Page 46 of Fall onto me
It’s hard, being trapped. It’s the first time in my life I’ve felt claustrophobic. Like the walls are caving in. If I could pound my fist into the walls until I was freed, I would.
I just hope she’s okay. And she better not be going to her fucked up parents to get me help. We already had this discussion, and she knows better, but she’ll do anything for me and I for her. So, who fucking knows what she’s up too?
“Jennings,” an officer gets my attention. “You have a visitor.”
My mood lifts, knowing it’s going to be her because I doubt she’s told a soul. We can talk, and I can explain why she can’t do shit to help me. I can only pray she hasn’t already.
Without Barnes on shift, today has sucked. Seeing a familiar face helps, and hers will brighten everything.
“Who’s my visitor?” I ask when we walk away from the cell, hoping to hear someone else speak her name.
The officer brings me down a long, narrow stretch of hallway and shoves me into a small, solitary confinement cell that’s dimly lit by a single fluorescent strip way overhead. “Me.”
I take one look into his eyes. “Are you… the Keeper?”
The man laughs, gesturing for me to sit. “Fuck no. You’re here on an assignment. I’m here to tell you what it is.”
“Of course, he’s got the fucking pigs in his pocket,” I sneer. My comment doesn’t go over well; the cool smile of the man changes to a flat line.
I look at him now, more than just another guard. His nameplate reads ‘Lenardo.’ Brown hair, high-and-tight cut, seemingly harmless until you add in that he works for law enforcement as well as the most powerful crime lord in Miami.
“What do you want?”
“We need information.”
It’s intimidating, the man giving you orders also having a plethora of weapons and the ability to keep you locked in solitary forever. I reply smoothly, “If you think I’m going to get violent with anyone, then the Keeper misunderstood my rules.”
“If you don’t …” The man looks around the tiny room. “You can live out your sentence here, free of charge.”
“It’s not like I could be free.”
“The Keeper doesn’t do things for fun, he does them for business. You will do this, and we will set you free.”
“It’s a felony drug charge.”
“Not when we have the original records that you rented from that man. His drugs, not your problem.”
I cut my eyes to him. “Couldn’t he have just asked me to punch someone in the face? Why in the fuck would I be sent here on felony fucking drug charges?”
The man rolls his eyes, like I’m asking a bat shit crazy question. “A lesser offense would have granted you bail and a quicker time to see the judge. We need you here.”
“Who?”
“I placed you in that cell for a reason. Santiago, we need answers from him.”
“From the feeble man that’s thirty years older than either of us?”
“That’s the one. He won’t fucking talk.”
“What do you need to know?”
He shakes his head. “Nice try, but that’s our businesses. Your job is to beat him up real nice and tell him it’s from the Keeper and no one is out of his reach.”
“You fucking do it. Bring him in here and you torture him. I won’t do it.”
“I can’t just bring an inmate here to beat the fuck out of him and return him to his cell. They would ask questions.” But an inmate attacking an inmate is everyday life.
I take too long to respond, and he gets in my face.