Page 1 of Freedom Ride

Chapter One

Snapper

“Ten days?”

I nodded. “Ten days.”

King tapped his fingers on the pale-yellow tabletop. “You got any plans? Something you want to do?”

I curled my lip and shrugged. “Not really.”

“You’ve just spent almost six years in prison, Snapper, and there isn’t anything you want to do when you get released?”

It would be five years and three hundred and sixty days.

2,185 days.

52,440 hours.

All that time and nothing had changed.

Layla was still dead, and I would kill Aaron Gibbs all over again.

“A good meal and a soft bed to sleep in.” It was simple, but it was something I had missed here.

“You already know Meg and Bristol have been planning your first meal as a free man,” King chuckled. “I can’t tell you how many times I have heard menu plans for the big day.”

“It’s not that big of a deal, King.” I was just glad to be getting out of here.

King shrugged. “It is, Snapper. You’ve been in here a long time. Missed a lot, and we all want to celebrate you being home. With family. Where you belong.”

“I don’t need a big celebration or anything, King. I’m in prison for voluntary manslaughter. It’s not like I’m coming home from a war or something.” I had killed Aaron Gibbs, though it was debatable what he had actually died from, and I had served my time. Now I was ready to get back to my life with the club.

“If the shoe would have been on the other foot, we all would have done the same thing you did.” King threw his hand in the air. “I would be sitting in your seat if the same thing had happened to Meg.”

“The whole club would be behind bars if anything happened to Meg,” I pointed out. Meg was King’s ol’ lady, and I knew for a fact the whole club would die for her. Me personally, I would do anything for her. She had stepped in to raise me without any hesitation when my parents had died. I would more than likely be dead right now if it hadn’t been for her.

“Two minutes,” the guard behind me called.

“I can say for a fact I will not miss having a timer on our conversations once you get out of here.” King scrubbed his hand down his face and sighed.

“Me, too,” I agreed. For two thousand one hundred eighty-five days, I had been watched, listened to, and had every freedom stripped from me.

In ten days, that would all change.

I did the crime, and now I had paid my time.

King stood, and the guard moved closer. “Take care, kid. You don’t have much longer to go now.”

I nodded. “Uh, maybe a cake, too.”

He tipped his head to the side.

“For when I get out. Dinner, cake, and my bed. That’s what I want,” I clarified.

King nodded and smiled. “You got it.”

*

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