All Chained Up (Devil's Rock #1)(29)

“Am I . . .” He couldn’t finish the words. A mixture of elation and guilt warred within his too tight chest. The possibility that he was free after eight years collided with the nightmare of leaving his brother behind. His baby brother. Who wouldn’t even be here if he hadn’t dragged him along on that long ago night.

The warden nodded. “You’re paroled, Mr. Callaghan.”

LOOKING AROUND HIS CELL, Knox couldn’t think of a single thing to take with him. He didn’t possess much. Nothing special. The only thing he wanted to take with him was his brother.

North sat silently across from him, gripping the edge of the mattress.

“I’ll visit—” Knox started to say.

“Don’t. Don’t come back here. I’ll be out soon enough. My rep was never as bad as yours. You’re the one considered a troublemaker.” He flashed Knox a grin. “They sounded like they would probably let me go at my next hearing. You’ll see.”

Knox grimaced, sure North was exaggerating to make him feel better.

North continued, “I’ll be on my best behavior . . . make sure they don’t have a reason to keep me around.”

“You watch your back,” Knox warned, tightening the drawstring of his sack, knowing he didn’t have much time before a guard returned for him. He looked his brother over, viewing him objectively. North wasn’t as brawny as Knox but he was still solid sinew and muscle. His little brother was bigger than most guys in this place, super fast on his feet and well-versed in kicking ass. Still. That face was too pretty. Too many guys wanted to make him their bitch.

“Always do,” North said.

“Stick close to the crew.”

“Man, I can handle myself. Now get the f*ck out of here. Go get laid. Find that nurse who you had to play f*cking hero for.”

He snorted even though something twisted inside his gut at the idea of seeing Briar Davis again. On the outside. “Right.”

North arched a dark eyebrow. “Don’t act like you don’t care. You risked your ass for her. She got her hooks in you. Maybe you should get yours in her.”

Reid chose that moment to enter the cell. Several others of their crew accompanied him, hanging back outside the bars. Knox and North fell silent at his arrival. It already felt tight with the two of them crammed inside the cement box, but now it felt claustrophobic with the six-foot-four guy in their midst.

“It’s true, then,” Reid said. “You’re out.”

Knox nodded. “Didn’t plan on it. I expected to be in here couple more years.” He stopped, a lump clogging his throat he fought to suppress. Emotion was weakness. “North was supposed to get out of here first.”

“Yeah, well, life never goes the way it’s supposed to. Does it?”

Knox nodded, thinking fast. He’d learned that lesson at twenty. When he’d buried his seventeen-year-old cousin. When he kissed his freedom good-bye.

He stepped forward and held out his hand. Reid stared at it for a moment before taking it. Clasping it hard, he hauled Knox in for a quick guy hug, clapping him once on the back. “Don’t ever f*cking come back here, you understand?” he said roughly close to his ear.

A shudder racked Knox at the unexpected display of affection. Reid wasn’t a hugger. Not hardly. The guy was a few years older than him, and he’d been in here since he was nineteen. He was all hard edges and pale eyes without mercy. And he was never getting out. Reid was a lifer.

“I’ll never come back,” Knox promised. “At least not as an inmate. I’ll visit North—”

“No,” his brother bit out, coming up off the bars he had been leaning against as Knox and Reid talked. His brown eyes flashed darkly. “You won’t. Save yourself the trip. Don’t visit me.”

“Bullshit,” Knox snapped out. “I’m not going to just forget about you in—”

“We stopped Uncle Mac from visiting—”

“That was different. Seeing us in here was killing him.” Knox wasn’t going to let himself think about how hard it would be to sit across from his brother still locked up. It didn’t matter what hurt him. He was the reason North was in this place. He would suffer in silence on those visits to his brother, but he would come.

“Yeah, well. I’ll be out soon enough. You don’t need to come back ever. Understand? You got something to tell me, you call me. We can talk on the phone.”

He stared hard at his brother, mute frustration warring inside him. He had seen his brother every day for the last eight years—excepting the times either one of them spent in the hole. How could he just walk out of here and not see him again for months? Maybe even longer? There was no way he could forget about North stuck in here. Living, fighting, surviving without Knox.

“Hey, man,” Reid inserted as though reading his thoughts. He clapped Knox on the shoulder. “We got his back. Like always.”

“See.” North grinned again, all cockiness and swagger. He jabbed a thumb in Reid’s direction. “I got a f*cking babysitter.”

He nodded, mostly because he didn’t want to spend his last moments with North arguing. The fact of the matter was that nothing would keep him from visiting North. “Fine.”

“Good. Now let’s get the sappy shit over with. They got a new shipment in the commissary.” His brother stepped in for a hug that was longer and harder than the one he’d just shared with Reid.