Chapter Twenty-One
ELIJAH
T his thing with Ava Bishop had happened hard and fast. When I first saw her, I wanted to manipulate her, use her for information on her father, but she’d become so much more.
She was mine. I was caught up in her web and I didn’t know how to fight my way free. I wasn’t sure I even wanted to.
There had been relationships, meaningless flings with women falling at my feet, but this was different. I could never be myself with the others. They wanted the flash life the mafia bought but didn’t care how dirty my hands got as long as they had the bags, shoes and diamonds, never asking about the real price or the toll it took on me.
They got a glimpse of the dark side, the monsters in the shadows. Then they would plead and beg me to change because they were scared. Scared of the life I lived. Scared of me.
But Ava Bishop wasn’t afraid.
I’ve always been possessive of my things, but with her, those feelings reach another level. From having cameras installed in her apartment, to debating with myself on whether I get someone to break into her home and replace her birth control with sugar pills. She is like a poison, slowly consuming me until nothing exists but her.
I had to leave the classroom, because sitting with her on my lap, my dick still nestled inside her, I would have given her anything. Everything.
She’d passed my petty little trust exercise with flying colors, even facing Rosie. Rosalyn Gambino was a psycho. A pretty psycho, but batshit crazy all the same. That Ava was still alive in one piece to deliver the little plastic balls said a lot.
But Rosie could fuck off if she thought she was pushing her way into this relationship. She already has my best friend. She wasn’t laying claim to my…girlfriend? Future wife? Lover? My everything? I’d told Chad, the useless cumstain, that I was going to be her husband. I hadn’t even thought about it—the words just felt right. Fuck, Ava Bishop was it for me. I was going to put a baby in her belly and tether her to me forever. There was no escaping for her now.
As she had dressed, I could tell my tone upset her. Trying to reassure her, I’d said we’d talk about my father later, but how do I explain I hate even the mention of his name? He ruins everything, even from beyond the grave, tainting it all with the memory of him.
Sighing, I rub my face. I need to focus on finding who was involved in putting me behind bars so I could finally get out of here. This trapped like a wild animal schtick was getting old, fast.
Leaving the small toys on her desk, I took the plastic balls, pocketing them while her back was turned. Kal could always use them in his little smuggling business and I have something I need from Kal. It’s a win-win in this shithole.
In the corridor Office Foxx scowls at me, but I offer him a smug grin in return. Whatever reason he has for working with The Family, it must be pretty important for him to put up with me loudly fucking a woman he’s interested in the next room.
“Come on, Inmate Creed. It’s dinner time.” He walks close behind as we head to the chow hall, but doesn’t dare lay a finger on me.
Whistling as we walk, I’m on a sex high. I’ve got the girl, and now I need to get the rat. My mind clicks into gear the closer we get to the other inmates, as I start thinking through my exit plan. Once I was outside of these walls I’d need to tackle the small issue of Judge Joseph Walters. Why did that prick hate me so much?
Yes, I was a criminal. A murderer. A bloodthirsty beast.
But I’d never done anything to the honorable Joseph Walters. He’d even enlisted help from The Family a time or two over the years. After all, who else could’ve had enough pull to put him in a position like his?
We ran Newtown and Joseph was simply a guest in our domain. A guest who’d clearly started getting ideas beyond their station.
Something about Ava’s feelings towards her brother weighs on me, sitting uneasily on my chest. I continue to mull it over as grayish colored slop is dished onto my dinner tray.
“Yo Creed, Kal says he can get what you want,” Beans whispers in hushed tones as he slides into the empty seat next to me. I’d asked him to feel out Kal, work out if what I wanted was even possible. “Also, Sanchez said he ain’t going to touch you, so run along and tell ‘your master’ he’ll play nice. Does he mean your master? Or was that my master? As in you’re my master? I dunno, man.”
“Don’t do drugs kids,” I chuckle under my breath. “It scrambles your brains.”
The Cartel was agreeing to leave me alone? How kind of them, considering I had already consolidated my position as a power player in this joint.
Thanks to Kal and his fear of me, along with the goodies I had access to, I now controlled the contraband. Control the luxury items, the booze, the drugs and the nice toothpaste, and everyone would eat out of the palm of your hand. It was simple prison mathematics.
“I heard that!” Beans grumbles, as he tries to eat his own horrible food. “And I’ve been clean for like, a whole year.”
Glancing over at him, I consider the other Ace in my deck. He’s still scrawny, but thanks to the snacks Foxx brings in, he’s started filling out. His meerkat face is less narrow and sunken these days.
Beans had dirt on every fucker here and knew the ins and outs of a duck's ass. If he didn’t know or know where he could get more information about it, it wasn’t worth knowing.
Nudging him gently with my shoulder, I say, “If you stay clean for the next two, then I’ll give you a job when you get outta here.”
