That’s my opportunity.
I’m kneeling on the ground and I lunge toward Grinder, grabbing both his legs. He doesn’t see me coming and he throws both his hands in the air as I grab his legs and pull up all the while using my feet to push myself to a standing position.
Grinder hits the ground with a thud and I take the nightstick that I had from the guard in the Visitor’s Room and I club him twice in the head with it. He’s nearly passed out and I turn my attention to the three men coming toward me.
The first one is too cocky. I take a step back and use the nightstick like a one-handed baseball bat, connecting with his head. He falls to the ground not even knowing what happened. The second slows and pulls out a knife.
I shrug and rush him. He drops the knife but I use my feet to sweep a wide arc and trip him and then do a pirouette with the nightstick and hit him in the back of the head. The man goes down as I bring my body down low enough to grab the knife.
The third man never has a chance to do much because I take the knife, take aim and throw. It lands in his belly. Not enough to kill him, but enough to make him bleed.
That leaves Spider.
He never moved this whole time.
“Are you gonna kill me, Lucien?” Spider asks, nervous, and fidgety.
I shake my head. “Not if you leave,” I say to him. “Now.”
Spider doesn't need a second warning. He turns around and runs the other direction from me and I see him round a corner.
I sigh a breath of relief. The prison sirens are still going on when I hear a gunshot.
It startles me. It came from the direction that Spider ran.
Like I’m in some fucked up video game, going after enemy after enemy, the next one comes.
Only this time, it's Deputy Warden Marshall.
And he’s holding a gun.
“So you’re here to take Kerri to my office?” Deputy Marshall asks. He’s got a smile.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I say, holding the nightstick and knowing it won't make a fucking bit of difference with that gun. I wish I’d fucking taken that gun from Kerri at this point.
“You know which way Grinder was heading, don’t lie to me, prisoner,” Deputy Marshall says as approaches me. “I know you know there’s a secret passage from my office to the outside world in the event of a riot.”
“If there was, it would be the first place they’d look,” I say with a shrug.
“Not if they never knew about it,” the Deputy says. “Not if the plans never included the passageway back when they built this dump in the 1890s.”
I say nothing as the Deputy approaches me.
“Imagine what would happen though if I let you escape,” he says, more to himself than me. “Imagine what would happen to me if my bosses found out that the guy they framed for murder got out under my watch.”
I bristle. What is he talking about?
The Deputy Warden raises an eyebrow. “Oh, I know you’re an innocent man, Lucien Stone,” he says with a chuckle. “I know you never killed no woman and her kid, but unfortunately for you, no one else ever will.”
He knew? He was part of the frame-up? What the fuck. I could fucking kill him right now.
“Oh I know you must be mad as hell right now, aren’t you, convict?” the Deputy Warden asks. “But for what it’s worth, if it makes you feel any better, it’ll all be over soon.”
I remain silent. I can tell what’s coming. I’ve been in this spot before. On the other side of the gun.
“They told me if I ever had a chance to and reasonable justification to while you were in this cage to take you out,” the Deputy Warden says, raising his gun. “And you’ve just given it to me. Should be worth a nice bonus.”
I close my eyes and wonder what will happen to Kerri after I’m dead. Will the Deputy Warden go after her as a witness?
“Say goodbye conv—” he begins, but stops all of a sudden.
Maybe I didn’t hear the gunshot, but I see it’s effects. Blood gurgling out of his mouth and the corrupt jailer falling forward.
And behind him, standing with a raised gun, is Kerri Curtis. Sweat covering her face. Clothes wrapped around her tightly.
If we weren't in so much danger, I’d want to fuck her right now. Even with the cut on my head.
Instead, I stand there as she comes toward me and grabs my hand.
“Come on,” she says with an urgent whisper. “We have to get to that tunnel and get out of here.”
I say nothing as I follow.
Toward something I thought till this day was unimaginable.
Toward freedom.
Toward a life with the woman I love.
Toward the first day of the rest of our lives.
Kerri
I think back to the events that led us here a little over an hour ago as Lucien opens the door to the motel.