucking knew I loved Slash, so why was he being such a prick? I hadn’t betrayed anyone.