Page 16 of The Long Game

“I’ve already dumped a lot of shit on you tonight,” Jack began, his expression apologetic.

“You can tell me anything, Jack. Totally up to you and whatever you’re comfortable with.” Grady wanted to put his hand back on Jack’s knee—and hopefully have Jack grab hold of him again—but that would be weird. Right?

“He kept trying.”

Grady blinked, trying to understand. “Babcock?”

“Yeah. A couple of times. The guards heard me yelling once and another prisoner interceded a different time.”

“God, Jack. I’m sorry.” Grady kept his voice even while his heart cracked in two. The way Jack said it so calmly, just stating the facts, made it sound commonplace. Unsurprising. When it should have been anything but.

Jack grimaced. “There were others, too.”

Grady felt queasy, his heart racing with dread for what Jack might say next and his guts churning with rage.He didn’t move a muscle, though. If Jack wanted to talk about this, Grady was damn well going to sit and listen to every word.

“None of them actu—well, who knows what would have happened if I hadn’t fought back,” Jack said vaguely. “What they did was bad enough. I practically lived in the infirmary the first four months. Broken arm, ribs, foot. Fuckers almost never managed to get the face.” He let out a bitter laugh. “That might have solved my problem, but no.”

Grady suspected that wasn’t true but left it alone.

“It’s why I served the full five years,” Jack added.

“What do you mean?”

“My sentence was five years, but my lawyer thought I’d end up serving around a year and a half and then get paroled. The fights ended up making me ineligible for release until the bitter end.”

Grady had to work to unclench his jaw. “That’s not how the justice system is supposed to work.”

“I fought dirty,” Jack said, a tinge of pride in his voice. “That probably didn’t help.”

“Fuck that,” Grady growled. “I hope you ripped their dicks off. There is nodirtywhen you’re defending yourself. You do whatever you have to.”

Jack’s eyebrows arched. “You’d be surprised how many people don’t agree.”

“Fuck people. People are idiots. I’m not going to call it dirty because that makes it sound wrong, and it wasn’t,” Grady said. Jack looked a little stunned by his passionate outburst, so Grady dialed it back a notch before daring to pry. “Can I ask a question?”

“Yes. I can’t promise I’ll answer, but you can ask.”

That alone was a pretty big deal. “What happened after four months?”

“What?”

“You said you spent the first four months in the infirmary. What happened after that?”

“Oh.” Jack’s eyes darted to the side. “That’s when I—"

The doorbell rang and Jack jumped to his feet like a scalded cat.

Grady rose more slowly. “I’ll get it.”

Garrick stood on the stoop while Barnaby waved from the passenger seat of Garrick’s car. Jack’s truck was parked in his assigned spot.

Grady took the keys from Garrick. “Thanks.”

“You going to stay a while?” Garrick asked as Jack came up beside Grady.

“Yeah. I can even crash here, if Jack wants.”

Jack frowned. “You don’t have to do that.”

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