Twisted Pieces (Back Down Devil MC #5)(3)

The guard opened the door and spun Jace around. He took the cuffs off and then slipped his hand into Jace’s. It took Jace a few seconds to realize the guard was shaking his hand.

“For all the MC has done,” the guard said.

He took his hand away. Jace snapped into reality and shook his head. “Wait a minute, man. Who the f*ck are you?”

“Old friend.”

“That means dick to me.”

“Miller knows.”

“Knows what?”

The guard smiled. “Tell you what. I’ve got some food in my pocket. I was going to toss it to you before I left to make sure you had a little food before they come get you.”

“Why the f*ck am I here?”

“Because up there,” the guard pointed. “With those *s? You’ll be done, Jace. A war has started in here. I’m on top of it though.”

“And, again, who are you?”

“Let me finish my point,” the guard said. “I’ll give you a choice. You can have the food in my pocket or the answer to your question.”

“So now you’re tough? Playing hardball?”

“Working on it. I have to look the part, you know?”

Jace shook his head. “I’d rather know who you are.”

“Okay. When I was younger, I witnessed a guy shoot my older brother between the eyes. One bullet. Done. If I close my eyes I can still see it. The shot. His brains. The blood.”

“I get it,” Jace said.

“I was devastated, Jace. Seeing that kind of shit. But then Miller came around, to take care of things.”

“Miller?”

“It was someone he was after. I was just in the way, I guess. My brother had a drug and gang situation going on. I was following in his path. I can still remember the guy that shot my brother. This big freaking dude. Huge muscles, definitely steroids. But still, man, he was scary.”

Jace nodded. It made a little more sense now. Miller probably going after someone in the Coast Road MC.

“Miller did me a solid. He started by killing the guy that killed my brother. But that wasn’t the true solid of it.”

“Then what was?”

“He showed me the body.”

“Of the guy that killed your brother?”

The guard laughed. “No. I didn’t need to see that. Miller showed me my brother.”

“Your dead…”

The guard nodded. “Dug his ass up and took me to see it. I’ll never forget it. Miller grabbed me by the shoulder and squeezed so tight, I can still feel the pain. He said to me, ‘You have a f*cking choice, kid. You can walk on this ground or be buried in it. Make the right f*cking choice.’” The guard let out a breath. “He then told me to say goodbye and I did. Miller’s advice took me here.”

“A crooked guard in a crooked prison?” Jace asked.

“Just riding the best of both worlds, man. I get a steady paycheck, retirement, and health insurance. On the side, I get to pay my respect to Miller and what he did for me.”

“Christ,” Jace said. “What a f*cking day.”

“It’ll get better. You’ll be out soon.”

“Yeah. Thanks.”

Jace backed into the cell and started to look around. It was white. No windows. A small bed. It was a smaller version of hell. No sense of time other than the f*cked up sense of time in your mind.

“Jace?” the guard called out.

Jace looked. The guard pulled a baggie of food out of his pocket. He then took out a bottle of water. He dropped both on the floor and shut the door. It turned out to just be beef jerky, but, damn, it was food. More so, it gave Jace a chance to sit alone and eat and think. Something he hadn’t done in a long time.

Maybe solitary confinement wasn’t all that bad. It kept the bad shit out. It kept the secrets out. It kept the world away.





two.



When the door opened again the first thing Jace asked was, “How long has it been?”. He wasn’t going insane, not by a long shot, but he had tried to keep a mental clock going. He had it pegged down to around four hours. The guard told him it had been about five hours.

Pretty close.

Jace offered his hands and the guard swatted them away. It was a different guard than the one from before. Jace knew he’d never see that guy again. His story was a little too f*cked up to deal with right now anyway.

Jace walked back through the shit smelling hall to the main population of the prison. Jace was taken to a room where he was handed his clothes. His jeans. His chains. His rings. His f*cking leather cut. The bag was put on the table and then he was left alone. When Jace opened the bag and took out the leather cut, he put it face down on the table and looked at the name and logo on the back.

Back Down Devil

The most important thing in his life. He put a hand to the leather and shut his eyes. He saw the yard again. He could hear Paul laughing. That dry, frog-like laugh. All those cheap cigarettes would have eaten his lungs away eventually. But ironically it wasn't the cigarettes that killed Paul. It was two guards, each with a gun.

He saw Paul stabbing Nicky. He could hear the slosh sound of the wet blade sliding in and out of Nicky’s body.

That was the power of the MC. Everything was always part of another plan. What Jace didn’t quite understand was why he had been forced to sit in prison for weeks. And the only answer he got from the lawyer was that they were working on it. That the evidence was looking pretty serious. At the last meeting his lawyer had the balls to suggest that maybe Jace was safer in prison, and that he should just let time work things out.