Chapter 65
Grease
Almost five months down and only twenty more to go.
I was trying not to count the f*cking minutes, but it was hard as hell. Shit wasn’t bad inside—if you didn’t care about the nasty-ass food and complete lack of freedom. Thankfully, we had boys on the inside, so I’d rarely had to bust heads to make sure f*ckers left me alone. Between the other Aces locked up for a variety of crimes, and my size, guys didn’t mess with me much.
I picked up the phone and went through all of the shit I needed to do to call Callie, anxious to hear her voice after a night of barely any sleep. We’d passed her due date a couple of days ago, and I couldn’t’ sleep wondering if she was okay. After all our years of living far away from each other, I was used to not seeing her gorgeous face every day, but it f*cking sucked that I couldn’t call her whenever I had the urge. I had to wait until the f*cking designated times, which usually meant I was waiting hours before I had the chance.
Her phone rang and rang, and when she didn’t answer, my heart started thumping hard in my chest. I tried to tell myself that she was probably sleeping, or forgot her phone somewhere, but I knew in my gut neither of those were true. She always answered her phone, no matter what she was doing.
I hung up and started the process over again, calling Rose this time, but she didn’t answer, either. My hands were shaking and my chest felt like it had a hundred-pound weight on it as I hung up and started again. The guy behind me in line started bitching about how he was waiting for the phone, and it took all I had not to turn around and shut him up. All it would take was one fist to the jaw, but I knew if I started a fight, I’d have to wait God knows how long before I got to a phone again.
I took a deep breath in relief when Cody answered.
“Hello?”
“Hey, man, it’s Grease,” I told him quietly.
“Hey, how’ve you been?” I could hear cars in the background and wind blowing into the cellphone, making my gut clench for a second as I imagined life outside.
“I’m good. Livin’ the dream,” I answered flatly, causing him to chuckle.
“Yeah, I bet. What’s up?”
“I’ve been trying to get a hold of your sister, but no one’s answering. You know where she might be?”
There was silence on the end of the line for so long that I thought I’d lost him. “Hello?”
“Yeah, I’m here. I just—no one has gotten a hold of you?”
“Not sure how they could,” I replied calmly, as I felt myself breaking into a cold sweat.
“Yeah, just a sec.” I heard some shuffling, and Cody said something to someone before it was silent on his end again. “Had to go out in the hallway—class is starting.” He paused while I held my f*cking breath and clenched my teeth against the need to scream at him to just spit it the f*ck out.
“Callie went into labor yesterday,” he told me quietly. “It took a while, but she had him this morning. Gram says everything went well. She’s doing good and so is the baby.”
I locked my knees so I didn’t fall to the floor and rubbed the back of my neck with my fingers. F*ck me. F*ck. F*ck.
I couldn’t say anything. I knew he was waiting for a response, but my throat felt like it was swollen shut. She’d had our son and I’d missed it because I was rotting in a f*cking shithole prison. I’d known that I was missing out on a ton of shit while I was in there, but what I’d lost had never been clearer.
I had to restrain myself as I heard the douche behind me complaining again.
“She’s good, man. Gram said she was up and walking around right after she had him, and he scored high on all the tests they do.”
“Do—” I stuttered and cleared my throat in an attempt to get it together. “Do you know how big he was, or any of that shit?”
“Uh, I think I wrote it down. I was writing all of it down when she called me because I knew I’d forget it if I didn’t,” he mumbled. “Had this hot as f*ck chick in my room, I was a little preoccupied.”
I waited silently as he searched, even though I wanted to tell him that I didn’t give a flying f*ck about his bang from the night before.
“Got it!” he called. “He weighed eight pounds and two ounces, and he was twenty-three inches long. Gram said that’s a pretty good-sized kid. I didn’t write down how big his head was, though—sorry.”
I swallowed over and over, trying to get my shit together as I stared at the yellowing tile under my feet. A good-sized kid. I had a good-sized son.
“Need to make a f*ckin’ call!” the guy bitched behind me.
“Do you know what she named him?” I asked hoarsely, ignoring the douche—anxious to know anything Cody could tell me and irritated that I had to drag shit out of him.
“Yeah. William Butler Hawthorne,” he answered proudly.
“Thanks, man, I gotta go.” I hung up on him as he tried to say something else. I didn’t know how much longer I would’ve been able to keep talking to him without losing my shit.
Hawthorne. She gave him my name.
As soon as I put the phone down, I spun and faced the f*cker that had been on my ass since the minute I’d picked up the phone. His eyes widened in fear when he saw the look on my face, but I didn’t give him a chance to apologize.
I swung my arm and punched him hard in the throat, following as he fell to the ground. I beat the shit out of him until the guards pulled me away, and even though I knew I was getting solitary for the fight, I wasn’t sorry.
Because, if I hadn’t used my fists, I would have sobbed like a f*cking baby.
I had a son.