Beans scoffs, “Nah, man. I’m done dealing. Look where it got me.”
“I own a security firm, Benny.” Using his name feels strange, but I want him to understand that if he wants to work for me, he doesn’t have to be Beans the dealer anymore.
“Oh.” He nods. “So, like bodyguarding?”
“That’s one part of it,” I chuckle. After ten minutes of pushing the mush around on my plate, I shove my tray aside. I can’t eat this shit.
My mind keeps ticking over this afternoon. The truths that fell from her lips as she rode my cock.
What was the deal with the brother? There’s something not right with the entire situation, but it’s like a wisp of smoke as I try to latch on to the thought.
Why didn’t I know Judge Walters had a son?
Georgina Walters had clearly done a great job hiding her children from the public eye and over the years, they’d obviously been overlooked and forgotten.
If the inmates hadn’t been gossiping about it, I wouldn’t have thought about Walter's offspring at all. I wonder if Georgina’s death played a part in their resurfacing in Newtown society? But the brother…who the fuck was he?
Moving closer to Beans, I slip the balls in his pocket. “Beans, give these to Kal for me. I have a call to make.”
The kid nods with a grin. It makes him feel important when I give him tasks.
“Woah, what the fuck happened to Officer Bishop?” His eyes go wide as Ava enters the hall and stands near the serving line, supervising. “She looks like she was mauled by a bear.”
Ava rubs her neck self-consciously, and even with her hair loose, she can’t hide the mess I’ve made with my mouth. A few of the inmates’ wolf whistle, slamming their hands down on the table cheering, which makes her burn a delicious shade of red as she tries to settle them.
“Pack it in!” Officer Foxx bellows, grabbing his baton off his belt and slamming it down on a nearby table. “Settle!”
A fter a few rings, the call connects, and a familiar voice drawls, “Oh. look. If it isn’t a phone call from my favorite convict.”
I laugh, knowing that Cato’s bite was always worse than their bite. “Cato! My favorite little non-binary terror! I’ve missed you.”
“Fuck off, Creed. We’re not best friends. We’re merely colleagues.” They tut, and if eye rolls were audible, I’m sure I would have heard that down the line too. “And you don’t have to work non-binary into everything just because you finally learned something new.”
“Hmmmm, I disagree on both fronts.” I wasn’t a bigot. I didn’t give a shit how people choose to live their lives unless it affected mine. Cato was Cato. They could identify as a treefrog and ask me to call them Ribbit and I’d do it. Because it’s basic manners and none of my fucking business. “Is that waste of space still gone from her life?”
The last report I’d read put Chad still in hiding, but you never knew when a snaky cunt like that was going to slither back out from underneath their rock. I planned to be waiting, ready to pour hot oil on that fucker like some feudal king. On my course, I’d read that it was likely a myth that they poured boiling oil off the battlements in medieval England, but it was too late. I’d already added it to my ideas list for the KC.
Cato sighs, and I hear a soft whining noise somewhere in the background. “You already know he is. After all, you threatened to slice him up like sashimi.”
I shrug in reply, even though Cato can’t see me. It wasn’t my fault that Chad the chump needed a little incentive to realize that he wasn’t worthy of her. “If he loved her, he would stay.”
There’s a moment of silence before Cato softly says, “And if you loved her…you wouldn’t rig the game.”
“It’s because I love her.” I clamp my mouth shut. Why did I say that?
A musical chuckle reaches my ears. “Ohhhhh, there it is. Rosie bet me a weekend on their yacht that you wouldn’t say it.”
“You fucker. You tricked me.”
“Into what? Being honest for once in your life?”
We weren’t there yet.
Love?
Love.
It couldn’t be love. I didn’t do love.
Love was all soft and mushy, hearts and flowers. It wasn’t that complicated—she was mine, and I was hers. We were a carnal, raw, intense, all-consuming obsession. Hard and fast with an instant connection. That wasn’t love, was it?
“Anyways, is there a reason for this delightful call?” Cato sounds bored as they let out another small sigh. “I’m about to teach my puppy a lesson and you're interrupting.”
“Tell Nicco, I said hi.” I grin. “Anyway, I need you to look into Ava’s brother.”
“She doesn’t have a brother.”
“She does.”
I hear a noise, as if Cato’s tapping their nails on something in annoyance. “There are literally no records of a brother, Elijah. I know how to do my job.”
Putting on an annoying sing-song voice because the fucker first-named me I say, “Well then you missed something, my friend because there’s a brother.”
“Oh, for fucks sake.” They grumble before calling out, almost deafening me. “Lassie!”
The line goes quiet before I burst out laughing. Some of the other inmates walking by eye me like I’ve gone crazy and they’re afraid I might attack them. “What the fuck is Lassie?”
Cato mutters something under their breath before they grunt. “It’s called a safe word. No, don’t ask. And you owe me, fucker.”