Blood Cell by Shaun Tennant Read Free Book Online Page B

sitting out. Still, they had a plan in place to generate enough weapons for every white man who would side with them. It was starting to look like Leo Jimenez would be a good reason to put that plan to work.
    Ox crossed his arms and watched the Latinos huddle together, obviously worried. “I’d say that’s all I need to know.”
     
    *****
     
    In the prison hospital, cuffed to the bed, Leo Jimenez clenched his teeth. It was more out of rage than from pain. He was supposed to be untouchable. Who did Charlie think he was?
    “Get me a fucking guard!” he screamed at the nurse. His yell prompted John Norris to come into the room.
    “Good, you’re the one I want, right? You’re the warden’s boy? I want Charlie and the fuckin’ table of them charged for this. Look at my leg!”
    “Yeah, it’s real bad gettin’ stabbed with a toothbrush.”
    “I want to press charges and you’ll do what I fucking tell you.”
    Norris studied Leo’s scarred face. “That’s an awful shiner you got.”
    “What shiner?”
    Norris pounded Leo’s left eye with his elbow. “That one. They got ya bad.”
    Leo spat at him. “Listen up you little C.O. bitch—“
    Norris grabbed Leo by the throat. “You need to learn who to respect around here. Understand me, boy?”
    Leo fought his restraints at first, then forced himself to stop fighting. Norris let him breathe.
    “I want my lawyer and police. I want to file charges.”
    Norris hummed a little, like he was thinking hard, then shook his head. “Don’t think so.”
    “Excuse me?”
    “I. Don’t. Think. So.”
    “The warden said-“
    “The warden put you in a pod with the very same people that want you dead. And you thought you were safe, dipshit? You’re already dead. If you had a prayer, you’d be in a different pod.”
    “Bullshit! Call me a lawyer. I have rights.” Leo couldn’t believe this smug little screw.
    “You’re a cop killer. You got nothing. You can beg this nurse and maybe she’ll get the paperwork for you to go into protective custody, which would mean admitting you’re a bitch but would keep you safe. But I’m the one who files that paperwork and I would be very unhappy if you made me go to the effort of shredding it. Understand?” Norris turned to the nurse. “I want him back in his cell within the hour.”
    “What? I’m in pain—“
    Norris was already leaving, and Leo was still strapped to his bed, completely helpless.
    His illusions shattered, Leo Jimenez had a moment of clarity. He realized that he had two options. He could make some friends to back him up, or he could kill the entire Eighteenth Street gang. Ideally, he could do both.
     

CHAPTER SIX
     
    When Josh was finally released from the hole after riding out his seven days, his real hard time began. He was returned to his cell, which was empty at the time. The top bunk was made up with someone’s sheets, and two of the four shelves held someone’s prison-issued blue clothing. The bottom bunk was bare, with a pillow, sheet, and blanket folded and stacked in the centre of the lumpy mattress. His neatly folded uniform clothing was also waiting for him on the bed. In the hole he had been provided with a change of clothes once a day. Now he would have a few spares on hand. He made the bed, mostly to fill the time but also to announce to his absent cellmate that the bed was now taken.
    The doors in the cellblock were open, with most of the inmates out of their cells. Some were upstairs working for the telemarketing company, some were in the C pod kitchen preparing lunchtime chow, and about half of the population was enjoying the free time, either in the yard or sitting around the cafeteria. There were a handful of guys laying around in their cells, but not many.
    Josh navigated his way through the block and toward the main foyer that connected the block to the cafeteria, the stairs, and the doors to the yard. He went for the cafeteria first. A white man with bulging muscles eyeballed